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The Historic Vickery House is the headquarters of the Georgia Appalachian Studies Center. The house began as a three-room dwelling with log framing and weatherboard exterior erected by John D. Fields, the deputy sheriff of Dahlonega, around 1860. In 1869, Weir Boyd—a prominent Dahlonega citizen who served as Clerk of the Superior Court, State Representative and Senator, and Colonel in the 52nd Georgia Regiment—purchased the house for $405 at a sheriff's auction. Boyd presented the house to his daughter, Mattie, as a wedding present in 1878 following her marriage to B.P. Gaillard in 1877. Gaillard taught at the college for 50 years, from 1873 to1923. The Gaillards added three rooms in the rear and lived in the house until 1895, when they sold it to Dr. Elias Benton Vickery, a faculty member who attended the school as a student in 1887 before serving as professor of Latin Language and Literature for 39 years. Dr. Vickery lived in the house with his wife, Ella, and their children, Katherine and Eugene. He renovated the home between 1895 and 1908, replacing the right front room, widening the original hallway, and adding a second story and a bathroom on the first floor. He removed the original porch and installed a new Victorian porch, which ran along the front and left side of the house, and added the screen porch at the back. Today, the two-story Folk Victorian house and its surrounding acreage remain essentially the same as upon Dr. Vickery’s death in 1929.

Following Professor Vickery’s death, the house was owned by his children and heirs until 1974.  That year, the Vickery heirs gifted the house to the Dahlonega Club to restore and use as a community center, library, and local history museum. The Dahlonega Club restored the house in 1976 as a bicentennial project. In 2007, the club donated the 3,065 square foot building and 1.296 acres of land to the university to "provide the Center a strong physical presence in the community that will enhance the Center’s ability to fulfill its mission to contribute to the quality of life of the Georgia Appalachian community through service, preservation, education, awareness, and collaboration" (USG Board of Regents, 2007).

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