![\"FALL14the-rosenwald-building\"](\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/FALL14the-rosenwald-building.jpg\")
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Most of the buildings on Georgia Southern\u2019s campus are named in honor of a man or woman who had a direct association with the University, but the Rosenwald Building is one of the rare exceptions.<\/p>\n
Originally built as a library in 1938, when the school was still called South Georgia Teachers College, the building is a tribute to the illustrious retailer and philanthropist\u2014Julius Rosenwald. The college library was located in Rosenwald Building until 1975, but today is home to the University Museum and the Offices of the Registrar and Financial Aid, among others.<\/p>\n
Born in Springfield, Illinois, Rosenwald was part owner of what was America\u2019s leading mail-order business\u2014Sears, Roebuck and Company. Under Rosenwald\u2019s leadership, Sears evolved into a popular bricks-and-mortar merchandise store and one of the largest retail chains in America. He served as its vice president and treasurer from 1895 to 1910, as president from 1910 to 1924, and as chairman of the board of directors from 1924, until his death in 1932.<\/p>\n
The business luminary is equally known for his extraordinary philanthropy efforts, which far outpaced the work of his contemporaries. Established in 1917, the Julius Rosenwald Fund raised millions of dollars for rural and minority schools and colleges throughout the United States. Thanks to Rosenwald\u2019s generosity and dedication to education initiatives, more than 5,000 \u201cRosenwald Schools\u201d were built in the rural South to help educate African-American youths. In addition, roughly 4,000 libraries were added to existing schools.<\/p>\n
Because of our own role as a leader in rural education, Georgia Teachers College was able to secure grants from the Rosenwald Fund in order to raise the educational level of teachers in rural public schools as well as establish scholarships for future teachers who wished to work in rural schools. In his book, \u201cGeorgia Southern: Seventy-Five Years of Progress and Service\u201d, historian T. Ray Shurbutt wrote that the College received $75,000 in grants and scholarships from the Rosenwald Fund, when Marvin Pittman was president. As a tribute to Rosenwald\u2019s devotion and generosity, the new library was dedicated to his memory when it opened in 1938.<\/p>\n
Director of Georgia Southern University Museum Brent Tharp says the Rosenwald name is integral to understanding the extraordinary story of Georgia Southern. \u201cIt is a testament to the progressive vision for the role of education in the community shared by the school and Julius Rosenwald. It represents, too, the perseverance that has been a hallmark of this institution,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the midst of the crushing effects of the Great Depression, Marvin Pittman and the faculty and staff of Georgia Teachers College not only kept the school going, but actually expanded the campus and operations, including a new library thanks in part to the Rosenwald Fund.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Shurbutt, the original building was constructed for $31,466. Even today, the Rosenwald building is still one of the most eye-catching buildings on campus\u2014an architectural landmark that admirably connects our glorious past and present, and reminds us all of what the hope of Georgia Southern University\u2019s future can be, when just one person takes the time to care. – Sandra Bennett<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What\u2019s in a Name?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-2387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-fall-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}