Lynnland Institute Bell -- Hardin Co. Museum, Elizabethtown KY
N 37° 41.647 W 085° 51.575
16S E 600541 N 4172489
The interpretive sign for the Lynnland Institute Bell, on display at the Hardin Co. Museum, downtown Elizabethtown KY
Waymark Code: WM15VPX
Location: Kentucky, United States
Date Posted: 03/03/2022
Views: 0
The former US Post Office block from the courthouse square in downtown Elizabethtown Kentucky has been renovated and repurposed as the Hardin Co. Museum. The Lynnland Institute Bell is on display outside of the courthouse, and available to be viewed any time of day or night.
The (badly laid out) interpretive sign next to the bell reads as follows:
LYNNLAND INSTITUTE BELL
The steel bell was cast by the Cincinnati Bell Foundry Company, known as Blymyer Norton & Co., Especially for the Lynnland Ffemale Institute that opened in September 1867, along the L&N railroad line at Nolan, Kentucky. Reported cost for bells of the size at that time was $150.
The Blymyer bell was mounted in the bell tower of the Administration building on the original campus of Lynnland Female Institute. For years it signaled chapel services, the hours classes and meals, special events, and even the ending of World Wars with its rich B-flat ring. The bell even fulfilled the double function of fire bill for the campus.
[3 photos inset on the L]
This wing of the Kentucky Baptist Children's Home at Glendale was duplicated at the other end of the Main Building, once known as Lynnland Female Institute, in order to enlarge the home's capacity and permit it to care for 100 additional children. June 23, 1940 marked the beginning of the campaign to raise $75,000, the cost for the addition.
This photo taken in June 1940 shows some of the smaller orphan children at the Kentucky Baptist children's home at lunch.
[R side of the sign]
After the Civil War, members of the Gilead Baptist Church established a school for higher learning. Hiram Overall exchanged land with John R. Gaither, Samuel Hansbrough, and Samuel, William and Henry SprigG for the school. This large two-story brick building, constructed between 1866 and opening in September 1867, served as an administrative building, dining room and kitchen. The school, Lynn land female Institute, was chartered on February 11, 1867.
The first head of the school, Rev. G. A. Colson, was succeeded by Brigadier General William Flake Perry of Alabama. He was a self educated man whose innovative leadership offered the curriculum of Latin, Greek, higher mathematics, modern languages and several other subjects that elevated the prestige of the school.
Perry furthered the advancement of the noble institution when he acquired the instructional skills of Mr. John Peyton Hobson with a letter of recommendation from General Robert E. Lee, president of Washington College in Virginia (now Washington and Lee University). Hobson held a Masters degree and had earned the highly covenanted Washington College academic Robinson Medal of highest scholarship in Latin, Greek, and mathematics. [I think this is a typo -- they must mean 'coveted' -BMB]
General Perry and his new partner, Major Peter E. Harris purchased the school on June 29, 1871 for $17,000. They later converted the school into the Lynnland Military Institution; however the change was not the success they anticipated. The school closed in 1879.
In 1888, the school was sold for $8000 to E.W. Elrod and E. W. White, who reopened it as a girl's school called Lynnland College. It was a highly successful venture, and young ladies attended from all over Kentucky and other states.
Rev. W. B. Gwynn purchased the school in 1895 and kept it open for twelve years as Lynnland Academy, a co-educational school, before selling it to the Baptist Educational Society of Kentucky on July 17, 1907 for sum of $8000. The name changed to Homeland.
On June 23, 1915 the school again changed hands. The trustees of the Kentucky Baptist Children's Home purchased several hundred acres adjoining the grounds and additional buildings were erected
As of 1965, one thousand nine hundred seventeen children have known this location as "Home."
Group that erected the marker: Hardon Co. History Museum
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link]
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
201 W Dixie Ave
Elizabethtown, KY
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