College buildings

Campus Changes Seen Through Maps

September 30, 2014 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

A class visit for Digital Studies 360 (Digital Maps, Space and Place) brought a reminder that while some aspects of the campus have lasted generations, others have been more, well, let’s say mobile. In DS360 students are learning about mapping. They spent time looking at a variety of campus maps and asking questions about campus changes.

Even though there have been 2 Chambers buildings and 2 Martin Science buildings, the physical location of English classes or chemistry labs has remained within the same general area. Not so for athletics, particularly gymnasiums. Those have wandered all over campus.

Campus map from 1928-29

This map from 1928-29 shows some of the transitions. The dark building (#7) is noted as the Physical Training building. Built in 1890, it provided the first indoor gymnasium for the campus. Known as Morrison Hall, it also served as the YMCA building.

Students putting on an exhibition in front of Morrison Hall.

Students working out on outdoor gym equipment.

Along with the building, the college constructed an outdoor gymnasium that grew more elaborate over time. Starting with parallel bars and adding layers of ladders and platforms. By 1917, the college was in need of a new gym facility. The Alumni Gymnasium, the grey building on the map (#32), moved athletic gathering from the front of campus to behind the Chambers building. The name Alumni Gymnasium was appropriate since alumni funded the building, raising the money by classes. The class of 1886 won the honor of raising the most money, $1725.00, followed by the class of 1875 at $1260.00.

Alumni Gymnasium

The three story building was 95 feet by 90 feet, with the locker room the basement, gym space on the main floor and offices on the 3rd. The 1929 basketball team with Dean Rusk ’31 and future history professor Frontis Johnston ’30 played in this building, although to small crowds as the space was not designed to hold many spectators

1929 team on steps of Alumni Gym

The next gym, Johnston, was built in 1949. It was built just a little to the east of the Alumni Gymnasium, facing the already existing Richardson field — and with more seating for basketball fans. The current gym is Baker Sports Complex built in 1989. Once again, it is a little further to the east and offers even more seating for Wildcat fans.

Basketball game in Alumni Gymnasium, stands are packed

Basketball area in Alumni Gymnasium

Johnston Gym filled with screaming wildcat fans

Johnston Gym allowed for more students and townspeople to support the Wildcats.

The map also shows tennis courts in 2 locations. The oldest location were the courts next to Concord Road, while the newly build courts moved east as well bumping up to the golf course (which later moved further to the east as well). The tennis courts are moving again — a bit more to the east behind the Baker Sports complex. Looks like the archives will need to add some new maps for future students.

Filed Under: Athletics, College buildings

“For Hygienic and Other Reasons”: Looking Back at the College’s Laundry Service

June 4, 2014 By cachristianlamb Leave a Comment

Early last month, Davidson made news for the College’s decision to transition to self-service laundry. Prior to the opening of the College Laundry in 1920, students patronized African-American laundresses in the area, or paid fees to those fellow students who facilitated laundry deliveries to Charlotte. One early student who had his laundry done locally was future United States President Woodrow Wilson, as he records in a notebook used during the 1873 – 1874 academic year:

Detailed laundry charges for Wilson’s first few months at Davidson.

As early as 1911, the College’s Board of Trustees wanted to establish a College Laundry, in order to promote “the comfort, convenience, and health of the student body and Faculty and their families.” However, financial considerations made the project impossible until the 1920-1921 academic year.

Students holding laundry bags – possibly as part of an entrepreneurial scheme, or else as freshman hazing , 1910.

The 1919-1920 College Catalogue announced the opening of the new facility: “A laundry sufficient to do all unstarched work for the students has been authorized and will be in operation at the opening of next fall. For hygienic and other reasons all students will be required to patronize this laundry. The charge will be as low as will allow for the proper conduct and care of the plant.”

Students (including future College President John W. Kuykendall, at rear) carry their "bundles" to the Laundry, 1957.

Students (including future College President John W. Kuykendall, at rear) carry their “bundles” to the Laundry, from Quips and Cranks 1957.

By the early 1960s, the College Laundry became overwhelmed by the demands of the growing student body – as enrollment rose to 1,000 students, costs and the need for new equipment rose similarly. In a December 21, 1966 letter from President Grier Martin wrote that: “we plan to meet with a cross section of the student leaders to get their feeling on laundry operations in the future. In the past, we have felt that we had alternatives to either continue the present ‘bundle’ system or go to a per piece basis for students, removing the now compulsory feature.”

Davidson College Dry Cleaning coupons, 1968.

This issue came up again when the College went coeducational in 1972, when the addition of female students further stressed the Laundry’s capabilities. The Special Sub-committee on Coeducation of the Student Life Committee recommended that, since “the general consensus [is] that the laundry as it stands now is not equipped to launder women’s apparel satisfactorily… no woman student shall be required to patronize the college laundry, with the possible exception of mandatory linen service [and] coin-operated washing and drying facilities be installed…” By 1980, the self-service machine charges were incorporated into the laundry fee, rather than remaining coin-operated.

“Davidson Laundry is Laundry For Students,” 1972.

Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, Davidson student opinion was divided – while many valued the convenience and time saved in having their laundry done by the College, a vocal group resented paying the mandatory fees and preferred a self-service, pay-as-you-use system. Petitions and letters to the editor of the Davidsonian reflected these sentiments.

A student picks up his laundry, 1980.

In defense of the Laundry, information pamphlets given to new students in the 1980s featured an explanation of why the College ran a laundry service: “Because we are a small college in a small town, we operate a laundry to provide a convenient, economical, time-saving service to students.”

Davidson College Laundry pamphlet, 1986 – 1987.

In 2004, the College Laundry building was renamed the Lula Bell Houston Laundry, in honor of the retirement of laundry worker Lula Bell Houston after 57 years of service to the College. By 2011, the College Laundry saw another change – a move to recyclable canvas bags, rather than the brown paper the clean clothes had traditionally been wrapped with.

With the transition to an entirely self-service model beginning on May 15, 2015, the Lula Bell Houston Laundry building will be vacated. Current students, alumni, and community members: what do you think the Laundry building should house next?

Filed Under: Campus traditions, College buildings, Student Life

Underneath the Carolina Inn

May 7, 2014 By cachristianlamb Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago, the archives received a donation of several mysterious items from Irvin Brawley, a longtime Davidson College employee (1971 – 2010; Brawley retired as the Associate Director for Property Management and Insurance). These items had been unearthed from beneath the Carolina Inn during restoration work, but nothing else was known about them.

Found underneath the Carolina Inn!

All told, the items included Two Lucky Strike “flat fifties” cigarette tins, a bottle of castor oil from Eckard’s, and a bottle of Sloan’s Family Liniment. Before delving into details about these items, a brief history of the building they were found underneath: many Davidsonians today are familiar with the Carolina Inn, in its role as the home for the College’s Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.

The Carolina Inn, May 2014.

Built circa 1848, the structure first began serving as a store that same year, under the operation of Leroy Springs. In 1855, the building was sold to Hanson Pinkney Helper, giving the building its other frequently recognized name – the Helper Hotel.

Carolina Inn as the Helper Hotel, circa 1870s.

The Helper Hotel was much more than just a hotel – the building also housed Helper’s store, and in the latter part of the 1800s, Dr. J.J. Dupuy operated a drug store on the premises. A peek at one of the pages of Helper’s 1896 store ledger gives a taste of what the Davidson community was able to purchase:

F.M. Hobbs’ account for 1896.

Fred Marvin Hobbs, a Davidson resident and member of the class of 1900, seems fond of candy, cigars, and bay rum. Sadly, Hobbs perished in a drowning incident in the Catawba River in July 1900 along with a fellow classmate, David Yonan. Both students are buried in the Davidson College cemetery.

F.M. Hobbs, a frequenter of Helper’s store during his days at Davidson.

In 1901, the Sloan family purchased the building and continued running both an inn and a store on the premises. The Sloan’s daughter, Sadie Sloan Bohannan, ran the building as a weekend rooming house for young women visiting Davidson in the 1920s and ’30s – former Library Director and first College Archivist, Dr. Chalmers G. Davidson (class of 1928), recalled that period as:

“…the day of the ‘great belle’ in the South, and ‘prom-trotters,’ as they were called, who made the rounds from Princeton to Tulane stayed at Mrs. Bohannan’s during their Davidson weekends. Mrs. Bohannan had beautiful antiques (she sometimes put as many as four girls in one four poster bed – for a dollar which was high pay) and she ran a highly reputable house. Davidson students could go only to the top of the stair to deposit suitcases and no farther.” (from Mary D. Beaty’s Davidson: A History of the Town from 1835 until 1937)

The College purchased the Carolina Inn from the Sloan family in 1946, and the building has been used as student housing, community gathering space (the town’s “Teen Canteen”), and as office and classroom space. Renovated in 1971 and designated as a Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Site in 1977, the Carolina Inn still serves as a meeting place for the College community.

Returning to the four items found beneath the Inn, not much is known about them. The Lucky Strike tins could date from anytime in between the 1930s through the 1950s – this design was used throughout those years. Both of these tins have some loose tobacco remaining inside, and are a bit dented. The back of the tins list that these cigarettes were manufactured at “Factory No. 30 District of N.C.”

Lucky Strike “flat fifties” tin.

The bottle of castor oil from Eckerd’s is equally difficult to date – the label lists a Tryon Street address in Charlotte, as well as a recommended dosage of one to two tablespoons for adults or one to two teaspoons for children. Eckard’s expanded into North Carolina, including Charlotte, in the 1920s, and the store operated in the area until the company went defunct in 2006-2007. The slogan “Creators of Reasonable Drug Prices” appears to have been used by the chain for several decades, however, and no other markings on the bottle give further clues.

Eckerd’s of Charlotte, N.C., castor oil.

Finally, Sloan’s Family Liniment – Earl Sloan began marketing his father’s horse liniment for use on people by the late 1800s, and Sloan’s Liniment can still be purchased today. This bottle, like the one of Eckerd’s castor oil, does not have any date information but does include instructions for use.

Sloan’s Family Liniment: good for both animals and people!

If you have any information on our mysterious finds (or more finds of your own) from underneath the Carolina Inn, please get in touch with the archives!

Filed Under: College buildings, Town history

The Twelve Days of Davidson

December 25, 2013 By cachristianlamb Leave a Comment

For this Christmas Day edition of Around the D, we offer a play on “The Twelve Days of Christmas” – The Twelve Days of Davidson, collapsed into a single post:

On the first day of Christmas

Davidson College Archives & Special Collections sent to me

12 Original Houses on Patterson Court

Patterson Court, circa 1960s.

11 Seniors Graduating at the First Commencement Exercises (1840)

A young E. Constantine Davidson, one of the those eleven graduates in 1840, and the diploma of Oni Davis McNeely (Class of 1840), currently on display in the Library’s Davidsoniana Room.

10 Wins in the Undefeated 2000 Season for the Football Team

Excited Wildcat fans tear down the goalposts after the last game of the undefeated season; a few fans hang off the posts (from Quips and Cranks 2001).

Those goalposts ended up in the senior apartments, as seen in this photo from Quips and Cranks 2001 – shown here with Chris Thawley, Jeff Larrimore, Rob Neuman, and William Childs (all Class of 2004).

9 Decades of Wildcat Logos

The mascot logos for Davidson throughout the years: Top row, left to right: 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Middle row: 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Bottom row: 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

Top row, left to right: 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.
Middle row: 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
Bottom row: 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

8 Teams Left in the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship when Davidson Reaches the “Elite Eight” in 2008

Davidson Men’s Basketball Team (from Quips and Cranks 2008).

Poster advertising a celebration of the 2008 basketball team, after March Madness.

7 Cemeteries Under Lake Norman (that we know of!)

Original site of Baker Cemetery.

Current site of Baker Cemetery, at Centre Presbyterian Church in Mooresville, NC.

6 Deep South Field Hockey Championships in a Row (1990 – 1995)

Team photograph of the 1990 field hockey team, the first in the run of 6 championships (from Quips and Cranks 1991).

1995 field hockey team, the last in the conference title run (Davidson's field hockey team currently plays in the NorPac conference, not Deep South)

1995 field hockey team, the last in the conference title run (from Quips and Cranks 1996; Davidson’s field hockey team currently plays in the NorPac conference, not Deep South)

5 Years of “Ghosts in the Library”

Posters from the first three years of Ghosts in the Library (2009 – 2011)

Posters from Ghosts in the Library, 2012 and 2013.

4 College Library Directors

Cornelia Rebekah Shaw, 1907 - 1936; Chalmers Gaston Davidson (Class of 1928), 1936 - 1975; Leland M. Park (Class of 1963), 1975 - 2006; and Gillian Gremmels, 2007 - present.

From top, left to right: Cornelia Rebekah Shaw, 1907 – 1936; Chalmers Gaston Davidson (Class of 1928), 1936 – 1975; Leland M. Park (Class of 1963), 1975 – 2006; and Gillian Gremmels, 2007 – present.

3 Students Taking One of the Earliest X-Rays (1896)

Eben Hardin, Pender Porter, and Osmond L. Barringer snuck into Dr. Henry Louis Smith’s lab to X-Ray: a cadaver finger wearing a ring and stuck with two pins; magnifying glass; a pill box containing two 22 cartridges, one pin, two rings, and six Strychnine pills; and an empty egg with a button inside.

2 Chambers Buildings

Original Chambers Building (1860 – 1921), before the fire of November 28, 1921.

New Chambers Building, completed in 1929.

and the First Woman President at Davidson College

Dr. Quillen receives the College mace (photograph from the Davidsonian).

Happy Holidays (and a merry winter break) from Davidson College’s Archives & Special Collections!

Filed Under: Alumni, Athletics, Campus traditions, College buildings, Digital collections, Staff

The Farm at Davidson: Now and Then

October 22, 2013 By cachristianlamb Leave a Comment

This week is North Carolina Archives Week, and since this year’s theme is “Home Grown: A Celebration of N.C. Food Culture and History,” what better time to delve into the history of farming at Davidson?

Davidson College was founded as a manual labor school, which meant that the earliest students “perfom[ed] manual Labor either agricultural or mechanical in the manner and to the extent determined by the Board of Trustees,” as mandated by March 1839 Constitution of Davidson College. Manual labor was seen as a way of reducing the cost of education and thereby making college affordable to more than the sons of the upper classes, and as a benefit to both the physical and mental heath of students. President Robert Hall Morrison spelled out the societal benefits that manual labor education could bring about in his August 2, 1838 close of term address, stating that:

The efforts of all enlightened men should be combined to improve the moral condition of society by rendering manual labor more reputable and inviting. This is not to be done solely by pronouncing eulogies, but, as time and circumstances will permit, by holding the spade, the axe, the plow, and the plane. Educated men should prove that they are not above doing as well as praising the labor by which society lives.

But while President Morrison waxed poetic on the possibilities of labor, the students had very different feelings. Alexander Bogle (class of 1843), wrote to a friend that “now comes the work which is not so pleasant… We have to work very hard three hours which is the time allotted and you know that it is pretty hard to work that long.”

Page 2 of Bogle’s letter, November 22, 1839

Similarly, Pinckney B. Chambers (class of 1840) recalled for the Charlotte Daily Observer in 1903 that “The farm work was greatly hampered by the tendency of the mischievous and shiftless to misplace the tools and outwit the overseer.” He was more colorful in his distaste for manual labor in a letter to John M. Sample in 1837, after he had transferred to Caldwell Institute:

There is no labor attached to it. (which is one of God’s blessings) All you have to do is to pay your money and go to school… It is I think a much better school than Davidson College. For several reasons but I will give you but two at present as I am in a great hurry, they are very particular reasons with me, the first is we do not have to work, and the second is we get plenty to eat and that, that is good.

First page of Chambers’ letter to Sample, December 9, 1837

By 1841, it was clear that the manual labor system wasn’t achieving its aims – rather than lowering costs and making education more accessible, Davidson was losing money on the endeavor. The Board of Trustees voted to abolish the system, and the college farm experiment came to a close.

More than 170 years later, Davidson students are back on the farm – this time on a voluntary basis, rather than a mandatory one. The Farm at Davidson, purchased in 2008, became a working farm again last fall. The College farm provides sustainable produce for Vail Commons, Davis Cafe, and Much Ado Catering, as well as a space for students and members of the Davidson community to learn about where their food comes from.

As Farm Manager Theresa Allen explains, there’s a great deal of student interest in the farm: some students help work the farm, some conduct soil experiments, and some even take naps – a far cry from the manual labor farm days! The farm’s office hours/ work days for this semester are Fridays from 1 to 4 PM, so head over to 1603 Grey Road to check out the veggies you’ll be eating later!

Filed Under: Alumni, College buildings, Student Life

Preyer History

April 16, 2013 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

Preyer Building 75 years ago — so new it doesn’t even have landscaping yet

For generations of Davidson students, going to the infirmary meant crossing Concord Road to the Preyer Building. Opened in January 1938, Preyer provided doctors offices and beds for the ailing until 1992 when the new student health center opened on North Main Street.

Davidson President Walter Lingle, college physician John MacConnell and nurse Sara Johnston along with students show off the new building. If you know who the students are, let us know. The photo’s caption didn’t include them.

The Davidsonian proudly proclaimed that:

With the opening of Davidson’s new $25,000 Infirmary the first step toward the building of the ideal Davidson campus has been completed. This beautiful brick structure stands on the Concord Road just off the Charlotte highway facing the Martin Chemical Laboratory. It is built in the shape of a “T,” and its interior houses every modern convenience desirable.

Infirmary nurse Sara Johnston with Charles Canter, class of demonstrating the x-ray machine

Closer look at the new technology of 1938

Preyer has kept a medical connection since its remodeling in 1992 for faculty and administrative offices. The Pre-Medical and Medical Humanities programs moved in 1992 and still have offices there. It has also been home to numerous faculty ans well as the college’s Love of Learning Program offices from 1992 to 2005.

Do you have any Preyer memories to share? Remember any of the nurses or doctors?

Filed Under: College buildings

Dean Sentelle

September 18, 2012 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

Mark Sentelle as a student

Davidson has a new dormitory, as yet unnamed. Most dormitories are named for donors but one dorm on campus is named for the first Dean of Students. Mark Edgar Sentelle, Davidson College class of 1894, returned to Davidson in 1903 after earning graduate degrees from Yale and Princeton to teach Bible and philosophy — which he did until 1944.

Davidson Faculty 1922, Sentelle is 2nd from left in first row.

He also served as the first Dean of Students, holding that post from 1920 to 1941.

A strict enforcer of college rules, many students quavered when called to his office but all agreed that he was always fair, if stern.

One account, tells of student who missed a bus back to campus from Charlotte. The first bus in the morning would get in too late for class. Hoping to keep his perfect attendance record, he chose to walk back to campus – a journey that took most of the night. He arrived back on campus by 7am – and promptly fell asleep and missed 2 classes. He approached the Dean and told of his valiant effort to get to class. Dean Sentelle asked if he missed the classes. The student said yes. Sentelle then asked if they were excused. The student said no. The dean said “That will be all.” (Note the student in question was one Henry T. Lilly, who would return to teach English for many years at the college).

Sentelle house

A life long bachelor, Sentelle loved children and served as a surrogate father to his niece Agnes. Later he would establish a scholarship in her name. The scholarship is given to a student above freshman class who is selected for his or her outstanding promise as indicated by character, personality, intellectual ability and scholarship. The home he shared with his widowed sister still stands in Davidson today. It was a kit house sent in parts on train and constructed on site.

East/Sentelle dormitory

The dormitory originally known as East was renamed in 1971 for Sentelle in recognition of his dedication and service to the college.

Dedication program for naming of Sentelle Hall, May 22, 1971

Filed Under: College buildings, Faculty, Staff

Campus maps

September 4, 2012 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

We have a fun new interactive map for Around the D readers to explore. The map has been added to our Guide to Campus Buildings. The map has current buildings (well, it doesn’t quite have the new residence hall – you can see a drawing of it here.) And it has markers for buildings that are no longer on campus.

We invite you to browse the map, check out the links for more information about the buildings — and if you have a favorite memory around a building, feel free to send an email or make a comment, we’d love to read them.

Our list of buildings no longer on campus includes Steward’s Hall, Morrison/YMCA Hall, Shearer Hall, Martin Chemical Laboratory (not to be confused with the current building), Ovens Union, Rumple Dorm, Old Chambers and Lingle Manor.

We’ll be adding others over time, so if you want the Student Store or Card Board Village on the map, you can wait a bit or email and ask that we do it next. Since there are photos of the buildings linked on the map and we want you to check out the map, there are no photos for this blog entry. Instead, here are a few older maps of campus.

1916-1917 map of campus – note the location of the tennis courts, a newly popular sport

1937-1938 map from the Wildcat Handbook. The editors used an old drawing that didn’t include what is now Jackson Court.

1953-54 map – the trees are back and the compass rose is really the Davidson seal

1976-77 map with directions for prospetive students to visit the Union for general information and Room 106 in Chambers for Admission,

Filed Under: College buildings

Postcards Views of Davidson and North Carolina

June 5, 2012 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

A recent email sharing a Davidson postcard reminded me that this would be a good time to highlight our online postcard collection and also share a few postcards hidden in our manuscript collections. The only problem is just picking out a few. After looking through our collections and in light of our new exhibit for the postcards in the Nash Collection, the easiest choice was to go with North & South Carolina scenes.

We have almost 200 postcards of the college and town (and a few outlying places) in our online Postcard Collection. The oldest dates from 1898 and shows the front campus with the original Chambers building in the background.

1898 postcard of Davidson College campus

2003 postcard of campus buildings

The most recent date from 2003 and are of the Knobloch Campus Center and a montage of campus buildings.

Knobloch Campus Center postcard

The oldest town postcard dates from around 1907 and shows Main Street looking south from the edge of the campus.

c1907 postcard of Davidson, NC

Included in the online collection are a few images from alumni travels to China and Egypt and a set of cards from Chicago found in an 1912 yearbook. To see those, you’ll need to search the database.

The images below are from scrapbooks from two members of the class of 1926, Benjamin Ratchford (Manuscript collection DC024) and David G. Wilson (Manuscript collection DC0245s).

Benjamin Ulysses Ratchford, a native of Gastonia, North Carolina, was a class valedictorian in high school. He was an economics major at Davidson College. He received his M.A. in economics from Duke University in 1927 and in 1932 earned the first Ph.D. awarded by Duke in economics. He remained on the faculty at Duke until 1960, and spent time in Europe after World War II, studying and reporting on the economy. He received the Medal of Freedom, given by the War Department to civilians who performed meritorious service in the war, for his work in Berlin. Ratchford left Duke University in 1960 to head the research department at the Federal Reserve Bank in Richmond, until his retirement in 1967.

David Gibson Wilson came to Davidson College from Atlanta, Georgia. As a student at Davidson College, Wilson was chairman of the Junior Speaking Committee. He was vice-president of the Senior class, president of the Glee club, and adjutant of the R.O.T.C. Battalion. He also was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity and was elected to Omicron Delta Kappa.

Both men kept scrapbooks as students and included several pages of postcards. Most were never mailed but kept as souvenirs of their travels. Beaches and mountains, especially around Montreat, were popular in the 1920 as they are now, but the views are a bit different. Researchers and postcard enthusiasts are welcome to visit Archives & Special Collections to see all the postcards in the scrapbooks.

Postcard from Ratchford scrapbook of Forsyth County Club golf course, c 1926

Pack Square, Asheville, NC, c 1926, Ratchford collectionLady Street in Columbia, SC by night, Ratchford collection

Fun at Folly Beach from Wilson collection

Folly Beach homes from the Wilson collection

A view of Montreat, NC from the Wilson collectionBlue Ridge retreat center by Moonlight from Wilson collection

Filed Under: College buildings, Digital collections, Town history

Some April History at Davidson

April 3, 2012 By Jan Blodgett Leave a Comment

1837-2012 ◊◊ Celebrating Davidson’s 175th anniversary

It’s been fun to research “this day” and “this week” in Davidson’s history. We’ll wrap up this theme this week with a few moments from the month of April over the years.

Headlines from first issue of Davidsonian

April 1: 1914 – No fooling – the first issue of the Davidsonian is published

April 2: 1862– The Senior Class petitions against a change in the curriculum, because it requires them to take class alongside Juniors. For the first 20 years of the college, instruction was organized strictly by class year. President Kirkpatrick explained,

The part of Intellectual Philosophy which it is proposed that you now pursue in connection with the Junior Class, is one which your Class has not studied. I deem it important not only for its intrinsic value, but also as preparatory to the study of Logic, on which you will enter in a few weeks. Owing to the time your Class has lost in consequence of our civil troubles, it is impossible for us to accomplish the entire course of studies in the thorough manner we would desire

April 3: 1885 – Faculty received a petition from the students asking to be excused from compulsory attendance on the Sabbath Bible recitations. The petition was discussed and laid aside for one week. On April 10, the faculty decide they have no power to address this and pass it on to the Trustees.

April 4: 1918 – Faculty adopt a new policy on awarding degrees for students called into national service (military war service) – No concessions will be made for Juniors, but “where Seniors enter the Army or Navy after Christmas, and have a clear record on all work in lower classes, they shall be given credit for those courses of the Senior year in which at their withdrawal they were making a passing grade, and if the requirements for graduation are thus fulfilled, they shall be given their degree honoris causa and so designated on the diploma.”

Early Davidson diploma

April 4: 1929 – Faculty decided that in the future all scholastic diplomas shall be in one language. By a vote of 16 to 15, Dr. Martin casting the deciding vote, it was decided that this language shall be Latin.

April 5: 1867 – Faculty adopted a resolution

to introduce the Bible as a regular text-book, requiring a recitation from each Class every Monday morning, in some department of Bible study. The chronology, history and geography of the Bible were assigned to the Freshman class. Matthew in the original Greek and the Harmony of the Gospels were selected for the Sophomore Class. The Epistle to the Romans, and for such other Epistles as the Class might be able to get over, were assigned to the Juniors; and lectures on the Shorter Catechism and the Confession of Faith, by the President, were appointed for the Senior class.”

and another resolution “that no student be permitted to study outside of his own room unless his request to do so be granted at a regular meeting of the Faculty.”

Davidsonian article on Union Director Shaw Smith

April 5: 1974 Shaw Smith, director of the College Union, is announced as the president-elect of the Association of College Unions.

April 6: 1904 – On motion, the Faculty voted to cancel two of the baseball games this spring, in accordance with the written agreement with the students that College property must not be destroyed. It was left wit the Athletic Committee to specify the games to be cancelled.

Chapel building

April 7: 1836 – Cornerstone is laid for the Chapel, the first building on campus. Minutes of the Concord Presbytery described the event

a large concourse of people having assembled Presbytery proceeded to the Solemn service of dedicating the institution to God. The services were commenced by Revd. Dr Robinson by singing an appropriate Psalm and an introductory prayer. The Revd Robt H Morrison then addressed the assembly in an appropriate and forcible discourse on the importance of Learning generally and specialty of a Learned Ministry to the happiness of a community and the security of a free and righteous Government.

April 7: 1870 Faculty report “of the 125students in College, 86 are Communicants in the Church, viz: 79 Presbyterians, 5 Methodists, and 2 Seceders. Thirty-three are Candidates for the Ministry.

Class of 1898 in caps and gowns.

April 7: 1898 – Faculty Minutes report that the Senior Class having asked that they be allowed to wear the cap and gown at the Senior Speaking at Commencement, the Faculty granted the request for the present Senior Class, but added that they were not prepared to approve or adopt class vestments as a permanent feature of the College.

Davidsonian article on protests

April 8: 1979 – Davidson students and faculty participate in an anti-nuclear at the front gate of the unfinished McGuire nuclear plant six miles south of Cornelius.

April 9:1924– Faculty appoint a committee to “settle the shade of red in the colors of the college” (Douglas, J.M. McConnell, J.W. Porter). They report back on May 14, “the red being a bright cardinal red”.

April 9: 1962 – Davidson’s debate team spars with William & Mary on WUNC-TV.

April 10: 1919- Faculty adopt several resolutions – “Dancing is forbidden at Davidson and that this rule is violated when any organization or group of students engages in the pastime at Davidson or participates in it as a College organization elsewhere at any time; the existence of any organization in the College whose avowed purpose is to promote dancing is forbidden; that the holding of banquets, dinners, or other formal social functions on Sunday by an organization or group connected with the College here or elsewhere, is contrary to the rules of the Church and it spirit of Davidson College. and is hereby declared contrary to the express regulations of the College; that any opening of the fraternity halls during the time when any College exercise is in progress is strictly forbidden by order of the Trustees.”

April 11: 1868 – After a session of rigorous cleaning of his dorm room, James Bayliss Smith wrote about the role of women in 1868 to his friend Addison. According to Smith, after the cleaning session, “We are now living at home in as neat a room as any body’s who don’t have ladies to keep it in order for them. Ain’t they useful creatures about a house. I think I shall try to get me one when I leave college, that is if I can find a coop to keep her in. Don’t tell them how I talk about them for I might stand a poor back back among them if they were to turn loose their batteries on me.”

Debate club page in the 1911 Quips and Cranks

April 11: 1911 – Faculty give permission for students to attend the Davidson-Wake Forest debate in Greensboro on April 17 – provided that as many as 150 students desire to go and that arrangements be made to return as soon as possible the evening of the debate.

April 12: 1867 – The President informed the Faculty that he had a petition signed by the students, and other members of the “Reading Circle” requesting that Faculty meetings and other duties which interfere with the regular assembling of that Society, be altered, if possible, so as not to prevent the meeting of the “Circle” as heretofore on alternate Friday evenings. The Faculty cordially approved of the object of the petitioners, and it was ordered that hereafter the regular faculty meetings take place on Monday evening after tea.

Symphonic band page in yearbook from 1946

Symphonic band in 1946

April 13: 1946 – The Davidson College Symphonic Band began a performance tour to Shelby, Asheville, Hendersonville and Brevard (1946).

April 14: 1838 – Several students organized the “Polemic Debating Society” in 1837, a group later renamed (in 1838) the Eumenean Society.

April 17: 1874 Faculty Minutes not that the Base-Ball-Club among the students asked permission to go to Charlotte and play a game to which they had been challenged by the Cadets of the Carolina Military Institute. The Faculty resolved to adhere to the precedent already set in this case, and declined to grant the permission requested.

April 20 : 1868 A number of students styling themselves “The Glee Club” petitioned the faculty for the use of one of the vacant rooms on the first floor of the main building, during hours of recreation. Granted on condition that it be used exclusively by students.

Filed Under: College buildings, College governance, Curriculum, Faculty, Student Life, Student Publications

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