University of Tennessee at Martin

The University of Tennessee at Martin is a public university in Martin, Tennessee. It is one of the five campuses of the University of Tennessee system. Prior to the acquisition of Lambuth University in Jackson by University of Memphis in 2011, UTM was the only public university in West Tennessee outside of Memphis.

Although UT Martin dates from 1927, it is not the first educational institution to use the current site. In 1900, Ada Gardner Brooks donated a site on what was then the outskirts of Martin to the Tennessee Baptist Convention for the purposes of opening a school. The school opened as the Hall-Moody Institute, named for two locally prominent Baptist ministers. It originally offered 13 years of study, from elementary grades to the equivalent of the first years of collegiate work. The institute changed its name to Hall-Moody Normal School in 1917, as teacher training became its primary focus. Five years later, Hall-Moody changed its name again to Hall-Moody Junior College. Due to declining enrollment and financial difficulties in the mid-1920s, Hall-Moody Junior College was in danger of closing. In 1927, the Tennessee Baptist Convention made the decision to consolidate Hall-Moody with a similar institution, Union University, in nearby Jackson.

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