The University of The South

The University of The South is a Tennessee historical marker in Hamilton County.

Hamilton Co, in Lookout Mtn, on west side of East Brow Rd.

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

Founded here July 4, 1857, when its first trustees, representing Episcopal dioceses in ten Southern states, met to adopt the plan of Bishop (later Confederate General) Leonidas Polk for a university to be sponsored by the Episcopal Church. Following the colorful ceremony here, a second meeting of the Board was held in Montgomery, Alabama, in November, 1857, and Sewanee, Tennessee was chosen as the site.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1855 · A new map of Alabama (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1856 · Georgia. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1856 · Alabama. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1862 · Johnson's Kentucky & Tennessee (1862) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1896 · Map of the Battlefields of Chattanooga and Wauhatchie (E. E. Betts, Chickamauga and… (Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division)

Example

For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

Marker text and location from the Tennessee Historical Commission, as the Commission publishes them on its marker map.

More markers nearby

Summertownunder 1 mi
Spiritualist Camp Groundunder 1 mi
Lookout Mountain Educational Instituteunder 1 mi
Sunset Rockunder 1 mi