St. Augustine’s University:A Raleigh HBCU in bankruptcy limbo

As noted in a recent previous post, I decided to try and to a photo profile of the St. Augustine’s University campus in Raleigh because I knew the school was closed after unsuccessful attempts to weather considerable financial difficulties. I also knew it was in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, and I was hoping to get quality photos of the campus before it was allowed to fall into irretrievable disrepair. 

Alas, visitors are required to stop at a security checkpoint, where after telling the security guard why I was there, I was told in no uncertain terms that the school was closed and I’d have to turn around and leave. Which I did. 

I learned later that in the short time since on-campus classes ceased in May, there had already been some vandalism on the grounds. Learning about that tempered my initial reaction to being turned away at the checkpoint

I went on to photograph nearby Oakwood Cemetery and the Ruins of St. Agnes Hospital (see two previous posts), after which I doubled back to stroll down Oakwood Avenue and capture the St. Augustine’s campus pictures you see here, all taken from outside the property fence. I’ve been doing college or university campus photo profiles for more than 15 years, and this one is undoubtedly my least favorite. But it’s a historic site that might not have much time left, and I wanted to try.

St. Augustine’s was a private institution founded in 1867 by Episcopal clergy to educate formerly enslaved African American people. Through its years, it grew from a normal school to a junior college to a four-year liberal arts institution. In 1883, it survived a fire that destroyed all its academic buildings because white fire companies refused to fight the blaze.

Goold Hall and lawn, shown in the photo leading off the post, was a place for events and community gatherings at St. Augustine’s. It was named for Rev. Edgar Hunt Goold, who in 1916 became the school’s fifth principal and, in 1925, he became its first president. That same year, the school changed its name to St. Augustine’s College and offered its first courses for college credit.

The name became St. Augustine’s University in 2012 at a time it prepared to offer master’s degrees. But the school began to experience serious financial troubles in the 1990s just as it reached its peak enrollment of 1,918 in 1992. 

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accrediting agency placed the university on warning in late 2001, and on probation two years later. St. Augustine’s managed to eliminate its deficit and was removed from probation in 2004. But in 2013, an audit uncovered disorganized accounting and improper issuance of checks, and by 2016 the school was back on probation.

Once more the school dug out of trouble and was removed from probation in 2018 … until landing there again a third time in 2022. After appeals and litigation to retain its accreditation over the next few years, and a brief reprieve by an arbitration panel, the accreditation agency voted in 2024 to remove the school as a member, a decision upheld on appeal the following year.

St. Augustine’s entered bankruptcy proceedings in April of this year and announced it would cease on-campus classes in May, thereafter offering online classes for certificates and apprentice programs. It also said it would pursue a way to restore accreditation.

The Wikipedia entry for St. Augustine's gives a very thorough accounting of the school's history of difficulties if you're interesting in learning more.

There aren't any more quality images from the marginal photo shoot of the campus, but if you'd like to peruse images of the full shoot, follow the link in this sentence.   

Above and below: There was no signage to help me identify this building, but based on its location on a campus map, I believe this is the Taylor Wellness Center. 

  

Above and below: Again, no signage, but based on its place on the campus map, I believe this is the Tuttle Building used for ROTC training. 

The familiar stone slab (above) greeting visitors at the main Oakwood Avenue entrance. Below, just to the right of the stone slab is this access drive … and a security checkpoint in the white hut in the distance. 

Above: I believe this was the campus chapel, but I’m not sure. 

Above: I don’t know what this building is, and even though the small blue sign in the right foreground says Chapel, I’m pretty sure this building is not the chapel. It’s a sign intended for the building in the photo above this one. 

Above: This sign is on a median in front of the school but on the south side of Oakwood Avenue.

Ruins that deserve far better

On June 3, I traveled to the northeast fringe of downtown Raleigh hoping to do a campus profile of St. Augustine’s University, an Historically Black College or University. 

When I arrived at the campus, I had to stop at a security checkpoint, and after explaining why I was there, I was told I was out of luck because the school was closed. I was asked to leave. 

So I moved on to plans B and C. Plan B was to do a walk-around in Oakwood Cemetery next door (see yesterday’s post), and Plan C was to make of photographs of the structure you see in the lead-off photo.

The structure is the former St. Agnes Hospital, which technically is on the grounds of the St. Augustine’s campus, but it stands separately on modest acreage between the closed university and the cemetery. 

I didn’t look up any of these landmarks before I drove out there; the trip was spur of the moment. So I didn’t know what I would be dealing with when I got there. (I don’t recommend this for photography enthusiasts; you should know what to expect if you invest time and travel to do a shoot of this sort).

The hospital ruins certainly surprised me; when I got home afterward and looked up its history, I was saddened, partly because of what has become of this historic facility, and partly — maybe even mostly — because of the city of Raleigh’s protracted indecision about what to do with it, if anything. 

St. Agnes was open for about 65 years, from 1896 to 1961, and it served as a hospital and a training center for physicians and nurse for African Americans. It initially operated out of a former college president’s residence on the school campus and didn’t move into this then-new building until 1909. Nurses took chemistry, sociology and psychology classes at St. Augustine’s College (the name it went by back then) as well as the regular nursing curriculum as part of their training.

In short order, the two other hospitals in the city that would treat African Americans — Rex Hospital and Shaw University’s Leonard Hospital — closed, leaving St. Agnes the only option for the community’s black residents.

St. Agnes struggled financially during almost its entire period of operation although various — and multiple — fund-raising campaigns helped sustain it through the years, including a particularly difficult period during the Great Depression. 

But the building eventually fell into disrepair, was condemned in 1955 and was closed six years later after Wake County opened its first public hospital, which treated patients of all races. 

In 1979, the city declared the building a historic landmark, which helps explain why it remains standing today. And it does so with the help of several steel support beams (the long orange-colored slabs of metal you see in the pictures).

Upon its closing, the land and buildings were transferred to St. Augustine’s, which used one of the buildings for housing of female students. In the interim, various plans and ideas for the site’s future have been discussed, to no avail. 

In the most recent development, a feasibility study was funded in 2022 to determine whether the ruins could be preserved or renovated. Nothing has come out of that that I know of. 

One thing I thought of was to make the building a museum for Raleigh area African American physicians, nurses, and their medical training and education. Perhaps students, alumni and/or faculty at St. Augustine’s as well as Shaw University and North Carolina Central University in Durham, two other HBCUs in the Raleigh-Durham Triangle, might be interested in participating or leading the way.