Civil War in spite of the greater state's secession, and, remembering Kehr's suggestion, agreed to help Myers establish a university in Lincoln's honor. With the help of Howard and Kehr, Myers purchased the Four Seasons property, although the sanitarium building was all that remained of the once lavish hotel. Lincoln Memorial University was chartered on February 12, 1897— Lincoln's 88th birthday— with Cyrus Kehr as its first president. Howard joined the university as its managing director in 1898, and under his leadership the university expanded, acquiring among other places Alexander Arthur's house, which the university used as a conservatory. Howard mentioned the university and its purpose in a speech at Carnegie Hall in 1901, which helped raise money and allowed the university to pay off its debts. In 1902, the sanitarium building burned, and its surviving blocks were used to build Grant-Lee Hall, which has since been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Arthur's house also burned, but its tower, now called "Conservatory Tower," still stands. In April 1917, British folklorist Cecil Sharp spent several days at Lincoln Memorial University, where he collected 22 local versions of "old world" ballads such as "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor," "The Daemon Lover," and "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight." Literary legacy and the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival LMU is known for a rich literary history that includes such renowned authors as James Still (River of Earth, The Wolfpen Poems), Jesse Stuart (Taps for Private Tussie, The Thread That Runs So True), Don West (Clods of Southern Earth), and George Scarbrough (Tellico Blue). At one point, Emma Bell Miles, author and painter, served as Artist-in-Residence at the university, a position that went unfilled until it was taken over by bestselling novelist Silas House (Clay's Quilt, The Coal Tattoo) in 2005. House started the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival that same year and the gathering has grown steadily, featuring the region's most celebrated writers (Lee Smith, Earl Hamner, Jr., Ron Rash, Sheila Kay Adams, Denise Giardina, etc.) and becoming one of the premier events of Appalachian literature. Lincoln Memorial University is also home to the Grant Lee Literary Society, which spawned the still surviving Gamma Lambda Sigma Fraternity. Richard A. Gillespie College of Veterinary Medicine The LMU College of Veterinary Medicine welcomed its inaugural class in 2014 and achieved American Veterinary Medical Association accreditation in January 2019. Though many classes and research facilities