Site of Samuel Huston College

Samuel Huston College traces its history to 1876 when the Rev. George O. Richardson founded a college in Dallas for the education of African American youth. St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church was leased for the private school, named Andrews Normal School.

The school moved to Austin in 1878 and held classes in the Wesley Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church. With the help of the Freedman’s Aid Society, adopted Andrews Normal School in 1878 and the name was changed to West Texas Conference School. Nearly six acres were acquired on East 12th Street in 1880 for the original campus. The school was renamed in 1887 for Samuel Huston of Marengo, Iowa, who donated property worth $10,000. Funding difficulties caused the school to close several times in the 1880s. t reopened in 1900 at the same site.

Organized as a private educational corporation in 1910, it became a senior college in 1926, and merged with Tillotson College in 1952. Relocated to the Tillotson College campus on Chicon Street, the school was renamed Huston-Tillotson College. It continues a distinguished history of education. (1996).