Old North Campus of the University of Georgia is located at the southern terminus of College Avenue (Tax Parcel No. 17-1).

Adjacent to downtown Athens, the University of Georgia's Old North Campus encompasses three areas. The northern quadrangle's buildings form a U-shape with the northern end open to the city. Old College, the northern quadrangle's southern boundary, adjoins the southern quadrangle which is encircled by buildings. The third area of Old North Campus is a strip along Lumpkin Street and consists of buildings on the southern end and a greensward at the northwest corner. These three areas are characterized by groves of towering oaks, magnolias, and elms and diagonal walks, which criss-cross the quadrangles and the greensward. An ornate cast iron fence and the Arch, patterned after the Georgia State Seal and funded by the sale faa the University's botanical garden in the 1850s, marks the northern boundary of the University of Georgia.

On January 27, 1785, the Georgia General Assembly created the first chartered state-supported university in the nation, the University of Georgia. In 1801, the legislature sent the Senatus Academicus to Jackson County to select a site for the institution. The delegation of five men, including Abraham Baldwin, John Milledge, George Walton, John Twiggs, and Hugh Lawson, chose a site near Cedar Shoals on the Oconee River. Subsequently, John Milledge purchased a 633-acre tract of land from Daniel Easley and donated the parcel to the trustees of the University, who named the site Athens after the center of classical learning in Greece. Abraham Baldwin served as the first official president of the University; however, Josiah Miegs became the first active president and professor of the institution. Miegs and Reverend Hope Hull plotted the 37-acre square of the University and laid out the first lots of the town, which grew adjacent to the University on lots sold to finance its construction and operation.

Old North Campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (March 16, 1972). In addition to Old North Campus' buildings which are listed in the National Register, there exist several historic resources around the northern and southern quadrangles and below the greensward which are eligible. The Chapel (GA-1164), Demosthenian Hall (GA-14-87), and Phi Kappa Hall (GA-1117) were documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey, and the Georgia Historical Marker Program has given marker recognition to the University of Georgia (029-01), the Robert Toombs Oak (029-15), Herty Field (029-17), and the Red and Black (029-18).