The school was founded by Myrtilla Miner in 1851, with the encouragement from Henry Ward Beecher and funding from a Quakerphilanthropist after the school in Mississippi where she taught refused her permission to conduct classes for African-American girls.[3] While inappropriate today, the use of the term "colored" was considered polite in 19th-century speech.
Although the school offered primary schooling and classes in domestic skills, its emphasis from the outset was on training teachers. Miner stressed hygiene and nature study in addition to rigorous academic training.[3]
Within two months of opening, school enrollment grew from 6 to 40. Despite hostility from a portion of the community, the school prospered with the help of continued contributions from Quakers and a gift from Harriet Beecher Stowe (sister of Beecher) of $1,000 of the royalties she earned from Uncle Tom's Cabin.[3]
As it grew, the school was forced to move three times in its first two years, but in 1854, it settled on a 3-acre (1.2-hectare) lot with a house and barn on the city's edge. Around this time, Emily Edmonson enrolled in the school. To help protect the school and those involved with it, the Edmonson family took up residence on the grounds, and both Emily Edmonson and Myrtilla Miner learned to shoot.[3][4]
First graders from Miner Normal School, ca. 1910
In 1856, the school came under the care of a board of trustees, among whom were Beecher and wealthy Quaker Johns Hopkins. By 1858, six former students were teaching in schools of their own. By that time, her failing health had lessened Miner's connection with the school, and from 1857 Emily Howland was in charge.[3]
Myrtilla Miner, founder of Normal School for Colored Girls
In 1860, the school had to be closed, and the next year, Myrtilla Miner went to California to regain her health. A carriage accident in 1864 ended that hope, and Miner died shortly after her return to Washington, D.C.[3]
During the American Civil War, on March 3, 1863, the United States Senate granted the school a charter as the "Institution for the Education of Colored Youth" and named Henry Addison, John C. Underwood, George C. Abbott, William H. Channing, Nancy M. Johnson, and Myrtella Miner as directors.[5]
From 1871 to 1876, the school was associated with Howard University. In 1879, as Miner Normal School it became part of the District of Columbia public school system.
20th century
In 1929 an act of the U.S. Congress accredited it as Miner Teachers College.[2][3][6][7] Miner Teachers College and its predecessors were instrumental in the development of the black school system in the district between the 1890s and the 1950s and held a virtual monopoly on teaching jobs in black schools during that period. Many graduates found jobs in black school districts in other parts of the country, expanding the influence of the Miner school outside the district.[7]
The current Colonial Revival—Georgian Revival style building, built in 1913, was designed by Leon E. Dessez and Snowden Ashford.[1] The building is used for a broad range of community education programs, in addition to the teacher-training classes, which have been continuously offered there since it opened in 1914.[7]
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.[1] In 2009, Howard University received an $800,000 grant from the National Park Service's Historic Preservation Fund to replace the building's roof and windows, as well as initiate a renovation on the building's auditorium.[8] In 2023, Howard announced that the building will go under further renovation, with the plan to share the space between the Howard University School of Education and the Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science.[9]
