History of the University of Alabama

The University of Alabama traces its beginning to an act of Congress in 1818 authorizing the newly-formed Alabama Territory to set aside a township for the establishment of a "seminary of learning." Alabama was admitted to the Union on March 2, 1819 and a second township added to the grant. The seminary was established by the General Assembly on December 18, 1820 and named "The University of the State of Alabama." It was set up in Tuscaloosa in 1827 (then the capital of Alabama), and opened its doors to students on April 18, 1831.

The Antebellum Years (1831–1858)

The original land grant included the entire area within the Tuscaloosa city limits stretching south of what is now University Boulevard down to the AGS Railroad and west to Queen City Avenue. The land had been owned by a man by the name of William Marr. A prominent architect, Captain William Nichols, was commissioned to design the campus.

Most of the material for the early buildings came from university property. Slaves quarried sandstone near the Black Warrior River, burned and made bricks on the spot, and cut lumber from the university's own timber tract. An extensive vineyard was situated in the area of Denny Field and Barnwell Hall.

For $80 a year, students received room and board at the Hotel, now known as the Gorgas House. Washington Hall and Jefferson Hall, called the "colleges," stood three stories high. Each contained twelve apartments, which in turn contained two bedrooms and a sitting room. Forty-eight students resided in each dormitory. Madison and Franklin halls were built later. Following the Civil War, the remains of Madison and Franklin Halls were made into memorial mounds. Madison Mound was removed during the 1920s, but Franklin Mound is still used for Honor's Day ceremonies.

At the center of the campus, where the Gorgas Library is now situated, stood the "grande dame" of the campus, the Rotunda. In the 1894 yearbook, Corolla, the building is described as "a circular edifice of three stories, seventy feet in diameter and seventy feet in height, and surrounded by a lofty peristyle of the Ionic order of architecture. The principal story was used for chapel service and academic recitations. This department was long celebrated as being the finest auditorium in the State. In the second story was the circular gallery, supported by carved columns of the Corinthian order. The third story contained the library and the collections in natural history." The Rotunda was destroyed by fire and was never rebuilt. Following an excavation in 1985, the Rotunda's remains were cushioned in sand and covered with concrete to mark where the building had once stood.

Greek life began at the university in 1847 when two young Mobilians visiting from Yale installed a chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon. When DKE members began holding secret meetings in the old state capitol building that year, the administration strongly voiced its disapproval. Over the next decade, three other fraternies appeared at Alabama: Phi Gamma Delta in 1855, Sigma Alpha Epsilon in 1856, and Kappa Sigma in 1857. Anti-fraternity laws were imposed in that year, but were lifted in 1890s. Eager to have a social organization of their own, women at the university founded the Zeta Chapter of Kappa Delta sorority in 1903. Alpha Delta Pi soon followed.

The Military School (1858–1891)

In the 1850s, the school's president, Landon Garland, transformed the university into a military school. As such, during the Civil War, the school trained troops for the Confederacy. Because of this role, Union troops burned down the campus in 1865 (though this was unrelated to Sherman's March to the Sea). Only seven buildings survived the burning, one of which was the President's Mansion. Frances Louisa Garland, wife of President Landon C. Garland, saved the home from destruction by the Union soldiers. When she saw flames in the direction of the campus, she ran from the Bryce home where the family had taken refuge and demanded the soldiers put out the fire in the parlor. The university reopened in 1871 and shortly after, the military structure was dropped.

In 1880, Congress granted the university 40,000 acres (160 km²) of coal land in partial compensation for the $250,000 in war damages. Some of the money went toward the building of Manly and Clark Halls. In 1887, Clark became the home of the library, whose 25,000 volumes had been destroyed. By 1900, private donations, including a 1,000 volume collection by John Leslie Hibbard's father, had restored the 1ibrary to 20,000 books. Garland Hall, which housed the geology museum and lecture rooms, completed what became known as Woods Quad. Tuomey and Barnard Halls also appeared before 1900.

Although the university attempted to look, forward to the twentieth century, some elements of the past remained. Four tombstones marked the graves of Professor Horace S. Pratt and his family in a tiny cemetery beside the biology building. In celebration of the university's seventy-fifth anniversary in 1906, President Hill Ferguson and Robert Jemison launched a fund-raising campaign with the slogan, "A quarter million dollar improvement fund." The $5,000 which the campaign secured from the state legislature in 1909 went toward the building of Smith and Morgan Halls. Constructed of yellow Missouri brick with Indiana limestone trim, the buildings reflected the Beaux Arts Greek Revival style of architecture that was popular at the turn of the century.

The modern university

The university was officially opened to women in 1892 after much lobbying by Julia Tutwiler to the Board of Trustees. In 1895, it was advertised that "young women of good character, who have attained the age of eighteen, may be admitted to the university, provided the are prepared to take up subjects of study not lower than those of the Sophomore class. They must reside in private families; but rooms for study during the study-hours of the day are provided at the university."

In 1941, Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library opened its doors in the same spot where the Rotunda once stood. Half a century later, its long wooden tables, stained glass windows, and worn books smelling of dust and age contrasted with the grey computer catalogue terminals and slick magazines like "Cosmopolitan" and "Playboy." Gorgas Library stood as a perfect symbol of the way, in all facets of the university, progress persisted amidst elements of the past.

On June 11, 1963, George Wallace, the governor of Alabama, stood in front of a schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama in an attempt to stop desegregation of that institution by the enrollment of two African-American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood; when confronted by federal marshals, Wallace stepped aside. Later in life, he apologized for his opposition at that time to racial integration.