Lucy Cobb Institute
| Lucy Cobb Institute | |
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| Location | |
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200 block, North Milledge Avenue Athens, Georgia |
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| Information | |
| Established | 1859 |
| Founder | Thomas R.R. Cobb |
| Closed |
1931 |
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Lucy Cobb Institute Campus
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| Location | 200 N. Milledge Ave., University of Georgia campus, Athens, Georgia |
| Coordinates | 33°57′22″N 83°23′23″W / 33.95611°N 83.38972°WCoordinates: 33°57′22″N 83°23′23″W / 33.95611°N 83.38972°W |
| Built | 1858 |
| Architect | Thomas, W.W. |
| Architectural style | Early Republic, Octagon Mode, Regency |
| NRHP Reference # | |
| Added to NRHP | March 16, 1972 |
1931
The Lucy Cobb Institute was a girls' school on Milledge Avenue in Athens, Georgia. It was founded by Thomas R.R. Cobb, and named in honor of his daughter, who had died of scarlet fever at age 14, shortly before construction was completed and doors opened; it was incorporated in 1859. The cornerstone for the Seney-Stovall Chapel was laid in May 1882, and the octagonal building was dedicated in 1885. The school closed in 1931.
The campus of the Lucy Cobb Institute was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1972. Today, the Carl Vinson Institute of Government of the University of Georgia is housed in the former Lucy Cobb Institute.
In 1854, a piece called "The Education of Our Girls" ran in a local paper, the Athens Watchman. The letter was written by Laura Cobb (Mrs. Williams) Rutherford, who was "writing from a ladylike modesty" about the poor state of education for women in the South. It was signed "Mother" and argued, "girls have the same intellectual constitution as men and have the same right as men to intellectual cultural development". One of the letter's readers was Mrs. Rutherford's brother, Thomas R.R. Cobb, the father of several daughters. Cobb, a lawyer and later a secessionist, was completely unaware of the author's identity and after reading the editorial began raising funds for a girls' school. For Cobb, this school would be a place where "orthodox southern moral and racial values could be transmitted to future generations". His association with the school would come to an "abrupt end" in 1861 when one of his daughters quarreled with a teacher, and both Callie and Sallie Cobb were withdrawn.
The trustees purchased eight acres of land on what is now known as Milledge Avenue. When the school opened on January 10, 1859, its first principal was R. M. Wright. (It was in April of this same year the Watkinsville Road acquired its present name of Milledge Avenue.) The school was later headed by Madame Sosnowski (who organized the Home School after leaving the Lucy Cobb Institute).
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