University of Nashville - Garnet and Blue Yearbook (Nashville, TN)

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AN HISTORICAL SKETCI-I HE PIONEER well knew what enterprise a cultivated mind threw into a brave arm when, in the sixth year in the history of his settlement, he requested of his mother State a school for the education of his sons. So in 1785 the Legislature of North Car- olina created Davidson Academy, giving to it the name of the settlement, and endowing it with a grant of thirty thousand acres of land. The Academy was opened in 1786 at Spring Hill Meeting House, about six miles east of Nashville. In 1803 the General Assembly of Tennessee changed its name to Davidson College, and three years later to that of Cumber- land College, at which time it was removed to Nashville. College buildings were erected on the site in South Nashville where now a vacant lot between College and Market Streets marks the place of a portion of the old campus. After varied experiences, and being closed for short intervals 'at three differ- ent times, the General Assem- bly of Tennessee made of it the University of Nashville in 1826. Old buildings were enlarged and new ones built, and the campus took on the aspect it never changed until new quar- ters were chosen for the Uni- versity. The trustees at that time, by virtue of the grants of North Carolina, owned almost all the land in what is now South Nashville. But this was all the University owned. The State of Tennessee giving it no aid, and there being no other source of revenue, it was necessary to sell off nearly all of this land in order to acquire funds necessary to meet current expenses. While this property has since become very valuable, it is scarcely probable that such would have been the case had it remained in the hands of the trustees, nor could the University have lived without the money thus obtained. The growing and prosperous condition of that part of the city which surrounded the University made it necessary for College Street to be openedg for up to this time C1850D the street cars, drawn by mules, could come no farther than the main entrance of the University campus, for here College Street ended, and the main building stood directly across the pro- posed highway. Thus it became necessary to dispense with the old building and erect a new University building. The site selected was within the thirty-acre lot in which only the Pres- ident's residence then stood, but which now includes the entire College campus.

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So in 1853 the new building was begun, which now constitutes the main building of the University. VVith it time has wrought many changes. Room 3 was used for a chapel until the students far outnumbered the dream of its builders. The six rooms of the right wing of the building were converted into e ' a chapel, and Room 3 into a class- room. The little room near the chapel, which is now known as the ante-room, or the faculty waiting room, was for more than thirty years the office of the University. Chem- ical and physical laboratories, togeth- er with a collection of Zoological and biological specimens, were all lo- cated in Cabinet Hall, now used exclusively as physical lecture room and laboratory. In 1854 Lindsley Hall was built for a dormitory and a home for the Aga- theridan and Erosophian Literary So- cieties, but which has been converted into a chemical laboratory, library, lecture rooms, and furnishes homes for no less than five literary societies, and a den for an equal number of fraternities and sororities. The chemical laboratory comprises all of the first floor to the left of the hall, the right half being used by the members of the foot-ball team for dormitory, store rooms, and bath rooms. The same space used by the chemical laboratory on the first floor is occupied by the library on the second floor. A chemical lec- ture room has been constructed by taking out the partitions of six of the rooms at the south end of the hall on the second floor. On the west side of the hall next to the chemical lab- oratory are the geological and biolog- ical laboratories, with a lecture room combined. On the third floor are now to be found, in addition to the origi- nal Agatheridan and Erosophian lit- erary halls, the Girls' Chapter fthe oldest of the girls' societiesb, the Al- pha Phi, the Adelphi, and the Zeta