Middle Tennessee State Teachers College Training School

Murfreesboro won its state teachers' college by lobbying and cash. Businessmen led by Andrew L. Todd, a member of the State Board of Education, donated land and pledged $180,000, and the Middle Tennessee State Normal School was dedicated September 11, 1911, under the 1909 General Education Bill. Increased state funding for higher education under Governor Austin Peay then brought a library, a science building, Wiser-Patten Hall, the teacher's training school known as Pittard Campus School, and more dormitories. The college received accreditation in 1928.

What the plaque says

Middle Tennessee State Teachers College Training School The teacher-training school of Middle Tennessee State Normal School, now MTSU, was established in 1911. This model school still provides practice teaching experience, laboratory methods classes, and observation facilities. Cooperation between the public school system and the college's education department led to the construction of this Neoclassical Revival building, which opened February ll, 1929. In honor of a local educator, the school was renamed Homer Pittard Campus School in 1985.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stones River National Battlefield — 3.7 mi
  The Murfreesboro battlefield of December 1862, with a national cemetery built by Black soldiers, a Trail of Tears route and the story of the freedmen's settlement called Cemetery.
• Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration — 25 mi
  The Shelbyville show grounds where the Tennessee Walking Horse has been crowned world grand champion each late summer since 1939, and where the practice of soring is part of the story.
• Henry Horton State Park — 25 mi
  A Duck River park on Governor Henry Horton's former farm in Marshall County, with a mill ruin from 1845, kayak floats and the grave of a governor the House declined to impeach.
• Fort Negley — 30 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.

More markers nearby

• Union University — 0.3 mi
• Tennessee College for Women — 0.4 mi
• Rutherford Hospital / Middle Tennessee Medical Center — 0.4 mi
• First Baptist Church (East Castle Street) — 0.5 mi