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Fact Book > About
W&L > ChronologyChronology of Washington and Lee University
1749, Scotch-Irish pioneers, led by Robert Alexander, found a small classical school for young men in Greenville, possibly at Larkin Spring, some 20 miles north of what is now Lexington. Very soon it becomes known as Augusta Academy. It is to become the ninth oldest American university. 1774-1776, Augusta Academy is located in Mount Pleasant. Captain Alexander Stuart and Major Samuel Houston (father of the hero of the Alamo) donate forty acres of land at Timber Ridge. 1776, The trustees, fired by patriotism, change the name of the school to Liberty Hall Academy on May 13, 1776. In the fall, Rector, William Graham advertises the new college-level program in Williamsburg's Virginia Gazette: "An academy, to be distinguished by the name of Liberty Hall, is now established, for the liberal education of youth on Timber Ridge, in Augusta county, where all the most important branches of literature, necessary to prepare young gentlemen for the study of law, physic, and theology, may be taught to good advantage, upon the most approved plan." 1780, Liberty Hall is moved to Mulberry Hill, in the vicinity of Lexington. 1781, Liberty Hall students take part in the battle of Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina with militias from Augusta and Rockbridge Counties. 1782, Graham and two neighbors donate land on Mulberry Hill in Lexington and build a frame building to house the school. Liberty Hall Academy is chartered by the Virginia legislature and empowered to grant degrees. 1783, The frame school house burns. The minutes of the Board of Trustees indicate a suspicion of arson. A replacement frame structure is completed. 1785, The first commencement ceremony is held in September for twelve graduates who earned the Bachelor of Arts degree. The Commonwealth of Virginia presents General Washington with a gift of 100 shares of stock in the new James River Company. 1790, Another fire, apparently the result of an accident, destroys the frame school building. 1793, A limestone building is erected on the crest of a ridge overlooking Lexington. 1795, John Chavis enrolls at Liberty Hall Academy, its first known student of color, after beginning his studies privately with John Witherspoon, the president of Princeton University. Chavis completed his studies, as was required of prospective Presbyterian ministers, and was granted a license to preach in 1800. (Additional information on his life is available from W&L history professor, Ted DeLaney. One article from the Roanoke Times was published on June 11, 2001. Another article form the Charlottesville Daily Progress appeared June 13, 2004.) 1796, George Washington saves the school from possible oblivion, giving the school an endowment gift of the 100 shares of canal stock, valued at between $25,000 and $50,000 -- at that time the largest gift ever made to a private educational institution in America. The principle remains in the present endowment. 1796, The trustees express their gratitude to Washington by changing the name of the school to Washington Academy 1802, The Society of the Cincinnati in Virginia, a group of former officers of the Continental Army, present the academy with a substantial accumulated fund. 1803, Liberty Hall, the three-story stone school building, burns. Its ruins are preserved today as a symbol of the institution's honored past. The Board of Trustees creates a Professorship of Law and offers the position (accepted in 1804) to Paul Carrington, Judge of the Supreme Court of Virginia. 1809, The Graham Philanthropic Society is organized. 1812, The Washington Literary Society is organized. 1813, The name is changed to Washington College. By then, the college was established on its present grounds. 1824, Main Hall (now Washington Hall, the center building on the historic Colonnade) is built. 1826, The entire estate of "Jockey" John Robinson, Irish immigrant and soldier of the Revolution, is added to the endowments from Washington and the Society of the Cincinnati. 1840, The Alumni Association is organized. 1844, Statue of Washington ("old George"), carved by Matthew Kahle from a log found floating in the nearby Maury River, is placed on the pinnacle of Main Hall. 1849, Judge John White Brockenbrough establishes the Lexington Law School. The first Catalogue of the Alumni is published. 1855, Phi Kappa Psi, the first social fraternity at Washington College, is organized. 1861, Liberty Hall Volunteers, Stonewall Brigade, is organized with 76 members. 1864, Lexington is raided by U.S. Army General David Hunter during which VMI is shelled and Washington College is "sacked; its chemical and philosophical apparatus destroyed; and its libraries, to a great extent, squandered." (1865-66 catalog) 1865, The trustees offer the presidency to General Robert E. Lee, an offer he initially hesitated to accept, fearing his name, inevitably linked in the world's mind with the lost Confederate cause, might well prove an embarrassment to the college in a time of bitter factionalism. The Kappa Alpha fraternity is founded at Washington College. 1865-1870, Lee's far-sighted administration greatly expanded the range of
instruction at Washington College. He transformed it into a truly national
institution, a place where young men of both North and South could study
together in harmony and unity. Lee instituted a limited electives program
while broadening the science offerings and instituting programs of business
instruction and journalism. These courses in business and journalism were
the first offered in colleges in the United States. Because of his
influence and the esteem in which he was held throughout the nation, Lee was
able to enlarge the financial resources of the college. Cyrus H. McCormick,
the inventor of the reaper and a native of the Lexington area, was among the
first to contribute. Other contributors included Warren Newcomb, a New
Orleans businessman; Thomas P. Scott, a former Assistant Secretary of War
under Lincoln; George Peabody, a Massachusetts philanthropist; Henry Ward
Beecher; and Samuel J. Tilden. 1866, The Lexington Law School affiliates with the college, with Judge Brockenbrough continuing at its head as Professor of Law and Equity. 1868, Construction of the chapel is completed under Lee's supervision. General Lee attended daily worship there with his students. 1870, The School of Law becomes one of the regular divisions of Washington College. 1870, October 12, Lee dies in his home. 1871, The name of the institution is changed to The Washington and Lee University. Lee's birthday, January 19th, is "designated and set apart by the Board of Trustees as Founders' Day" to be "observed annually, forever, with appropriate commemorative exercises." Also Lee's son, G. W. Custis Lee, succeeded his father in the presidency. 1882, Newcomb Hall is built for use as a library and administrative offices. 1895, Washington and Lee is a charter member of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, along with Vanderbilt University, University of North Carolina, University of the South, University of Mississippi, and Trinity College (now Duke University). The Calyx, the yearbook, begins publication. 1897, The Ring-tum Phi student newspaper is established. 1900, The John Randolph Tucker Memorial Hall is built, the first home to the School of Law, after a successful fundraising campaign led by the first law dean, Henry St. George Tucker. 1904, Reid Hall is built to house physics and engineering. 1905, Student Executive Committee is organized. (List of student-body presidents.) 1906, Establishment of the School of Commerce and Administration. 1908, The first Mock Convention is held, correctly predicting William Jennings Bryan as the Democratic Party's nominee, despite literal floor fights. 1911, The Gamma of Virginia Phi Beta Kappa chapter is installed. 1914, Omicron Delta Kappa, a national honor society recognizing leadership and service in campus activities, is founded at W&L. 1918?, The English poet, John Drinkwater, describes Washington and Lee's setting as "the most beautiful of any college in America." 1920, The School of Law joins the Association of American Law Schools. 1923, The School of Law is one of the initial group of schools rated as "Class A" by the Council on Legal Education of the American Bar Association. 1925, The Lee School of Journalism is established. The first fraternity house is built, for Beta Theta Pi. 1926, The Southern Interscholastic Press Association is established at Washington and Lee. 1927, The School of Commerce and Administration is initially accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. 1933, Beta Gamma Sigma, national honor society in business administration, establishes chapter. 1934, The original Tucker Hall is destroyed by fire. 1935, The new Tucker Hall is erected to house the School of Law. 1941, The American Chemical Society approved the chemistry curriculum. The Carnegie Library is enlarged and renamed the McCormick Library. 1942, The Army School for Personnel Services is established. 1948, The School of Journalism gains initial accreditation by the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. 1949, Bicentennial celebration, including the issuance of a stamp by the U.S. Postal Service, the first issued featuring a collegiate institution. 1950, Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee University Review, a literary quarterly of international significance, is founded by undergraduates. 1954, duPont Hall built to house the art department. 1956, Senator Alben W. Barkley, former U.S. Vice President dies during the Mock Convention. His last words were, "I am glad to sit on the back row, for I would rather be a servant in the house of the Lord than to sit in the seats of the mighty." (from http://www.uky.edu/Libraries/.) 1961, Lee Chapel is declared a National Historic Landmark. 1962, Ariel, a student literary and arts magazine, begins publication. 1963, Lee Chapel, a National Historic Landmark, reopens after a complete restoration, financed by a $370,000 gift from the Ford Motor Co. "to assure its future permanence and enhance its appeal to its many thousands of annual visitors." 1969, The School of Commerce and Administration is renamed the School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics. 1970, The Juris Doctor degree is awarded for the first time in January, replacing the Bachelor of Laws. 1971, Spring Term, a novel feature of the new 1970-71 undergraduate academic calendar, makes its debut. This year also marks the beginning of the new "distribution" graduation requirements. Calendar and curriculum were approved by the faculty in the spring of 1969. 1972, The School of Law admits the first degree-seeking women to the University. The front campus is designated a National Historic Landmark, only the third college campus to be so designated. 1976, Lewis Hall is completed as the new home of the School of Law. W&L and other small, private, NCAA Division III institutions form the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. 1979, The new University Library opens with the entire campus participating in Moving Day, moving stacks of books from the old McCormick Library to the new facility. 1984, The Board of Trustees votes to extend coeducation to the two undergraduate divisions. The distribution requirements are replaced by a newly-structured set of General Education requirements. 1985, The first degree-seeking, undergraduate women enroll for the fall term. The first personal computers appear on campus. 1992, The Powell Addition to Lewis Hall is erected to house the personal and professional papers of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. PowellJr. '29, '31L. 1993, The Trident, a new student newspaper, begins publication. 1997, Completion of a $23 million effort to rehabilitate Howe and Parmly Halls and create a Science Addition. Lee Chapel preservation and renovation project begins. 1998-99, Bicenquinquadgenary Celebration.
2000, Roshni Nirody '00 becomes the first Watson Fellow in W&L's first year in the program. Five new sorority houses and a new parking deck open for the academic year. 2001, February, W&L's team wins the 2nd Annual VFIC Ethics Bowl. 2001, April, The undergraduate faculty votes to retain the 30-year-old 4-4-2 calendar. 2002, May, Daniel Birdwhistell '01 is named one of 40 Gates Cambridge Scholars in the inaugural class of the "new Rhodes" program. The faculty approves initiatives to counter the abuse of alcohol and other controlled substances. 2001, June, Construction of the new University Commons begins along with renovation of Reid Hall into a state-of-the-art journalism and mass communications facility. 2001, July, President John W. Elrod succumbs to cancer. Laurent Boetsch, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College, named Acting President. 2001, October, $225 million Campaign For the Rising Generation announced publicly. 2002, February, W&L's team wins the 3rd Annual VFIC Ethics Bowl. 2002, March, Thomas G. Burish, Provost of Vanderbilt University, named 24th president. 2002, September, The new fitness center is opened in Doremus Gymnasium and renovated Reid Hall welcomes students to journalism classes in state-of-the-art facilities. 2003, June, Thomas V. Litzenburg Jr. '57 delivers the widely distributed Baccalaureate Address to the Class of 2003, "A Place Like No Other." 2003, October, The extended university community dedicates the John W. Elrod University Commons. 2003, December, Despite the death of a president, "9-11", and a severe decline in the economic environment, the "Campaign For the Next Generation" closes its books with $242.5 million, well over the 1998 goal of $225 million. 2004, February, W&L's team wins the VFIC Ethics Bowl for the third time in four years. 2005-06, Celebration of Women at W&L 2006, October, Kenneth P. Ruscio '76, was inaugurated as the University's 26th President. The university community dedicates a new facility, John and Anne Wilson Hall, which houses the art and music departments.
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