This past Friday afternoon, I decided to take a college visit, but it was not for a loved one deciding on his or her future plans.
No, this was more to look at the past. I simply wanted to take my own quick walk with my camera around Knoxville College, the historically black school that was attended by a number of Chattanoogans over the years.
Even if I had wanted a guided tour, all that I found moving when I arrived were a couple of geese in front of the landmark McKee Hall, although two automobiles were in the parking lot.
As has been in the news, this once-proud college that for decades was likely the largest historically black Tennessee school of higher learning east of Nashville has fallen on hard times.
It had only 11 students enrolled this past semester, with three international students graduating Mother’s Day weekend during ceremonies at a nearby church.
Due to declining enrollment for a number of years and such other issues as financial and accreditation problems and an inability to maintain buildings, the school announced that it would suspend classes until 2016.
Whether it will ever reopen is a big question, as the school’s board of trustees has already weighed redevelopment and purchase offers for the land.
As a result, I wanted to document through photographs the campus as it looks now.
The situation at Knoxville College is a far cry from the University of Tennessee just a mile or so south and across Interstate 40, which is undergoing an enrollment growth and construction boom on its campus.
As I strolled around the empty Knoxville College Friday, I could not help but think of happier times, when such people as civil rights leader the Rev.
Joseph Lowery and Hall of Fame football coach Jake Gaither of Florida A&M attended.
The school has also been the alma mater of countless other students who went on to distinguished and pioneering careers in medicine, college teaching, politics, journalism and even the National Football League.
The school gave numerous students opportunities to better themselves, often during those decades when a better life was not always easy for black Americans.
Knoxville College no doubt contributed to the improvement of the lives of a number of Chattanoogans as well. The only black college in Chattanooga was the much-smaller Zion College, which was started in the late 1940s by Highland Park Baptist Church to train black ministers and church workers. It later became known as Chattanooga City College and merged with UTC in 1969.
Because Knoxville College was a more developed and larger school, a number of Chattanoogans likely enrolled there, too, and tried to fulfill their dreams.
But on Friday as I walked around and thought about all of this, broken windows were more apparent than fulfilled dreams.
The three or four historic buildings in the front surrounded by recently cut grass looked at least presentable. They seemed to date to not long after the college’s founding in 1875 by the Presbyterian Church. But walking a few feet beyond them, I noticed plenty of signs of physical decay.
McKee Hall – which has a bell tower -- has a giant hole in the back of its brick wall, while plenty of windows were broken in such buildings as the Martin Luther King Towers and the A.K. Stewart Science Building.
Grass was also overgrown throughout the entire back part of the property, which I must admit was more expansive and went farther back than I realized.
I was also surprised at the number of dormitories, including the tall M.L. King Towers, and I realized Knoxville College at one time must have had a booming enrollment.
The decline of it and a number of other historically black colleges around the country is based at least in part on an ethically and morally good reason – better opportunities for black Americans.
As a number of colleges in the South and elsewhere dropped their discriminatory enrollment practices for minorities a half century ago, many blacks began to attend those schools instead of just historically black schools.
Knoxville College opened its doors to all races as well in 1962, although it has been a predominantly black school throughout its history.
With the University of Tennessee needing additional space and sometimes creating controversy by tearing down historic buildings to make room for new structures, I have thought that it should try to absorb Knoxville College somehow.
Perhaps UT could buy the land and preserve at least a few of the key historic buildings while also having land for new buildings. It could also offer a special black studies or minority scholarship program and continue to use the Knoxville College name and campus somehow.
At least that is my idealistic viewpoint.
What also caught my eyes as I walked around the campus on the streets and sidewalks were the nice Colston Center for the Performing Arts – despite a broken window or two – as well some old trees around the overgrown field. The latter were uniquely painted with the letters of the school’s fraternities and other organizations.
I also saw an interesting old football goalpost and scoreboard that featured the slogan of “Things Go Better With Coke” from decades ago.
I also admired the very historic-looking Giffen Alumni Memorial Gymnasium, which dated to 1929. I was in it a few years ago to interview a coach and some players of a semi-professional basketball team during their practice, and I noticed that it had some neat built-in wooden bleachers.
Plenty of cheers could be heard there over the years, I am sure, but now it and the entire campus appeared to be quiet.
After taking a few pictures, I took a short jog around the hilly and expansive front lawn of the college and noticed one car slowly driving through the grounds. Perhaps it was an alumnus of old who had seen the news and wanted possibly one last tour.
I also saw a beaver – yes a beaver – eagerly scurrying from the Alumni Library toward the old president’s house and McMillan Chapel.
In contrast to the alumni and other longtime supporters of the school, that animal was likely glad the campus was vacant.
Jcshearer2@comcast.net