The College Green of Ohio University is the university's centralized quadrangle lawn which saw the first academic buildings in the former Northwest Territory. The yard sits roughly aligned to cardinal directions, with Manasseh Cutler Hall facing true north. The Green, at the heart of the Athens campus, is surrounded by administrative, academic, and library buildings named for figures that played pivotal roles in university history: Manasseh Cutler, Robert Wilson, William McGuffey, and Vernon Alden to name a few. The most prominent three structures which adorn College Green, all over 200 years old and made of red brick, are featured on the official university logo and set the university's Federal appearance: Cutler Hall, originally constructed in 1816 as the College Edifice but not officially open until 1819 due to a fire, is the home of the President's office; Wilson Hall built 1837 houses the College of Arts & Sciences; and McGuffey Hall was built 1839. For most of the nineteenth and twentieth century, College Green saw small memorials and wartime monuments dedicated in remembrance of the people involved in those centuries' great conflicts. The Green is the centerpiece of a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, encompassing the collegiate yard, flanking buildings, and other nearby campus buildings.

Ohio University is a public research university in Athens, Ohio, United States. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation and subsequently approved for the territory in 1802 and state in 1804, opening for students in 1809.