The history of Florida State University dates to the 19th century and is deeply intertwined with the history of education in the state of Florida and in the city of Tallahassee. Florida State University, known colloquially as Florida State and FSU, is one of the oldest and largest of the institutions in the State University System of Florida. It traces its origins to the West Florida Seminary, one of two state-funded seminaries the Florida Legislature voted to establish in 1851.
The West Florida Seminary, also known as the Florida State Seminary, opened for classes in Tallahassee in 1857, absorbing the Florida Institute, which had been established as an inducement for the state to place the seminary in the city. The former Florida Institute property, located where the historic Westcott Building now stands, is the oldest continuously used site of higher education in Florida. The area, slightly west of the state Capitol, was formerly and ominously known as Gallows Hill, a place for public executions in early Tallahassee. In 1858 the seminary absorbed the Tallahassee Female Academy, established in 1843, and became coeducational.
In 1863, during the American Civil War, Florida's Confederate government added a military school to the institution, and changed its name to the Florida Military and Collegiate Institute. The school fielded student soldiers into an organized unit of the institution, which helped successfully repel a Union attack on Tallahassee at the Battle of Natural Bridge. State Library and Archives of Florida - The Florida Memory Project Timeline (see 1865) Retrieved on 4-29-2007 In 1883, it became part of the Florida University, the first state-supported university to be founded in Florida. The university project struggled with a lack of legislative support, and the seminary soon returned to its old name, but focused increasingly on modern-style secondary education. In 1905 the Buckman Act restructured higher education in Florida, and the school was reorganized as a college for white women, the Florida State College for Women. After World War II, the school was made coeducational once again to help accommodate the influx of students entering college under the G.I. Bill, and was renamed Florida State University. It became racially integrated in 1963, and was noted as a center of student activism during the 1960s. Through the 20th and 21st centuries Florida State University has grown in both size and academic prominence, with a particular focus on graduate and doctoral research.
Founding
In 1823 the United States Congress determined that the Florida Territory shall receive two seminaries of learning, one on each side of the Suwannee River. By 1838, the first constitution of the Florida Territory embraced and permanently guaranteed a system of general education (schools) and higher education (seminaries). State Library and Archives of Florida - The Florida Memory Project, Florida Constitution of 1838, Article X - Education: "Section 1. The proceeds of all lands that have been or may hereafter be granted by the United States for the use of Schools, and a Seminary or Seminaries, of learning, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which, together with all monies derived from any other source applicable to the same object, shall be inviolably appropriated to the use of Schools and Seminaries of learning respectively, and to no other purpose. Section 2. The General Assembly shall take such measures as may be necessary to preserve from waste or damage all land so granted and appropriated to the purposes of Education." Retrieved on 5-25-2007
Throughout the history of Tallahassee strong energy and focus toward education originated with leaders and members of the First Presbyterian Church, Tallahassee, located near Florida State University. The First Presbyterian Church building was built before 1838 and is the oldest public building in Tallahassee. An Historical Sketch Of the Sanctuary First Presbyterian Church Tallahassee, Florida Retrieved on 2-10-2008. For almost a century the First Presbyterian Church of Tallahassee would have a strong symbiotic relationship with the origin and development of the educational institution known today as Florida State University.At First - The Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee, Florida, 1828-1938 p. 111; Barbara Rhodes, Copyright 1994, First Presbyterian Church, Tallahassee, FL
Leon Academy (1827–1840)
City officials of Tallahassee took steps to establish a school for boys as early as 1827 with the establishment of the Leon Academy. Leon Academy was advertised in the Pensacola Gazette of March 9, 1827 as being under the supervision of Presbyterian Rev. Henry M. White, A.M.Dodd July 1948, supra By early 1831 the Leon Academy was under the control of the Tallahassee City Council.Dodd July 1948, p. 4.
Leon Academy was incorporated by an act of the Territorial Legislative Council on February 12, 1831 under the control of seven trustees.Dodd July 1948, p. 5. The Leon Academy suffered from lack of financial resources as well as high administrative turnover and in September 1836 was operated by John M. Brook of Virginia as a "private Seminary for boys", while the trustees continued to control and manage the property. By 1840 the Leon Academy ceased operations as a public school. The trustees, however, turned to the Territorial Legislature once again, who passed an "Act in Relation to the Trustees of Leon Academy" in 1840 wherein the Treasurer of the Territory was directed to pay funds to the trustees to "assist said Trustees in building an Academy".Dodd July 1948, p. 6. On March 9, 1840 the Leon Academy had been refreshed with some Territory support.Dodd July 1948, p. 7. The trustees solicited Territory support on the basis the Leon Academy would serve both male and female students. There is disagreement among scholars if the male-only Leon Academy is the forerunner of the West Florida Seminary.Knauss, James O.: Education in Florida 1821-1829, page 26. Florida Historical Quarterly volume 3, No.4, 1925. A point of agreement between the scholars is that the same leading citizens of Tallahassee were interested in both institutions.
Leon Academy for Males and Females, Florida Institute, Florida Seminary (1846–1891)
Leon Academy was replaced by schools for males and females in a system established by Reverend Joshua Phelps and Elder David C. Wilson, both of the First Presbyterian Church. Princeton University-educated Reverend William Neil and his wife Eliza Neil operated the academies for males and females, which were merged in 1846 into a new version of the Leon Academy for Males and Females. The Leon Academy later split into the Tallahassee Female Academy, also known as the Leon Female Academy for females. While organized public education for males faltered between 1840 and 1850, education for females was intact and unusually complete. By January 1850 municipal elections in Tallahassee called for a city-supported school for males and the Tallahassee City Council, assumed financial responsibility for the Florida Institute the same year.
On January 24, 1851 the Florida Legislature voted to establish West Florida Seminary, which became Florida State University and East Florida Seminary which became the University of Florida. State Library and Archives of Florida - The Florida Memory Project Timeline (see 1851) Retrieved on 4-28-2007 The 1851 law specified the organization and governing boards of the schools, including terms of office for those boards, and specified the nature and scope of instruction at each institution. This law effectively established the joint charter for the two seminaries, providing for their complete operation.Dodd, William George: History of West Florida Seminary, page 1. Florida State University, 1952. It did not decide locations for the schools, however, leaving this to be awarded to the jurisdictions with the best offer of support.Dodd 2005, p.1.
The Legislature concluded in Resolution No. 25 of that year that each seminary would be awarded to the county or town that would provide the best combination of land, buildings and money. Three towns presented offers for the West Florida Seminary - Tallahassee, Marianna and Quincy. The competition between the three soon became a bitter struggle between Marianna and Tallahassee for the West Florida Seminary. By January 1853 the Legislature accepted Ocala's offer for the East Seminary and in the same law directed Governor James E. Broome to appoint a special commission of six members from Middle and West Florida to decide upon the location of the West Seminary. The matter had grown so contentious that neither Governor Broome nor the Commission members looked forward to the task and did little to resolve the contest. The issue was then handed back to the Legislature where it was finally confronted. In the meantime, as an inducement to the Legislature, the City Council of Tallahassee had built and funded an all-male academy, called the Florida Institute, in Tallahassee. State Library and Archives of Florida - Florida Photographic Collection, Original building of the all-male Florida Institute, one predecessor of the West Florida Seminary. Archives metadata: The male academy. Built in 1854, by the city, as an inducement for the legislature to name Tallahassee as the site of the Seminary West of the Suwanee. Operated as the Florida Institute until it became West Florida Seminary in 1857. Retrieved on 4-29-2007. The Florida Institute was a resurrected version of the Leon Academy established in 1827 by Presbyterian Reverend Henry White.