Reinhardt University - Foundation

Foundation

In 1883, former Confederate army Captain and Atlanta lawyer Augustus M. Reinhardt and his brother-in-law, former Lieutenant-Colonel John J. A. Sharp, commenced plans to open a school in Waleska. Both Reinhardt and Sharp had grown up in the Waleska area, and after the American Civil War had ended and the hardships of Reconstruction begun, both men wanted to provide a school for the local citizens of impoverished Cherokee County.

Reinhardt, who had been a successful lawyer after the Civil War with the firm of Reinhardt & Hook in Atlanta and owned interest in a successful Atlanta street car line, went to the North Georgia conference of the Methodist Church and appealed for them to provide a strong minister and teacher to start the school. In return, he promised to offer this individual a yearly salary of $1,000. Sharp, who had owned a store, cotton gin and tobacco factory in the Waleska area before the Civil War, had retained some of his money after the war and was still active in the local area. Upon deciding to start the school with Reinhardt, he purchased a local saw mill and hired men in preparation to start construction on school buildings.

In 1884, with the Methodist Conference answering Reinhardt's request by sending Emory College graduate Rev. James T. Linn as the school's first teacher, Reinhardt Academy opened for classes in an old cabinet and wood shop located at the southern edge of Waleska. The school had been named in honor of Reinhardt's father, Lewis W. Reinhardt, who had settled in the area in 1833 and had established a local church known as Reinhardt Chapel.

Just a month after the school opened, a tornado struck Waleska, damaging a lot of property and injuring several people. The school, however, wasn't harmed and classes continued uninterrupted. An unexpected good from the tornado was that it felled a large amount of forest pine in the area. Seizing this ready supply of wood, school officials and local citizens had it cut up into lumber and began to construct Reinhardt's first permanent building. In January 1885, students moved out of the old cabinet and wood shop and into the school's newly-completed, three-story framed building, which was capable of housing 11 classes of students. The school now had an official residence in the town.

Over the next century, many buildings were built and land acquired, expanding the campus's physical presence to a 90-acre (360,000 m2) building site and over-all 540-acre (2.2 km2) college campus. Fire and or demolition over the years have left no trace of any of the original 19th century buildings.

In its over 125-year history, Reinhardt has undergone many name changes – Reinhardt Academy to Reinhardt Normal College to Reinhardt College to Reinhardt University – and grown its student body tenfold, while maintaining its close ties to the United Methodist Church.