Walnut Hills in Cincinnati in Hamilton County, Ohio — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)
Lane Theological Seminary / The Lane Seminary Debates
The Lanes, Baptist merchants from New Orleans, and the Kempers, a Presbyterian family from Cincinnati, gave money and land respectively for Cincinnati's first manual labor theological seminary and high school, which opened in suburban Walnut Hills in 1829. The Reverend Lyman Beecher came from Boston as its first president. The president's house, now known as the Stowe House after Beecher's daughter Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, still remains at Gilbert and Foraker. Lane Theological Seminary, bound by present day Gilbert, Chapel, Park, and Yale streets, continued to educate Presbyterian ministers until 1932, when it was merged with McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.
In the winter of 1834, the students of Lane Theological Seminary, including some southerners and one African-American former slave, organized an eighteen-night revival under the leadership of Theodore Dwight Weld. These antislavery debates over immediate abolition versus colonization effectively converted almost all the students to abolition. American newspapers publicized the debates, and women supporters, “the Cincinnati Sisters,” organized local schools for African-American children. When the trustees prohibited the students from discussing controversial issues, most of the students withdrew, set up a seminary in exile in Cumminsville, and then moved it to Oberlin College. The Lane Seminary Debates marked the shift in American antislavery efforts from colonization to abolition, and the “Lane Rebels” became ministers, abolitionists, and social reformers across the country.
Erected 2003 by the Ohio Bicentennial Commission; the P & G Fund; and the Ohio Historical Society. (Marker Number 56-31.)
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African Americans • Churches & Religion • Civil Rights. In addition, it is included in the Ohio Historical Society / The Ohio History Connection series list. A significant historical year for this entry is 1829.
Location. 39° 7.81′ N, 84° 29.298′ W. Marker is in Cincinnati, Ohio, in Hamilton County. It is in Walnut Hills. Marker is on Gilbert Avenue, 0.2 miles south of Martin Luther King Drive, on the left when traveling south. Located in front of a new car dealership. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 2820 Gilbert Ave, Cincinnati OH 45206, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Votes for Women (about 500 feet away, measured in a direct line); Harriet Beecher Stowe House (approx. 0.2 miles away); Harriet Beecher Stowe (approx. 0.2 miles away); Walnut Hill Salutes Black Inventors (approx. ¼ mile away); Peebles Corner (approx. 0.3 miles away); The Verona (approx. 0.4 miles away); Frederick W. Galbraith (approx. 0.9 miles away); Eden Park Vietnam Memorial (approx. 0.9 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Cincinnati.
Credits. This page was last revised on February 4, 2023. It was originally submitted on April 26, 2021, by Craig Baker of Sylmar, California. This page has been viewed 479 times since then and 61 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on April 26, 2021, by Craig Baker of Sylmar, California. • J. Makali Bruton was the editor who published this page.