Stop 11. Frost Building

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The Frost Building, built in 1905, was originally a Carnegie Library. Berea College was one of the few private institutions to receive funding from the philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie donated $30,000 for the building in 1904. This was the same year that the Kentucky legislature passed the Day Law, which made the education of blacks and whites together illegal. The Day Law was aimed squarely at Berea College, which had been an interracial school since the end of the Civil War. Although the College took legal action to test the constitutionality of the law, the law was upheld and Berea College was forced to segregate. The Board decided to construct Lincoln Institute in Shelby County to serve as an all-black boarding school. Carnegie increased his gift by $200,000 to help fund the new campus.

Limestone for the Carnegie Library was quarried in Rockcastle County, sawed and rubbed to finish the surface. Bricks were manufactured at the College Brick Yard and laid by students. Flooring was made of maple and oak form the college forest. The temple portico, half columns, and Ionic capitals are in the classical, or Federalist, style. When the library moved into Hutchins Library in 1968, Frost Building became the home of the Departments of History, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology.