In 1949, R. Horace Johnston and his sister Rosa Johnston Stokes, Davidson class of 1911, gave a $100,000 gift to the college toward the completion of the new gym (Beaty 329). As a result, the new gym was named the Charles Worth Johnston Gymnasium, in honor of Horace Johnston’s father, who had passed away in July 1941.
The Visual Arts Building was named for: Katherine McKay Belk, Davidson Board of Trustees 1985-86, 1989- , and Tom Belk, class of 1946, Davidson Board of Trustees, 1972-1984.
Cornerstone placed November 5, 1948. Dedicated on October 22, 1949 as Charles Johnston Gymnasium. Last basketball game played in gymnasium, February 25, 1989.
For more than a hundred years, water activities have been an important aspect of Davidson College. This important aspect of college life has focused around two lakes: Lake Norman and the lesser known Lake Wiley.
Built in the 1870s. Miss Lucy Jurney’s School for Boys and
Girls” in the early 1880s. Purchased by Leonidas Glasgow in 1886. Purchased by Lingle Family in 1939. Given to Davidson College in 1961. Student activity center from 1962 to 1967. Art Department and Black Student Coalition building in the 1970s. Remodeled as student housing in the 1980s. Demolished in 1999 to make way for a new dormitory.
During its 55 years of service parts of Morrison hall have at
one time or another served as a Y.M.C.A., a study hall, a gymnasium, a skating rink, a lecture hall, a dormitory, classrooms, a biological laboratory, R.O.T.C.
Included in the history of the sciences at Davidson College is the founding of the North Carolina Medical College. Incorporated in 1893, the North Carolina Medical College was the first chartered medical college in North Carolina and had its roots in Davidson’s pre-medical program. The “president” of the college was Dr. John Peter Munroe, a Davidson College physician and professor. In 1896, Dr. Munroe bought a lot from Davidson College and built on it a three-story brick building for his college.
Built 1916-1917 as Alumni Gymnasium. Remodeled as Ovens Student
Union in 1952 included a cafeteria in the basement where students could eat, and expanded in 1963 when a large dining wing was added, easing some of the congestion. The college demolished the Ovens College Union in 1972 in order to build E.H. Little Library, and two unused Patterson Court houses that stood next to the current Vail Commons were converted into dining facilities. Demolished in 1972 to make way for E.H.
Little Library.
Dates: Built 1916-1917 as Alumni Gymnasium. Remodeled as Ovens Student
Union in 1952 and expanded in 1963. Demolished in 1972 to make way for E.H.
Little Library.
With construction of Patterson Court in 1958, the administration thought it had solved the dining problem at Davidson. The new fraternity houses allowed the organizations to hire housemothers who served as dieticians and meal planners, allowing the college administration to remove itself from the responsibility of providing meals to a large majority of students. The First 12 houses were constructed in 1958. Some buildings moved in 1981.
In 1977, the Rusk Eating House, the first female eating house was organized in the spring to open the following fall semester. The first all-female house on Patterson Court, Rusk Eating House helped pave the way for the modern court.
In 1901, President Shearer, known to the students as “Old
Puss” decided he wanted a building named for his wife. so he pulled down
an original professor’s house (known as Tammany Hall) and added the east wing
to the old chapel,
Built as library in 1941. Dedicated May 1, 1942. West wing
added in 1958. Remodeled as College Union in 1975. Remodeled in 2002 as the Sloan
Music Center.
