Birthplace of University of Georgia: Meeting Place of Legislature 1785

East Bay Street near Drayton Street * Directly across Bay Street from this marker formerly stood the brick building, built in late colonial days and known as the "Coffee House," in which the Legislature of Georgia met in 1785. Owned by Thomas Stone, it was described in a newspaper advertisement in 1785 as having "ten large, cool, elegant rooms" and as "not equaled by any other house in the state" for "business, and convenience for a large family." While meeting in the house owned by Thomas Stone the House of Assembly of Georgia enacted on January 28, 1785 an act for the "establishment of a public seat of learning in this state"- the preamble reciting that it was "among the first objects of those who wish well to the national prosperity, to encourage and support the principles of religion and morality, and early to place the youth under the forming hand of society, that by instruction they may be moulded to the love of virtue and good order." The charter granted to the Board of Trustees of the University of Georgia in 1785 was the first charter issued in the United States to a state university.