Mary Allen Seminary
Crockett, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1886 the Board of Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, under the leadership of the group's secretary the Rev. Richard Allen, began planning for the establishment of a black girls' school in Texas. After a statewide survey, they chose Crockett as the school site because of the area's large black population and because of a local black parochial school operated by the Rev. Samuel Fisher Tenny, pastor of the city's First Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Allen's wife Mary, for whom the school was named, was instrumental in raising the organizational funds for the new seminary. Dr. Byrd R. Smith became the school's first black president in 1924 and initiated a period of growth which included the adoption of new programs and the admission of male students. Transferred to the Missionary General Baptist Convention of Texas in 1944, Mary Allen College became a 4-year liberal arts institution. In 1972, plagued by a series of legal and financial setbacks, the school closed. Once the site of a 12-building campus and the home of a noted academic program of quality education and religion, this site serves as a reminder of the proud heritage of Texas' black population.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1886 the Presbyterian Church's Board of Missions for Freedmen chose Crockett—for its large Black population and an existing parochial school—as the home of a new school for Black girls, named for Mary Allen, wife of the effort's leader. Growing into Mary Allen College under its first Black president, Dr. Byrd R. Smith, it became a coeducational, four-year liberal arts institution before legal and financial troubles forced its closing in 1972. For generations its twelve-building campus stood as a center of quality education in East Texas.
Why it matters
Schools like Mary Allen were engines of opportunity in the post-emancipation South, where Black communities and church missions built higher education against long odds.
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Related people
- · Mary Allen
- · Richard Allen
- · Byrd R. Smith
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Samuel Fisher Tenney
Crockett, TX
A Georgia native and Civil War veteran, Samuel Fisher Tenney (1840-1926) graduated from the University of Georgia and a South Carolina seminary before settling in Crockett in 1870. For 54 years he served as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, while also helping build educational facilities for Black residents and starting a mission in 1880 for the Alabama-Coushatta Indians in Polk County. His long ministry left a deep mark on the region.
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