Atlanta University Center District

West of downtown Atlanta, this district brings together the campuses of Morris Brown, Clark, Morehouse and Spelman Colleges, the Interdenominational Theological Center and Atlanta University. It also includes E. A. Ware School, Friendship Church, the former West Hunter Street Baptist Church, University Homes and nearby residential streets. The oldest campus, on the elevated Diamond Hill site, began with Gaines (North) Hall, whose cornerstone was laid in 1869. Later buildings range from Victorian brick halls such as Graves Hall (1889) and Spelman's Giles and Packard Halls to Georgian Revival structures of the early 1930s around the Atlanta University quadrangle. Spelman's Sisters Chapel, from 1922, was designed by Atlanta architect Neel Reid. The district was listed because these schools were major institutions of higher learning for Black Americans. They offered educational opportunities and helped shape Atlanta's Black community, and the area also contains notable architecture. The nominated area covers about 200 acres.