Saint Paul's College and James Solomon Russell-Saint Paul's College Museum

Saint Paul's College and James Solomon Russell-Saint Paul's College Museum. Lawrenceville, Virginia. Saint Paul's College began as a small parochial school founded by a newly ordained Episcopal deacon, the Rev. James Solomon Russell. Born into slavery, Russell attended the Bishop Payne Divinity School in Petersburg. Within a year of graduation, he had managed to raise enough funds to buy land in Brunswick County and erect a simple building on it to start his school. This two-room school building still stands today and is referred to as the Saul Building, after the Rev. James Saul of Philadelphia, an important donor to the school. By 1893, the school had grown into the Saint Paul's Normal and Industrial School. In the ensuing years, Russell traveled worldwide speaking and raising funds for the school, until his retirement in 1928. The school's name was changed to Saint Paul's Polytechnic Institute in 1941, when it was granted authority to offer a four-year degree program. At that time, Russell's son, Dr. J. Alvin Russell, succeeded him as president of the college. Following on in his father's footsteps, the younger Russell continued to expand the college. In 1957, it became known as Saint Paul's College, a fully integrated four-year liberal arts arts institution, offering such courses as pre-law and pre-medicine. From 1971 to 1981, Dr. J. Alvin Russell, Jr., became the third generation of the Russell family to serve as president of the college. The college closed in 2013. The James Solomon Russell-Saint Paul's College Museum and Archives was established in 2019.