Elizabeth City State Teachers College Historic District

Elizabeth City State Teachers College Historic District covers about nineteen acres of the Elizabeth City State University campus. It grew from the State Colored Normal School, created by the state in 1891 to train teachers for Black public schools in eastern North Carolina. The campus moved south of town in 1910-1912, when Lane and Symera halls were built. Later building campaigns in the 1920s and in 1937-1939, the latter largely funded by the Public Works Administration, added Moore, Bias, Butler and other buildings around a grassy quadrangle. Most are large brick Colonial Revival structures with slate roofs, symmetrical plans, and stone and wood classical detailing. A frame Craftsman-style Practice School, built in 1921 with Rosenwald Fund support, and a Principal's House complete the group. The district, with six contributing and five noncontributing buildings plus the quadrangle, was listed for its educational importance, its place in the city's Black heritage, and its architectural unity. Its period of significance runs from 1921 to 1943.