Category Archives: Oxford GA

Seney Hall, 1881, Oxford

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In Cornerstone and Grove, Erik Blackburn Oliver notes: “Seney Hall is the most recognized and celebrated building on the Oxford campus, arguably among the most marvelous edifices ever built by Emory College or the University.” The Victorian landmark was designed by the firm of William H. Parkins and Andrew Bruce, the most prominent practitioners in Atlanta at the time.

A beloved symbol of the college to this day, Seney Hall was built to be the most prominent building on campus, replacing Old Main, which originally served that purpose and had been razed in 1872. Its namesake was a Brooklyn banker, George I. Seney. Seney had been so inspired by a sermon by Emory College president Atticus Haygood, urging sectional and racial reconciliation, that he gifted the school with over $130,000 in 1880. It has stood the test of time and now houses administrative offices.

An aside: Like its neighbor, Johnson Hall, Seney Hall also makes an appearance in the opening sequence of the television show, The Dukes of Hazzard.

Oxford Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

Candler Hall, 1897, Oxford

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Emory College president Warren Candler, concerned about fire vulnerability on the Oxford campus, began lobbying for the construction of a dedicated library building after a fire consumed the old recitation hall in 1891. At the time, the library was housed on the third floor of Seney Hall and this was cause for concern. A committee was formed in 1897, their efforts culminated in the construction of Candler Hall. The architect, Samuel Manning Patton (1857-1897), who had designed several prominent buildings in Chattanooga, sadly died in a fire in one of them the same year Candler Hall was completed. Clad in Tennessee limestone with a foundation of local gneiss, the Stripped Neoclassical building stands in contrast to other buildings on the quad, with a more “modern” feel. It served as the library until 1970 when it was replaced by the truly modern Hoke O’Kelley Memorial Library across the quad. Candler Hall is now home to Campus Life offices and the college bookstore.

Oxford Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

Prayer Chapel, 1875, Oxford

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One of the stated purposes of Emory College was the integration of religion and education and to this end a chapel was built in 1838 to serve the students and by extension the community. It was a simple wooden structure, typical of churches of the time, and was used until the construction of this more formal structure in 1875. When the present chapel was completed, the old prayer chapel was donated to and moved off campus for the use of Rust Chapel, an African-American congregation. When Emory College was founded, nearly everyone in the community was affiliated with the Methodist church, but today, the prayer chapel serves people of all faiths.

Oxford Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

Jonhnson Hall, 1874, Oxford

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Now known as Johnson Hall, for Oxford alumnus Judge Horace J. Johnson, Jr., this Romanesque structure was traditionally known as Language Hall and hosted classes engaged in English, Greek, and Latin studies. It was constructed of brick and originally had a texture stucco siding, now replaced with a plain stucco.

According to The Dukes of Hazzard Wiki, the building was also seen on the opening of every episode of the Dukes of Hazzard, beginning with the second episode. It served as the backdrop for the General Lee’s famous jump over Sheriff Roscoe P. Cotrane’s police cruiser as the Duke boys made their getaway. The 16-foot high, 81-foot jump saw the General Lee come to rest near Seney Hall, adjacent to Language Hall.

Oxford Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

Few Monument, 1849, Oxford

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The oldest and most prominent monument on the quad of the Oxford campus is this obelisk, presumably of Georgia marble, erected in 1849 in memory of the school’s first president, Ignatius Alonso Few (1789-1845), by the Phi Gamma and Few Societies and the Grand Masonic Lodge of Georgia. Few was the founding director of the Georgia Conference [Methodist] Manual Labor School, predecessor to Emory College, and the first president of Emory College.

Oxford Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

Few Hall, 1852, Oxford

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Few Hall, thanks to sensitive design, retains its grand Greek Revival appearance, though it’s now attached to a more modern facility and incorporated into the Tarbutton Performing Arts Center. Completed a year after Phi Gamma Hall, in 1852, it was home to the Few Society, named for Emory College’s first president, Ignatius Few. A literary society which grew out of the original Phi Gamma fraternity, the Few Society spent nearly a century engaged in weekly debates and friendly rivalries with their fellow students.

Few Hall originally housed a library on the ground floor and debate hall on the upper floor. Like Phi Gamma Hall, it also saw service in the Civil War, housing a detachment of nurses and doctors from nearby Hood Hospital in Covington.

Oxford Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

Phi Gamma Hall, 1851, Oxford

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According to Erik Blackburn Oliver’s Cornerstone and Grove, Phi Gamma was the first literary and fraternal society at Emory College. Their meeting and debate hall, which anchors the northwest corner of the quad, was completed in 1851 and is the oldest surviving academic structure on the Oxford campus. It has been beautifully restored in recent years and is a textbook example of Greek Revival architecture, to my mind a landmark of the form. It also served as a temporary hospital during the Civil War.

Oxford Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

Allen Memorial United Methodist Church, 1910, Oxford

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Built to replace the Old Church, the sprawling Young J. Allen Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was dedicated in 1910. Its namesake was quite famous in church circles.

Young John Allen (1836-1907), or Young J. Allen as more often written, was born in Burke County, to a father who died before his birth and a mother who died soon afterward, according to Findagrave. He was raised by a maternal aunt in the Primitive Baptist tradition of his family but converted to Methodism at the age of 17. An 1858 honor graduate of Emory College, he married Mary Houston (1838-1927), a native of Coweta, a day after commencement. In 1859, Young sold his land and slaves and sailed for Shanghai with his wife and infant daughter. While taking numerous jobs to support his family during the early years in China, he engaged in missionary work, translated many religious texts, established newspapers and periodicals, and founded several school. He made many trips back to the United States to report on his mission work but would never make a permanent return.

Alexander F. N. Everett, a prominent Atlanta architect, was responsible for the eclectic Beaux Arts design.

Oxford Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

Old Church, 1841, Oxford

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Oxford was established by the Methodists and at the center of the community was the Oxford Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) Church. The cornerstone was laid in 1841 and from 1843 until the construction of the Young J. Allen Memorial Methodist Church in 1910, served as Commencement Hall for Emory College. In 1864, it served as a temporary hospital for casualties of the Battle of Atlanta. It’s the oldest extant non-residential building in Oxford. [A similar church, architecturally, is the Dorchester Presbyterian Church in Liberty County].

The wings visible at both sides were added in 1878 and give the church its cruciform shape. After the New Church opened in 1910, the Old Church was allowed to deteriorate, so much so that in 1948, the town of Oxford took bids for its demolition. Luckily, it was saved and stands today a symbol of both school and community. No longer a church, it is occasionally used for events and private gatherings.

Oxford Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

Kitty Andrew Shell: The Enslaved Woman at the Center of the Methodist Schism of 1844

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Cottage of Kitty Andrew, Circa 1844, Old Church, Oxford

This saddlebag cottage was originally located a few lots away behind the home of James Osgood Andrew, a Methodist bishop in Oxford, and has been moved four times prior to finally landing at Old Church. It was the dwelling of an enslaved woman named Kitty, who was inherited by the bishop around the time he entered the episcopacy, and survives as a tangible symbol of the Missional Split (Schism) of 1844 that occurred between Northern and Southern Methodists, since the ownership of Kitty was at the center of the controversy. According to her cenotaph at Salem Campground, Kitty was a slave girl bequeathed to Bishop James O. Andrew by a Mrs. Powers of Augusta, Georgia, in her will when Kitty was 12 years of age, with the stipulation that when she was 19 years of age, she was to be given her freedom and sent to Liberia.

Northern clergyman insisted that bishops could not own slaves and demanded Andrew’s resignation. Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, Emory’s president at the time and an enslaver himself, supported Bishop Andrew. The story put forth is that Longstreet and Professor George W. Lane interviewed Kitty and gave her the option of emancipation, which she refused, unwilling to be sent to Liberia. The bishop had this cottage built for her and pledged that she would thereafter live “as free as I am”. Andrew was known for ministering to slaves but even this and his commitment to allowing Kitty to live free was met with suspicion by Northern clergy.

Upon the death of his first wife, Bishop Andrew inherited a young enslaved boy. He then married a widow who owned over a dozen slaves. With all this in mind, and unwilling to compromise, the southern churches split from their northern peers in 1845 and formed the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Kitty later married a man named Nathan Shell and left the cottage but little else is known about her later life. Findagrave records her date of birth as 1822, though her date of death or even whereabouts remain unknown or unconfirmed.

Oxford Historic District, National Register of Historic Places