Included with GeorgiaRoam+Albany State University Campus Tour
An HBCU on the Flint, from 1903 vision to civil-rights crucible
Self-guided walking tour in Albany · 0.8 mi · walking · ~1h · 5 stops
The Tour
Walk the historic East Campus of Albany State University, the HBCU that Joseph Winthrop Holley founded on the banks of the Flint River in 1903 as the Albany Bible and Manual Training Institute. This lower campus survived the catastrophic Flood of 1994, and its students helped ignite the Albany Movement of 1961-62. Five stops trace the school from a five-student mission school to a proud land-grant-heritage university.
Albany State University Campus Tour is a self-guided walking tour of Albany, built around its campus side.
The walk covers 5 stops over about 0.8 miles and roughly 1 hour, entirely at your own pace. Each stop's story unlocks on your phone the moment you arrive — GPS-triggered, hands-free, no guide and no tour group to keep up with.
What you'll see
This walk explores Albany State's historic East Campus, the riverside grounds where Joseph Winthrop Holley started a school for Black children and future teachers in 1903. It is a story of survival more than once. You'll see a lone brick chimney that is all that remains of Caroline Hall, one of the early campus buildings, now kept as a memorial. Nearby is the Old President's House, where the school's leaders lived as it grew from a mission school into a state college.
The Holley Fine Arts Center, named for the founder, houses a gallery of student and faculty art, and a bronze sculpture stands out front. The academic hall now named for Billy C. Black tells the flood story: it went up after July 1994, when Tropical Storm Alberto pushed the Flint River over the levee and damaged much of the campus. The tour also reaches the river, where you can take in both the setting Holley chose and the water that almost wiped the campus out. Albany State students helped start the 1961 Albany Movement nearby.
The loop is under a mile of flat walking. Weekday daytime is best, when campus is active and buildings are open. On fall football Saturdays, expect crowds around the Coliseum. Stay on public paths near the levee, especially after heavy rain. The Georgia Roam app tells each stop's story as you arrive.
Georgia
