Chamberlain-Hunt Academy

Chamberlain-Hunt Academy
Address
Chamberlain-Hunt Academy
124 McComb Ave
Port Gibson, Claiborne, MS 39150
Coordinates 31°56′45″N 90°59′10″W / 31.94583°N 90.98611°W / 31.94583; -90.98611Coordinates: 31°56′45″N 90°59′10″W / 31.94583°N 90.98611°W / 31.94583; -90.98611
Information
School type Private Boarding
Motto Knowledge and Wisdom in Submission to God
Religious affiliation(s) Christian
Established 1879
Closed 2014
President Jim Montgomery
Dean Wesley McClure
Headmaster Keith Fraley
Teaching staff 8
Grades 7-12
Gender Male (coeducational until 2002)
Enrollment 4 (2014)
Average class size 5
Language English
Campus size 174 acres (70 ha)
Athletics conference MAIS
Sports Soccer, Basketball, Track, Cross-Country, Golf, and Tennis
Team name Wildcats
Accreditation SACS, MAIS
Average ACT scores (2013) 25
Website www.chamberlain-hunt.com [1]

Chamberlain-Hunt Academy was a boarding school in Port Gibson, Mississippi. The school was founded in 1830 as Oakland College and closed in 2014.

The campus, with its buildings in brick Georgian Revival style, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[2]

History

Early history

When the "new" school was founded in Port Gibson in 1879, funds for the new beginning came from both the sale of the Oakland campus and donors. The State of Mississippi paid $40,000 for the campus in order to create Alcorn A&M College, the first land-grant college for African Americans in American history. Alcorn State University thrives in its original location.[3]

The new foundation was named for the Founder of Oakland, the Reverend Jeremiah Chamberlain (1794-1851) and Mr. David Hunt (1779-1861), a prominent plantation owner in the Antebellum South who had been a generous patron of Oakland over the years.[4] Since he and his family owned 1,700 African-American slaves at one time, it is fitting that the fine old Oakland campus David Hunt did so much to adorn became the locus where freedmen and the sons of freedmen were able to gain higher education supported by the State of Mississippi. Alcorn State thrives today as a legacy of Chamberlain and Hunt.

Several of the school's early faculty hailed from Davidson College.

Redus Hall and McComb Hall were designed by architect Emmett J. Hull.[5]

Oakland College was founded by the Reverend Jeremiah Chamberlain and the Presbyterian Church in Mississippi. Oakland closed during the Civil War but was reborn nearby as Chamberlain-Hunt Academy in 1879 in historic Port Gibson, Mississippi. Between 1915 and 1971, the Academy was a traditional boys military prep school. What might be termed a regional boarding school, the majority of students have traditionally come from Mississippi, Louisiana, West Tennessee, and Arkansas. In 1971, CHA began, like many Southern military schools, to transition into a less military and more civilian way of life. A Corps of Cadets was maintained but not strictly enforced; females were admitted; and more day students came to the school than had been the case previously.

Racial segregation and gender integration

In the 1960s, the schools began accepting female students in response to the racial desegregation of public schools.[6] CHA stopped accepting female boarding students in 2002.[7]

Reorganization and closing

The school went into a decline in the 1990s, when enrollment fell to just 22 cadets[8] but in 1996 it was saved from closure by being taken over by French Camp Academy, another Christian (but not military) boarding school in northern Mississippi.[9] However, CHA continued to operate autonomously. At the time, it had approximately 40% ethnic minority enrollment.[10]

By 1995, the school was in dire straits financially. Less than eighty students were enrolled. In 1996, members of the First Presbyterian Church in Jackson MS (a PCA congregation) and the French Camp Academy organization purchased from a local bank the historic buildings, over two hundred acres of land, and the educational equipment.

In the year 1996, CHA was reorganized under new, mission-driven, and creative ownership. Several millions of dollars were raised to renovate and enhance the historic buildings and campus. While the Academy was very different from what it had been before 1996, and especially before 1990, the dedicated trustees and administrative team did outstanding work for eighteen years. The mission was to give young men everything they needed to grow into Christian gentlemen and then succeed in college and life. The new routine appeared rather traditional to outside observers: Chamberlain-Hunt became an all-male, all military, mostly boarding, and staunchly Christian college preparatory school. In 2013, the group who had purchased the school from the banks in 1996 sold it to another owner, who decided not to begin a 2014–2015 session.

On its 125th birthday in 2004, CHA held a Founders' Day Convocation at nearby Alcorn State University (whose premises are on the Academy's original pre-1900 site) with special guest, US Senator Trent Lott.[11]

The schools closed in July 2014. At the time of the closure, the school was transitioning from a military school to a college preparatory curriculum to attract more students.[12]

Academics

Chamberlain-Hunt was a member of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools(MAIS), the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), the Association of Military Colleges and Schools of the United States (AMCSUS),[13] and the Association of Classical Christian Schools.

Athletics

Though always a school on the small side and often facing much bigger schools, Chamberlain-Hunt Academy enjoyed a long and illustrious reputation in inter-scholastic athletics, including equestrian sports in the early days. For 100 years, the great sport was track and field. It can be reasonably asked if any school in Mississippi history won more track meets or track championships than CHA. Archie Manning recently remembered to an Alumnus, "CHA had great track teams the whole time I was growing up." While the mission of the School was always to prepare Christian gentlemen—and between 1971 and 1996 ladies—for college and for life, rather than training Division I athletes, the School produced many outstanding athletes over the years in football, basketball, cross-country, volleyball, basketball, track-and-field, field hockey, soccer, baseball, tennis, and golf.

The school's sports colors were maroon and white. The teams were known as the Wildcats for most of the history. In 1996, when the French Camp group began running an ailing School to very good effect, the focus became the "life sports" boys may continue to pursue in adulthood. Sports included Cross Country in the fall, Soccer and Basketball in the winter, Tennis, Golf, and Track & Field in the spring. The school also required intramural / fitness participation daily.

Notable alumni

References

  1. ↑ "Chamberlain-Hunt Academy". Board School Review. Archived from the original on February 11, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
  2. ↑ National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  3. ↑ Samuel J. Rogal, The American Pre-College Military School: A History and Comprehensive Catalog of Institutions, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009, p. 63
  4. ↑ Mary Carol Miller, Must See Mississippi: 50 Favorite Places, Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2007, p. 135
  5. ↑ "Hull, Emmett J. (b.1882 - d.1957)". Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
  6. ↑ "Equal educational opportunity hearings, Ninety-first Congress, second session [and Ninety-second Congress, first session] pt.3A". HathiTrust. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  7. ↑ Olasky, Susan (March 13, 2004). "Back-to-basics training: By renewing its Christian vision, Mississippi's Chamberlain-Hunt Academy stemmed a decline common to military school". World Magazine. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  8. ↑ Susan Olasky, "Back-to-basics training: By renewing its Christian vision, Mississippi's Chamberlain-Hunt Academy stemmed a decline common to military schools", WORLD magazine, March 13, 2004.
  9. ↑ "Small Schools That Work" Archived November 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine., Capital Research Center, March 2004.
  10. ↑ National Center for Educational Statistics.
  11. ↑ "Lott speaks to CHA students during anniversary celebration at Alcorn", The Natchez Democrat, October 31, 2004.
  12. ↑ "Chamberlain-Hunt Academy closing after more than 130 years". The Clarion Ledger. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
  13. ↑ "Chamberlain-Hunt Military Academy". Association of Military Colleges and Schools of the United States. Archived from the original on May 15, 2013. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  • Chamberlain-Hunt Academy
  • Raising Boys to be Men, interview with Col. Shane Blanton, President of CHA, Albert Mohler Radio Program, January 2008.
  • History of the CHA buildings] in Mary Carol Miller et al., Must See Mississippi, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2007. ISBN 1-57806-845-2
  • Biography of Jeremiah Chamberlain (1794-1851) at Dickinson College, PA.
  • Picture of Chamberlain-Hunt Academy Historical Marker board at waymarking.com
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