Three local citizens, W. M. Loggans, B. B. Heyward, and W. P. Furr, donated 300 acres of prime farmland to attract the Ninth District School of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, a boarding high school, to this site. Since 1906, thousands came here to study a wide range of subjects, make new friends, form lifelong relationships, and prepare for good livelihoods. The A and M School operated until 1933, when it closed because of the Great Depression. Habersham School Superintendent Claude Purcell then purchased the site from the state for a dollar, and through his foresight and the support of President Roosevelt’s National Youth Administration, Habersham College opened in 1938. This coeducational vocational school closed in 1943 when the N.Y.A. lost funding in the midst of World War II. That same year, the Georgia Legislature created the Vocational Division of the Department of Education, which used Habersham College’s assets to open North Georgia Trade and Vocational School, the first state-operated technical school. In 1985, N.G.T.V.S. became part of the new State Board of Technical and Adult Education, and today it is North Georgia Technical Institute. Citizens continue to come here to live and learn before seeking success in the working world.