Grand Oaks University
The Eclipse entered the Grand Oaks University campus along a narrow, tree-lined avenue. The grounds were a pleasing fusion of neoclassic architecture set among the remains of old pasturelands and apple orchards..."

Grand Oaks is a private, coeducational university located in the township of Hidden Rock on the west bank of the Stitchwort River. The university offers 150 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree programs with an emphasis on agriculture, science, fine arts, history and engineering. The university’s current annual enrollment averages around 10,000 students.
Established in 1860 to serve the farming communities of the area, Grand Oaks was often derisively known as a “cow college” for its emphasis on agriculture, animal husbandry and related disciplines. During its first year of operation, the entire student body numbered less than 200 students from mostly rural backgrounds. Over the next few decades however, private endowments successfully expanded both the campus and its academic programs. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the school’s enrollment had quadrupled with more and more students attending from outside the Hidden Rock area.
Following World War I, the school added the Classical Studies Department to the College of History thanks to a substantive endowment from Gouldstone Elliot Adams, a prominent businessman, philanthropist and amateur archaeologist. Adams would go on to finance numerous university excavations throughout Greece, Turkey and the islands of the Mediterranean. Although these expeditions effectively ended with the start of World War II (1939-1945), they had amassed a huge trove of artifacts which would become the basis for the Museum of Hellenic and Cycladic Culture, which was established in 1985 and named for Adam’s son, A. A. Arthur Adams. Today, the Classical Studies Department is one of the university’s most renowned programs.
Following World War I, the school added the Classical Studies Department to the College of History thanks to a substantive endowment from Gouldstone Elliot Adams, a prominent businessman, philanthropist and amateur archaeologist. Adams would go on to finance numerous university excavations throughout Greece, Turkey and the islands of the Mediterranean. Although these expeditions effectively ended with the start of World War II (1939-1945), they had amassed a huge trove of artifacts which would become the basis for the Museum of Hellenic and Cycladic Culture, which was established in 1985 and named for Adam’s son, A. A. Arthur Adams. Today, the Classical Studies Department is one of the university’s most renowned programs.