Your Guide to Columbia, the University of South Carolina, and ...

A Brief
History of
South
Carolina’s
Flagship
University
The Palmetto State established South Carolina College—the precursor to the University
of South Carolina—on Dec. 19, 1801, as part of an effort to unite South Carolinians in
the wake of the American Revolution. South Carolina's leaders saw the new college as
a way to promote "the good order and harmony" of the state. The founding of South
Carolina College was also a part of the Southern public college movement spurred
by Thomas Jefferson. Within 20 years of one another, Georgia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Virginia established state-supported colleges. In the antebellum era, the
Palmetto State generously supported South Carolina College, and it became one of the
most influential colleges in the South before 1861, earning a reputation as the training
ground for South Carolina's
antebellum elite.
Rutledge DeSaussure McKissick Maxcy
The Horseshoe campus
The campus grew around the modified quadrangle of the Horseshoe. In 1805,
four years after the college was chartered, its first building, Rutledge, was
completed. Classes began that year with two faculty members and nine students.
As the only academic facility, Rutledge served as classroom, lab, library, chapel,
and student and faculty housing until DeSaussure was completed on the north
side of the Horseshoe in 1809. Throughout the next 38 years, the Horseshoe took
shape with eight more buildings. (The Horseshoe’s 11th building, and the only
one not built in the 19th century, is McKissick, completed in 1940.) Robert Mills,
the nation’s first federal architect and the designer of the Washington Monument,
greatly influenced the architecture of South Carolina College. Mills was involved
in the design of Rutledge, South Caroliniana Library, and Maxcy Monument in the
center of the Horseshoe, named for the first president of the college, Jonathan
Maxcy. The South Caroliniana Library was the first freestanding college library
building in the nation when it was completed in 1840.
Stability, post-war boom
Carolina went through several reorganizations in which the curriculum frequently
changed and its status shifted from college to university and back again. In
1906, the institution was rechartered for the final time as the University of South
Carolina. In the early decades of the 20th century, Carolina made strides
toward becoming a comprehensive university, and in 1917 became the first s
tate-supported college or university in South Carolina to earn regional
accreditation. The 1920s witnessed further progress and growth, with the
introduction of new colleges and degree programs, including the doctorate. The
Great Depression temporarily stalled this progress, but the outbreak of World
War II launched an era that transformed the University. Carolina hosted Naval
training programs during the war, and enrollment more than doubled in the
post-war era as veterans took advantage of the G.I. Bill.
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