Newspaper Announcment of Old College

Newspaper Announcment of Old College

Old College, University of Georgia

On February 1, 1806, the University of Georgia’s first acting president, Josiah Meigs, reported in the Augusta Chronicle that construction of the university’s new building has finished. He reports on the accommodations of the new building: its dimensions, the amount of fireplaces, the number of classrooms and bedrooms, the cellar, and the positioning of the building to keep it cool during the summer. Meigs then goes on to claim that there is no college building in the entire United States with better accommodations for the students than this one. On the north wall of the building, a plaque was placed that reads: “The Site of this Building was chosen on the VIth day of July 1801 in the XXVIth year of the Independence of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA by GEORGE WALTON, ABRAHAM BALDWIN, JOHN MILLEDGE, JOHN TWIGGS, and HUGH LAWSON, a Committee of the Senatus Academicus of the University of Georgia and for the benefit of the Institution the adjacent land was on that day given by JOHN MILLEDGE.” This plaque is one of the few remaining parts of the Old Campus building that stems back to the creation of the building. The building was named the Franklin College after Benjamin Franklin, but it was rarely ever referred to by that name. Meigs considered the building one of his biggest accomplishments during his tenure as president stating, “At my first arrival it was a new wilderness - it is now a beautiful village containing one of the most valuable Collegiate buildings in the United States."

Josiah Meigs, First Acting President of the University of Georgia

Augusta Chronicle

Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library

February 1, 1806

English

Article in the Augusta Chronicle, 1806