Where Highway 41A enters and exits the Domain of the University of the South, there are stone pillars with bronze plaques announcing Sewanee to travelers. One custom that has flourished in recent decades is calling upon an angel to go with a person leaving the Domain and tapping the roof of the car upon one’s return to let the angel know all is safe. The idea of these University Gates was first discussed by “ladies of the Mountain” in the 1920s but the actual funding and construction did not occur until 1940. The stone wall carved with The University of the South within the northern gates and the landscaping between them and the wall are recent additions.
The Corporation Fence began in 1902-03 with funds provided by a benefactor “… was to keep “Depot” people out of the Reserve [inside the fence, perhaps up to 500 acres] at night and to keep University students within.” Its purpose also included “keeping out vagrants and undesirable roaming stock.” The fence crossed the main street from campus to downtown and gates there allowed daytime passage and then were shut at night. Gates were put in the fence at other points of intersection with public roads, but none caused strong feelings by the local population like the resentment felt towards the gates across Tennessee (now University) Avenue.
That gate crossed the street between Otey Church (now the Parish Church of St. Mark and St. Paul) and the land where the Sewanee Elementary School was later built. It was removed when construction of the Dixie Highway occurred around 1922. It has been 100 years since the gates disappeared, but the topic is still a contentious one.
People have seen this historic photograph and thought they were looking at the University Gate, but you can see University Avenue goes beside and up the hill beyond this drive. What is pictured here is the gate to the parish church property. Nothing remains of the University Gate on University Avenue.
See “University Gates” on pgs. 376-8, “Corporation Fence” on pgs. 88-90 and “University Gate” on p. 376 in Sewanee Places: A Historical Gazetteer of the Domain and the Sewanee Area, by Gerald L. Smith and Sean T. Suarez.
Photo courtesy of University Archives