Rhodes College visitors often become enamored when stepping on the picturesque campus for the first time, so it is no surprise that the college is among Architectural Digest’s “64 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America.” Rhodes also has received the recognition in past years.
The publication, which features the work of top architects and designers, notes the college’s “beautiful wooded campus with uniformly Collegiate Gothic buildings made of Arkansas sandstone, Vermont slate, and Indiana limestone.”
The focus on the campus environment began with Dr. Charles Diehl, the president who moved the college to Memphis in 1925. “Appropriate and beautiful surroundings will have a transforming influence upon generation after generation of students and upon the very character of the institution itself,” said Diehl. “Beauty, like truth and goodness, needs to be expressed.”
Several of Rhodes’ buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places, and majestic oak trees, grown from seedlings taken from the school’s original location in Clarksville, TN, are part of the campus landscape.