Rev. M. MacVicar, Ph. D., LL. D., is the president of the University, George Rice Hovey the dean of Wayland Seminary and College, Rev. George F. Genung, D. D., the dean of the Theological School. The faculty consists of fifteen teachers of unusual ability, graduates of the best colleges, some of whom have made a name for themselves already. About one-half are white. The courses of study are equal to those of the ordinary Northern schools of similar grade. Virginia Union University will doubtless be the largest Baptist school operated for colored people, and it is located in a part of the country where the colored population is very large, and especially among the Baptists.
On the corner of Hunter and Elliott streets, in the city of Atlanta, Ga., there stands a smoke-begrimed and somewhat dilapidated brick building bearing the inscription, "American Baptist Home Mission Society, 1879." Directly in front of the building lies the shunting-yard of the Southern Railroad. The locality is one of the nosiest, dustiest and smokiest in the city. It was in this building, among these unfavorable surroundings, that the work of the Atlanta Baptist Seminary was carried on from 1879 till 1890.
In the old building no provision was made for dormitories. The students, most of whom were from the country, were left to find boarding-houses where they could, and besides living in close and crowded homes, where the atmosphere was not specially intellectual and where the opportunities for quiet study were not great, they were, except for the few hours of school each day, beyond the control and watchcare of the teachers and exposed to the distractions and temptations of the city.
For twelve years prior to the year 1879 the Seminary had been located at Augusta, Ga., and was known as "The Augusta Institute."
Upon the death of Rev. Joseph T. Robert, LL. D., president for fourteen years, which occurred in 1884, Rev. Samuel Graves, D. D., was appointed. Dr. Graves was quick to see that the first requisite to the vigorous growth of the school was a transplanting. Accordingly, he set to work to secure ground and building. As the result of his efforts the present campus was secured and the present building erected, and in the spring of 1890 the Seminary bade farewell to the old building and its noisy neighbors and took up its abode in its new home.