"The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago; the second-best time is now." 

—Old Chinese Proverb 

The Arboretum on the Armstrong Campus of Georgia Southern 

One of the great ideas in education that gained significant traction in America during the 1930s Great Depression Era was the 'Junior College Movement.' Like many other communities throughout the USA, Savannah was a city without an institution of higher learning that could educate its citizens beyond a high school degree. Of course, in that day, the only citizens ‘considered’ were its ‘white’ citizens. 

George Whitefield proposed building the first college in Savannah at the Bethesda Orphanage he founded in 1740 (see PFS-146). It never materialized.  

Then in 1891, the Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth opened its doors in Savannah under the Second Morrill Land Grant Act, which mandated southern states develop land-grant colleges for its black citizens. That college later changed its name to Savannah State University (see PFS-114). 

So, it's interesting to point out that Savannah's African American population gained access to a college education well before its more privileged white residents. 

In 1935, Savannah Mayor Thomas Gamble garnered enough local support to open a Junior College in the city. Armstrong Junior College was founded that year with 175 students.  

The new college took up residence in the beautiful mansion built in 1919 for George Ferguson Armstrong in Savannah's Historic District (see PFS-74). Armstrong died in 1924, and the mansion remained unoccupied for a few years until his family gifted it for the project — which is the reason the college took on the Armstrong name. 

In 1964, Armstrong Junior College became a four-year collegiate institution renamed Armstrong Atlantic State University (AASU). It soon moved to a beautiful 268-acre campus outside the Savannah Historic District. Savannah gadfly Jim Williams (see PFS-01) bought and refurbished the old Armstrong Mansion. 

Desegregation at the University quickly became the next troubling issue to tackle at Armstrong. In what will go down as a story for the ages, the first African American graduate at Armstrong Atlantic State University was Otis Johnson, who became the Mayor of Savannah, serving two terms from 2004-2012. 

In 2018, the University System of Georgia Board of Regents approved the consolidation of AASU with Georgia Southern University. Wonderfully, the most significant thing that did not change about Armstrong when it officially became part of Georgia Southern was the incredible beauty of the campus itself. You'll need to see it with your own eyes, to believe it. 

It's almost inexplicable, but one of Savannah's best-kept secrets is that the Armstrong Campus is a fabulous Arboretum. I painted this scene en Plein air on Armstrong Campus in front of Hawes Hall, named to honor former college President Foreman Hawes, who retired from service at the time of the ground-breaking for the new campus.  

In front of this building are numerous plants, flowers, and trees, all part of the rich repository designed to preserve and conserve species from all over the globe. Collected throughout the campus is an incredible diversity of plant life available for any visitor to view and appreciate. Just one example: the campus collection includes over 200 species and subspecies of Maple trees from all over the world, to included: Western Asia, Europe, Northern Africa, and North America.  

You'll find one of the prettiest Maples of all — the Acer fabri — in front of Hawes Hall.