In 1854, a piece called "The Education of Our Girls" ran in a local paper, the Athens Watchman. The letter was written by Laura Cobb Rutherford, who was "writing from a ladylike modesty" about the poor state of education for women in the South. It was signed "Mother" and argued, "girls have the same intellectual constitution as men and have the same right as men to intellectual cultural development". One of the letter's readers was Mrs. Rutherford's brother, Thomas R.R. Cobb, the father of several daughters. Cobb, a lawyer, was completely unaware of the author's identity and after reading the editorial began raising funds for a girls' school.
School opens
The trustees purchased eight acres of land on what is now known as Milledge Avenue. When the school opened on January 10, 1859, its first principal was R. M. Wright. The school was later headed by Madame Sosnowski. Mildred Lewis Rutherford, or "Miss Millie", a graduate herself of Lucy Cobb Institute, took over leadership of the school in 1880. The Georgia Writers' Project, in a 1940 publication on the state published in the American Guide Series, characterized her thusly:
'Miss Millie,' always a champion of southern traditions, was a woman of powerful personality, commanding presence, and fearlessly outspoken opinions; she was known widely for the speeches she delivered in hoop skirts.
Seney-Stovall Chapel
It was Miss Millie who decided the girls needed a chapel and had them write seeking funding for one. In 1881, Nellie Stovall wrote "a beautiful and girlish letter" to George I. Seney, who responded with the funding for the $10,000 structure, an octagonal red brick building called the Seney-Stovall Chapel. It was designed by a local architect, William Winstead Thomas. When Miss Millie stepped down from the role of principal in 1895, she was replaced at the school's helm by her sister, Mrs. M.A. Lipscomb. Rutherford and Lipscomb were nieces of T.R.R. Cobb. In 1986, R.E.M. recorded two songs in the chapel for the documentary .
The end
Although the institute "became a well-known girls' preparatory school", "praised throughout the South for its emphasis on gentle manners and old-fashioned accomplishments", it "did not survive the depression", and closed its doors in 1931. At that point, the University of Georgia took over its campus, and used the main building as a women's dormitory and eventually storage. A restoration effort to save the complex was completed in 1997 with the renovation of Seney-Stovall Chapel. The former Lucy Cobb Institute became the home of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government.
