Founders Memorial Garden

A trickling fountain, rare flora, winding walkways, and ornamental shrubbery are a grand memorial to the founders of America's first garden club. Free.

Timeline for Founders Memorial Garden Complex:

1857: House built by Athens builder Ross Crane as a professor's residence

1867: Arrival of Professor William Leroy Broun and his family; they live in the Founders house until 1868

ca. 1870: Professor Charles Morris and his family move into the house, and daughter Louise Bolling Morris born in the Founders House

1870s: Sylvanus Morris, son of Professor Morris and himself later Dean of the School of Law, and his friend grow cotton in the house's garden patch (located on the site of present-day Joe Brown Hall)

1898: The professor's residence, lately occupied by Professor Morris' and Dean Morris' family, is converted into a college "mess hall" while adjacent Denmark Hall is built for this purpose

1901-1920: The house probably serves as student rental housing, and perhaps as a football dormitory, given its proximity to Herty Field, the University's historic football field

1920-24: Miss Mary Lyndon, first Dean of Women, resides in the Founders House following the first admission of co-eds to the University of Georgia

ca. 1924-28: Phi Mu Sorority occupies the Founders House

ca. 1928-1935: The house is used as a women's dormitory

1935-1960s: The Landscape Architecture Department takes up residence at the Founders House, and ground is broken for the Founders Memorial Garden in the mid 1930s

1960s-ca 1997: The Garden Club of Georgia operates its headquarters in the Founders Memorial House
1997-present: The office of Preservation Services of the School of Environmental Design relocated to the second floor of the Founders House, while the first floor serves as a house museum and conference space