Year Erected: 1957

Image courtesy of Tony Parrott

Marker Text: Chartered in 1849 as Forsyth Female Collegiate Institute, Tift College was one of the group of colleges pioneering in the education of women. Known for 50 years as Monroe College, the name was changed in 1907 to Bessie Tift College, honoring a devoted alumna, Mrs. Bessie Willingham Tift, and was abbreviated to Tift in 1956. Since 1898 the property of the Georgia Baptist Convention, it has served well its avowed purpose: “that our daughters may be as cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace.”