Jackson Hall on the campus of Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Kentucky was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The building is significant as the first permanent building erected on the campus of Kentucky State University, Kentucky's second state-supported institution of higher learning and a land-grant HBCU.
Kentucky State University was chartered as the State Normal School for Colored Persons in 1886, in response to a demand for more Black elementary school teachers in Black schools. After residents enthusiastically raised $1500 for the project, Frankfort was selected as the site for the new school. Recitation Hall was constructed in 1887 for $7000, and contained classrooms, administrative offices, the chapel, and library space. The building was later renamed Jackson Hall after John H. Jackson, the state's first Black college graduate and the university's first president.
In 1890, the school became a land-grant college, giving them access to federal funding. This allowed Kentucky State to add home economics, agriculture, and mechanics to their educational program. After a number of other curricular and name changes, the institution became the Kentucky State University in 1972, when it began enrolling graduate students.
Today, the building houses the university's Center of Excellence for the Study of Kentucky African Americans, a gallery, and classrooms.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service