The history of the University of Florida is firmly tied to the history of public education in the state of Florida. The University of Florida originated as several distinct institutions that were consolidated to create a single state-supported university by the Buckman Act of 1905. The oldest of these was the East Florida Seminary, one of two seminaries of higher learning established by the Florida Legislature. The East Florida Seminary opened in Ocala 1853, becoming the first state-supported institution of higher learning in the state of Florida. As it is the oldest of the modern University of Florida's predecessor institutions, the school traces its founding date to that year."Kingsbury Papers" , Smathers Library. The East Florida Seminary closed its Ocala campus at the outbreak of the American Civil War and reopened in Gainesville in 1866.
The other primary predecessor to the University of Florida was the Florida Agricultural College, established at Lake City in 1884 by Jordan Probst. Florida Agricultural College was the first land-grant college in the state, and as its name implies, the small college emphasized the scientific training of agricultural and mechanical specialists. In 1903, the Florida Legislature changed the name of Florida Agricultural College to the University of Florida in recognition of the legislature's desire to expand the curriculum beyond the college's original focus.
The Buckman Act of 1905 completely restructured Florida's higher education system. Six state-supported institutions were combined and reorganized into three schools segregated by race and gender. Four institutions – the East Florida Seminary, the University of Florida at Lake City (formerly Florida Agricultural College), the St. Petersburg Normal and Industrial School in St. Petersburg, and the South Florida Military College in Bartow – were consolidated to form the new University of the State of Florida, a school for white males.About the Buckman Act consolidation At the same time, the legislature created the Florida Female College and the State Normal School for Colored Students, both in Tallahassee. These schools would eventually evolve into Florida State University and Florida A&M University, respectively. Gainesville and Lake City competed to be the home of the new university. Gainesville was chosen, and construction on a new campus began just west of town in late 1905.
The University of Florida's student enrollment grew from 102 when it opened in Gainesville in 1906 to about 2,000 in 1930 and 10,000 in 1950. The school began accepting some white women students starting in 1924 and became fully coeducational as a result of the influx of new students brought in by the GI Bill after World War II. It became racially integrated in 1958. The school grew substantially in size and increased in academic prominence during the second half of the 20th century. It became a member of the Association of American Universities in 1985, enrollment topped 50,000 by 2000, and it was named one of the top five public universities in the United States in 2021.
1823–1905: Origins Early initiatives In 1823, the Territorial Legislature and the United States Congress began to plan a system of higher education for Florida.Bush, p. 30. As early as 1836, Congress authorized the establishment of a "University of Florida," and the first constitution of Florida Territory in 1838 specifically guaranteed that seminaries of higher learning be created.State Library and Archives of Florida - The Florida Memory Project, Florida Constitution of 1838, Article X - Education . "Section 1. The proceeds of all lands that have been or may hereafter be granted by the United States for the use of Schools, and a Seminary or Seminaries, of learning, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which, together with all monies derived from any other source applicable to the same object, shall be inviolably appropriated to the use of Schools and Seminaries of learning respectively, and to no other purpose. Section 2. The General Assembly shall take such measures as may be necessary to preserve from waste or damage all land so granted and appropriated to the purposes of Education." Retrieved on July 13, 2010. It was not until the 1850s, however, that the Florida Legislature took steps towards implementing these plans.
In 1851, the legislature voted to allow the establishment of two seminaries on either side of the Suwannee River: West Florida Seminary and the East Florida Seminary. On January 6, 1853, Florida governor Thomas Brown signed the legislation that provided public support for the seminaries. Gilbert Kingsbury was the first person to seek state support under the legislation, and his East Florida Seminary in Ocala, Florida became Florida's first state-supported institution of higher learning when it opened in the fall of 1853. The West Florida Seminary opened in Tallahassee in 1857.
The East Florida Seminary closed in 1861 as Florida seceded from the US at the onset of the Civil War. Between a lack of students and funding, higher education in the state came to a virtual standstill during and immediately after the conflict."UF Early History" , University of Florida.
Post-Civil War East Florida Seminary James Henry Roper, an educator from North Carolina and a Florida State Senator from Alachua County, established Gainesville Academy in 1858. It closed three years later. The academy's facilities were still vacant after the Civil War, so Roper offered the property to the state as a new home for the East Florida Seminary. The state accepted his offer, and the seminary was reestablished in Gainesville in 1866. Epworth Hall, the main building of seminary's Gainesville campus, still stands near downtown outside the modern university's campus."The Heritage Collection." , Alachua Library.
Florida Agricultural College In 1884, Jordan Probst established what became the other major predecessor to the University of Florida, Florida Agricultural College in Lake City. Florida Agricultural College became the first land-grant college in the state, and as its name implied, its curriculum focused on the scientific training of agricultural and mechanical specialists.
Universities of Florida Florida's post-Civil War 1868 constitution required the establishment of a state-sponsored university. The state's first attempts to establish a multi-college university came in 1883 in Tallahassee, where the legislature merged the West Florida Seminary with the Tallahassee College of Medicine and Surgery to create the "Florida University."Bush, pp. 46–47. The old West Florida Seminary became the new university's Literary College and contained several "schools" or departments, though its "separate Charter and special organization" was maintained. The university charter also mentioned three more colleges that were to be established at a later time: a Law College, a Theological Institute, and a Polytechnic and Normal Institute.
In 1885, the Florida Legislature voted to rename the school in Tallahassee as the "University of Florida" but did not supply additional funding, and the institution struggled to finance its expanding academic programs.Armstrong, p. 40. The school never actually adopted the name, and the medical college relocated to Jacksonville later in 1885. Florida Agricultural College in Lake City announced its desire to merge with Florida University for the 1887 school term, but the legislature did not act on the idea. The Tallahassee-based school adopted the name "Florida State University" from 1891 until 1901, when it became Florida State College.
In 1903, the Florida Legislature transferred the "University of Florida" designation to Florida Agricultural College in Lake City in recognition of the school's desire to expand its curriculum beyond its original focus on agriculture and engineering. It operated under that name for two school years before Florida's system of higher education was completely reconfigured and restructured by the Buckman Act and all state-sponsored schools were consolidated.Armstrong, p. 41.
1905–1909: University of the State of Florida The Buckman Act
In 1905 the state passed the Buckman Act, which reorganized the State University System of Florida and empowered the Florida Board of Control to govern the system. The act, named for legislator Henry Holland Buckman, mandated the consolidation of the state's six institutions into three: one for African Americans, one for white women, and one for white men. Four of the institutions – the University of Florida at Lake City (formerly Florida Agricultural College) in Lake City, the East Florida Seminary in Gainesville, the St. Petersburg Normal and Industrial School in St. Petersburg, and the South Florida Military College in Bartow – were merged into the new University of the State of Florida.
The University of the State of Florida served as the institution for white men; the State Normal School for Colored Students (the future Florida A&M University) served African Americans, and the Florida Female College (the future Florida State University) served white women. A fourth school provided specialized training and education for the deaf and blind (the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind).
Though several cities vied to be chosen as the site of the new university, Lake City and Gainesville quickly emerged as the two leading candidates. Newspapers and leading citizens of the nearby towns extolled the virtues of their community in the media, and in July 1905, both sent delegations to the meetings of the state Board of Control where the placement of the school would be decided. Lake City offered the use of the campus of Florida Agricultural College plus additional acres of adjacent land, while Gainesville's proposal included over 500 acres of land west of the town, the extension of Alachua Road (now West University Avenue) to the site, and water service to the university "without charge in perpetuity". On July 6, 1905, the Board of Control voted 6 to 4 to establish the new University of the State of Florida in Gainesville, much to the disappointment and anger of the citizens of Lake City.
Establishment in Gainesville Since the facilities of the East Florida Seminary were not large enough to accommodate the new university while construction commenced on its new campus, the Board of Control decided to house the institution at the FAC campus at Lake City for the 1905–1906 academic year. Andrew Sledd, president of the University of Florida at Lake City, was chosen as the first president of the new university, and architect William A. Edwards was commissioned with designing the first permanent buildings for the new Gainesville campus in the Collegiate Gothic style.
The school's first year was a time of transition. Classes were held on the existing Lake City campus while supplies and personnel where gradually moved to Gainesville against the wishes of Lake City leaders, who filed a series of unsuccessful legal challenges attempting to halt the move. In the summer of 1906, the university attempted to procure the use of wagons to move the final shipment of supplies and equipment to the train station, but no Lake City livery stable would take the job, and wagon teams had to be brought from Gainesville. A crowd of angry Lake City residents watched as the last four wagons left the campus on July 23, the professor in the lead wagon holding a rifle across his knees to discourage interference.