ROME, Ga. — One of the top two most beautiful college campuses in America can be found right in northwest Georgia, according to the magazine Travel + Leisure.
The famed travel magazine released its rankings for the top 25 most beautiful campuses in the nation back in March, and Rome's Berry College slotted in at just about the top of the list - No. 2.
The school claims that, at 27,000 acres, it has the world's largest campus - and its striking English Gothic architecture - coupled with a long reflecting pool and large grassy knolls - at the Ford Complex is famed as the centerpiece.
The Travel + Leisure write-up on Berry College said:
"This rural college in Mount Berry, Georgia holds a lofty record: It's the world's largest contiguous college campus, with more than 27,000 acres of fields, lakes, forests, and mountains. Berry makes prime use of its setting too, with numerous reflecting pools and fountains situated nearby its beautiful English Gothic-inspired buildings like the Ford Dining Hall, Ford Auditorium, and Mary Hall, made possible by the school's largest benefactor, Henry Ford."
There are other eye-catching features of the campus footprint, including the Old Mill at Berry College, which the school says was built in 1930 as an iron hub for the early manufacturing community of Hermitage.
Its wooden waterwheel is considered one of the largest in the world, according to the school.
Berry College might only take issue with the campus getting ranked behind California's Stanford University.
As their campus website states:
"Fact: At 27,000 acres, Berry’s campus is (by far) the world’s largest.
Opinion: It is also the most beautiful."
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