[1] Built on land donated by Mr. and Mrs. L. M. Pease and later named for Marriage Allen, an English Quaker philanthropist, who donated money for the construction of a dormitory building, the school was directed by the Woman’s Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, later the United Methodist Church.
[2] Serving children during the day and adults at night, the Allen School devoted its mission to teaching African American students to read and write.
[2] The records for the Allen School are located in the Special Collections Research Center at Appalachian State University.
[2] In addition to its dedication to Christian ideals, the Allen School had a threefold mission centered on the “industrial, mental, and physical.”[2] Industrial refers to vocational training provided to students, which revolved around the training of teachers, but also included classes related to domestic tasks, such as cooking and sewing.
[2] But it also offered a variety of classes, including ones related to religion, business, music, the sciences, and foreign languages.