Troy University's tradition of teaching excellence dates to its founding on February 26, 1887, when an act of the Alabama Legislature established Troy State Normal School as an institution to train teachers for Alabama's schools. Joseph Macon Dill was the institution's first president. In 1893, the school was renamed Troy State Normal College.

The Normal College offered extension courses for teachers and granted teaching certificates until 1929, when the State Board of Education changed the charter of the institution and renamed it Troy State Teacher's College. That same year, the college moved to its present site and the first two buildings were dedicated: Shackelford Hall, named for Edward Madison Shackelford, president of the school from 1899-1936, and Bibb Graves Hall, named for David Bibb Graves, Alabama's "education governor". Governor Bibb Graves is also remembered for commissioning the Olmsted Brothers architectural firm of Brookline, Massachusetts, to design the campus landscape plan.