Marvin College Boy's Dormitory - Clinton, Kentucky - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The Marvin College Boys Dormitory and President's House are the only buildings extant associated with Marvin College. This small Methodist institution, founded in 1884, had as one of its students and short-time teachers, Alben W. Barkley, former U.S. Senator and Senate majority leader during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Vice President of the United States under President Harry S. Truman. The college played an important part in Barkley's development and assisted in his transformation from a young unsophisticated farmboy to a skilled orator and successful politician. At Marvin College, Barkley secured an education, training, and experience that sustained him throughout his long distinguished public career. This college (along with the Baptist
Clinton College, which rivaled Marvin from 1873 to 1922) was also one of the significant earlier "cultural institutions of the Jackson Purchase area of western Kentucky an area much of which developed only late in the 19th century. After the school closed in the late 1920's the Boys' Dormitory was to be later used as the well-known resort Jewell Hotel and Restaurant.

Like the President's House, it is now a private residence. Marvin College was located in Clinton in far southwestern Kentucky in a county which borders on the Mississippi River. It was a small town with a population in 1870 of only 123 people, but was to prosper soon thereafter under the impetus of the completion of the Illinois Central Railroad through the county in 1873. Clinton was distinguished by the first high school west of the Tennessee River.
Established in 1846, the school did much toward awakening an interest in education throughout Hickman County. In 1885 the Methodist Church South established Marvin College, "situated on a commanding eminence in the northern part of Clinton" and the challenge the influence of the West Union Association of the Baptist Church's Clinton College, the first institution of higher learning in the area since 1854.

The availability of free public education took its tdl on student enrollment and by 1921 it was evident that the demise of Marvin School was approaching. The following year the last class was graduated.

The main building, completed at a cost of $12,000, was described as "the finest school edifice in Hickman County" (Berrin, p. 68). The school opened for instruction August 31, 1885, with Professor J. H. Callaway serving as its first President. The college started with a small enrollment, only 76 students. Within a four-year period, however, the number had increased to 247. In 1899-190Q, a two-story brick building was erected to serve as the President's House, which still stands today. Ten years later the existingthree-story dormitory was constructed just north of the main building.

After the close of Marvin School, the old Boys' Dormitory was used for a time as a grade school. In 1928 the Board of Directors finally sold the buildings and grounds, with the dormitory being purchased by R.B. Jewell, Sr., and H.E. Jewell. Mr. and Mrs. R. A. Jewell operated it as a well-known resort hotel, popular with many prominent persons throughout the country. In 1938 it was bought by their daughter, Mrs. Lewis A. Birk, and her husband. Mrs. Birk managed HotelJewell untill 1973 when it was sold and the Interior remodeled for use as a residence. The President's House still stands, now owned by Homer H. Harpole, The foundation of the main Marvin Sdaool Building, razed in the early 1930's , is located on the Harpole property.

Both the surviving Boy's Dormitory and the President's House are plain, substantial brick buildings. The dormitory has three tall stories. The low hipped roof is broken by low gables on brackets the only ornamental feature of the building in the centers of the sides over the central bays which project barely visibly from the bare surfaces. The tall, narrow openings have shallow segmental arches of two headers with a raised course above. There is a bulky brick porch over the entrance. The whole effect might be forbidding if it were not for the setting of fine shade trees.


National Register for Historic Places #76000897

Street address: 404 North Washington Street (US 51), Clinton, Ky USA 42031 County / Borough / Parish: Hickman County Year listed: 1976 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event; Education Periods of significance: 1875-1899, 1900-1924 Historic function: Education; Domestic Current function: Domestic, Single Dwelling Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 1: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   10/05/2010 trailhound1 visited it