Friendship School

Front: Friendship College, on this site from 1910 to 1981, was founded in 1891 by Rev. M.P. Hall and sponsored by the Sunday Schools of the black Baptist churches of York and Chester counties. It first met in nearby Mt. Prospect Baptist Church before acquiring 9 acres here in 1910. Also called Friendship Normal and Industrial Institute, it was chartered in 1906 and combined an elementary and secondary school curriculum with an industrial education for much of its history. Reverse: Dr. James H. Goudlock was president here 42 years, 1931-1973. The college dropped grades 1-7 in 1938, then dropped grades 8-12 in 1950 and became Friendship Junior College. In 1960-61, students who protested segregation at “sit-ins” at McCrory’s on Main St. became pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement. The struggling junior college closed in 1981, and the buildings on this site were demolished in 1992.