Paine College was founded in 1882 and began in a rented space at 10th and Broad streets.
The school, originally called Paine Institute, was named for Bishop Robert Paine of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
The school was founded as a joint effort by the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America (now Christian Methodist Episcopal) and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (now United Methodist).
In its early years, the school primarily trained elementary- and secondary-level black pupils for the ministry and education.
The Rev. Lucius H. Holsey, a Colored Methodist Episcopal leader in Georgia, suggested the school settle in Augusta because the town was centrally located and accessible to a majority of the church's members.
In 1886, the college moved to a farmhouse at its current 15th Street location, which at the time was dubbed the "Woodlawn area" of Augusta.
The school was in the country back then. Farms, barns and plow mules dotted the surrounding landscape. The Rev. George Williams Walker, D.D., was its first president.
In 1903, Paine Institute became Paine College. A curriculum debate raged in black schools at the time. Many took the lead of Booker T. Washington and his technical school training curriculum, but Paine stuck to its liberal arts tradition.
Some of Paine's prominent alumni include best-selling novelist Frank Yerby; Dr. Channing H. Tobias, an adviser to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman and a representative to the United Nations; and Charles Gomillion, an educator, sociologist and civil rights activist.
The school has trained many of Augusta's black leaders and educators and has been a cultural center for the city's black community.
The small liberal arts college underwent a crisis in 1968 when a fire gutted Haygood Hall, which housed the school's administrative building, classrooms and meeting space. It destroyed a rare collection of African artifacts.
The student body, about 500 at the time, adapted by holding classes in other campus buildings.
The black and white communities in Augusta rallied in a fund-raising drive to rebuild the administration building, which opened in 1978 as the Haygood-Holsey building.
PAINE COLLEGE
Paine College is a private, four-year liberal arts college that offers undergraduate degrees in business administration, education, philosophy and religion, social sciences, and humanities.
PHONE: 821-8200
ADDRESS: 1235 15th St.
WEB SITE: www.paine.edu
TUITION: $4,023 per semester (plus fees and housing)
SCHEDULE:
Jan. 6 - Spring classes begin
March 10-14 - Spring break
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