The research for this article was completed in 2015, which was also the one hundred year anniversary for Oglethorpe University on Peachtree Road.
The initial excavation of land to make way for Oglethorpe University’s Administration Building on the Peachtree Road campus in 1914.
Dr. Thornwell Jacobs breaking ground for Lupton Hall in 1919. Photo from the archives of Oglethorpe University.
The first charter of Oglethorpe College dates back to 1835 and the campus was located in the town of Midway, Georgia near Milledgeville. A need in the early 1800’s for a Presbyterian college in the South led to the founding of Oglethorpe College. It was named after General James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the colony of Georgia.
The Midway campus suffered from the effects of the Civil War, shutting down in 1862. Students went to battle and the main building was used as a barracks and hospital. When General William Tecumseh Sherman and his troops marched through, the building was destroyed.
One of the more famous students of Oglethorpe College at Midway was Sidney Lanier. Lanier is known for his poetry, including “The Marshes of the Glynn” and “Song of the Chattahoochee.”
After the war, the college reopened at Midway but could not recover from the damage suffered. In 1870, Oglethorpe opened at a new location in downtown Atlanta. It was located in the John Neal home, sometimes known as the Lyon home. This home stood at the southwest corner of Mitchell Street and Washington Street. It was a hotel after the war, then became home to Oglethorpe College only for two years. Atlanta Girls’ High School occupied the home for the next fifty years before being demolished.
Dr. Thornwell Jacobs was the driving force behind the revival of Oglethorpe University in 1915 at their present location on Peachtree Road in Brookhaven. He first came to Agnes Scott College in 1909 to serve as their Executive Secretary. It was there that he met important contacts that would help him achieve his dream. Atlanta developer Samuel Inman was one of those people.
Dr. Jacobs dreamed as a child of attending Oglethorpe College and that dream inspired him to reestablish the school. He began his campaign in 1912, seeking donations and people to head his fund raising drives. Samuel Inman donated $50,000; William Randolph Hearst and Asa Candler were among the fifty citizens who donated $1,000. Hearst had purchased a struggling newspaper, known as The Atlanta Georgian, in 1912.
13.7 acres of land were donated by Mr. C. H. Ashford and Mr. William Owen of the Silver Lake Park Company. A 1913 Atlanta Constitution headline read “Atlanta to be Seat of Magnificent Classical College…Silver Lake out Peachtree Road to be site of university.” Oglethorpe had a total of six hundred acres by 1929.
The cornerstone of the first building was laid on January 21, 2015. It was an administration building, designed to be similar to the buildings of Corpus Christi College at Oxford, where General Oglethorpe had attended. Blue granite from Elberton, Georgia was brought in to complete the construction.
Silver Lake was renamed Lake Phoebe for a period of time, beginning with a dedication ceremony in 1935. Phoebe Hearst was Williams Randolph Hearst’s mother. In 1948, he donated an additional $100,000 to Oglethorpe University and the administration building was also named for his mother.
Lupton Hall was constructed in 1920, using the same type granite to keep a consistent look. On the roof of Lupton Hall are the Lesh Chimes, initially donated by Grace Josephine Lesh, with additional chimes added over the years.
Hermance Stadium is also constructed of blue granite and is the most visible building from Peachtree Road. A $50,000 donation from Mr. Harry Hermance, executive of F. W. Woolworth Company, made the construction of the stadium possible. However, the Great Depression hit before it could be completed.
Dr. Thornwell Jacobs, the man who worked so diligently to reopen Oglethorpe University, became the institution’s first President and stayed on as President until 1943.
Phoebe Hearst Hall, Lupton Hall and the Lesh Chimes, Hermance Stadium, and Lowry Hall (which is part of the Philip Weltner Library) are all on the National Register of Historic Places.
As you read through this history, take note of how several street names in Brookhaven originate from people who have been essential to the development of Oglethorpe University.
Thank you to Anne Salter, University Librarian, and Eli Arnold, Reference Librarian of Oglethorpe’s Philip Weltner Library, for sharing Oglethorpe’s history and research materials.