University of Maryland Eastern Shore

About this property

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) is a public historically black land-grant research university in Princess Anne, Maryland. It is part of the University System of Maryland. It is classified among "Research Colleges and Universities". It was established as Delaware Conference Academy. It has also been known as Princess Anne Academy and other names during its evolution. The University of Maryland Eastern Shore has been known by a series of names reflective of its location, evolving role, and mission over a period spanning three centuries. It opened September 13, 1886, under the auspices of the Delaware Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Benjamin and Portia Bird welcomed nine students that first day to a converted farmhouse on 16 acres. The school was at first envisioned as a preparatory school for the private Centenary Biblical Institute in Baltimore, which was affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1890 it changed its name to Morgan College to honor the first chairman of its board of trustees; and is now the public Morgan State University. By the end of the first academic year, 37 students were enrolled in the Delaware Conference Academy in Princess Anne. Because of segregation in the state, African-American students could not enroll in the Maryland Agriculture College in College Park, which offered advanced instruction in farming techniques and related trades commonplace in the late 19th century. Congress enacted the Second Morrill Act of 1890, which required states to establish colleges for African-American students in order to gain or continue to receive land-grant funds. The state of Maryland formalized a partnership with Morgan to underwrite "land-grant" education for African-Americans on Maryland's lower Eastern Shore. By the turn of the 20th century, the school was known widely as Princess Anne Academy, although in some circles it was informally referred to as Morgan's "industrial branch." The public-private partnership between the state and Morgan inspired another alternative name, at least according to state government archives: the Eastern Shore Branch of Maryland Agriculture College. In the midst of the Great Depression, Maryland courts directed the state to admit qualified African-American applicants to its publicly funded law school in Baltimore. Historians believe this ruling led the state to convert Princess Anne Academy to a public institution. Fifty years after opening, the school formally passed from church control to state ownership with the first of four $25,000 installment payments – just as it was developing as a baccalaureate degree-granting college. Maryland's public flagship campus in College Park was designated its administrative agency. In 1948, the Eastern Shore Branch of the University of Maryland, then alternately known as Princess Anne College, was renamed Maryland State College, a division of the University of Maryland.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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