North Georgia College - Dahlonega, GA
N 34° 31.827 W 083° 59.254
17S E 225786 N 3825028
Historic mint is now a historic part of North Georgia College.
Waymark Code: WM7625
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 09/07/2009
Views: 3
"North Georgia College (L), on the site of the mint, is a unit of the University System of Georgia. This liberal-arts junior college has an enrollment of 535 young men and women. After the War between the States, Federal authorities offered the old mint building to the state for educational purposes, in accordance with the Morrill Act of 1862 'donating public lands to the several states and territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and mechanical arts.' The school was opened on January 6, 1873, as a land-grant college. Known as North Georgia Agricultural College, it afdmitted only men until 1933, when it was reorganized by the state board of regents. Price Memorial Hall is built on the foundations of the Government mint, destroyed by fire in 1878."
--Georgia: A Guide to its Cities and Countryside, 1940
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This gold cupola is a historic landmark on campus and in town. The text of the nearby Georgia Historic Marker is below:
Erected here in 1837 was a U.S. Branch Mint which operated until seized by the Confederates in 1861. It produced gold coins estimated to exceed $6,000,000.00 in value. In 1871 the mint building and ten acres of land were transferred to the state for use as an agricultural college, largely through the efforts in Congress of Representative William Pierce Price, founder of North Georgia College and President of its Board of Trustees until his death in 1908. The mint building was destroyed by fire in 1878 and in the following year a second building was constructed on the old foundation walls. The new structure came to serve as the college administration building and in 1934 by action of the state Board of Regents was named the Price Memorial Building to honor the founder.
Leafing of the steeple with gold from the surrounding hills was sponsored by the Dahlonega Club to commemorate in 1973 the 100th anniversary of the college.
093-9 GEORGIA HISTORIC MARKER 1973
Book: Georgia
Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 385
Year Originally Published: 1940
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