Emmie & Sallie Stewart
1859 - 1929 1853 - 1925
Emmie Stewart was born at the old Stewart Homeplace on “The Hill” in Oxford. She graduated from Wesleyan College in 1876. She and her sister, Sally ran a boardinghouse for Emory students on Watson Street around the turn of the century. In 1903, the Stewart sisters moved to 907 Emory Street, a large Victorian home that came to be known as the Stewart House, in downtown Oxford (present-day site of the post office).
Local legend has it that, when the new water system was installed at the Williams Gymnasium on the Oxford College campus in 1906-7, Emmie Stewart had a pipe connected from the gym to her house so that she could have a bathtub with hot and cold running water in her home. The Stewart House was the first house in Oxford to have a bathtub and their friends and neighbors would make appointments to come over and take a bath.
The Stewarts were also well-known for the dining service they offered to their boarders and other homesick students. While their home could only accommodate a few fortunate student boarders, their large dining room always had room for more. Their home became the center of college life throughout the school year, but particularly during commencement season when families and friends of graduates came to Oxford. The Stewart House was always able to expand its hospitable walls to take in a good portion of the visitors.
The Stewart House was lost to fire in 1946.
Local legend has it that, when the new water system was installed at the Williams Gymnasium on the Oxford College campus in 1906-7, Emmie Stewart had a pipe connected from the gym to her house so that she could have a bathtub with hot and cold running water in her home. The Stewart House was the first house in Oxford to have a bathtub and their friends and neighbors would make appointments to come over and take a bath.
The Stewarts were also well-known for the dining service they offered to their boarders and other homesick students. While their home could only accommodate a few fortunate student boarders, their large dining room always had room for more. Their home became the center of college life throughout the school year, but particularly during commencement season when families and friends of graduates came to Oxford. The Stewart House was always able to expand its hospitable walls to take in a good portion of the visitors.
The Stewart House was lost to fire in 1946.
The Stewart House
907 Emory Street