Berea, A fascinating Place

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Today I had the pleasure of touring Berea,Kentucky.

I am throughly impressed with this place.

The story starts in 1855 when an ardent abolitionist wanted to start a school where everyone was allowed to attend. White, Blacks, Indians and Women, a concept unheard of before the Civil War.

He was givin the land to start his college by another abolitionist named Cassius Clay.( Not related to the boxer.)

There was an interruption during the Civil War but it has continued with its original Christian based philosophy ever since.

Today this beautiful school operates 100% on private funds and pays 100% of the tuition for every student.

The students must come from Appalachia; they must have academic potential and their families must not have the ability to pay for College. Every student must work at least 10 hours per week around the campus. Therefore many of the janitorial services, office work, restaurant workers and other community work is done by the students.

There are vast agricultural lands on the campus and they are continually experimenting with new Organic concepts.

Almost the entire community exists to support this College.

An entire Art Community has sprouted here also.

Many of my pictures reflect some of the beautiful woodwork, quilt work, and so many other artistic efforts are on display.

It was an educational and relaxing day.

Tomorrow I head for Harrodsburg.

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Photos

Statue of John Gregg Fee and the first teacher at Berea
Fee founded Berea College in 1855. He was an ardent abolitionist and founded this College for any race and any gender. The first College in the US that admitted Blacks and Women.

View of the Campus
These are recent accolades of this school:
Kiplinger’s Personal Finance: A 2016 Best Value College
MONEY Magazine: #1 in Affordability
Washington Monthly: 2016 and 2017: Best National Liberal Arts College and Best Bang for the Buck
U.S. News and World Report: Top of List for Colleges with Least Student Debt, 2016
Essence Magazine: Listed in the Top 50 Best Schools for African Americans, 2016
USA Today: One of the “Best 10 Colleges for the Money”
Princeton Review: Featured in “Colleges that Pay You Back, 2016 Edition”

On the Campus.
There are so many trees and the Campus is so spread out, one can only get partial pictures of the beautiful buildings.

Berea Community Garden
This garden is a Berea Community effort. Much of the vegetables from this garden go to local restaurants.

This is the old Louisville and Nashville Train Depot
This railroad began in the 1870’s. In the 1970’s the passenger service was discontinued.
Now the original building is the Berea welcome Center.

Trains passing through Berea
Freight trains pass but no passenger trains stop here any more.

Bluegrass Band at Old Train Station
They were very good!

This is Bell.
She narrated the free Trolly ride around Berea. It was extremely informative.
One of the stops was at the Berea Artist Center.
Many of the pictures are from that center.

This is made entirely of wood.
I had to touch it to confirm there were no feathers.

Beautiful Quilt
Magnificent Quilt

Comments

[Kathryn Lau]

Berea
I’m putting this on my list of places to see! Thank you for the beautiful enticing pics!