Berea College's Lincoln Hall is also known as Recitation Hall where focused to host civil rights activities for nearly three-quarters of a century. In 1887, a three-story brick building constructed and named Lincoln Hall. It houses classrooms, a library, laboratories, a museum, meeting rooms and offices. &nbsp;Today, Lincoln Hall is the oldest building in Berea College

Lincoln Hall was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975

Lincoln Hall, Berea College (Madison County, KY) 

Berea College Lincoln Hall - the first LEED certified project in Kentucky.

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Lincoln Hall was built in 1887 on the campus of Berea College, the first biracial college in the South. Today, it holds many of Berea's administrative offices. After part of the building collapsed in 2001, Lincoln Hall was part of a $5 million renovation that included many "green" energy technologies. Shortly after the building was reopened, it became the first building in Kentucky to be awarded the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification

Lincoln Hall, Berea College

Berea is best-known for Berea College and a thriving arts and crafts community. Berea was the first integrated college in the South and remained so until 1904 when segregationists in the state legislature passed the Day Law which made integration a crime. Berea became integrated once again in 1950 when the law was amended. Today, Berea is also known for the arts and has earned the title of "Crafting Capital of Kentucky." This emphasis on the arts is apparent in the downtown area. The town is the fastest growing community in the state of Kentucky,  Several buildings on the college's campus are also featured. The tour concludes at the former location of Churchill Weavers, a local weaving company that gained national renown in the 20th century. Visitors to the area should also stop by the Kentucky Artisan Center just north of the downtown area.  

Historic Berea Kentucky Walking Tour

Institution

In the fall of 2005, a group of residents in Berea, Kentucky held a community meeting at the town's main church, where they shared their fears for the future of both the town and the rest of the world. These fears centered on environmental threats, specifically those caused by climate change and the rapidly growing global population. These concerns included environmental degradation as well as the national debt, all of which the residents feared could potentially lead to resource depletion and leave the town of Berea without enough food for everyone.&nbsp; In light of these concerns, the group of people who attended this meeting formed a task group, called Sustainable Berea, with the goal of making the town more self-sustaining. In their efforts to do so, the members of Sustainable Berea ultimately decided that the primary&nbsp;focus of their efforts should be on preparing the town for a potential food shortage. With this goal in mind, the group turned to a series of three land purchases which had been made by Berea&nbsp;in the summer of 2013 along Adams Street in a suburb&nbsp;of Berea. Totally around 1.4 acres, the land was transformed into a community farm by Sustainable Berea and other members of the community.&nbsp; The farm, now known as the Berea Urban Farm, grows fruit and vegetables, produces its own honey and dairy products, and butchers its own meat. The food is sold to local businesses in the community, including independently owned coffee shops, grocery stores, and delis. Consequently, the Berea Urban Farm ensures that the majority of the town is self- sustainable, relying on its own resources rather than those they would have to get from the outside world. The farm also takes care to ensure they do not contribute to pollution in addition to employing local students of Berea College to help them pay for their tuition.&nbsp;

The Berea Urban Farm is a 1.4 acre farm located along Adams Street in Berea, Kentucky. The farm was developed and established by the Sustainable Berea group in 2015 in an effort to combat fears that climate change would lead to a food shortage. The farm produces fruits, vegetables, honey, dairy products, and meat. The goods produced by the farm are sold to local businesses, allowing them to be self-sustainable. 

Berea Urban Farm 

In 1872, a committee working on behalf of Berea College began looking for ways to open both the town and the college up to the outside world. After several meetings, the committee voted to donate around $3,000 to the Kentucky Central Railroad and offering&nbsp;the rights to construct a rail line which would run through the town of Berea. Once word began to spread that there were plans for a rail line, Berea started to grow.&nbsp;By 1891, the Louisville and Nashville Railway Company connected the town and built a passenger depot that same year.&nbsp; By 1905, the Louisville and Nashville Railway Company decided that a bigger depot would need to be built in order to accommodate&nbsp;the rapidly growing number of passengers. The original depot was demolished and, in a matter of four weeks, this depot was built. The&nbsp;one-story, red brick building features an&nbsp;overhanging roof to accommodate passengers and a series of large Palladian windows. Also of architectural significance is its roof, which consists of red, waved patterns. Upon the completion of its construction, the depot was the only brick railroad station between Lexington, Kentucky and Nashville, Tennessee. The larger depot demonstrated the importance of transportation to the growth of Berea College' and signaled the arrival of Berea as a regional city. New businesses including hotel were constructed next to the depot and fostered the growth of the town.&nbsp;&nbsp; The depot and railway were the center of activity within Berea for&nbsp;several decades. Soon, however, the construction of highways and interstates signaled a sharp decline in passenger rail traffic as most Americans traveled by car or bus following World War II. The company ended passenger service and closed the depot in&nbsp;1968. In June 1975, the depot was nominated and recognized by the National Register of Historic Places as a result of the key role it played in the establishment and growth of the town of Berea as well as its connection to the area's railroad and transportation history.&nbsp; In the late 1970s, Berea's residents launched a campaign to preserve the depot building. As a result of their efforts, the city&nbsp;purchased the building from the railway company in 1979. and efforts were soon made to remodel the building. In 1887, the depot was officially reopened as the town's welcome center for visitors.&nbsp;

The Louisville and Nashville Railway Company came to Berea in 1891 following many years of efforts by residents to connect their community to the nation's rail network. This passenger depot was constructed in 1905 and replaced the original depot which had been built in 1891. This structure was built in only four weeks and served the community until 1969 when passenger service ended. The building sat empty for many years and many feared that it would be demolished, but local citizens and preservationists worked with the city to acquire and restore the building in 1979. The Berea Welcome Center opened in 1987 and was the result of a decade of effort from local residents to preserve this historic railroad depot.

Berea L&N Passenger Depot and Welcome Center

In the late 1990s, Berea College launched an initiative to actively recruit and admit single parents at students to the school, in the hopes of providing the demographic with opportunities that may not otherwise be available to them. Resultant from this initiative was the need for family housing options offered through the college. Instead of building conventional apartments as most universities and colleges do when such a need arises, Berea College instead decided to take the opportunity to combine this need for family-suitable housing with the town's desire to establish a self-sustainable model for the community. The result of this dual desire was the Berea College Ecovillage, located from 116-220 Washington Avenue in Berea, Kentucky.&nbsp; The village is comprised of six Colonial-style brick homes which were constructed in 1988 for married student housing. The residences went largely unused, and their convenience made them the school's first choice for use in the establishment of the Ecovillage. The homes and the land surrounding them underwent renovations, the majority of&nbsp;which took place from 2002-03, with the Ecovillage being opened and dedicated in January 2005 shortly before the spring semester. The renovations included the addition of greenhouses, storehouses, small sheds, and more housing options for families, allowing the village to house around 50 families in all. Over time, the village has since undergone additional renovations, with the college adding an information center, a water treatment facility, a natural building shelter, a commons house, and a child development laboratory. Perhaps the most notable addition to the Ecovillage, however, is the Jackson L. Oldham Ecological Machine. According to the college's brochure on the Ecovillage,&nbsp; <blockquote>"The ecological machine consists of a series of tanks that provide optimal
conditions for bacteria, snails, plants, fish, and other aquatic organisms to consume
organic wastes, converting waste water into odor-free, swimmable-quality water. The
greenhouse-like environment is also an excellent classroom for teaching biology,
chemistry, and other sciences.
The ecological machine can process up to 10,000 gallons of sewage a day,
which—after flowing through a subsurface wetland and passing through an
ultraviolet sterilizer—returns to a majority of Ecovillage buildings to flush toilets.
Because much of the waste water from the Ecovillage community flows into the
ecological machine, which contains living organisms, residents are taught to not use
bleach, antibacterial soaps, or other products that may harm the organisms and
decrease the ecological machine’s effectiveness." </blockquote>Within the village, each family grows their own food and operates solar panels to help power the community while also taking care of their own waste. In addition, each family helps create, distribute, and use green cleaning products and also takes part in composting. The village challenges each family to reduce their energy usage by 75% as well as urging the community as a whole to reduce their per capita water use by 75%, the latter of which is achieved by the village's innovative water innovation system which contributes to landscape irrigation for the residents' crops. The college also urges residents to purify waste and sewage to "swimmable" quality while also having each of them sign a pledge to recycle and compost over 50% of their daily waste in addition to teaching others to do the same.&nbsp; In line with the original goal of the village, to provide housing to students with children, Berea College also offers a Child Development Laboratory and Daycare located within the limits of the village. At the facility, officials provide childcare and education for up to 118 students, with many of the center's staff members being made up of other Berea College students, especially those studying ecology, who help maintain the village and teach the children about sustainable living.&nbsp;

Ecovillage at Berea College was opened in 2005 by school officials. Located along Washington Avenue, Ecovillage is a housing complex which provides homes for students of the college who have children. Ecovillage was born not just out of a need to provide housing to students and their children, but also the school's desire to establish a sustainable living community. Today, those who live in the community grow their own crops, make their own cleaning products, and reduce energy and water usage through the use of solar panels and irrigation systems. In order to help the families who live within the community, the college also offers a daycare and learning center for children located within the community. 

Ecovillage at Berea College

The Danforth Foundation was established in 1927 by Missouri business owners and philanthropists William and Adda H. Danforth. At that time,&nbsp;the Danforth Foundation was the largest private profit foundation in the state. The organization became known for&nbsp;providing grants to institutions of higher education within Missouri. These grants were used to improve and renovate facilities and provide scholarships to incoming students. The Danforths followed this with&nbsp;the Danforth Chapel Program which supported&nbsp;institutions of higher education around the country&nbsp;by funding the construction of chapels&nbsp;in historically Christian schools.&nbsp; The Danforth Chapel Program chose Berea College for its first project a few years after&nbsp;William Danforth was appointed to Berea's board of trustees. Following a donation by the Danforths, construction on the chapel began and the project was completed in 1938. The Danforths hired architects Charles Cellarius, James P. Jamieson, and George Spearl to bring their vision to life. These architects designed a&nbsp;Gothic-style building the Danforths hoped would "demonstrate the relationship between spirituality and education" to Berea College's faculty and students. The Danforths asked for the&nbsp;inclusion of fifty-four religiously significant stone blocks from a plethora of religious and spiritual landmarks and locations within the chapel. As a result, the chapel incorporates stones from Abraham Lincoln's tomb, Canterbury Cathedral in Scotland, Nazareth in Israel, and stones sent to the couple by Mahatma Gandhi. In addition to these foundation stones, the building is notable for the&nbsp;large stained-glass window at the center of the front of the church that&nbsp;was modeled to mirror those created&nbsp;during the English Gothic architectural period.&nbsp;Danforth Chapel joined the college's only other religious facility at the time, which was known simply as the chapel and offered a place of worship to students and staff. Danforth Chapel hosts ministers and visiting religious speakers and scholars who offer lectures and other events throughout the year. Today, Danforth Chapel is part of Berea College's Campus Christian Center and is led by a full-time minister who is available to students and staff. The chapel is one of the leading landmarks on campus and thousands of Berea alumni have chosen this site as the location for their&nbsp;weddings.&nbsp;

Danforth Chapel at Berea College was constructed in 1938 to provide a place of worship for students and faculty. The chapel was funded by the Danforth Foundation as part of its Danforth Chapel Program that offered support for the construction of chapels in higher learning institutions nationwide. The chapel was modeled after architectural designs from the English Gothic period and consists of 54 bricks taken from historically and spiritually significant locations worldwide. Today, the chapel is part of Berea College's Campus Christian Center and regularly hosts weddings and religious events. 

Danforth Chapel at Berea College

Berea College began as a one-room school built in 1855 by John G. Fee. The first teachers at Berea College came from Oberlin College in Ohio. In order to help students&nbsp;pay for tuition,&nbsp;the school provided as many jobs as possible to their students similar to modern work-study programs but with financial support coming mostly from donors and alumni. Early Berea college history is most significant for the admission of African American students. Because of the school's early commitment to Black education, students such as West Virginia's&nbsp;Carter G. Woodson, "The Father of Black History," was able to attend courses bot full and part-time at Berea from 1897-1903.In 1904 the Kentucky Legislature passed the Day Law which made it illegal to educate white and Black students together and therefore required Berea to either close or comply with the segregation laws of the state. Berea might have continued to admit Black students but to comply with the law, they would have had to deny admission to white students.&nbsp;The Day Law was overturned in 1950 and Berea was the first college in Kentucky to admit Black and white students together.&nbsp;In response to the Day Law, Berea established the Lincoln Institute near Louisville for Black
students. In the
early 1920s Berea offered an ungraded courses to high school students who had
not had the opportunity for prior education. It also had an elementary school and a Normal School which trained
teachers. The elementary and secondary
school<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> programs&nbsp;</a>were withdrawn in 1968.

Completed in 1938 and named in honor of Helen Draper Ayer, this Berea campus building is home to classrooms and numerous academic programs in language, philosophy, and religion. The building features a bell tower that features a 56-bell carillon that has become one of the symbols of the campus. Among Draper's notable charitable donations was the establishment of a fund that makes it possible for a number of students from Appalachia to attend Berea without the expense of tuition. 


Draper Hall, Berea College

The Berea College Art Collection was established in 1935 as
a teaching collection with the purpose of providing Berea College students with
the best examples of art and artifacts from around the world. Currently, the
art collection is made up of more than 14,000 works of art and artifacts of
cultural significance and is known for its high quality.

The Berea College Art Collection is made accessible to the
campus, surrounding communities and visiting scholars with the goal of
providing rich opportunities to experience the visual arts. This goal is accomplished&nbsp;by caring for the artwork entrusted to them by generations of donors,
making the artwork available for research and study through class visits and
individual appointments, and installing two permanent collection galleries that
highlight the richness and diversity of the collection.

The core of the collection includes paintings, prints and
photographs by European and American masters; contemporary ceramics; and Asian
arts.&nbsp;Among the most significant works in the collection are Renaissance
paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, Old Master prints including
works by Rembrandt and Albrecht Dürer, Japanese woodblock prints, over 3000
Doris Ulmann photographs and paintings by Gilbert Stuart, Arthur Wesley Dow,
Thomas Moran, and Henry Ossawa Tanner. The early works on paper were
supplemented by a recent gift of contemporary American prints by Jasper Johns,
Jacob Lawrence, and Sam Gilliam among others.

A large portion of the exhibitions in the
galleries showcase the art of contemporary artists working in a wide range of
media. In addition to highlighting work on Kentucky-based artists, artists from
across the country as well as international artists are displayed. Exhibitions
curated from their permanent collection as well as occasional exhibits from
outside collections.

It is the goal of the Art
&amp; Art History Department to provide students with a fundamental knowledge
of the art of the past. It also aims to provide a working knowledge of the
processes and possibilities of art in the present.

Exhibitions are mounted in the Galleries
during the academic year.

The Berea College Art Collection was established in 1935 as a teaching collection with the purpose of providing Berea College students with the best examples of art and artifacts from around the world.  Currently, the art collection is made up of more than 14,000 works of art and artifacts of cultural significance and is known for its high quality. It is located in the Rogers-Traylor building, on the corner of Ellipse Street and Chestnut Street in Berea, KY.

Doris Ulmann Galleries is a reciprocal membership museum through the NARM Association (National American Reciprocal Museum Association)

Doris Ulmann Galleries at Berea College

At the time of the hotel's completion, Berea had a reputation of racial equality as Berea had long been the first white institution of higher learning in the South to admit Black students.&nbsp; Boone Tavern is related to the history of&nbsp;integration of Berea College as the hotel was erected shortly after Kentucky's adoption of the Day Law of 1904. This law was aimed at Berea and&nbsp;made it a crime to educate Black and white students together.&nbsp;At the time, Berea was the only institution that was integrated. This law forced president William&nbsp;Frost to choose which race to educate. He decided to accommodate the majority of&nbsp;Berea's white students but the school continued to support Black education in more subtle ways by challenging the spirit of the law. In 1950, and with the backing of Berea students and faculty,&nbsp;the law was amended to permit but not require integration in&nbsp;post-secondary institutions. Over the years, Black enrollment was low at Berea and the hotel was more keen to accommodate white tourists than students of color and their families.&nbsp; Prior to&nbsp;October 1951, Boone Tavern did not allow friends and family of African American students to stay at the hotel. Between&nbsp;1951 and 52, students and other members of the community continued to protest against the failure of Berea to live up to the courage of its 19th century leaders.&nbsp;An editor of the student newspaper challenged the adminstration's response counseling patience with the following lines <blockquote>"It has been pointed out that to improve the race problem here one must move&nbsp;&nbsp; slowly... but we can't see how a Christian college which professes the principles of the brotherhood of All men, can compromise on its principles for any reason whatever. Racial discrimination is un-Berean, un-American, anti-social, and un-Christian."1</blockquote>After continued demands for change, Berea College President responded in November of 1952&nbsp;by declaring that Boone Tavern and other boarding and dining halls shall make no discrimination based upon race. Since that time, Boone Tavern has accompanied all races equally, continuing the tradition Berea began in the 19th century of acceptance and equality.&nbsp;

Constructed in 1909 to accommodate the growing number of guests that visited Berea College, this hotel has become one of the most important institutions in the community and a symbol of the college itself. Nellie Frost suggested the idea of the hotel to her husband, William G. Frost, who was president of the institution at that time. Since then, the hotel accompanied many prominent individuals such as Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, President Coolidge and his wife, and Henry Ford. Today, the hotel is a popular stop for tourists, and provides job opportunities for its students. 

Historic Boone Tavern

<div>Berea College was founded in 1855 to educate both Black and white students together. Reverend John G. Lee was a native of Bracken County, KY and erected the first one room school in order to advocate for equality and excellence for both men and women of both races. Between its founding and 1904,&nbsp;African American students made up approximately one third to one half of Berea's student body. Fee's commitment to providing African American's with an education equal to the education that whites were receiving attracted the attention of Cassius M. Clay. Clay believed in the gradual emancipation of slavery and offered a ten acre plot of land to Fee in 1853. It is this plot of land that Lincoln Hall, the future Berea College, was built upon.&nbsp;</div><div> </div><div>	In 1904, Kentucky passed the Day Law which mandated segregation halting African-American enrollment at the college. Berea College presented documentation proving how integrated classrooms actually benefitted students. In Berea College v. Commonwealth of Kentucky the Supreme Court ruled that the state of Kentucky had the right to intervene in the day to day workings of the college because it was incorporated by the state. For forty-six years the Day Law remained in effect. It was amended in 1950 by the state legislature, however it only allowed African-American students to enroll if the courses they wanted to take was not offered at the Kentucky State College for Negroes. The ruling from Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas removed the last restriction in 1954. During the Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s and 1970s students at Berea College tested the school's commitment to integration.</div>

Union Church was established in 1853 by Reverend John G. Fee, the founder of Berea College, on land granted by the abolitionist Cassius M. Clay. The original meetinghouse was located in a grove of trees north of town. With the help of local supporters and other missionaries from the American Missionary Association, Fee's church grew and supported the radical vision of an interracial community. Berea College recruited Black students and Union Church welcomed them into their congregation.

Union Church

The Sunshine Ballard Cottage&nbsp;was named after Sunshine Harris,&nbsp;the eventual&nbsp;wife of S. Thrustan Ballard, a Kentucky politician, businessman, and philanthropist. After their marriage in 1880, Sunshine similarly devoted her efforts to philanthropic causes. Together, over the course of the early 1900s,&nbsp;the couple&nbsp;donated a large sum of money to the state's&nbsp;Berea College,&nbsp;before later also deciding to leave a portion of their joint estate for the college upon their respective deaths. As a tuition-free working college, bequests such as this are what allow the university to remain in operation, leading to the dedication of the cottage in Sunshine's honor as well as both of the couple's names being added to the campus's&nbsp;John G. Fee Glade Legacy Wall, which honors donors and benefactors who have made significant contributions to the school. The Sunshine Ballard Cottage was constructed on the campus of Berea College in 1921 with a portion of the funds left to the college by the Ballards. The cottage is a one-story, rustic building built entirely out of logs and wood shingles, and was built&nbsp;with the intention of furthering Berea's&nbsp;status as one of&nbsp;&nbsp;the nation's leading Work College. As a Work College, Berea College grants each admitted student a Tuition Promise Scholarship which guarantees that that student will be able to attend the college tuition-free in exchange for working on-campus ten hours a week.&nbsp;The Sunshine Ballard Cottage was opened as a weaving house, one of Sunshine Ballard's favorite pastimes,&nbsp;and&nbsp;immediately established itself as one of the most popular employment options for students under Berea's work program, as it was, at the time of its construction, the only craft-based work program option available to students.&nbsp; Today, the cottage is one of five student craft programs located on Berea's campus. There, students are able to create rugs and place mats in addition to weaving blankets and throws on the various looms located in the cottage. Beginner students are tasked with using hand looms to create their crafts, while advanced students are able to use the more technical fly-shuttle loom. Since its construction, Berea, Kentucky has established itself as the arts and craft capitol of the state, a feat which garners much tourism. Many of these tourists are invited to visit the Sunshine Ballard Cottage, observing the crafts, machinery, students at work, and the legacy left behind by the cottage's namesake.&nbsp;

The Sunshine Ballard Cottage was constructed in 1921 on the campus of Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. The cottage was built in honor of the eponymous Sunshine Harris Ballard, wife of a Kentucky Politician, who, together with her husband, donated a sum of money to the college. A portion of these funds were used to construct the cottage, which was opened to students as a weaving studio. As a Work College, students at Berea are promised free tuition on the condition that they work ten hours per week, with the weaving studio becoming the school's first craft-based work opportunity for students. Today, the cottage provides students with the opportunity to create items such as rugs and blankets, and is a popular tourist attraction for the area. 

Sunshine Ballard Cottage at Berea Cottage

In the early twentieth
century, the Appalachian region of the United States underwent a craft revival
which saw those within the region take up traditional crafts such as weaving,
crocheting, wood carving, etc. in favor of other, more classical forms of artwork
such as painting or sculpting. With this revival came the rise of a new
industry, one in which men and women sold worked from their homes to create a
variety of crafts before then selling them individually or to bigger companies.
One of the area's most heavily impacted by this craft revival was the town of
Berea, Kentucky, often referred to at the craft capitol of the state.
Capitalizing on this revival, a company, Churchill Weavers, was established,
and soon went on become one of the nation's largest crafting companies as well
as one of the most renowned to specialize in weaving.&nbsp; 
 
In 1922, Churchill Weavers was established by a local couple,
David and Eleanor Churchill, along what is now Churchill Court in Berea,
Kentucky. Upon its opening, it became the first full-scale business in the
community that was not associated with the local university, Berea College. The
couple's decision to open a weaving company was, in part, inspired by David's
travels to India during 1901 in which he observed and studied the local weaving
industry on behalf of the British government. During his observations, he
noticed that, in India, machines and power looms overwhelmingly outpaced
individuals who weaved by hand. Consequently, he developed an innovation for
hand looms which allowed individuals the chance to keep up with machinery and
make a living through their craft. He used this innovation for his own
business, Churchill Weavers, and modeled the business after the same individual
efforts he observed in India, with each product produced by the company being
handmade by his wife, daughter, or other employees of the business, the former
of whom was also tasked with fabric design.&nbsp; 
 
Churchill Weavers was innovative in that it was one of the
first weaving companies to hire men in addition to female weavers, and
maintained a fairly small employee pool of around 150 people who handled all of
the company's increasingly large commissions. The company also made a name for
itself not merely by creating and selling the expected products such as
blankets and throws, but by creating purses, scarves, and other forms of
clothing as well. Their innovative business decisions lent the company national
acclaim, and in 1960s the company was so well-renowned that it was commissioned
to create thermal blankets by part of NASA to help keep scientists warm in
space.&nbsp; 
 
The company experienced great prosperity from the years
following their opening until the end of the 1960s. In 1969, however, David
passed away, and though Eleanor continued to run the business until 1973, she
eventually sold the company after realizing her children had no intention of
carrying on the family business. The company's new owners, Richard and Lila
Bellando, were heavily invested in the crafting community, with the former being
the director of the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen from the mid 1960s
to 1971. Under their ownership, Churchill Weavers was looked over by Eleanor,
who acted as president of the business's board of directors, and the company
continued in the same spirit as it had while David was alive. As bigger
companies began to establish themselves in the weaving community, the Bellandos
soon felt they were unable to keep up with the growing competition and
subsequently sold the business to Crown Crafts in the late 1980s, under which
Churchill Weavers received both advertisement and financial backing. Despite
this, the company began to lose income and business, and was forced to close
its doors in 2007.&nbsp; 
 
A few months after the business closed for the final time,
the building which housed the business was purchased by the Kentucky Historical
Society, with many of its products displayed within as an archive of the
companies history. The business and building was also recognized by the
National Register of Historic Places in 2010 as a result of its impact on
Berea, Kentucky, and the national crafts and weaving industry as a whole.&nbsp;

Churchill Weavers was established in Berea, Kentucky in 1922 by David and Eleanor Churchill. The business, which was located along Churchill Court, was a weaving service which employed around 150 weavers, including Eleanor who was in charge of fabric design, and produced products ranging from blankets and throws to purses and clothing. The company garnered national acclaim and operated under the Churchills until 1973 following David's death, after which Eleanor sold the company to another couple. The company closed its doors for good in 2007, after which it was made in a museum of the company's works and eventually recognized by the National Register of Historical Places.

Historic Berea Kentucky Walking Tour

Lincoln Hall, Berea College

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Additional Information