West Florida Seminary main building, c. 1880. Built in 1854 as the Florida Institute. This building was replaced with College Hall in 1891. The Westcott Building now stands on this site - the oldest site of higher education in Florida
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.[1] It traces its origins to the West Florida Seminary, one of two state-funded seminaries the Florida Legislature voted to establish in 1851.[2]
The West Florida Seminary, also known as the Florida State Seminary,[3] 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.[4] 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.[1][5] In 1858 the seminary absorbed the Tallahassee Female Academy, established in 1843, and became coeducational.[6]
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.[7] In 1883, it became part of the Florida University, the first state-supported university to be founded in Florida.[8] 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.
^ abOffice of University Communications (September 23, 2009). "About Florida State: History". www.fsu.edu. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
^"Early Education in Tallahassee and the West Florida Seminary now Florida State University - Part I by William G. Dodd, p.13, The Florida Historical Quarterly volume 27 issue 1 July 1948". Retrieved 2014-07-16.
^Coles, David J. (1999). "Florida's Seed Corn: The History of the West Florida Seminary During the Civil War". The Florida Historical Quarterly. 77 (3). Florida Historical Quarterly 77: 302. JSTOR 30147582.
^"Early Education in Tallahassee and the West Florida Seminary now Florida State University - Part II by William G. Dodd, p.158-9, The Florida Historical Quarterly volume 27 issue 2 October 1948" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 February 2010. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
^Hare, Julianne (2002-05-01). Tallahassee - A Capital City History, p.42, Julianne Hare, Arcadia Publishing (May 1, 2002). ISBN 978-0-7385-2371-2. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
^"Book Review: Gone with the Hickory Stick: School Days in Marion County 1845-1960, p.122, The Florida Historical Quarterly - Volume LV, Number 3 January 1977" (PDF). Retrieved July 12, 2010.
^"Florida Timeline". Archived from the original on April 4, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-09. State Library and Archives of Florida - The Florida Memory Project Timeline (see 1865) Retrieved on 4-29-2007
^"Calendar of the Florida University - Organization". Retrieved 2009-02-24.
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