In 1892, a fire consumed the campus. The people of Cuthbert raised money to begin rebuilding the same year. That fall, the college reopened in what is now known as Old Main, a five-story Victorian, designed by Atlanta architect William H. Parkins, that was constructed for $25,000. Parkins was the most significant architect practicing in Georgia in the immediate decades following the Civil War. He settled in Atlanta where he started the state's most successful architectural business, which lasted until his retirement in the late 1880s.