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Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–13.Back to highlights
- Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799
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Benjamin Smith gives the university 20,000 acres of western land
Davie announced at the trustees' first meeting that Smith of Brunswick County had given land he received for Revolutionary service, in what became Obion County, Tennessee. It sold some 25 years later for $14,000, and Smith Hall, now the Playmakers Theatre, bears his name.
People: William Richardson Davie
Subject: Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre)
- Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
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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.
People: David L. Swain · John Motley Morehead
Subject: Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre)
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The literary societies ask the trustees for a building for dances and alumni meetings
The Dialectic and Philanthropic societies petitioned the university trustees to put up a building for dances and alumni gatherings. The request led to Smith Hall, finished in 1850 and later the Playmakers Theatre.
Subject: Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre) · Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies
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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.
People: Benjamin Smith
Subject: UNC Libraries · Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre)
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University library moved from South Building to Smith Hall
The university's books were taken from the president's lecture room in South Building to the new Smith Hall, and Hubbard, Charles Phillips and the librarian were told to prepare a catalogue. At the start of the Civil War the books were stored in a room of the East Building.
People: Charles Phillips · F. M. (Fordyce Mitchell) Hubbard
Subject: UNC Libraries · South Building · Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre) · Old East
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School for the Application of Science to the Arts opens
Under a trustee resolution of 1852 the university opened a scientific school with departments of civil engineering, under Charles Phillips, and of chemistry applied to agriculture and the arts, under Benjamin S. Hedrick, with a laboratory in the basement of Smith Hall. Its students could earn a Bachelor of Science in about two and a half years.
People: Charles Phillips · Benjamin Sherwood Hedrick
Subject: Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre)
- Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
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State experiment station opens at Chapel Hill
After Kemp P. Battle pressed for it with the State Grange and farm societies, the legislature created a Board of Agriculture, taxed commercial fertilizers and placed an experiment station at the university, whose trustees elected Albert R. Ledoux its chemist in 1877. Working in Smith Hall it analyzed fertilizers, seeds, soils and waters until it moved to Raleigh in 1881.
People: Kemp Plummer Battle · Washington Caruthers Kerr
Subject: Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre)
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The trustees bar dancing from university buildings
Pressed by church members who opposed the modern dance, the trustees prohibited the commencement ball in Smith Hall or any other university building. Battle welcomed the ban because he wanted Smith Hall kept as a library.
People: Paul C. Cameron · Kemp Plummer Battle
Subject: Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre)
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The literary societies merge their libraries with the university's
The Philanthropic Society voted almost unanimously and the Dialectic 42 to 30 to join their books to the university library in Smith Hall, to be called the Library of the University of North Carolina endowed by the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies and opened every weekday. Borrowing rose from 3,657 books in 1885-86 to 4,761 the next year.
People: George Tayloe Winston · James Lee Love
Subject: Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre) · UNC Libraries · Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies
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Baths and a sewer line are installed with the repair appropriation
With the $10,000 repair appropriation of 1893 the university planned baths and water closets in the basement of Smith Hall, under the library. By about 1895 bathtubs, shower baths and closets were in use there, with a sewer run into Chapel branch south of the campus, and the university had contracted for an infirmary cottage.
Subject: Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre)
- Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
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Summer School students perform the colonial play Esther Wake
In the summer of 1912 the Summer School for Teachers presented Esther Wake, a play by instructor Adolf Vermont about colonial North Carolina, on the steps of Smith Hall.
Subject: University Summer School · Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre)
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Playmakers Theatre opens
The Carolina Playmakers dedicated their theatre in the remodeled Smith Hall, the 1850s building later used as a library and law school, on Monday, November 23, 1925, with talks by Frederick Koch and President Harry W. Chase and three new folk plays.
Part of The Carolina Playmakers and the founding of UNC Press · 20 events
People: Frederick H. Koch
Subject: Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre) · Carolina Playmakers
- Civil rights era · 1945–1975
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Playmakers Theatre (Smith Hall) is listed in the National Register
On June 24, 1971 the National Park Service listed Playmakers Theatre (Smith Hall) in Chapel Hill in the National Register of Historic Places.
Subject: Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre)
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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.
