Clemson University is located in Clemson, South Carolina, on the shores of Lake Hartwell in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
It was originally founded in 1889 as the Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina from a land-grant, made in the will of Thomas Green Clemson, of property on the Fort Hill plantation estate in Calhoun. Fort Hill was once the home of his late father-in-law, John C Calhoun, the 7th Vice President of the United States, and the house still stands as a museum on the Clemson campus.
The town of Calhoun was renamed Clemson in 1943, and Clemson Agricultural College adopted the name Clemson University in 1964.