Major financial boost will help Stillman College renovate historic building

Stillman College's quest to renovate century-year-old Winsborough Hall has received another major financial boost, in the form of a $500,000 grant from the National Park Service, inspired by the site's historic status.

It was one of 10 sites, all associated with preserving civil rights history, so honored. The sites received a combined $3.27 million from the National Park Service's History of Equal Rights grants, targeted to support preservation work and planning activities, including repair and rehabilitation.

"This grant is designated primarily for the facade," said Cynthia Warrick, president of Stillman. "We need to address the roof; that really needs to be replaced .... This grant will help us stabilize the building so it does not continue to deteriorate under the rain and other severe weather."

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From top down, the three-story brick Winsborough, erected in 1922 for the first women attending Tuscaloosa's historically Black college, needs extensive work on outer layers, to seal the interior before bringing its electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems up to code.

"The columns out front, some are missing, some need to be repaired, and the windows ... you cannot put modern windows, so you have to find the same type that they installed 100 years ago," Warrick said. "It gets very expensive to do historic preservation."

To complete the entire project will cost an estimated $11 million, according to David Miller, Stillman's director of communications. While the fundraising campaign still has a long way to go, the prestige of announcements such as the History of Equal Rights grants can help spur other support, Warrick said, from private foundations, philanthropists, and agencies such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"Once you start getting this type of funding, others can recognize the legitimacy of the project," she said.

The National Park Service's half-a-million dollars joins other significant donations such as the $50,000 in materials and $50,000 for installation to repair that roof, donated through the Tuscaloosa branch of GAF, north America's largest roofing and waterproofing manufacturer; and a $60,000 planning grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, with which Stillman's hired Selma-based architect Richard Hutchins.

Other monies have come from alumni donations, and groups such as the American Association of Retired Persons. The AARP donation is notable because, once renovated, the building will become the Winsborough Hall Living and Learning Center, a residential center for active seniors, serving a variety of community and academic needs.

That concept derives in part from Stillman's accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' Commission of Colleges, which requires a quality-enhancement plan every five years. Stillman alumni, academicians, students and others were polled about greatest needs, and the answer was "communication," especially across five generations mingling in the workplace.

The plan is for the seniors living in Winsborough, the oldest remaining building on the campus, to become a full part of Stillman's academic and community life. In addition to bolstering communication skills between generations, the Winsborough center may record oral histories, recording first-hand accounts of lives from decades ago. Medical and kinesiology students can help the residents deal with infirmities, and boost their activity levels.

And some of that "elder wisdom" may find its way directly into classrooms, as retired seniors might choose to continue their education at Stillman. The hope is that The Winsborough Hall Living and Learning Center, as a tool for multi-generational communication and professional development, will serve as a model for other like institutions, Warrick said.

Civil rights, women's rights

In 1875, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church founded The Tuscaloosa Institute, "for the training of colored men for the ministry." Six men attended its first classes in 1876, and in 1895 the state of Alabama chartered it as a legal corporation, with the name changing at that time to Stillman Institute, to honor the Rev. Charles Allen Stillman, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, who had initiated the idea. Over the decades, its mandate grew, as did its new campus, and population.

Winsborough was constructed as the first girls' school at Stillman by the Women's Auxiliary of the Southern Presbyterian General Assembly, and named for the group's secretary, Hallie Paxson Winsborough, who helped steer efforts toward co-education.

Stillman had applied to the National Park Service unsuccessfully in 2018, but last year's submission proved the charm, establishing clearly the link to the progress of women's rights, interwoven almost inextricably with civil rights struggles..

"Winsborough was being built at a time when a lot of things were not happening for women," Warrick said. "Women were fighting for the right to vote, and there weren't any women on the Stillman campus."

Winsborough made possible co-education on campus, serving not only as the women's school, but as their dormitory. In later years, students returned to rest and refresh at Winsborough after working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee on marches, lunch-counter sit-ins, and the courthouse segregation protest that tragically devolved into Bloody Tuesday. Vivian Malone Jones lived at Winsborough while she was integrating the University of Alabama, eventually becoming its first Black graduate in 1965. A driver ferried her between Stillman and classes at UA, so Jones could enjoy a cultural and social life at a place she could be fully supported, Warrick said.

“The History of Equal Rights Grant program helps preserve sites where communities came together to advance Civil Rights,” said Chuck Sams, National Park Service director, in a written release. “These funds support our state, tribal, and local governments and nonprofit partners in telling a more complete story of the road to equal rights for all Americans.”

Congress appropriated funding for History of Equal Rights grants in 2021 through the Historic Preservation Fund, which takes revenue from federal oil and gas leases on the Outer Continental Shelf to feed a range of projects without expending tax dollars. Established in 1977, the Historic Preservation Fund has been authorized at $150 million per year through 2023, and has over decades provided more than $2 billion in grants.

Actual repair and reconstruction starts depend on the timing of the incoming support money, Warrick said, as Stillman continues reaching out to philanthropists and foundations. In addition to aiding physical work, donations may also help keep down eventual costs for seniors moving into Winsborough.

How to help

Those wishing to support the Winsborough Living and Learning Center can give online, via www.stillman.edu/give, or by sending cash or checks to Institutional Advancement, 3601 Stillman Blvd. Tuscaloosa, AL 35401.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Renovation of historic Stillman College building receives financial boost