History of Berea, Kentucky

In 1850 this area, called the Glade, was a community of scattered farms with a racetrack and citizens sympathetic to emancipation. In 1853, rich and politically ambitious Cassius Marcellus Clay gave Reverend John Gregg Fee a free tract of land in the Glade, where with local supporters and other abolitionist missionaries from the American Missionary Association, Fee established a church (Union Church), Berea College, and a tiny village. Fee named Berea after a biblical town where the people “received the Word with all readiness of mind.” Founded in 1855, Berea College became the only integrated college in the South for nearly forty years. During the Civil War, John G. Fee preached to and taught thousands of slave men who had volunteered for the Union Army. After the War, African American families came to Berea to join in the beginnings of this rich Black history.

In the 1890’s, there was a growing national interest in the culture and traditions of Appalachia by writers, academics, missionaries, and teachers. Fascinated by the rich culture and dismayed by the isolation and poverty, college donors were excited by the traditional coverlets brought by students in exchange for tuition. College President William Frost took many of these coverlets with him on his fund raising trips North. Frost, perceiving a national market for traditional crafts, established the first Berea College Fireside Industries. Frost encouraged people to move to Berea, and the college built a loom house and hired a supervisor to train and maintain the quality of student work.

Berea maintains its history of support for traditional arts and crafts today. The recently built Kentucky Artisan Center, located at Exit 77 off I-75 hosts a wide variety of works by Kentucky artisans. In 1922, Churchill Weavers was established by David Carroll Churchill.