11 Most Endangered
Eleutherian College
Year Listed: 2005
Location: Indiana
Current Status: Saved
Threat: Deterioration
The first college in Indiana-and one of the first anywhere in pre-Civil War America-to admit students regardless of race or gender, tiny Eleutherian College is a monument to education and equality. Founded in 1848, the school enjoyed its heyday in the late 1850s, drawing African-American students from as far away as Mississippi and Louisiana to take advantage of the chance to learn in an integrated setting. Its location, just a few miles north of the Ohio River, made Eleutherian a busy stop on the Underground Railroad, and many college leaders-faculty and students alike-were active in the movement to shelter and shepherd fugitive slaves. The college closed soon after the Civil War; its stone building stood vacant for many years until it was taken over by a nonprofit organization that operates it as a museum. Today, battered but still proud, the structure shows the effects of prolonged neglect and vandalism. The National Park Service’s Network to Freedom program, formed to assist Underground Railroad sites, provided some money for restoration-but now, congressional support for that important program is decreasing. Significant funding is needed to return Eleutherian College and other landmarks of freedom to the historic spotlight they deserve.
Update
The members of Historic Eleutherian College, Inc. have managed to raise $1,000,000 to complete Phase I of the building’s restoration. The building has been stabilized and the entire exterior of the building was completed in October 2006. Through their frugality and the willingness of workers to discount their normal charges just for the opportunity to participate in restoration of this landmark building, $85,000 remains from Phase I which will be used to begin work on the chapel interior. While Eleutherian is halfway toward the projected $2 million cost of renovation, another $1million is necessary to finish the restoration of the College and an additional $1.5 million is needed to finish restoration of the remainder of the site.
