Chalmers Institute: Mississippi's First University

The modest Federal-style building in Holly Springs known as Chalmers Institute holds an outsized place in Mississippi history. Built in eighteen thirty-seven as the Holly Springs Literary Institute, it became the University of Holly Springs in eighteen thirty-eight, described as the first university in Mississippi. The university ran medical and law programs until eighteen forty-three, then stood vacant.

In eighteen forty-seven, a minister reopened it as Chalmers Institute, a boys' preparatory school. The school carried on, off and on, after the Civil War. A yellow fever epidemic finally ended classes in eighteen seventy-eight.

The building is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and stands as a reminder that higher education in Mississippi has roots in the hill country, not the Delta.