Chalmers Institute
|
Chalmers Institute
|
|
 
|
|
| Location | West Chulahoma Avenue, Holly Springs, Marshall County, Mississippi, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 34°46′1″N 89°27′25″W / 34.76694°N 89.45694°WCoordinates: 34°46′1″N 89°27′25″W / 34.76694°N 89.45694°W |
| Area | 2 acres (0.81 ha) |
| Built | 1837 |
| Architectural style | Federal |
| MPS | Holly Springs MRA |
| NRHP Reference # | 82003107 |
| Added to NRHP | June 28, 1982 |
The Chalmers Institute is a historic building in Holly Springs, Mississippi, USA. Built in 1837, it was home to the University of Holly Springs, the oldest university in Mississippi, from 1838 to 1839. It was home to a short-lived Methodist medical and law school from 1839 to 1843. It reopened as the Chalmers Institute, a Presbyterian boys' school, from 1850 to 1878, when a yellow fever epidemic closed down the school. It became home to the Holly Springs Normal Institute in 1879, but closed down a few years later. In the twentieth century, it became a private residence. It has been listed by the National Register of Historic Places for its historic significance since 1982.
The building is located on West Chulahoma Avenue in Holly Springs, a small town in Marshall County, Mississippi, in the American South.
The building was erected in 1837. It was designed as a hip-roofed two-storey building in the Federal architectural style. It was known as the Holly Springs Literary Institution in 1837. By 1838, it became known as the University of Holly Springs. As such, it was the first university in Mississippi, nine years before the foundation of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. However, it closed down shortly after, in 1839.
The building was home to a medical and law school run by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South from 1839 to 1843. It closed down in 1843 and remained unoccupied until 1850.
In 1850, Reverend Samuel McKinney, an Irish-born Presbyterian minister, opened the Chalmers Institute, a boys' school. Prominent former students included George Clifton Myers (1852-1934), an influential clerk of the Mississippi Supreme Court, and Confederate Colonel William F. Taylor, who became a prosperous cotton commissioner in the post-bellum South. One of the trustees was Reverend Daniel Baker, a Presbyterian minister who went on to found Daniel Baker College and Austin College in Texas. Meanwhile, McKinney went on to serve as the first President of Austin College.
...
Wikipedia