Preston and Olin Institute
The Preston and Olin Institute was a Methodist academy in Blacksburg, Virginia which operated 1851-1872. Until it was rechartered in 1869, it was named The Olin and Preston Institute.[1] The institute fell into financial trouble in its later years and in 1872, in conjunction with strong lobbying by local residents, the academy was selected to be reorganized as the state's primary land grant institution under the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act, and would be renamed Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. Due to the specific stipulations in the Morrill Act regarding racial equality, the new institution had to be either racially integrated or the state had to establish a second institution for people of color. Virginia chose the latter, and as such, the newly founded Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College would receive only two-thirds of the land grant funding, and the remaining one-third would go toward the establishment of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, in Petersburg, Virginia, an institution organized for free blacks, and Virginia's first state-supported HBCU.[2]
