The Selden house was built by Mr. Hayes. It was located on the east side of Alabama Avenue where the Van Ness Music Building is now. This Building was the U. S. Forestry building. Various families lived in Selden. There was a World War II barracks built next to the Van Ness Music Building that was named Selden because the Selden family once lived on the lot. Col. Arthur Middleton Rutledge lived there beginning in 1875, and his son went to the University. He had been the donor of 410 acres to the University. He was a trustee from the beginning and a resident of Franklin County before the Civil War. For a while the street, now known as Alabama Avenue was called Rutledge Avenue. The Tablet in the Chapel is in memory of his son, Arthur, Jr., Valedictorian in 1875. Mrs. Fairbanks wrote in a letter the winter of 1874, "The old Major is marrying a Boston widow", and apparently they moved away soon after. The Carruthers in 1877, the Richardsons, and the P. S. Brooks lived here at various times.
One of Mrs. Brooks' sons was born here. Mrs. John McCradys lived here from 1883-1885. Professor John McCrady had died in 1881, four years after he and his family moved into Otey Hall and a month after it burned. The students asked Mrs. McCrady to let them call the hall Pocahontas, as the Kirby-Smith house was Powhatan. She agreed and later the head proctor (a West Pointer) found the reason. They were playing poker in their rooms which was against the rules. Punishment soon followed and the name, Pokerhontas died a natural death. (From Miss Kathleen McCrady). Mrs. Selden, a widow with three sons, took the house in 1890 and all three sons went to college here. Jose (called Joe), a doctor, went to Medical School here and was the town doctor for a few years. He and his brother, Jack, were famous athletes. For many years "Mrs. Selden's" was a popular boarding house for summer visitors. She died and the University took it over making it the residence of the Dean of St. Luke's (School of Theology). Dean James lived here, also Dean Brown, and for his one year, Dean Gibson lived here. It fell down while it was being moved in 1965 and had to be pulled down the rest of the way.
Gailor, C. (1970). Old Sewanee Houses; The First Fifty-Years, 1860-1910. Unpublished manuscript, Sewanee: The University of the south, Sewanee.