Old Oglethorpe University

OLD OGLETHORPE UNIVERSITY. This is the site of the antebellum college established in the community of Midway by the Hopewell Presbytery in 1835. Its first president, Carlisle P. Beman, was succeded in 1841 by Samuel K. Talmage. In 1861, students and faculty entered Confederate service, among them Sidney Lanier.

After the college reopened in 1866, it succumbed to economic crisis and closed in 1869. Two noted professors were Joseph LeConte, one of the South's foremost scientists, and James Woodrow, believed to be the first educator in Georgia to receive the Ph.D. The last campus building, Thalian Hall, constructed by Joseph Lane, stood until 1990.

Oglethorpe University was refounded in Atlanta by Thornwell Jacobs in 1913. 005-21 GEORGIA HISTORIC MARKER 1994