Several dozen Florida A&M University (FAMU) administrators, faculty, staff, community supporters and leaders attended a ceremony for the installation of a historic marker for the Lucy Moten Building on Friday, July 12.
Among the speakers were FAMU President Larry Robinson, Ph.D., and alumni of Florida A&M University Developmental Research School (FAMU DRS). Robinson said he was honored to be part of the event.
“Of course, we think FAMU is the best school of its kind today. So, it’s only fitting that we pause to celebrate the placing of this historic marker named for Lucy E. Moten at Florida A&M University, representing excellence in education past and present,” Robinson told the gathering
“We hope this marker will keep Lucy Moten’s legacy alive and tell future generations of the quality she shared with her students and that FAMU continues the tradition.”
The installation ceremony for the building at 444 Gamble Street was one of the highlights of the biennial FAMU DRS all-class reunion events being held last week.
Built in 1932 on the corner of Gamble Street and South Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, the red brick structure began as a practice school for training African-American teachers. It was financed by the Julius Rosenwald Fund and the General Education Board.
In 1935, then Florida A&M College President J.R.E. Lee, Sr. named the school in honor of Lucy Ellen Moten, an 1870 Howard University graduate who was a leader in the normal school education movement, which focused on teacher training, during the early 20th century. She was a protégé of Frederick Douglass.
In 1953, the Lucy Moten School was recognized as part of the K-12 FAMU High Developmental Research School and was placed under the FAMU College of Education.
In 2008, FAMU DRS was relocated to a new campus at the corner of Orange Avenue and Wahnish Way. The Lucy Moten building is home to FAMU’s Office of Recruitment.