Hampden-Sydney College Historical Highway Marker

Hampden-Sydney is a liberal arts college for men. Classes began on November 10, 1775, and the College has been in continuous operation since. Patrick Henry believing that "every free state" should promote "useful knowledge amongst its citizens" helped create the College in Prince Edward County. Henry was instrumental in the granting by the Virginia General Assembly in 1783 of the original charter, the oldest private charter in the South. Seven of Henry's sons attended there. The 10th oldest college in the United States and last of the colonial colleges founded before the Revolution, Hampden-Sydney is the mother institution of Union Presbyterian Seminary and the Medical College of Virginia, now the part of Virginia Commonwealth University.