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Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–14.Back to highlights
- Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
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Trustees vote to raise Old East a story and build Old West
At Caldwell's urging, and against the faculty's plea to spend on books and apparatus, the board voted to enlarge Old East, build Old West to match and start a new chapel, borrowing from banks against Tennessee land sales. Architect William Nichols ran the work, and the South Building's Prayer Hall became a chemistry laboratory.
People: Joseph Caldwell · Elisha Mitchell · William Nichols
Subject: South Building · Gerrard Hall · Old East · Old West
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State architect William Nichols designs Old West and Gerrard Hall
In 1822 William Nichols, the English-born architect who was North Carolina's first state architect, drew Old West as a match for Old East and designed a new chapel, Gerrard Hall. Gerrard's south portico of four two-story Ionic columns made it the campus's first building in the Romantic Classical mode.
People: William Nichols
Subject: Gerrard Hall · Old West
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The trustees settle William Nichols's accounts for Old West and the campus repairs
The university settled with William Nichols, its supervisor and builder, for Old West, the new chapel, the bricks made on university land and repairs to South Building, the President's House and Steward's Hall. Battle gives the cost as about $26,587 and says the accounts showed a want of careful superintendence.
Subject: Old West · South Building · Steward’s Hall
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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.
People: John Berry · David L. Swain · Alexander Jackson Davis
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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.
People: Albert · Osborne · Dabney Cosby · Alexander Jackson Davis
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Osborne begins the masonry on the additions to Old East and Old West
Dabney Cosby, who held the masonry subcontract for the university additions, sent Osborne to Chapel Hill carrying a letter to the main contractors saying that Osborne would have his mortar made up. Cosby ordered meal and bacon for him and wrote that what Osborne said could be relied on.
People: Dabney Cosby
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Dialectic and Philanthropic societies draw lots for the east and west buildings
The trustees had the society presidents, William M. Howerton and Matt W. Ransom, cast lots before Governor Graham, President Swain and Charles Manly; the Philanthropic won the east side and the Dialectic the west, and South Building rooms facing north went to the Phis and those facing south to the Dis. The arrangement lasted until 1868.
People: Matt W. Ransom · William A. Graham · David L. Swain
Subject: Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies · South Building · Old East · Old West
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Albert joins his brother Osborne to plaster the halls at the university
Cosby sent Albert from Smithfield in Virginia to Chapel Hill, where Osborne was already at work on the additions to Old East and Old West. Albert carried a letter to university president David L. Swain saying he came to help his brother plaster the halls and would judge the sand to be used together with Osborne.
People: Dabney Cosby · David L. Swain
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Free Black cabinetmaker Thomas Day supplies woodwork and furniture for the new society halls
Thomas Day, the free Black cabinetmaker of Milton, North Carolina, supplied woodwork and furniture for the halls and libraries of the Dialectic and Philanthropic societies in A. J. Davis's north additions to Old East and Old West. Little names him, with the Virginia builder Dabney Cosby, among the craftsmen who carried out Davis's design.
Subject: Old East · Old West · Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies
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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.
People: Samuel (Samuel Field) Phillips · Alexander Jackson Davis · Kemp Plummer Battle
Subject: Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies · Old East · Old West
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New East and New West are built to William Percival's design
To house more students, the university built two dormitories with classrooms and debating society halls on either side of Old East and Old West, to designs by the English architect William Percival, with Thomas Coates as contractor. Work began in June 1858, and the faculty announced on July 31, 1861 that the buildings were ready to occupy.
Subject: Old East · Old West · Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies
- Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
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Walter Steele and Paul Cameron inspect the derelict campus and Solomon Pool refuses to surrender the keys
On April 3, 1874, trustees Walter L. Steele and Paul C. Cameron came to Chapel Hill for the new board. Solomon Pool declined their written request for the keys and possession of the buildings, since the governor had not recognized the board, but let them inspect as visitors. Their report to the trustees on April 9 described broken doors and fallen plaster, the lower passage of Old West fouled by cattle and horses, rotted gates and axe-scarred oaks, 7,490 books in the Dialectic library and 6,901 in the Philanthropic, and recommended an immediate suit against Pool for possession.
People: Paul C. Cameron · Solomon Pool
Subject: Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies · Old West
- Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
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Arthur C. Nash renovates Old West
Nash's rebuilding of the 1822 dormitory, done alongside the work on Old East, left the brick walls as about the only original material.
Subject: Old West
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Nash renovates South Building and adds its portico
Nash carried out the renovation of South Building and added the portico in 1926 and 1927, part of his remodelling of older campus buildings that also took in Old East, Old West and Gerrard Hall.
Subject: South Building · Gerrard Hall · Old East · Old West
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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 1, 2026.
