Powhatan House was located where the current Chaplain's house, Phillips House, now stands. The original house was built in 1868 for Mr. Robbins. There is no image of Robbins’ original house, “Waverly.” The next owner, Dr. Dabney, had the house remodeled and changed the name to “Powhatan” to commemorate his origins in Powhatan County, Virginia. It was “a mere shell” in 1876 when Edmund Kirby Smith bought the house and renovated it. His ten children grew up in the house and it was the site of many local stories. It burnt in 1891 and he built a new house (pictured here) on the same site. Kirby-Smith died in 1895 and his daughters, Miss Bessie who was Postmistress, and then Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Crolly, (“Miss Carrie”), ran it as a boarding house. Many summer visitors stayed at Powhatan year after year; for nearly 40 years it was one of the choice places to spend the summer in Sewanee. After Miss Carrie and Mrs. Hale died in 1941 and 1943, respectively, the University acquired Powhatan. It was used for offices and lodgings for theological students while St. Luke's was being renovated. Powhatan House burned in 1956.
This house was built in the fall of 1870 for General Gorgas. He and his family first stayed in the Gailor cottage while Brierfield was being built. Gorgas named it Brierfield for the town in Alabama where he had had iron works. General Gorgas came to be Headmaster of the Junior Department in March 1869, and was made Vice-Chancellor in 1872. General Gorgas' son, "Willie," lived here while he attended the University from 1869 until he graduated in 1875. He was the Director and Captain of the Hardee Baseball Team and President of the Football Club. He, of course, was the famous Major General William Crawford Gorgas of Yellow Fever fame at Panama. He was Surgeon General of World War I, and was made a Knight of the British Order of St. Michael and St. George by King George of England, in June, 1920, shortly before he died. General Gorgas sold Brierfield to Dr. Telfair Hodgson when he came to Sewanee in 1878. Dr. Hodgson was first made Dean of the Theological School. As finances were very low in 1878, it was thought best not to elect a Vice-Chancellor and thereby avoid paying that salary. He did become Vice-Chancellor in 1879. Dr. Hodgson built the tower on the north of the house and had his office in the room on the first floor under it. He is suspect to have added the bay windows, the porch on the south, and the servants' house at the same time. His widow lived in the house until her death in 1907. His son, Telfair, Jr. was Treasurer of the University from 1907 until 1949 when he retired. He made extensive additions on the south side and changes inside. The house was never a dormitory for students, but Mr. Telfair Hodgson kept a bachelor hall in it until he married in 1917. His widow, Mrs. Medora Cheatham Hodgson, did live there after his death in 1952 and the house continued to be a center of Sewanee life. Mrs. Hodgeson, daughter of Brigadier General B. Frank Cheatham, C.S.A., died on March 14, 1969 at the age of 92. The home is now owned by her daughter, Mrs. Edward F. Parker. Brierfield has been in the Hodgeson family for 115 years.
Built by a family who had returned from France, this house was known for its elegant appearance and gilded chairs. Unfortunately, the name of this original family is unknown. In 1909, Benjamin L. Coulson purchased the home. Following the death of the next owner, Mrs. Emma Scott Dewey, the house passed to her children, Chauncey Dewey and Emma Dewey (later Mrs. Emma Dewey Lockwood). In 1923 the house was bought by George Washington Ely Atkins for his son, Reverend John Norton Atkins, and his family. The elder Atkins kept a suite with two south bedrooms, bath, and connecting closet for himself. Reverend Atkins was the Superintendent and Chaplain at Emerald-Hodgson Hospital. He had four children. Sometime prior to April 1932, Major General William Ruthven Smith, then Superintendent of the US Military Academy at West Point, visited the Atkins’ to inquire about the house. He wanted to retire there as Superintendent of the Sewanee Military Academy. Despite the Atkins’ disapproval, incoming Vice Chancellor Guerry granted Smith’s wish when Reverend Atkins resigned from Emerald-Hodgson in 1938. General Smith supposedly lived there until his death in 1941. Allen Tate was another notable owner. Mr. Tate, editor of the Sewanee Review, lived here with his then-wife, Caroline Gordon and their daughter Nancy Tate (Wood). It is speculated they lived in the house for about four years before their tempestuous marriage ???. However, during their time there Nancy Tate met her husband, Percy Wood, a student at Sewanee. A portrait of Caroline Gordon sits in the living room of the house. After the Tate years, many more families occupied the home, but for no longer than two years. The arrival of the Camps broke this spell, they lived in the house for 25 years. David Camp was a chemistry professor and eventually chair of the department. The Camps implemented many projects at the house. They built a stable for Mrs. Camp’s horses, constructed a goldfish pond that still exists, and planted several fruit trees. The Camps used the basement to store the vegetables from their land at Lake Cheston. David Camp would drink a quart of home canned tomato juice every day and put the extra vegetables on the front porch for anyone passing by. When the current owners purchased the house, they found the Camps’ jars of vegetables still intact on the back basement shelves. In the mid-90s the Bordleys bought the house. Mr. Bordley had his eye on the property the very day the Camps bought it. Mrs. Camp thought of it as a happy house and wanted the Bordleys to have it once she and her husband moved. Virginia and Chip Craighill, the current residents, purchased the house from the Thoni’s in 2002. G. Brine, personal communication, June 18, 2018
This was one of the first residences built in Sewanee. The house is reminiscent of Andrew Jackson Downing’s architecture styles from his book The Architecture of Country Houses and was described as variegated in color. Bishop William Mercer Green of Mississippi, the fourth chancellor of the University, built this house for his family in January 1867, and they moved into Kendal that spring. The name “Kendal” was derived from the Green family’s ancestral home in Westmoreland, England. Bishop Green was chancellor until his death in 1887 at the age of 89, and made his home at Kendal most of the time, between trips to his diocese. During this time, Miss Elizabeth “Lily” Green, the Bishop’s daughter, began to host guests at Kendal. The most notable of these guests was Jefferson Davis, a friend of Bishop Green’s and said to be a champion at backgammon. There were at least three cottages surrounding the main house and it is believed the Jack Carter House and the house next door may have comprised some of these cottages. After her father’s death, Miss Lily ran Kendal as a boarding house for summer visitors and students until her death in 1917. She was hailed as someone who never treated the townspeople differently than the University community. “Her charity, her generosity, her noble life; no story of Sewanee's early days can be complete without some mention of her.” (Purple Sewanee, page 135.) Following Miss Lily’s death, Kendal was owned by Bishop Green's granddaughter Miss Mamie Cotten and her sister-in-law, Mrs. Arthur Cotten, until it was torn down in 1965. Although the main house was razed, a stone engraved “Green” still stands near a house that was once one of the cottages surrounding Kendal.
In 1870, Bishop Alexander Gregg of Texas took a lease and shortly thereafter built Ambler Hall. He called it “Marlborough” after the South Carolina county where his wife was born. George Fairbanks called Gregg “The faithful, earnest and tried friend of the University.” Every year Gregg made a personal appeal and took a collection from each parish in his diocese; consequently, Texas was the largest contributor to the University. He spent 25 summers on the Mountain and became the university’s fifth Chancellor (1887-1893). After the Bishop died in 1893, his daughter, Mrs. M.A. Wilmerding, ran the house as a boarding establishment for summer visitors and students. Her daughter grew up here and married a beloved alumnus, the Rev. Francis Willis Ambler, from whom the hall took its name. In 1903, Dr. Thomas Tidball came to Sewanee to teach at St. Luke's. He lived in this house for 23 years and kept up quite an elegant establishment as he was a widower with many servants and frequent dinner parties. After his death various people rented the house. Miss Johnnie Tucker ran it a few years after Old Tuckaway burned and then Mrs. Wright lived there from 1923 to 1934. In 1940 the University purchased the house. The Amblers only asked $2,000 for the house. At this price the University considered it practically a gift. The University remodeled the house into four apartments and called it Ambler Hall. In the 1940s the hall became an “overflow dormitory” for the Sewanee Military Academy. The hall eventually became home to the Sewanee Military Academy Band. In more recent years Ambler Hall was divided into three apartments for University faculty. The house and its student cottage are presently owned by Dr. and Mrs. J. Edward Carlos.
In the late 1850's Bishop Stephen Elliott was a leader in the movement to found the University of the South. However, in December 1866, just two months after presiding as chancellor at the first meeting of the trustees after the Civil War, Elliott died suddenly in Savannah, Georgia. His house near the Alpha Tau Omega House was burned in April 1961. In 1870 his widow, Charlotte Barnwell returned to Sewanee with four of her children and built a home on what was then University Avenue. The move into this new home is described by her second daughter in a letter of April 28, 1871 to her brother Habersham. The 22-year old "Sada" Elliott writes: "... We have begun our move into the new house, and for a wonder are not in a rush, as we usually are when there is anything to be done ... The blessed old books have been unpacked, and are very neatly arranged in their proper order. The old book cases are up, just like home, and I can almost imagine I can see Papa walking up and down, stopping every now and then to look at or feel some pet book. I handle them just as if I was shaking hands with some old friends, whom I have not seen for some time. We will all be ready when you come, and you will find it home, home as you remember it, the same old kernel, only in a pretty new shell ... The style is Gothic, color pale lemon, trimming white, the lot is quite a nice one though not fixed up yet. The place is named "Saints Rest"... On the South side of the big yellow house is a little yellow house occupied by ten youths...." Miss Sada went on to become one of Sewanee's well-known personalities. Educated at Johns Hopkins University, she traveled abroad writing for Scribner’s and Harper’s magazines. However, after the death of her sister Charlotte in 1902 she returned to Sewanee to rear her three nephews, Stephen, Charles, and John Puckette. She was active in the suffrage movement and served as the president of Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association in 1912 and 1913. Miss Sada lived at Saints Rest until her death in 1928. On her tombstone in the University Cemetery is the inscription "Doctor of Civil Law,” denoting the honorary degree conferred upon her by the University of the South, an honor she greatly valued. In 1940, Miss Sada’s nephew, Dr. Robert Woodward Barnwell Elliott, retired from his law practice in New York City and came to live in the family home. Dr. Elliott gave valuable services as a lawyer to the University. The Elliotts did a great deal of alterations inside the house, adding rooms upstairs and several bathrooms; and they renovated the outside of the house, changing its entire aspect. Dr. Elliott is seen standing in the yard in the large photograph. At his death, he left the house to Mrs. Charles McDonald Puckette, the widow of a grandson of Bishop Elliott. This house is now occupied by Isabelle Puckette Howe, a descendent of the Elliott family that built it. Mrs. Howe calls the house "Sinner's Hope." For some time the house was called "Shoup Lodge" and was the residence of Brigadier Gen. Francis A. Shoup and his wife Esther Elliott Shoup.
This house was built in 1873 by Mr. Jabez Wheeler Hayes. He was a successful jewelry manufacturer and Sewanee’s first large scale benefactor after the Civil War. His gifts were mainly civic improvements in the community; contributing $100,000 of his fortune into the early development of the village and founding Sewanee’s first public school. Hayes built this large residence for his son-in-law George A. Mayhew. Mayhew had a store in the village and came with his family from the north with Hayes. This house was on the road connecting the Sewanee Military Academy to the village, now known as Kentucky Avenue. The University Record of August 1874, notes “…the completion of the fine mansion of George A. Mayhew, Esq. The external appearance of the house is handsome and commanding, while the internal arrangements present very great beauty and convenience. The panel work of black walnut and chestnut shows the fine effect which can be produced by the judicious use of our native woods, and that chestnut can be put to a more ornamental use than fence posts and house blocks.” Mayhew died in 1882 and his sister, Miss Mayhew, raised his two daughters. After Miss Mayhew’s death the house stood empty for many years, although it was still owned by the Mayhew family. It was broken into and people helped themselves to the furnishings. In the early 1910s, Archdeacon and former Rector of Otey Parish, William Stirling Claiborne, bought the house and gave it to the University. He intended it as a home for Col. Duval Cravens, superintendent of Sewanee Military Academy. Cravens and his family lived there for several years after they came to Sewanee in 1912. By 1932 it was converted into two apartments for Sewanee Military Academy faculty. The house was razed in 1967.
In 1866 the Rt. Rev. Charles Todd Quintard, Sewanee's first vice-chancellor, moved into a recently completed two-room log cabin. It was one of only two houses in Sewanee, the other being Rebel's Rest, and the two structures were similar. The original Fulford Hall was destroyed by a fire in 1889 and replaced by a larger frame building in 1890. Although it has undergone several significant renovations over the years, the 1890 structure still stands today. From the 1910s to the 1930s, the building functioned as a dormitory and an infirmary. Fulford Hall has housed seven vice-chancellors, Quintard in the 19th century and five from the tenure of Alexander Guerry through that of Robert Ayres. In 1989, Fulford Hall became home to Office of Admission, Office of Communications, and Office of Financial Aid.
This house was built by the University for Dr. Theodore DuBose in 1888. He was the University’s health officer until 1891. In 1906, the house was passed to Dr. DuBose’s uncle Rev. William Porcher DuBose for his organization, the St. Luke’s Brotherhood for the Increase of the Ministry. Formed in Nov. of 1892, the Brotherhood’s function was to foster interest in the ministry and provide assistance to candidates in the School of Theology. Rev. DuBose was the president of this organization and dean of the theological department. The house was later acquired by his son, Rev. William Haskell DuBose. He was a professor in the School of Theology and ministered churches in Tracy City and Monteagle. After Rev. DuBose’s death in 1936, the house was rented to various theologues. It was razed to make way for Bishop’s Common.
The first house on this site was built in 1873 by General Gorgas for a student dormitory. The house almost immediately burnt in December of 1873, and he used the $1, 200 insurance to build another. It had four rooms upstairs and four downstairs- the typical amount of rooms for student cottages. When Mr. Gailor came in 1882 to teach at St. Luke's he lived there and his mother boarded with Mrs. Tucker at Palmetto. Dr. Hodgson, the Vice-Chancellor had bought the Gorgas house and cottage and offered, if Mr. Gailor would give up a lease he'd taken on the lot where Johnson Hall is now, to sell him a strip of his own lot with the cottage. This was done in 1884. Dr. Hodgson had known Chaplain Gailor in the seminary in New York, and the families were old friends. When Gailor was made Bishop in 1893 he kept it as a summer home where the four Gailor children would grow up. Charlotte Gailor used to say that her parents, whenever the roof leaked, would add a room instead of having the old roof repaired. There were three bathrooms and, depending on one’s definition, six or seven bedrooms. When the living room was conjured up, with its own fireplace, a chapel was added at the far end. The Bishop conducted family prayers there every evening, and an occasional baptism and even confirmation. After his death in 1935 the house was inherited by Miss Charlotte Gailor, his daughter and the chapel was deconsecrated. Its altar went to a small church in a neighboring town and Bishop Quintard's stained-glass window is now in the University Chaplain's office, in the cloister of All Saints' Chapel. Two small stained-glass window and a Madonna remained as testimony to the room's original function. Charlotte Gailor lived there till her death in April of 1972. The Gailor House, inherited by Dr. Robert Daniel, her nephew, and then by his children, was sold to the University in the 1980s. It has since been torn down for Chen Hall (1991), the Vice Chancellor’s current residence.
The first house on this site was built in 1873 by General Gorgas for a student dormitory. The house almost immediately burnt in December of 1873 and he used the $1, 200 insurance to build another. It had four rooms upstairs and four downstairs- the typical amount of rooms for student cottages. When Mr. Gailor came in 1882 to teach at St. Luke's he lived there and his mother boarded with Mrs. Tucker at Palmetto. Dr. Hodgson, the Vice-Chancellor had bought the Gorgas house and cottage and offered, if Mr. Gailor would give up a lease he'd taken on the lot where Johnson Hall is now, to sell him a strip of his own lot with the cottage. This was done in 1884. Dr. Hodgson had known Chaplain Gailor in the seminary in New York, and the families were old friends. When Gailor was made Bishop in 1893 he kept it as a summer home where the four Gailor children would grow up. Charlotte Gailor used to say that her parents, whenever the roof leaked, would add a room instead of having the old roof repaired. There were three bathrooms and, depending on one’s definition, six or seven bedrooms. When the living room was conjured up, with its own fireplace, a chapel was added at the far end. The Bishop conducted family prayers there every evening, and an occasional baptism and even confirmation. After his death in 1935 the house was inherited by Miss Charlotte Gailor, his daughter and the chapel was deconsecrated. Its altar went to a small church in a neighboring town and Bishop Quintard's stained-glass window is now in the University Chaplain's office, in the cloister of All Saints' Chapel. Two small stained-glass window and a Madonna remained as testimony to the room's original function. Charlotte Gailor lived there till her death in April of 1972. The Gailor House, inherited by Dr. Robert Daniel, her nephew, and then by his children, was sold to the University in the 1980s. It has since been torn down for Chen Hall (1991), the Vice Chancellor’s current residence.
Flying over and around Sewanee, The University of the South. Taken in 1080p 60fps.
Standard YouTube License
Historic Sewanee Building Severely Damaged in Fire -- Sky Arnold
Stream WZTV Fox 17 Newscasts LIVE starting with Fox 17 This Morning at 5am and News at 9pm. On a campus known for its historic buildings Rebel's Rest has always stood out at Sewanee the University of the South. The log cabin style residence was built in 1866 for one of the University's founders, George Fairbanks. Wednesday night the building sustained heavy damage in a fire that appears to have started on the upper level. "When I came here it was engulfed in flames and it was a shock to see," said Sewanee graduate Jaina Patel. Rebel's Rest is the only structure remaining on campus from the University's re-founding after the Civil War. Sewanee Professor Waring McCrady says the building is important for more than its history though. Many students and alumni have known the place in modern times as a location for receptions and the University's Guest House. "Really does symbolize historic continuity and devotion to this place," said McCrady. That's why the fire is hitting so many people personally at Sewanee. Students and alumni like Patel stopped to take pictures Thursday afternoon. Even people who aren't affiliated with Sewanee like Bob Burns stopped to look at the damage. "This building in particular has so much meaning to so many people," said Burns. As chance would have it though the fire does have a silver lining. Three of the most priceless art pieces, including a portrait of the original resident George Fairbanks were moved recently for renovations. It remains to be seen if those paintings might someday return home but McCrady is among those who believe it's possible. He believes there's enough left on the bottom level of the residence to rebuild. "There's enough here to work with even if they have to pull it down to the ground and build it back up. They got the pieces for the facade," said McCrady. DOWNLOAD OUR APPS: NEWS: iPhone/iPad | Android WEATHER: iPhone | iPad | Android MORNING: iPhone/iPad | Android Follow us on Twitter @wztv_fox17 and LIKE us on Facebook for updates.
WZTV FOX 17 published via YouTube.com
In the mid-1880s William Walter Van Ness built a large three-story hall. It functioned as a boarding house and included apartments for faculty and staff. After his death the house passed to his wife, Mary Waters Van Ness. She was quite a recluse but occasionally came out and walked down the street with her feet wrapped in tow sacks and carrying a Sewanee lantern, a staff, and wearing a long black veil. She was called the “Witch of Endor” by the students. During this time the house was run by Mrs. Emma Blanton Tucker. After Mrs. Tucker’s death in 1909, her daughter Miss Johnnie Tucker managed the boarding house. The Van Ness family owned the boarding house for over half a century, but in the wake of the Depression the University purchased the building. They divided it into apartments for married students. In 1963 the boarding house was torn down to make way for the duPont library.
Dr. C.J. Bickham, a well-known physician of New Orleans, built this house in 1874. Although he intended it to be a summer home, it sat empty for many years. Caskie Harrison, professor of ancient languages, took the house in 1877 and lived there until he left the University in 1882. Originally from Virginia, he was studying in Cambridge when Bishop Quintard persuaded him to come to Sewanee. Harrison’s son, the novelist Henry Sydnor Harrison, author of Queed, was born in this house and another son, Jack, taught at the Sewanee Military Academy for several years. Harrison was reported to be a “severe but brilliant teacher” and when he left Sewanee he founded the Brooklyn Classical School in New York. In 1889 he received the Honorary Degree of Ph.D. from the University. After Harrison’s departure, various people lived in the house including Mrs. Memminger, a widow from Charleston, whose three sons, Wilkie, Lucien, and Edmund, went to the University from 1893-1898. In 1894 William Boone Nauts, who graduated from the University in 1882 and was professor of Latin from 1893-1931, bought the house and lived in it until his death in 1931. Both of his sons also went to the University. Nauts, an ardent collector of materials printed in Sewanee, sent his collection to be on exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Unfortunately it was all lost in transit. However, he was able to later compile another collection, with only a few exceptions. After his death Mrs. Nauts gave the materials to the University Archives. Nauts was a part of Sewanee life for so many years that someone once joked, “In the flood, Noah just missed landing on the Mountain with Nauts and MacKellar.” During the 1930s, the house was rented to various people. When the old "rectory" burned in 1939, Misses May and Susie DuBose bought the house. After Miss May’s death, the University bought it and in 1964 it was sold to Harry Stanford Barrett, artist-in-residence. The house has been owned by Doug and Anne Seiters since 1999.
The Bonholzer house is on Morgan’s Steep Rd., about halfway between Hodgson Hall and the Steep. It was used as a directional reference with its original name; “out toward the Swiss Cottage” or “on the road to the Swiss Cottage.” Built originally on the large lease of Vice-Chancellor Hodgson, the cottage became a part of the lease of the Bonholzer family when that tract was split from the Hodgson lease. John Bonholzer was a Swiss from the Gruetli Colony. It was said that he had the best farm on the Mountain. He sold vegetable and dairy products long before the University Dairy. The best tomatoes in Sewanee came from the garden at this house. The Swiss Bonholzer was not the only reason for the cottage’s original name. When the cottage was first built there was a balcony on the upper story which hung out over the lower story, reminiscent of a Swiss home. The Bonholzers then added the present porch and the house became Swiss in name only. A large barn was constructed behind the house, but it was torn down in the 1990s. During World War II the house was used briefly by the Castleberrys and then relinquished back to the Bonholzers until 1958. In recent years the house has been owned notably by Marcus and Ann Oliver (1972-2007) and since 2011 is in the possession of Allen Reddick.