Most Beautiful College Campuses

The University of the South (Sewanee) where Brian and Melissa went was selected the #1 most beautiful college campus in the country. Article HERE. It really is beautiful and was built as a replica of the middle campus of Oxford University in England because of the funding they received from there when the university was founded. It's an Episcopal school and has a theology school there. Sewanee is executor of the Tennessee Williams estate because his grandfather went to seminary there. He mentioned it in Night of the Iguana by having the defrocked priest be a graduate. Any time one of his plays is produced, they receive royalties.


Not only is it a beautiful campus but an excellent liberal arts university. Traditional dress code is traditionally jackets and ties for males and skirts and dresses for women, but I think that's been relaxed a bit. Check HERE for Sewanee traditions. Interesting! For example:

The Sewanee Angel - In a folk story it is said that the domain of the University of the South is a place so beautiful angels dwell within its the gates. These angels protect all inhabitants and visitors on the Domain. Sewanee Angels are more than happy to become your guarding angel and protect you off Domain as well. In order to pick up your angel you must tap the roof of your car as you drive through the gates when departing campus. Upon your return, you tap the roof of your car to release your angel.

Once they get students there, they intend to keep them. There were 10 students in Brian's freshman English class. Jon Meacham, you have seen on MSNBC, graduated from Sewanee the same year Brian did. He's editor of Newsweek and wrote the Pulitzer-winning American Lion about Andrew Jackson.

From their website HERE.

The result of such individualized education is clear in the academic success of Sewanee students and alumni. The University has had 25 Rhodes Scholars--a number that puts Sewanee in the top four nationally among American liberal arts colleges--as well as 26 NCAA Postgraduate Fellows, 36 Watson Fellows, and dozens of Fulbright Scholars, and has an acceptance rate to graduate and professional schools that far outpaces its peers. The School of Theology has added to its alumni ranks countless bishops, including three of the last four presiding bishops of the Episcopal Church.

Quote from Brian: At least once a month while I was at Sewanee, I'd look around and think, "Wow. I go to school here."

All Saints Chapel

One year when I took Brian back to school, I noticed some changes in his dorm and said, "Oh, they've renovated up to the 50's."


Quite a bit of drinking goes on there, and they used to have drinking societies. That's typical of the Episcopal Church since there's a saying that "where three or four are gathered, you shall surely find a fifth." On Shrove Tuesday, the men of the church had a beer in one hand and were flipping pancakes with the other.