The "Lower Five"

Photo of Lipscomb Hall representing the identical style of the "Lower Five"

In 1961, UGA finished a dormitory expansion with 5 new dorms placed in the West Campus area. These dorms, due to their location at the bottom of the Baxter Street hill, are formerly known as the “Lower Five” (Arch 111). The extra dormitory space was necessary in holding the increasing number of students that would enroll following the desegregation of the university, which also occurred in the same year. They are all nearly identical four-story buildings constructed with the purpose of housing the incoming co-ed freshmen and each hold about 160 students to collectively make up what is known as the Hill Community- now includes the newest addition of Oglethorpe Hall (1979). The buildings that make up the “Lower Five” include Boggs, Church, Hill, Mell, and Lipscomb halls.
Boggs Hall was named after William Ellison Boggs, the former UGA chancellor that served from 1889 - 1898. Church Hall received its name from the longest serving chancellor in the university’s history, Alonzo S. Church. His term that started in 1829 spanned for an astounding 30 years. The Hill Community’s own Hill Hall happens to be the only all-female freshmen dorm currently on campus. This hall was named after Walter Barnard Hill, who was the first UGA alumni to become chancellor. Hill’s efforts to increase student enrollment, course offerings, and additional funding from the state earned himself a dormitory in his name along with the community name to which it belongs. UGA’s chancellor from 1878 until 1888, Patrick Hues Mell, unbarred fraternities from their ban, thus creating the modern Greek system for the univerisity. During his term he also helped in repealing the policy that forced students to live in the dorms and introduced the first parliamentary procedure course at the school. Mell’s contributions and impact on the university earned him his name on the Mell Hall dormitory. UGA's very own Lipscomb Hall was named after the university's first leader to named as chancellor instead of president, Andrew A. Lipscomb. During his tenure, he oversaw the construction of Moore College and the library that is now known as the Holmes-Hunter Academic Building.