Think you know all about Reinhardt?

You may think you know the whole story...but we hope you'll be entertained and surprised by some things you didn't know about Reinhardt!                     

In honor of our 125th anniversary, we'd like to present:

125 Facts You Might Not Know About Reinhardt College...

1. The oldest structure on campus is the Admissions House. It was built as the President’s Home, a function it served until 1977. It has also served as a student center and Dean’s Home.
2. The Library has more than 52,000 books in the collection as well as an additional 80,000 full text electronic books available via the library website.
3. Former U.S. Senator and Georgia Governor, the Hon. Zell Miller gave the Commencement Speech in 2007.
4. The Hill Freeman Library and Spruill Learning Center serves about 200 students per day.
5. Dr. J. Rowland Burgess, Jr. planted more than 1300 trees and shrubs on campus during and after his presidency.
6. Many alumni attended elementary school, high school and college in one building.  The elementary school closed in the late 1940s and the academy (high school) closed in 1956.
7. Former U.S. Speaker of the House, Dr. Newt Gingrich, helped teach a history class at Reinhardt in the early 1990s.
8. The Funk Heritage Center has welcomed more than 100,000 visitors since opening in late 1999.
9. The Funk Heritage Center's Sellars Tool Collection is thought to be the largest exhibition of craft tools in the U.S.
10. A grave marker on campus is thought to mark the burial location of a young child from the late 1800s.
11. The new Hasty Student Life Center stands where a swimming pool used to be.
12. In the late 1980s, a monkey named Casper lived on the Waleska campus.  He belonged to Candy Falany, one of the four daughters of then-Reinhardt President Dr. Floyd A. Falany and his wife, Fay.
13. The brick sign at the main campus entrance on Highway 140 was originally envisioned by Reinhardt President Dr. J. Rowland Burgess, Jr. It was built years after his death and was designed by Reinhardt alumnus W. Cason Pharr '79.
14. The Evelyn Gordy Hospitality House was moved to campus in three pieces.  The shingles were numbered and reinstalled in their exact original order.
15. Actor Richard Dreyfuss gave a lecture on campus in 2000.
16. U.S. Secretary of State & Cherokee County native Dean Rusk spoke at Homecoming 1960.
17. The S.C. Dobbs Science Building has 18-inch thick walls made of native fieldstone.
18. Reinhardt’s first building and classroom was an old cabinet shop.
19. The original gym was built in 1931. It did not have electricity until 1935. 
20. Captain A.M. Reinhardt was a member of the Atlanta law firm of Reinhardt and Hook.
21. The first Reinhardt teacher and preacher was the Rev. James T. Linn. He was sent to the school by the Methodist Church.
22. Reinhardt College was named for Lewis W. Reinhardt, first settler of Waleska and father of Captain A.M. Reinhardt.
23. The College received a state charter in 1891 with the official name of Reinhardt Normal College. Normal denoted that the school offered a curriculum geared toward training teachers.
24. Captain A.M. Reinhardt, co-founder of the College, served as an alderman and mayor pro-tem of Atlanta.
25. The first permanent college building, completed in January 1885, used lumber from trees knocked down by a violent storm in February 1884.
26. Reinhardt’s first graduating class in 1888 had four members –one became a college president, one became a distinguished judge, and one taught at Reinhardt for more than 40 years.
27. During the College’s early years, the president was a Methodist minister appointed by the church conference as president, teacher and local pastor.
28. A.M. in Captain A.M. Reinhardt stands for Augustus Michael. He was known to his family as Gus or Uncle Gus.
29. Co-founder Colonel John J.A. Sharp was Captain Reinhardt’s brother-in-law.  He married Reinhardt’s sister Mary Jane.
30. Colonel Sharp purchased a saw mill to produce the lumber to build the College’s first permanent building.
31. Captain Reinhardt personally guaranteed the $1,000 salary of the College’s first president.
32. Captain Reinhardt intended to leave the College a $500,000 endowment upon his death, but he lost his personal fortune during the financial crisis of 1893 and was unable to fulfill his pledge.
33. Dr. R.M. Moore, a local doctor, served on the College’s Board of Trustees for 49 years.  His wife was in Reinhardt’s first graduating class.
34. Reinhardt President C.E. Pattillo organized the Henry W. Grady Debating Club which in 1892 divided into the Pierce and Haygood Societies. These two groups served as the primary social groups for male students until the 1960s.
35. The Delphian Literary Society was established for girls. It split into Phi Alpha and Phi Delta in 1894.
36. The two female and two male literary societies were replaced by four sororities and four fraternities in 1967. In the fall of 1967, 88 percent of the new students accepted bids to join the Greek groups.
37. Richard W. Rogers, a Reinhardt president in the late 1890s, was remembered for his campaign to eliminate slang on campus. This action was recognized by the Board of Trustees as a major contribution to student improvement.
38. In 1893-94, tuition was $1 per month, room and board $4 per month, and books $5 per year. Total estimated cost for one year was $90.
39. For many years, female students could not address any man of the College (including fellow students) by his first name unless related to him.
40. In 1893, military companies were established on campus, and by 1897 military training was made compulsory for all able bodied male students except for those preparing for the ministry.
41. In 1901, Ramsey Colquitt Sharp became the first, and thus far only, Reinhardt graduate to assume the College’s presidency. He served as president for two terms – from 1901-1916 and from 1922-27.
42. The first telephone service came to Waleska in 1904. For many years, the president had the only telephone on campus.
43. Beginning in 1905, female students were required to wear a uniform of white waist (shirt), blue skirt and Oxford cap (mortar board with tassel).
44. In 1908, male students were required to wear what had been an optional uniform of best Confederate grey with navy blue cap.
45. On Nov. 28, 1911, the administration/classroom building and chapel were destroyed by fire. Colonel Sharp’s widow, Mary Reinhardt Sharp, gave her 17-acre home place to the College to construct a new campus. A new administration building was completed about a year later.
46. Rosa Pendleton Chiles taught English at Reinhardt in the 1890s.  After leaving the campus, she published a novel in 1900 called Down Among the Crackers. It was a fictional account of her years at Reinhardt and in Waleska.
47. By 1915, the word “Normal” was dropped from the College’s name, and the Board of Trustees voted to elevate standards to those of a junior college. The first class to graduate under these standards was the Class of 1921.
48. Captain Reinhardt died on May 20, 1923, fulfilling his desire to die and be buried during commencement weekend. The granite shaft above his grave is inscribed with the simple but fitting epitaph, “Founder of Reinhardt College.”
49. During the years that military companies were a part of the College, an Officer of the Day patrolled campus and the town to enforce curfew and other regulations. Students were required to salute professors.
50. In 1987, the North Fulton Center of Reinhardt College opened in Roswell, Ga.
51. The road to Canton was not paved until 1942 and then only to the eastern city limits of Waleska. It was 1946 before the pavement came through the town and by the College.
52. During the 1920s, Reinhardt had a football team that played nearby high schools.
53. For many years, intramural athletics were divided into four groups for each sex. Men – Seminoles, Mohawks, Apaches and Comanches. Women – Choctaws, Pawnees, Sequoyahs and Tallulahs.
54. Between 1909 and 1914, students published a literary magazine called the Reinhardt Mountaineer.
55. One of the College’s early presidents was E.A. Cole, inventor of the famous Cole cotton planter.
56. Long-time trustee Samuel C. Dobbs was the nephew of Coca-Cola Company founder Asa G. Candler.  Dobbs served as president of Coca-Cola from 1919 to 1922.
57. 75 percent of the Cherokee County teachers had attended Reinhardt in 1946.
58. During the Depression instead of receiving a salary, teachers lived on campus rent free and received free meals from the meat and vegetables grown on campus.
59. The words of the Reinhardt Alma Mater were written in 1922 by Miss Dora Lee Wilkerson, a history teacher and Senior Class sponsor.
60. In 1929, a movie projector was installed in the auditorium and movies were shown every other Saturday night.
61. In 1932, the state of Georgia certified Reinhardt so that all graduates who had six hours of Education courses would qualify to teach in any high school in the state for a period of three years.
62. In 1933, Reinhardt moved from semesters to quarters. The College would move back to semesters in the 1998.
63. Eugene T. Booth, valedictorian of Reinhardt’s class of 1930, won a Rhodes Scholarship while at The University of Georgia.
64. Lake Mullenix was built on campus in 1980.
65. Hawkes Hall, a boys’ dorm, burned in 1934. Funds were raised to build a new brick dorm, Cherokee Hall, which opened in 1935. Ironically, Cherokee Hall burned in 1969.
66. The first College annual was published in the 1947-48 school year.
67. Until the early 1950s, Reinhardt students did not go home for Thanksgiving holidays. A big celebration was held on campus each year.
68. On May 18, 1949, a Soil Conservation Day was held at Reinhardt. Thousands of workers came to the campus to rebuild the farm, construct athletic fields and build faculty houses. Speakers at the event included Georgia Governor Herman Talmadge and Vice President of the United States Alben Barkley.
69. Reinhardt College received accreditation as a junior college from SACS in 1953. The University Senate of the Methodist Church followed suit by giving their accreditation to the College in 1954.
70. In 1954, Phi Theta Kappa, the national junior college honorary society, granted a chapter to Reinhardt.
71. The Bratton Carillion tower was built in 1986.
72. In 1955, the Methodist Church considered closing Reinhardt and consolidating it with Young Harris College. Alumni and friends rallied to support Reinhardt, and in December 1955 the Conference voted to keep the College open.
73. Ruth Wilder, housemother in the girls’ dormitory, was selected Georgia’s Mother of the Year for 1956.
74. U.S. Secretary of State & Cherokee County native Dean Rusk spoke at Homecoming 1960. His visit coincided with the failed Bay of Pigs operation in Cuba.
75. In 1994, the William W. Fincher Jr. and Eunice L. Fincher Visual Arts Building was completed.
76. Joel Chandler Harris, compiler of the Uncle Remus tales, wrote an article about Reinhardt entitled “A Little Georgia College” that was republished as A Tribute to Reinhardt Normal College after his death.
77. The first business class was offered in 1903.
78. May 6, 1970 was proclaimed James Rowland Burgess, Jr. Day on campus in honor of the long serving president.
79. In the 1890s, required subjects included Bible, Latin, Greek, chemistry, moral science, orthography, and mental science.
80. In 1893, the College library had nearly 500 volumes on its shelves.
81. In Reinhardt’s early years, the first three days of each term were devoted to examinations in order to determine each student’s class level.
82. To be admitted to the College in the early years, all students had to furnish a satisfactory testimonial of his or her good moral character.
83. In the early catalogs, the list of things students were prohibited from doing included: occupying the desk of another; handling any book, pencil, slate, or paper of another; spitting, throwing paper or anything on the floor; all boisterous and noisy play or games on campus; and loitering in the halls or on the porches of the College.
84. Until into the 1920s, the sale of soft drinks was prohibited in Waleska. A student having a soft drink was subject to expulsion.
85. In the early years, girls were prohibited from tilting their chairs, crossing their feet, or assuming any undignified posture in sitting or walking.
86. During the early 1950s, Reinhardt advertised itself as a four-year junior college embracing the 11th and 12th grade years of high school and the first two years of college. According to the College catalog, this organization provided for efficiency and economy of operation and gave the student body unity.
87. In 1969, Hill Freeman Library, Roberts Hall and Cobb Hall were all completed.
88. The College has more than 10,000 living alumni.
89. In 1888, the first commencement was held and consisted of three days of orations, plays pageants and military drills.
90. Captain A. M. Reinhardt was one of eight children.
91. Dr. Dennis McIntire, current Interim Dean for Music, as a member of the national choir, “CenturyMen,” was nominated in 2000 for a Grammy for their CD entitled, “Beautiful Star.”  Dr. McIntire is a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences and votes each year for the Grammy Awards.
92. The first administration building was built in January 1885.  It cost $2500 to construct.
93. Running water was not installed on campus until 1912.
94. Reinhardt was accredited as a junior college in 1927.
95. In 1956, all high school grades at Reinhardt College transferred to Cherokee High School in Canton, Ga.
96. The Student Government Association was founded in 1957.
97. After completion of the Brown Athletic Center in 1982, intercollegiate men’s basketball was reinstated followed by women’s basketball and softball in 1983.
98. The first A Day for Reinhardt was held in 1988, a fundraising campaign for scholarships for local students.  Since its inception, it has raised more than $1.5 million to benefit local students attending Reinhardt.
99. The Herbert I. and Lilla W. Gordy Hall was completed in 1989, however the dormitory was not named until 1994.
100. Baccalaureate programs in communications, biology and liberal studies were added in 1997.
101. The current institutional and athletic logos were launched in 1999.
102. In 2000, the North Fulton Center moved to its current location in Alpharetta, Ga.
103. Baseball and fast-pitch softball were added at Reinhardt in 2004.
104. In fall 2006, the highest number of new students on record were welcomed to the campus.
105. The first funded faculty chair at Reinhardt was endowed in 2007:  the William W. Fincher, Jr. Chair of the Visual Arts.
106. The George M. Lawson Center and McCamish Broadcast Center opened in 1993.
107. In 2001, The Varsity Room, named in honor of the famous Atlanta restaurant which was established by Reinhardt alumni, Frank and Evelyn Gordy, was renovated.
108. Captain A.M. Reinhardt’s family was originally from North Carolina and his father owned and operated a corn mill on Shoal Creek near Waleska.
109. John J.A. Sharp, cofounder of Reinhardt College, became Waleska’s first mayor when the town received a state charter in 1889.
110. Waleska First United Methodist Church, originally known as Reinhardt Chapel and later as Briarpatch Church, was organized by Captain Reinhardt’s father, Lewis.
111. One member of the first graduating class in 1888, Joseph A. Sharp (nephew to cofounder John J.A. Sharp) later served as president of Young Harris College.
112. The first Board of Trustees was appointed at Reinhardt in 1889 and consisted of A.M. Reinhardt, John J. A. Sharp, J. M. G. Heard, Joseph M. Sharp, Elias Alexander Fincher and the Rev. Wilbur Fisk Glenn.
113. In the late 1800s, in spring, the military companies would stage battles on a field or pasture with female students acting as nurses to the “wounded.”
114. Technology at the College became state-of-the-art in 1992 when all offices and dorm rooms were linked to a campus-wide computer, video and telephone network.
115. In May 2001, the Fred H. and Mozelle Bates Tarpley Education Center officially opened. It contains faculty office and classroom space, as well as the Moore Chapel and the Moore Plaza.
116. During the Civil War, Captain Reinhardt was wounded in Mississippi.  He then resigned his commission and returned home to Cherokee County.
117. The first car was driven on campus in 1906.
118. In academic year 2007-08, Reinhardt offered 37 programs of study.
119. Apartment-style residence halls opened at capacity in 2004.
120. Paul Jones Hall was built in 1939 as a female dormitory, but is used to house young men today.
121. The Joseph Baxter Recreation Center opened in 1988.
122. The ghost of Captain Reinhardt is rumored to haunt Paul Jones Hall.
123. Sachi Koto is a famous Reinhardt alumna. While a student at the North Fulton Center of Reinhardt College, she worked as a CNN anchor.
124. Reinhardt College offered its first four-year degree, in business administration, in 1992.  The first four-year alumni graduated in 1994 and the College was accredited as a baccalaureate institution shortly thereafter.
125. In 2008, Reinhardt College is celebrating its 125^th anniversary.

This list was compiled from archives, records, publications and the fond remembrances of faculty, staff, alumni and friends.

If you've got an interesting story about Reinhardt that you would like to share or know some facts not listed above, please email us!

For more information

• Office of Institutional Advancement
  (770) 720-5507  -  fax (770) 720-5910
  advancementservices@reinhardt.edu

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