Chronology

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1. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865

2. 1830s
   Construction or physical change · UNC campus (unbuilt) Robert Donaldson has A. J. Davis design a campus hall for the Philanthropic Society that is never built

   In the 1830s alumnus Robert Donaldson, by then living in New York, hired Alexander Jackson Davis to design a hall for the Philanthropic Society on the campus. It was not built, but Donaldson kept up a correspondence with President Swain about gardens, architects and furnishings that led to Davis's later work at Chapel Hill.

3. November 28, 1843
   Appointment, election or service · UNC campus Swain authorizes Donaldson to bring architect A. J. Davis to the university

   In a letter from Raleigh dated November 28, 1843, Swain told Donaldson he might invite Alexander Jackson Davis to Chapel Hill to make working drawings and specifications, with $100 for travel. The letter opened Davis's service as the university's architect and planner of its grounds.

4. 1844–1848
   Property or economic transaction · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Dabney Cosby takes the masonry subcontract for the lengthening of Old East and Old West

   Chapel Hill contractors Isaac J. Collier and Kendall B. Waitt subcontracted the masonry of the university additions to Cosby, who put enslaved workmen including the brothers Osborne and Albert on the job. Cosby and the architect Alexander Jackson Davis quarrelled over the drawings, and president David L. Swain asked the Hillsborough builder John Berry to look at the brickwork, which Berry reported was defective.

5. February 1844
   Appointment, election or service · UNC campus Alexander Jackson Davis makes his first visit to the university

   Davis came to Chapel Hill in February 1844, and that year trustee John Motley Morehead met with him and Swain there about the design of a new hall, later Smith Hall. Davis stayed in touch with Swain and the trustees about campus work until the mid-1850s.

6. 1845 to 1846
   Slavery and freedom · Old East, UNC Brothers Albert and Osborne, enslaved by Dabney Cosby, plaster the lengthened Old East

   The additions to Old East and Old West, contracted in December 1844 and finished in 1848, used the labor of Albert and Osborne, brothers enslaved by Dabney Cosby, who plastered the lengthened Old East in 1845 and 1846. Cosby praised Albert's plastering as first-rate work.

7. 1847–1849
   Construction or physical change · Chapel Hill Dabney Cosby builds the Presbyterian church on Franklin Street

   After the university work Cosby built a small Tuscan style church designed by Alexander Jackson Davis for the Chapel Hill Presbyterian congregation, whose members included university president David L. Swain. In March 1848 the congregation member Charles Phillips wrote to Davis that the mason could not match the lilac gray color specified for the outside. The building no longer stands.

8. 1848
   Construction or physical change · Old East Literary societies move into new halls in the enlarged Old East and Old West

   The northward extensions of Old East and Old West, designed by A. J. Davis and built by Isaac J. Collier and Kendall B. Waitt for $9,360, were finished in 1848 with debating halls and library alcoves for the two societies. At the Dialectic opening James Mebane, the society's first president in 1795, sat beside the student president, Kemp P. Battle.

9. 1850 to 1852
   Chapel Hill Smith Hall is built to Alexander Jackson Davis's design as the university library and ballroom

   The New York architect Alexander Jackson Davis designed Smith Hall, built from 1850 to 1852 for just over $10,300 and named for the trustee and former governor Benjamin Smith. It served as library and ballroom and is now the Playmakers Theatre.

10. summer 1856
    Construction or physical change · UNC campus A. J. Davis returns to Chapel Hill with designs for new and enlarged college buildings

    With the dormitories overflowing, Swain asked the faculty and trustees in 1855 for leave to build new residence halls, and the university turned again to Davis, who visited in the summer of 1856 and offered several designs. When the trustees acted in 1858 they hired William Percival instead.

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Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 2, 2026.