The Branch Normal College and Pine Bluff in the 1870s

The map below shows the locations of some buildings that were significant to the Branch Normal College in the 1870s and 1880s. The locations are educated guesses. The layout of downtown Pine Bluff remains largely as it was in the nineteenth century, but most streets have been renamed. Matters are further complicated by the fact that most buildings did not have street numbers during this period. Instead, they were described in general terms (such as "on west side of Newton Street and north of Pullen Street").

The map below shows the homes of the students who were attending the Branch Normal college in fall 1880. Almost all of the students were from the southeastern part of the state, which was the center of Arkansas's cotton-growing industry and had the state's largest enslaved population in the antebellum.