First founded in 1892 as Pearl River Boarding School, in Poplarville, MS the institution that is now William Carey University was moved to Hattiesburg and opened in 1906 as South Mississippi College. Hattiesburg is home of the main campus.
Hattiesburg is known as the "Hub City" because it is located at the intersections of Interstate 59 and U.S. Highways 49, 98 and 11. The city is centrally located less than 100 miles from the state capital of Jackson, as well as the Gulf Coast, New Orleans and Mobile.
With a population of 50,000, Hattiesburg is the educational, retail and medical center for the southeast Mississippi region.