{"id":1515,"date":"2017-10-11T09:50:44","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T13:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=1515"},"modified":"2026-07-13T22:36:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T02:36:53","slug":"umes-named-a-united-methodist-church-historic-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/umes-named-a-united-methodist-church-historic-site\/","title":{"rendered":"UMES named a United Methodist Church historic site"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Dr. Juliette Bell accepts the historic plaque<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Peninsula-Delaware Conference bestows honor<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday, October 11, 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore – founded in 1886 as the Delaware Conference Academy – has the distinction of being \u201cUnited Methodist Historic Site # 536,\u201d an honor bestowed by the denomination’s Peninsula-Delaware Conference.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a national recognition and one that was overdue, according to Russell McCabe<\/strong>, president of the Conference’s Commission on Archives and History.  One or two sites across Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland are selected annually.  \u201cThat’s a lot to select from,\u201d McCabe said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were \u2026 discussing eligible sites and when the University of Maryland Eastern Shore came up – it was a slam dunk,\u201d he said.  \u201cThere is a great connection with the university, how it started and the back story of the deeper history in 1864 of how the Delaware Conference originated.<\/strong><\/a>\u201d<\/strong>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

UMES \u201cis something we are particularly proud of in our history,\u201d McCabe said.  \u201cEven 150 years ago, educational opportunities, regardless of a person’s color, were limited.  The Methodist Church realized it was good not only for a person’s spiritual well-being but for their general well-being to be educated.  A lot of effort was then devoted to getting people educated.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCabe along with other representatives of the Commission were on hand Sept. 14 for UMES’ 131st Founders’ Day Convocation and Summer Commencement to present a plaque and a resolution, which reads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Whereas the Delaware Conference was established as \u201cthe first Conference for Colored Preachers, under the rule of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church\u201d in 1864; <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and whereas the members of the Conference, wishing to provide opportunities for higher education, established the Delaware Conference Academy in Princess Anne, Maryland in 1886;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and whereas the Delaware Conference Academy was the forerunner of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On recommendation of the Commission on Archives and History, the Peninsula-Delaware Conference designated the Delaware Conference Academy\/University of Maryland Eastern Shore as a Conference Historic Site.<\/em>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the plaque presentation \u201cwe met for lunch and talked about it (the historic designation) right away and how happy we were to do it,\u201d McCabe said.  \u201cWhat a great event Founders’ Day was.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commission members, including Jessie Cottman Smith<\/strong>, alumna (’50) and UMES librarian emerita, all agreed the connection between the church and the university.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook how things turned out.\u201d  \u201cWe were really impressed with what we saw,\u201d McCabe said.  \u201cBoy, it looks great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peninsula-Delaware Conference bestows honor Wednesday, October 11, 2017 The University of Maryland Eastern Shore – founded in 1886 as the Delaware Conference Academy – has the distinction of being \u201cUnited Methodist Historic Site # 536,\u201d an honor bestowed by the denomination’s Peninsula-Delaware Conference.   It is a national recognition and one that was overdue, according…Read more UMES named a United Methodist Church historic site<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-1515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1515"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=1515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}