Laura Cobb Rutherford was perhaps the first advocate for the education of women in Athens and through her efforts and the financial backing of her brother, T. R. R. Cobb, the Lucy Cobb Institute (named for Cobb’s daughter who had died at the age of 13 from scarlet fever) was constructed in 1858 and held its first classes in 1859. W. W. Thomas was the architect.
National Register of Historic Places
W. W. Thomas began construction of this Athens icon in 1882, after Miss Nellie Stovall wrote a letter to New York philanthropist George I. Seney asking for a chapel for the adjacent Lucy Cobb Institute.
It was dedicated in 1885 and is considered the only authentic Elizabethan theatre in the Southeast. It served as a lecture hall, theatre and auditorium for the Institute.
National Register of Historic Places