Click image to enlarge. From the Civil War until the civil rights era, the old Fort Henderson Site and Trinity School played an important role in the history of Athens and north Alabama. Constructed in 1863, Fort Henderson was garrisoned by regiments of the Union army’s United States Colored Troops.
Shortly after the war, the American Missionary Association built Trinity School near the fort site to educate the children of former slaves. Trinity School became Alabama’s first accredited high school for African Americans, and for many years it served as the only high school for blacks in Limestone County. It closed after the 1970 desegregation mandate. The original buildings no longer stand, but a 1929 auditorium survives, along with a section of the 1959 school and a portion of the earthworks that once surrounded the original fort. The Athens-Limestone Community Association Inc., now owns the property and is aggressively raising funds to reclaim the school as a museum and research library. Additional plans call for reconstructing a section of the Civil War fort. Although this endeavor will be challenging, there is much community support for the project.
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