Today on April 21, 2013 Alderson
Broadus College in Philippi (Barbour County ) West Virginia changed
its name to Alderson Broadus University. In 1932 The Alderson
Academy and Junior College that was located in the Greenbrier County
part of our home town of Alderson moved to Philippi to join with
Broadus College, which had moved from Clarksburg to Philippi in
1901, to form Alderson Broadus College. Go Battlers!
The building which housed the Alderson Academy has been vacant for
years and I believe is still standing. No I was not a student at the
Academy in the 30's. AB as the school is known is a Baptist School
that had fallen on hard times. They recently have become aggressive
to grow the college, er university, and next year will field the
first football team in the school's history. In a rather convoluted
way Alderson football lives to see another day. Go Battlers!
The Following is a 1904 description of the Alderson Academy from the
West Virginia Division of Culture and History.
This school is located at Alderson, in Greenbrier county, on the C.
& C. railway and the Greenbrier river. It is in the midst of one of
the finest agricultural section of the State and in a community that
is noted for morality, intelligence and interest in educational
affairs. In this vicinity have been located some of the most
prosperous and useful schools of the State, and upon the Academy has
fallen the mantle of many a noble aim and worthy achievement on the
part of earnest and efficient educators.
The institution is the outgrowth of a conviction that the Baptist
denomination of Southern West Virginia needed a secondary school of
convenient access to their boys and girls. The generous support
which the school has received and the high degree of prosperity that
has marked its history seem to justify the foresight of its founders
and to establish the fact that there is a real need of the
institution. The Academy opened its doors in the fall of 1901 and
during its first session over a hundred pupils were enrolled.
Necessarily starting with a largely local patronage, the school has
extended its influence and broadened its field until it already
reaches ten or twelve counties of the State, though it is as yet in
its infancy.
The plant of the Academy is valued at $7,500 and includes three
acres of ground in a most beautiful and healthful location in the
midst of North Alderson, and a three story frame building which
contains dormitories and school-rooms.
The building is comfortably equipped with modern furniture and
appliances and the student is supplied with the most approved helps
for the prosecution of his work. A good beginning has been made
towards a school library.
The Academy aims to be merely a preparatory school, fitting boys and
girls for colleges and higher institutions and seeking to inspire in
them a love of higher education. It emphasizes the fact that the
academic course is but the beginning, not the end, of a complete
training. It aims above all things to be thorough in its work and to
develop in the student a spirit of thoroughness. It believes that
the very best teachers are needed for such work as it does, and it
seeks to employ the best that its resources will permit. The school
is co-educational and boys and girls are admitted to all departments
upon the same terms. In addition to its preparatory course the
Academy offers a very thorough and efficient training in music,
vocal and instrumental. The instructors in this department are the
equals of any in the State.
It is in the influences and training that lies outside of mere
physical and intellectual education that the Academy finds its
special field of work and the justification for its existence. It is
emphatically a home school and seeks to surround its students
continually with such influences as will implant and develop those
intangible, but indispensable, graces that mark the nature and
bearing of the true lady and gentleman. But it believes that beneath
the mere accomplishments and graces of life there is a deeper, more
vital need of human nature - the universal need of redemption from
the power of evil.
The perfect education includes the training of body, mind and soul,
and it is only the Christian school that can furnish this complete
training. The Academy places Bible study in its regular curriculum
and seeks to create an atmosphere and an influence favorable to the
development of the spiritual life of its students.
The work of the school is greatly aided by two very excellent
literary societies conducted by the students. These societies
publish a quarterly paper.
The officers and teachers of the Academy are as follows:
B. C. Alderson, A. M., Principal.
Miss Emma C. Alderson, Assistant Principal.
B. C. Alderson, A. M. (W. Va. University, University of Chicago),
Languages.
Miss Grace E. Melton (Ottawa University), History, Latin.
W. P. Powell, A. B. (Richmond College), English, Sciences.
Miss Emma C. Alderson (Johnson Female College, Aspinwall School),
French, Primary Department.
Miss Rose Hill (American Conservatory, New England Conservatory),
Piano, Voice, Drawing.
Miss C. Francis Radford, Matron.
