Eleutherian College
School in Lancaster, Indiana, USA. Built 1848. Added to the National Register in 1993, and a National Historic Landmark.
What it is
Eleutherian College, founded as Eleutherian Institute in 1848, was a school founded by local anti-slavery Baptists at Lancaster in Jefferson County. The institute's name comes from the Greek word eleutheros, meaning "freedom and equality." The school admitted students without regard to ethnicity or gender, including freed and fugitive slaves. Its first classes began offering secondary school instruction on November 27, 1848. The school was renamed Eleutherian College in 1854, when it began offering college-level coursework. It closed in 1874 and its main building was used for a private normal school and then a public high school. It is now home to a non-profit group. The school was the second college in the United States west of the Allegheny Mountains and the first in Indiana to provide education to students of different colors. The restored three-story stone chapel and classroom building was constructed between 1853 and 1856 and presently serves as a local history museum. The school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997
Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
The record
| Property type | Building |
| Address | IN 250, Lancaster, IN |
| County | Jefferson County |
| Listed | Dec 15, 1993 |
| Listed for | Architecture, Social history, Education, Black heritage |
| Level of significance | State |
| Reference number | 93001410 |
| Built | 1848 · more from the 1840s |
| Type of place | college, school building |
| Style | Greek Revival architecture |
| Designations | National Historic Landmark |
| Contributing resources | 1 building |
| Standing | Yes |
The nomination form, the document that argues why this place matters, is in the National Archives: Read the nomination ↗
Visiting
| Address | IN 250, Lancaster, IN |
| Coordinates | 38.8310° N, 85.5162° W · Directions ↗ |
| Nearest national park unit | William Howard Taft National Historic Site · 58 miles · on Park Atlas |
Explore
Map
Nearby in Jefferson County
Public land around it
| Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge ↗National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | About 5 miles away50,680 acres |
Wilderness Atlas publishes a centroid and an acreage for each unit, not a boundary line. Distance here is measured to a circle of the same area drawn around that centroid, so treat it as roughly right rather than surveyed.
Indiana travel guides
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Titles come from Open Library's catalog, matched by subject heading or by title.
Reference
Questions people ask
When was Eleutherian College listed on the National Register?
Dec 15, 1993. It is also a National Historic Landmark, the higher of the two designations.
Source: National Park Service
When was Eleutherian College built?
1848, in the Greek Revival architecture style.
Source: Wikidata
Can I visit Eleutherian College?
Yes. Eleutherian College is recorded as open to the public.
Source: Wikidata
Where is Eleutherian College?
IN 250, Lancaster, Jefferson County, Indiana. The nearest national park unit is William Howard Taft National Historic Site, 58 miles away.
Where is the nomination form for Eleutherian College?
The National Archives holds the nomination form, the document that made the case for listing.
Source: National Archives
Is there cell service at Eleutherian College?
FCC coverage maps show AT&T 4G LTE and T-Mobile 5G at the listed point. Coverage indoors and behind old masonry is another matter.
Source: FCC Broadband Map
Sources
Location, type and contributing counts come from the National Park Service's National Register spatial data. Listing dates come from the National Register office's spreadsheet where it carries the listing. Construction date, architect, style, photograph and encyclopedia link come from Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, matched on reference number 93001410. Nothing here is transcribed by hand. The nomination form and photographs ↗ at NPGallery are the original nomination as filed with the National Park Service, and the form is often the best description of the place. The description under "What it is" is the opening of the Wikipedia article, CC BY-SA.