Emory Restores Historic Entranceway

University Architect Jen Fabrick describes how the renovation of Emory's front entrance, which involved restoring the Haygood Hopkins gates to their historic position, fits in with the roundabout that is coming soon to Emory Village.

The Haygood-Hopkins Memorial Gateway is one of the University's most familiar icons. The monument is composed of two marble pillars connected by an ornate, wrought iron arch. At the center of the span is a lantern, which has become a trademark of the University and which appears on the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences' gonfalon.

Facing the gateway, the pillar on the left is dedicated to Atticus Greene Haygood, who graduated from Emory College in 1859, fifty-six years before the University moved from Oxford to Atlanta. Known as a preacher and a philanthropist, Haygood served as president of Emory from 1875-84. From 1878-82 he was editor of the Wesleyan Christian Advocate, and from 1890 until his death in 1896 he was a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Two quotations attributed to Haygood are inscribed at the base of the pillar: "Nothing praises or pleases God like service," and "Let us stand by what is good and try to make it better."

The opposite pillar is dedicated to Isaac Stiles Hopkins, also an 1859 graduate of Emory College. A minister as well as a teacher, Hopkins was president of Emory from 1884-88. Following his tenure in Oxford, he went on to be the founder and first president of the Georgia School of Technology (forerunner of the Georgia Institute of Technology). Words etched in the marble beneath the details of his life describe Hopkins as "A pioneer in technical education, he was one of the builders of the New South."

The gateway was a gift of Linton B. Robeson, a member of the Class of 1886. A partner in the Boston publishing house Ginn & Company, he was a member of the College Board of Trustees for fifteen years and president of the alumni association for a decade. Robeson's undergraduate years spanned the tenures of both Haygood and Hopkins, whom Bishop Warren Candler said "kept Emory College alive in the Reconstruction days following the Civil War."

For more information on the gates, see http://emoryhistory.emory.edu/enigmas/frontdoor.htm

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