In 1860–1861 the legislature started formal military training at the school with a law amending the original 1851 statute. The area, slightly west of the state Capitol, was formerly and ominously known as Gallows Hill, a place for public executions in early Tallahassee. The location is the oldest continuously used site of higher education in Florida. The West Florida Seminary was located on the former Florida Institute property, a hill where the historic Westcott Building now stands. In 1858 the seminary absorbed the Tallahassee Female Academy, established in 1843, and became coeducational. Francis Eppes served as President of the Seminary's Board of Education for eight years. On February 7, 1857, the first meeting of the Board of Education of the State Seminary West of the Suwannee River was held, and the institution began offering post-secondary instruction to male students. The bill to locate the Seminary in Tallahassee passed both houses and was signed by the Governor on January 1, 1857. Eppes again offered the Institute's land and building to the Legislature. The Legislature declared the purpose of these institutions to be "the instruction of persons, both male and female, in the art of teaching all the various branches that pertain to a good common school education and next to give instruction in the mechanic arts, in husbandry, in agricultural chemistry, in the fundamental laws, and in what regards the rights and duties of citizens." By 1854 the City of Tallahassee had established a school for boys called the Florida Institute, with the hope that the State could be induced to take it over as one of the seminaries.
The Legislature of the State of Florida, in a Legislative Act of January 24, 1851, provided for the establishment of the two institutions of learning on opposite sides of the Suwannee River. In 1845 Florida became the 27th State of the United States, which permitted the resources and intent of the 1823 Congress regarding education in Florida to be implemented. The 1838 Florida Constitution codified the basic system by providing for land allocated for the schools. Congress to create a system of higher education.
Florida State University is traceable to a plan set by the 1823 U.S. The Territory was conventionally split by the Appalachicola or later the Suwannee rivers into East and West areas. In 1819 the Florida Territory was ceded to the United States by Spain as an element of the Adams–Onís Treaty. Rendered in gold leaf, is the phrase "The half of knowledge is to know where to find knowledge." Dodd Hall was the location of Florida State's library until 1956. Main entrance to Dodd Hall, built in 1925.
Florida State University also operates the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the State Art Museum of Florida and one of the largest museum/university complexes in the nation. Florida State is home to Florida's only national laboratory, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, and is the birthplace of the commercially viable anti-cancer drug Taxol. In 2021, the university enrolled 45,493 students from all 50 states and 130 countries.
įlorida State University comprises 16 separate colleges and more than 110 centers, facilities, labs and institutes that offer more than 360 programs of study, including professional school programs. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the state of Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Florida State University ( Florida State or FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida.