Dining Staff History

Women and Boarding Houses (1860's - 1920's)

 

Starting in the 1860s, one of the most common dining options for Davidson students was to eat at private boarding houses in town. These boarding houses were run by local White women who formed lasting connections with the students who frequented their homes (Beaty, 1979). 

 

Below, a Davidson alum of the late 1800s recounts the significant impact that Mrs. Barnes, who ran the Barnes Club eating house, had on the students who stayed under her care. 

 

His remembering of Mrs. Barnes reflects the beginnings of the important community built by women who worked in Davidson College's dining services. 

 

“Influence…,” Johnson, Harris A. The Mecklenburg Gazette, July 23, 1964.

“After staying with Mrs. Barnes for four years, eating her prepared food week by week and absorbing some of her steadfast upbuilding philosophy, they graduated feeling like a new born man literally as well as seeing the beauty in life, the dependability in others, and the beautiful world given to all of us to embody.”

 

The 1896-1897 College Handbook was a guide for incoming first year students looking for dining options at Davidson. It lists the boarding houses in town and the range of prices for their services, as well as the five fraternities on campus. Fraternities became increasingly popular as a dining option amongst students at the start of the twentieth century.

 

"Dining Options, Student's Hand-Book," Food Service (Cafeterias) Davidsoniana file. Davidson College Archives, Davidson, NC. 

 

Jackson Court: Boarding Houses and Fraternities (1920's - 1950s)

 

In response to the rising popularity of fraternities amongst Davidson College students in the early 20th century, Jackson Court was created in 1928. Unlike the fraternities and eating houses of today, the Jackson Court houses were only meeting places and had no dining facilities, meaning students still had to join local boarding houses to get their meals ("Jackson Court," Davidson Encyclopedia). 

 

As more Davidson fraternity students visited local boarding houses, certain houses in town became closely associated with specific fraternities.  The women who ran these boarding houses used their own kitchens and dining spaces to serve fraternity brothers (Beaty, 1979). Over the course of Jackson Court's thirty years, these "boarding house women" became surrogate mother figures to Davidson students, setting the precedent for the housemother role in the Patterson Court era.  

 

Although the Davidson student body grew exponentially between the 1920s and the 1950s, it is unclear when the women running the boarding houses began hiring Black women as cooks to assist them in making meals for fraternities. As boarding houses were not officially affiliated with the college, the cooks who served Davidson students were not listed as Davidson College employees in the federal census nor in college records, making their names and stories difficult to locate in the records.

Susan Lowery (born in 1913) worked as a cook in a  boarding house affiliated with a Davidson College fraternity during the Jackson Court era according to her 2000 oral history from the Davidson College Archives. However, in the 1940 Davidson town census, Susan Lowery is listed as a "housekeeper" in a private home, demonstrating the importance of recorded oral memories.

 

 

 

A 1995 profile from the Mecklenberg Gazette describes Susan Lowery's life after retirement and her contributions to the Davidson community:

 

 

"Pillar of Davidson Community Turns 83," Torrence, Marjean. The Mecklenberg Gazette, July 12, 1995. 

Aunt Susie has been a very active member of Gethsemane Baptist Church. Presently, she serves as a member of the Davidson Progressive Women Club and is a participant in the Hot Meal Program. Aunt Susie says, "I have 10 children, nine great-grandchildren and 17 great- grandchildren and I don't regret a minute of bringing them up and watching them become responsible adults."

She enjoyed working at Davidson College, especially in one of the Boarding Houses. Her favorite pastimes are cooking, working in her garden and doing different crafts.

 

In her 2000 oral history interview with college archivist, Dr. Jan Blodgett, Susan Lowery describes her working life, including her memories of students and the community that developed amongst boarding house cooks. When asked if she visited the other cooks working on Jackson Court, Susan Lowery responded: 

 

Lowery, Susan. "Interview with Suzie Lowery." Interview by Blodgett, Jan. 22 May 2000. Davidson Oral History Project, Davidson College Archives and Special Collections. 

 

Susan Lowery: "Oh, yes ma'am. We used to visit. The houses were so close. But we didn't have a lot of time to."

 

Jan Blodgett:  "Would you borrow stuff? Like, if you needed a cup of sugar, could you run to one of the other houses and get it?"

 

Susan Lowery: "You could, but we never did that because the men would come everyday with the grocery trucks and bring stuff, and you put it in and get your order. So you hardly ever ran out of anything."

 

JB: Did you design the menus? 

 

SL: No, they had a dietician. 

 

JB: Oh. did the meals change [over the] time you were there, or were they the same first year and last year? 

 

SL: About the same. 

 

JB: What was the favorite things for the guys to eat? 

 

SL: BLT; bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. 

 

JB: That's what they liked the best? 

 

SL: They loved it, oh lord. They could come in, "Can I have a BLT?" We had to have it one day a week...

 

Patterson Court: Housemothers and Cooks (1960's - 1980's)

 

 

Greek life began to move from Jackson Court to the new Patterson Court starting in 1958.

 

Patterson Court houses included kitchens and dining facilities. Each house hired a housemother to plan the fraternity's menus, assist in managing the house's budget, and hire cooks to prepare meals. Another new feature of the Patterson Court houses was the inclusion of apartments for housemothers. Housemothers would now live there year-round to monitor and facilitate fraternity activities.

 

Over the next decade, housemothers became significant figures in the everyday lives of Davidson students, taking the mantle from the boarding house women of the past. Below, the Phi Delta Theta fraternity dedicates a line of their Quips and Cranks yearbook page to their housemother, Mother Payne. Similarly, the signature of Mrs. J. Carey Stewart, the housemother of the Alpha Tau Omega house, was featured prominently on a wooden paddle gifted from one fraternity member to another in 1961. 

 

 

Throughout the 1960s, housemothers remained significant figures in the everyday lives of Davidson students. This is seen in the Davidson College Bulletin article below, which describes an honorary event thrown for housemother Johnsie Shelton, who served at the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity for over 10 years.

 

Shelton had previously run a boarding house affiliated with the fraternity and moved into the fraternity's Patterson Court house upon its completion. This example shows the close correlation between the new housemother role and Davidson's boarding house history. 

 

"Johnsie Shelton Appreciation Day." Davidson College Bulletin, August 1959. 

"I still keep up with my boys," says mother to generations of Davidson students, Miss Johnsie Shelton, who has been a guardian angel to Davidson College boys all her life. (...)

(...) Her home on Concord Road was used as the boarding house for the fraternity until the new half million dollar Patterson Fraternity Court opened last year. When asked whether she would leave her home to live in the housemother's apartment in the new fraternity house, Miss Shleton said, "You can't put old wine in new bottles." But she went anyway, and now the old wine" feels much at home in the "new bottle."

"My favorite subject right now is 'what are ya goin' to feed the boy's."

"Her boys" feel that she has done more than feed them. This spring, the Pi Kappa Alpha Phi fraternity suprised her with "Miss Johnsie's Appreciation Day."

 

Housemothers, similarly to boarding house women, tended to be White women with deep ties to the Davidson community. In some cases, the new housemothers were the exact women who had previously run boarding houses, as was the case for Johnsie Shelton at the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. Cooks were primarily Black women with deep connections to the local area, frequently coming in and out of the fraternity house to prepare meals at different times of day. 

 

Although cooks and housemothers worked in tandem to feed Davidson students, housemothers were often publicly touted as the “mother figures” of campus, while cooks were relegated to a more behind-the-scenes role, though their impact was just as significant. 

 

Below, notes by the house manager of the Sigma Nu fraternity (a role occupied by a Davidson College student) list the names of two cooks employed by the fraternity, Virginia and Ginny, as well as details of their employment, including their salaries and when they would be there during the school year.

 

These notes, along with the house manager's "Guide of Dates," give a glimpse into the relationship between cooks, housemothers and fraternity members: 

 

"Housemother Guide of Dates," c. 1963. R.G. 6/14.18, Sigma Nu Fraternity Activities -House- General, 1958-1966. Davidson College Archives, Davidson NC. 

It should be noted that the house manager has no control over the cooks, and any matter that they attempt to bring up with the house manager concerning their duties should be referred to the housemother, who is fully in charge of hiring and firing them. The weekly checks for the cooks should be secured by the house manager from the treasurer who then gives them to the housemother, for her to give them to the cooks, so they will KNOW that it is to her that he are to answer.

 

In 1971, mandatory self-selection for student organizations was introduced at Davidson College.

 

This meant that fraternities were no longer able to reject any prospective members from joining; subsquently, several fraternity chapters chose to leave the Davidson campus rather than abide by the new self-selection rules. Eating houses became progressively more popular amongst Davidson students as an alternative to fraternities, especially amongst female students after the start of coeducation in 1972, as sororities were not yet permitted at Davidson College. 

 

Denise Fanuiel Blackwell was the first Black woman to graduate from Davidson College in 1977. In her 2020 oral history, she describes her interactions with Black cooks at Davidson, as well as her observations about how some of her peers would treat staff members of color. 

 

Blackwell, Denise Fanuiel. "Interview with Renee Denise Fanuiel Blackwell '77." Interview by Hickman, Ross, McNeill, Franklin and Madeline Chanfrau. 8 October 2020. Davidson College Women's History Project, Davidson College Archives and Special Collections. 

 

Denise Fanuiel Blackwell: "All of the people who worked in the cafeterias, I think they were all Black. And I do know that there was a bit of a camaraderie for them, to see Black students at the campus. And the Black students were more likely to be friendlier to them, and to, you know, draw them out more, talk to them more than the other students did.(...) And there may have been students, I don't know personally—there may have been students who were not as polite to the people working, who were working in the cafeterias and [...] eating houses. But I think that's the same thing you'll see anywhere."

 

During the 1970s, fraternity housemothers began to lose their influence over student life; a Davidson College student life study from 1973 reported that five housemothers split their time between eight different fraternity houses, a far cry from the individualized attention given to each house by housemothers of the past. 

 

Meanwhile, cooks continued to work solely for one eating house or fraternity house, which made the position progressively more personalized when compared to housemothers. Notably, eating houses did not employ designated housemothers and only hired cooks to prepare meals.

 

"Eating Clubs from Institutional Self Study for Davidson College on Student Food Services, 1973-1974," c. 1974.  RG 02.29.03 Institutional Advancement, Self Study Students Committee, 1973-1974 (2) Box 2. Davidson College Archives, Davidson, NC.  

 

 

The shift away from housemothers occuried during a time of a larger cultural changes at Davidson. These include integration in 1963, coeducation in 1972, and other social movements that broaden the perspectives of students, faculty, and staff. 

 

Davidson was no longer a school for exclusively White male students who were molded into "Davidson Gentlemen" under the guiding hand of college administration. Instead, Davidson students of all genders, races, ethnicities, religions, and sexualities desired more independence and freedom to make their own choices during their college experience, and this extended to their dining options. 

 

By the 1980s, the housemother position was phased out completely, but cooks remained and took on a more central role in the eating houses and fraternities of Patterson Court, becoming important figures in their own right.

 

The importance of cooks in student life can be seen in their inclusion in several of the Patterson Court yearbook photos of the 1970s and 1980s. Cook Odessa Honeysucker was featured prominently on the Emanon Eating House 1982 yearbook page. 

 

 

Below, cooks Cecelia Conner (standing at the center in white) and Verdie Heath (standing to the far right in white) were featured in the ETC eating house 1979 Quips and Cranks picture. Conner and Heath's names are also listed in the description of the ETC eating house from the Davidsonian in 1976.

 

"Eating houses enlighten prospects," Enright, Bob and Mark Yow. The Davidsonian, January 20, 1976. 

Today ETC serves food to over 62 students. This food is prepared for the students by two of the finest cooks on campus, Mrs. Cecilia Conner and Mrs. Verdie Heath.

These two are more than cooks, they are an integral part of the warmth and hospitality that is found at ETC. As for the food, we let that speak for itself.

 

 

A 1981 profile of Cecelia Conner from the Mecklenburg Gazette, seen here in the Maggie Smith Scrapbook from the Archives and Special Collections, describes the delicious baked goods she would contribute to the Cornelius Farmer's Market every Saturday. The article also details her duties as a cook for the ETC House on Patterson Court.

 

 

 

 

"Cecelia, Jean keep alive... The Wonderful Aroma of Freshly-Baked Bread." Johnson, Pat. The Mecklenburg Gazette, October 1, 1981. 

From September through the end of school, the Davidson College students of ETC House are lucky to have Cecelia for one of their full time cooks. She and one other person cook for 72 students 2 full meals plus continental breakfast. She is responsible for a major part of the cooking, meal planning and buying. All of the baking is done by scratch and at every dinner she serves a home-baked desert. It takes nine pies per meal or two 15 x 9 inch cobblers or one sheet cake. For lunch freshly made chocolate brownies or chocolate chip cookies are served- both favorites. Cecelia loves the ETC House and the students and feels she has total cooperation. She feels she is part of the one large family and cannot imagine what she would do if she did not have this work.

 

Relationship between Cooks and Students

Fannie and Mabel Eating House

 

Fannie Brandon and Mabel Torrence were two longtime staff members of dining services at Davidson College; by 1982, they had a combined total of 72 years of service. According to the 1982 Quips and Cranks yearbook, “with the closing of the 1980-81 school year, Mabel finishes her 28th year of Patterson Court service and Fannie marks up 40 years of catering to hungry students.” The two women began working together at the Kappa Sigma fraternity house in the 1950s. 

 

Photograph of members of Fannie and Mabel Eating House with Fannie Brandon and Mabel Torrence, 1972. Photograph Collection, number 27-0459b. Davidson College Archives, Davidson College, Davidson, NC. 

 

After the fraternity left Davidson College following self-selection in 1971, students rallied to form a new eating house on campus around the two women and named it “Fannie and Mabel” in their honor, going by F&M for short.

 

Fannie and Mabel’s personability and excellent meals (including the famous “Melt-in-Your-Mouth-Wednesday-Mabel-Rolls”) were well known across campus, and the two were regularly visited by alumni of F&M and the Kappa Sigma fraternity. In response to Davidson College’s lack of retirement benefits for Patterson Court staff, the residents of F&M began a retirement fund for Fannie and Mabel starting in 1979. The F&M eating house raised more than $1200 in donations from alumni and students who had been impacted by the pair, and in the Davidsonian article written about the retirement fund three years later, the two women reflect on their long years of service for the college:

 

"F and M's Celebrated Cooks," Benedict, Jeb. The Davidsonian, January 22, 1982. 

Fannie and Mabel have enjoyed Davidson and generously share their impressions on how the community and the campus have changed over the years. “We just love the kids,” Fannie explained. Mabel will tell you of the growth of the town. Both smile quickly when reminiscing on changes in the student body. “It’s the girls. That’s the big change,” Fannie says. “And it’s good to see more Blacks,” Mabel adds.

 

As Fannie started in dining services around 1941, followed by Mabel in 1952, both were working on campus well before the entrance of the first Black student at Davidson College in 1962, or the beginning of coeducation in 1972.

 

The F&M Eating House was shut down in 1985, but Fannie and Mabel continued working in dining services, moving on to different Patterson Court fraternities and eating houses where they kept cooking, serving up meals, and making connections with Davidson students. 

 

Fannie Brandon and Mabel Torrence in the 1990 Quips and Cranks yearbook, where they were listed as cooks for Spencer eating house.

 

Kappa Alpha

 

The relationship between students and cooks was not without the tension inherent to a predominantly White, southern institution.

 

In her oral history interview, Annie Mildred Lowery recounts her experience working at the Kappa Alpha house, a fraternity well known for hosting  "Old South" weekends celebrating the Confederacy. Mrs. Lowery recounts a frank discussion she had with fraternity leadership:

 

Lowery, Annie Mildred. "Interview with Annie Mildred Lowery." Interview by Blodgett, Jan. 16 September 2003. Shared Stories: African Americans in North Mecklenburg, Davidson College Archives.

Jan Blodgett: What was it like for a Black woman to work for Kappa Alpha? You worked for them for 30 years, they’re the old south, and they had confederate flags. What did you think? 

 

Annie Mildred Lowery: They told me what it was all about (...) We said, ‘We are here to make money, you treat us as humans, that’s your way to live, but don’t think you can be that crazy [to us].’ So, we never had any problems. And to tell the truth, they didn’t act like we were Black, the attitude they had. They couldn’t be nicer guys. I worked at Sigma Nu, not that long, but Kappa Alpha worked better than Sigma Nu.

 

 

LaGretta Neal, daugther of Annie Mildred Lowery, reminiscenses about her mother as a fraternity house cook and the food that she would bring back for their family:

 

Neal, LaGretta. "Interview with LaGretta Neal." Interview by Marshall, Katie. 5 November 2016. Shared Stories: African Americans in North Mecklenburg, Davidson College Archives and Special Collections. 

LaGretta Neal: Her livelihood has been she worked in the schools, Charlotte Mecklenburg schools some, and then she worked at the fraternity, I can remember that the most, she would cook there (...) It's Epsilon, I think. She worked there for years. We got the taste of different foods and that's why I appreciate the foods that I'm able to taste now, be it new food or different food. This was her livelihood. She enjoyed doing what she was doing, because she had to cook for her family, a family of seven plus my daddy. 

 

The list below is from the 1988 Commencement Ceremony celebrating 150 years of Davidson College. The list includes names of then-current Patterson Court staff. 

 

 "Patterson Court Staff from Davidson College Sesquicentennial Closing Convocation," 29 January 1988. Sesquicentennial Davidsoniana file. Davidson College Archives, Davidson, NC. 

The images below of Patterson Court staff are from the 1990 Quips and Cranks Yearbook. 

 

Bibliography: 

• Blackwell, Denise Fanuiel. "Interview with Renee Denise Fanuiel Blackwell '77." Interview by Hickman, Ross, McNeill, Franklin and Madeline Chanfrau. 8 October 2020. Davidson College Women's History Project, Davidson College Archives and Special Collections. 
• "Cecelia, Jean keep alive... The Wonderful Aroma of Freshly-Baked Bread." Johnson, Pat. The Mecklenburg Gazette, October 1, 1981. 
• "Eating Clubs from Institutional Self Study for Davidson College on Student Food Services, 1973-1974," c. 1974.  RG 02.29.03 Institutional Advancement, Self Study Students Committee, 1973-1974 (2) Box 2. Davidson College Archives, Davidson NC.  
• "Eating houses enlighten prospects," Enright, Bob and Mark Yow. The Davidsonian, January 20, 1976. 
• "Dining Options, Student's Hand-Book," Food Service (Cafeterias) Davidsoniana file. Davidson College Archives, Davidson, N.C. 
• "F and M's Celebrated Cooks," Benedict, Jeb. The Davidsonian, January 22, 1982. 
• Hill, Ruth. “Dormitory Row” Davidson Encyclopedia, 
  October 2003. https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/archives/encyclopedia/residence-life/.
• "Fraternities at Davidson College" Davidson Encyclopedia. https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/archives/encyclopedia/fraternities-at-davidson-college.
• "Housemother Guide of Dates," c. 1963. R.G. 6/14.18, Sigma Nu Fraternity Activities -House- General, 1958-1966. Davidson College Archives, Davidson NC. 
• “Influence…,” Johnson, Harris A. The Mecklenburg Gazette, July 23, 1964.
• "Johnsie Shelton Appreciation Day." Davidson College Bulletin, August 1959. 
• Lowery, Susan. "Interview with Suzie Lowery." Interview by Blodgett, Jan. 22 May 2000. Davidson Oral History Project, Davidson College Archives and Special Collections. 
• Neal, LaGretta. "Interview with LaGretta Neal." Interview by Marshall, Katie. 5 November 2016. Shared Stories: African Americans in North Mecklenburg, Davidson College Archives and Special Collections. 
• "Notes from Sigma Nu member" c. 1963. R.G. 6/14.18, Sigma Nu Fraternity Activities -House- General, 1958-1966. Davidson College Archives, Davidson NC. 
•  "Patterson Court Staff from Davidson College Sesquicentennial Closing Convocation," 29 January 1988. Sesquicentennial Davidsoniana file. Davidson College Archives, Davidson, NC. 
• Photograph of members of Fannie and Mabel Eating House with Fannie Brandon and Mabel Torrence, 1972. Photograph Collection, number 27-0459b. Davidson College Archives, Daivdson College, Davidson NC. 
• "Pillar of Davidson Community Turns 83," Torrence, Marjean. The Mecklenberg Gazette, July 12, 1995. 
• Wheeler, David and Tammy Ivins. “Dining at Davidson” Davidson Encyclopedia, July 2007.  https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/archives/encyclopedia/dining-at-davidson.