Theological Building-A.M.E. Zion Theological Institute

The Theological Building is the only structure remaining from the early 20th-century development of the A.M.E. Zion Theological Institute. Established in 1893 as Greenville High School by Bishop Thomas H. Lomax and several leading elders of the East Alabama Conference at Butler Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church in Greenville. Classes were held in the Butler Chapel Church building in Greenville until 1898 when Reverend Allen Hannon initiated the purchase of land on which to construct a school building.

The second major parochial school venture of the A.M.E. Zion Church in Alabama (preceded by Jones University in Tuscaloosa which closed in 1900 and followed by Zion Institute in Mobile which became a local project and was renamed the Josephine Allen Institute), the school was assigned the support of all the A.M.E. Zion Conferences embracing Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida. The first building, a female dormitory was completed in 1909 and followed in 1911 by the completion of this building. The first floor of the building was used as the Theology Department, although the upper story served as a male dormitory.

By 1920 the school had been lifted to the junior college level, boasting more than 200 acres of land. The school's progress during this period is primarily attributed to the efforts of Bishop John W. Alstork who engineered a successful financial program for the school that surpassed the efforts of all the national or regional group affiliates combined. Alstork also maintained a long-time chairmanship of the trustee board. His ardent commitment to the advancement and perpetuity of this institution spanned the last twenty years of his life, and when he died he willed his home to the Lomax-Hannon Junior College.

In addition to the important role this building represents in the early training of black ministers, it housed area farmers who attended the County Farmer's Conferences during the early and mid-20th century, conducted as an extension service of Tuskegee Institute.
During the 1970's Lomax-Hannon A.M.E. Zion Connection and administrators began to embark on expanding the building facilities. As a result, The Theological Building suffered a lack of attention and subsequent depreciation. A movement to revive the building for re-use failed when funds were depleted. Still victimized by the failing finances of the institution, the area's oldest secondary/post-secondary education school building associated with black education and one of the earliest in the state lies in severe disrepair.