The Saul Building, Principal’s Residence, and Memorial Chapel at Saint Paul’s College, in the Brunswick County seat of Lawrenceville, embody the growth of this pioneering, historically African American institution, from a one-room parochial school to a liberal arts college. Saint Paul’s was established in 1883 by an Episcopal deacon, the Rev. James Solomon Russell (1857-1935), who was born enslaved. Russell trained at Petersburg’s Bishop Payne Divinity School. Assigned to Lawrenceville, Russell found a community where “race prejudice seemed rampant and public opinion indifferent if not actually hostile.” By February 1883 a chapel was built, and a parochial school soon was organized. A small school building was later built with funds from the Rev. James Saul of Philadelphia. In 1888 St. Paul’s Normal and Industrial School was founded. The Queen Anne-style Principal’s Residence, was built in 1900. The Memorial Chapel, was completed in 1904. In 1957 the name was officially changed to Saint Paul’s College. The school was closed in 2013.
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Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia