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Public Education and Awareness Award to Central State University for raising awareness
of its historic campus buildings and promoting the importance of preserving them as evidence of the
university's rich heritage and its legacy of higher education and advancement of African Americans
in Ohio and the nation.
Ohio’s only public historically-black university, Central State originated in 1887 as the Combined
Normal and Industrial Department of Wilberforce University. Central State now owns the old
Wilberforce campus, and preserving Central State’s historic resources has been a priority of
President John Garland. Since 1997, he’s worked to protect and promote them, with assistance
from Sheila Darrow of University Archives, Harland Henderson of Business Services and Capital
Development, and Anthony Fairbanks of Institutional Advancement. Major achievements
have included adding three of the old Wilberforce buildings to the National Register of Historic
Places: the 1927 Combined Normal and Industrial Department Power Plant; the 1907 Carnegie Library;
and Emery Hall, a dorm designed by Columbus architect Frank Packard and completed in 1913, with
gifts from Andrew Carnegie and E.J. Emery. Along with five Ohio Bicentennial Markers on the Central
State and Old Wilberforce campuses, they’ve been incorporated into a walking tour for students,
faculty, staff, and visitors. Major work completed or underway includes improving the old Carnegie
Library and rehabilitating Emery Hall with the aid of funds from the Historically Black Colleges
and Universities Preservation Program and the Bill Cosby Challenge. Central State’s older buildings
reflect the university's rich heritage and its legacy of higher education and
advancement of African Americans in Ohio and the nation.
Click
here
to return to the list of 2008 Ohio Historic Preservation Office Award recipients.
Click
here
for a list of past Ohio Historic Preservation Office Award recipients.
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