Why is that building called that? Who was Moore?
The University is indebted to the City of Athens for Moore College which presently houses the UGA Honors program and is located directly behind the Chapel.
According to Dr. F.N. Boney in his book, “A Walking Tour of The University of Georgis,” it is the only permanent building to appear on campus from the end of the War Between the States and the beginning of the twentieth Century.
There was little financial support from the state legislature during those lean years, and Dr. Richard D. Moore, an Athens physician and a member of the University’s board of trustees, convinced the city of Athens to appropriate $25,000 for the construction of a new classroom building.
Dr. Boney says the building was designed by Leon Henri Charbonnier, a professor of mathematics and engineering at UGA for almost 40 years. The building features a unique mansard roof and is the only French Second Empire structure on campus.
It was completed in 1874 and named for Dr. Moore who had been instrumental in supporting the local YMCA and in the establishment of the Emmanuel Episcopal Church.
He was born in Athens in 1809 and graduated from the University in 1829. He then attended Jefferson Medical College and also taught at UGA.
He died in 1873 a year before the building named for him was completed.
