 Five children were enrolled in Boggs Academy when it opened.The school was named after Virginia P. Boggs (Corresponding Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Missions For Freedmen) as a tribute for her faithful zeal, commitment to the school's success and her support and friendship to Reverend Phelps while he was a student at Biddle University (now known as Johnson C. Smith University).In 1930, the original church was destroyed by fire and another building was erected through the generosity of the Blackburn family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the new chapel, which is still standing on the Boggs campus, was named the John I. Blackburn Presbyterian Church.