Pippa Passes in Knott County, Kentucky — The American South (East South Central)
Founder’s Shack
1917
Photographed by J. J. Prats, October 20, 2019
1. Founder’s Shack Marker
Erected 1975 by Kentucky Historical Society and Kentucky Department of Transportation. Presented by East Kentucky Health Services Center. (Marker Number 1532.)
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Education. In addition, it is included in the Kentucky Historical Society series list. A significant historical year for this entry is 1917.
Location. 37° 20.096′ N, 82° 52.51′ W. Marker is in Pippa Passes, Kentucky, in Knott County. It is on Purpose Road 0.3 miles east of Kentucky Route 899, on the left when traveling east. It is on the campus of Alice Lloyd College. Use the main (western) entrance (Spruce Pine Road) because Purpose Road is one-way eastbound where it passes the marker. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Pippa Passes KY 41844, United
this page online
Regionally, this marker is in Eastern Kentucky and in the Cumberland Plateau. It is also in the American South, specifically in the Upper South, in Appalachia, and specifically in Southern Appalachia. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture and also the Antebellum South.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 7 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: The Caney Creek Community Center (a few steps from this marker); Alice Lloyd College (approx. 3.2 miles away); Hindman Settlement School (approx. 5.7 miles away); Pioneer Educator (approx. 5.8 miles away); Dr. Josiah H. Combs, 1886-1960 / Folk Music Scholar (approx. 5.8 miles away); County Named, 1884 (approx. 5.9 miles away); Carl Dewey Perkins (approx. 5.9 miles away); Morgan's Last Raid (approx. 6.6 miles away).
Related markers. Click here for a list of markers that are related to this marker. These are markers about Alice Lloyd College.
Also see . . . Wikipedia Entry for Alice Spencer Geddes Lloyd.
Photographed by J. J. Prats, October 20, 2019
2. Founder’s Shack and Marker
In 1915 Alice Geddes Lloyd and her husband Arthur Lloyd moved to Knott County, Kentucky, with the goal of improving social and economic conditions, living at first in Ivis. Their initial work involved provision of health care, educational services, and agricultural improvements to the Appalachian region, funded by donations from East Coast states. In 1917 Alice Lloyd and her mother moved to Caney Creek, where she had been offered land for a school. She separated from her husband in 1918 and remained in Knott County. She named her Caney Creek home “Pippa Passes” after a poem by Robert Browning and in honor of donors from the New England Browning Society.(Submitted on March 8, 2020.)
Together with June Buchanan, a native of Syracuse, New York, who joined her in Kentucky in 1919, Lloyd founded 100 elementary schools throughout eastern Kentucky and opened Caney Junior College in 1923. The college offered a free education to mountain youth, who were required to promise to remain in the region or return after completing their education. There was a long waiting list for admission. Lloyd imposed strict rules on the students, including no jewelry, cosmetics, slang, or high-heeled shoes for girls and no tobacco, gambling, liquor, guns or “unauthorized meetings with the opposite sex” for boys.
Both Lloyd and Buchanan worked without pay at both education and fund-raising. Lloyd is said to have raised some $2.5 million for the college, mainly by typing and mailing fund-raising appeals. On December 7, 1955, Lloyd appeared on the This is Your Life television show, whose host Ralph Edwards made a direct fund-raising plea on her school’s behalf, resulting in a large influx of donations which totaled nearly $250,000. In 1997, the college’s director of marketing and communications at the time, Stephen Reed, told a journalist, “We’ve still got people on our mailing and donor list who saw the show.”
Lloyd served the college until her death on September 4, 1962. After her death, the college was renamed in her honor. Miss Buchanan served at Alice Lloyd College until 1988, when she died at the age of 100, having lived to see the 1984 opening of the June Buchanan School, a K-12 school on the Alice Lloyd College campus named in her honor. A statue of Lloyd was dedicated on October 10, 2009, during a ceremony at the college
Credits. This page was last revised on March 8, 2020. It was originally submitted on March 8, 2020, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio. This page has been viewed 533 times since then and 29 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on March 8, 2020, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio.
