The Campus of Clemson University is located in unincorporated Pickens County, South Carolina, adjacent to Clemson; the U.S. Census Bureau designates the campus as a census-designated place.
[1] This campus was originally the site of U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun's plantation, named Fort Hill.
The plantation passed to his daughter, Anna, and son-in-law, Thomas Green Clemson.
On Clemson's death in 1888, he willed the land to the state of South Carolina for the creation of a public university.
The South Carolina General Assembly designated Clemson University as a "municipal corporation" in 1894.