Motto | Nescit Cedere |
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Type | Private |
Established | 1835 |
Endowment | $19.7 million |
President | Lawrence Schall |
Students | 1,000+ |
Location |
Brookhaven, Georgia, United States 33°52′30″N 84°19′59″W / 33.875°N 84.333°WCoordinates: 33°52′30″N 84°19′59″W / 33.875°N 84.333°W |
Campus | Suburban, 100 acres (0.40 km2) |
Colors | Black and Gold |
Nickname | Stormy Petrels |
Mascot | Stormy Petrel |
Website | www |
Oglethorpe University Historic District
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Location | 4484 Peachtree Rd. NE. Brookhaven, Georgia United States |
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Built | 1915, 1929, 1940 |
Architect | Leavitt, Charles W. Jr., Morgan and Dillon |
Architectural style | Late Gothic Revival |
NRHP Reference # | 94000779 |
Added to NRHP | 1994 |
Oglethorpe University is a private, liberal arts college in Brookhaven, a city adjoining the northern edge of Atlanta, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Originally chartered in 1835, it was named in honor of General James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the Colony of Georgia.
Oglethorpe University was chartered in 1835 in Midway, just south of the city of Milledgeville, then the state capital. The school was built and, at that time, governed by the Presbyterian Church, making it one of the South's earliest denominational institutions. The American Civil War led to the school's closing from 1862 to 1866.
The college followed the relocation of the capital to Atlanta. In 1870, it began holding classes at the present site of Atlanta City Hall. Plagued by financial difficulties, the school closed its doors after only two years.
Oglethorpe College was re-chartered as a non-denominational institution in 1913. In 1915 the cornerstone to the new campus was laid at its present location on Peachtree Road in Brookhaven. The person behind rebuilding Oglethorpe was Dr. Thornwell Jacobs, whose grandfather Ferdinand Jacobs had served on the faculty of Old Oglethorpe. Jacobs would serve as president for nearly three decades.
In the early 1940s Oglethorpe University had a medical school. Under the direction of Dr. John Bernard, the university was given several elephants for research, who had been poisoned by the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus. After the students had finished dissecting the animals they were buried under what is known today as the Philip Weltner Library.