Join us in celebrating the 125th Anniversary of LMU!
Our beloved university was founded in 1897 on February 12, the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. We are planning a year of special programming and events in honor of our quasquicentennial.
The Founding of LMU
Throughout 2022, we will celebrate “Four Seasons to New Seasons.” The theme highlights the University’s humble beginnings on the grounds of the then-defunct Four Seasons Hotel which opened with a grand ball in 1892. The luxurious vacation destination in Harrogate, Tennessee, included a 700-room hotel and 200-bed sanitarium. A year later, the enterprise was failing. The property and buildings were sold in 1895 and promptly liquidated.
In 1896, Civil War General, Oliver Otis Howard recalled a conversation he had with President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, where Lincoln observed that the mountain people of East Tennessee were loyal, but often overlooked. Howard recalled Lincoln’s wish to repay the Appalachian people for their loyalty and agreed to assist Reverend A.A. Myers by building a school that would serve as a living memorial to President Lincoln while providing educational opportunities for underserved populations. Lincoln Memorial University was founded on the anniversary of Lincoln’s birth in 1897, nestled in the Cumberland Gap at the site of the Four Seasons Hotel.
One hundred and twenty-five years later this living memorial to Lincoln can take a student from kindergarten, at the J. Frank White Academy, all the way to a professional degree. The University’s footprint stretches from Corbin, Kentucky, to Tampa, Florida, with online offerings reaching across the country. With an enrollment of over 5,000 students and an economic impact on the region that exceeds $100 million, LMU is fulfilling the mission established by its founders.