Goshen Substation - 629
South Alabama Electrical Cooperative's Goshen Substation provided the first electric energy to rural Pike County. The station was energized at 11:26 A.M. on April 4, 1938. The first 86 miles of electric lines served 170 members. The cooperative was established on June 17, 1937 and serves members in Pike, Crenshaw, Coffee, Bullock, Montgomery and Butler counties. The original Board of Trustees were: J. H. Beasley, Sam K. Adams, George W. Gilmore, V. G. Perdue, J. N. Wallace. (Erected 1987) Location: Pike County Goshen

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Lincoln Normal School - 609
On July 17, 1867, nine ex-slaves (James Childs, Alexander H. Curtis, Nicholas Dale, John Freeman, David Harris, Thomas Lee, Nathan Levert, Ivey Pharish and Thomas Speed) formed and incorporated the "Lincoln School of Marion." They soon found it difficult to recruit and pay teachers. On September 10, 1868, the trustees entered into an agreement with the American Missionary Association (AMA), an auxiliary of the Congregational Churches. The Reverend A. W. Steward, the first principal, also organized the First Congregational Church in the school in 1869. The school grew so rapidly the AMA could not finance it. In 1874 the State of Alabama was asked to take over the secondary department. It was formed into a normal school to train black teachers. A new building and more teachers were added; students came from all over the state; and William Burns Patterson became principal. An incendiary fire in 1887 destroyed the state school; it was moved to Montgomery where it became State Normal School, now Alabama State University. The people of Marion prevailed again upon the AMA to provide a school and the Patterson home was turned into classrooms. In 1897 the AMA decided to abandon the school because of the lack of funds needed to make it efficient, but the people rallied to support the new principal, Mary Elizabeth Phillips. Supporters raised funds and agreed to furnish the teachers food and fuel so the AMA agreed to keep Lincoln open. Under Miss Phillips' guidance Lincoln developed rapidly as was evidenced by the construction of new buildings. In 1902 Livingston Hall, the first brick academic building, was completed. Hope Cottage, a girls' dorm, was built by the boys in 1904 and this same year the shop was remodeled for a boys' dorm. The Patterson home was remodeled into a girls' dorm and dining hall in 1905 and renamed Phillips Hall. Douglas Hall, a boys' dorm, was built by the boys in 1908 and Van Wagenen Hall was built in 1909 for the elementary department. In 1919 a kindergarten and primary annex was added to Van Wagenen Hall and electricity was installed in all buildings. Woolworth Hall, which housed the science and home economics departments and some teachers' quarters, was completed in 1922. Ranny Hall, a dorm for high school girls, was erected in 1926. On May 30, 1939 Phillips Memorial Auditorium was dedicated to the memory of Mary Elizabeth Phillips Thompson who died in 1927. The 1920s were hard years for Lincoln. Dormitories were closed; the elementary department was discontinued, but a health program was started; cooperatives were organized in the county and the older buildings were remodeled. In 1943 the first black principal, Rev. E. A. Smith, was hired and all of the white teachers had to leave when the state agreed to operate the school. The state finally purchased the eight-acre campus and forty-acre farm from the AMA in 1960. During the integration process Lincoln School was formally closed in May 1970, after 103 years of service. (Erected 1992 by the Marion Lincolnite Chapter Mrs. Idella J. Childs, President) Location: Perry County Marion

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Pea River Electric Membership AL95
The Pea River Electric Membership Corporation was Corporation energized at this site on June 8, 1939. This rural electric cooperative was organized under an executive order signed by President F. D. Roosevelt on May 11, 1935. Rural members of Barbour, Dale and Henry counties gathered on this bridge to witness the beginning of electric service into their rural areas when 301 homes and businesses received power for the first time. The organizing directors were S. K. Adams, J. G. Sanders, Lloyd Smith, J. Y. Johnston, L. A. Pitts, R. W. Ward and H. J. Thompson. Corporation attorney was P. C. Clayton; manager was A. B. Robertson, Sr. The co-op's name was changed to Pea River Electric Cooperative on June 10, 1949.

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Pioneer Electric Cooperative - 65
The Butler County Electric Membership Corporation was formed as a rural electric cooperative in Greenville in July 1938. The first home receiving electricity from the cooperative was located near here. The Cooperative's original Board of Directors included Dr. C. Wall, president, W. M. Harrison, Dr. R. L. Jernigan, Arthur Bennett, E. L. Cunningham, D. P. Robbins, P. E. Youngblood, H. M. Hardy and T. J. Middleton. Edwin Wallace was first manager. In 1940, the Cooperative's name was changed to Pioneer Electric Cooperative and it expanded to provide service in Dallas, Lowndes and Wilcox counties as well as Butler. Location: Butler County Greenville

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Southern Pine Electric Membership Corporation - 201
The Southern Pine Electric Membership Corporation was energized at this site on September 12, 1939, sending electric power flowing into 75 homes and businesses in rural areas of Escambia, Conecuh, Monroe and Baldwin Counties for the first time. The Cooperative was organized under an Executive Order signed by President F. D. Roosevelt on May 11, 1935. The organizing directors were Ben L. Martin, Jack McGowin, H. W. Pruett, A. M. Coley, C. B. Moore, E. M. Amos and Alvin Mixon. Corporation attorney was Thomas McMillan. Manager was Joe Larkins. The Cooperative's name was changed to Southern Pine Electric Cooperative on September 25, 1940. (Erected 1986) Location: Escambia County Brewton

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Centro Asturiano De Tampa FL53

Spanish immigrants from the province of Asturias formed the Centro Asturiano de Tampa in 1902 as a mutual aid society dedicated to meeting the recreational, social and medical needs of its members. In an effort to broaden the concept of cooperative medicine, the club operated a hospital, El Sanatorio del Centro Asturiano, until its closing in 1988. The society built the present three-story yellow brick and stone building on the corner of Palm and Nebraska Avenues in 1914 after a fire destroyed the original club house building. Designed in the Neo-Classical style, the building features stylized classical columns and a sweeping stone staircase leading to the main entrance. Major interior spaces include a grand theater, ballroom, and cantina with a 50-foot onyx bar. With a membership open to all Latins, El Centro Asturiano quickly became the center of Spanish theater and opera hosting some of the finest opera performers in the nation. The National Register of Historic Places listed the Centro Asturiano building in 1974.

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In The Name Of Humanity - Koresh FL203

Dr. Cyrus Read Teed, Founder of the Koreshan Unity and President of the Koreshan University of Chicago, established in 1892 his "College of Life" in Estero, Florida, as a cooperative community in the spirit of Christ's teaching. "We live inside the World," the Koreshans believe, as the Earth is the Universe, with life and the celestial bodies and spheres manifest inside the World. Measurements of the concave curvature of the Earth were derived by the Koreshan Geodetic Staff in 1897 at Naples. In "The Cellular Cosmogony" by Koresh, Universology is explained. This and other books, magazines, and newspapers were printed in the Guiding Star Publishing House at Estero. Through the Koreshan Nursery the garden came to fame for its subtropical plant life. Mechanics, arts, and music were taught, and sports cultivated. In 1961 the Koreshan Unity corporation deeded 305 acres of their landholdings to the State of Florida as "a gift to the people".

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L'Unione Italiana (Italian Club) FL231

The nucleus of Tampa's Italian colony arrived from New Orleans and Sicily in 1887. Founded I 1894, the primary purpose of L'Unione Italiana was to promote social and fraternal exchange among its members, and to provide medical benefits and burial expenses for its members. Health care benefits provided by Ybor Citys social clubs represent early examples o f America's health maintenance organizations and one of the oldest examples of cooperative medicine in the country. LUnione Italiana is considered the forerunner of more than 1,400 Italian mutual aid societies founded in the United States. In 1914 fire destroyed the first club hose built on the northwest corner of Seventh Avenue and Eighteenth Street. By 1918 the Society built the present three-story Neoclassical building across 7th Avenue from the original site at a cost of $80,000. The structure embraces the Italo-Greco tradition embodied in the ancient Greek temples found in the province of Agrigento, Sicily. Its theatre, ballroom, library and cantina were always beehives of activity. It stands today as a source of pride and commitment to early Italian immigrants.

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Ruskin College President's Home FL322

Ruskin College opened in 1912 as a coeducational industrial and liberal arts college. It was located on part of a large tract of land purchased by Dr. George McA. Miller beginning in 1907 for the purpose of establishing a cooperative college and a planned community modelled on the philosphy of British social thinker, John Ruskin. Ruskin believed in making education available for everyone. Dr. Miller had previously established two other Ruskinian colleges in the mid-West and was devoted to the educational principle of combining intellectual endeavors with manual labor. His wife, Adeline Dickman Miller, designed the Swiss chalet style structure located near this marker. It was constructed in 1914 and was the only one of Ruskin College's original buildings to survive a fire in 1919. By that time the cooperative college had declined due to loss of students during World War I. In 1940, the Miller House was deeded by that family to the Ruskin Woman's Club. This structure was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. It remains a symbol of the utopian origins of the community of Ruskin.

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The Boone County REMC IN120

The Boone County REMC built Indiana's first electric cooperative line to the Clark Woody farm 5 miles west of this site with funds borrowed from the Rural Electrification Administration, July 22, 1935.

--- Locations: I-65 southbound rest stop, 1.5 miles north of exit 146 & SR 47, 7.5 miles north of Lebanon and I-65 northbound rest stop, 1 mile north of exit 146 & SR 47, 7.5 miles north of Lebanon, Boone County.

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