Alexander Jackson Davis

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 9 dated events in the chronology →

1. 1830s 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.Search the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 21
2. November 28, 1843 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. People: Alexander Jackson DavisSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 21
3. 1844–1848 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 DavisIn the index: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · North Carolina Architects and Builders, NC State University Libraries: Cosby, Dabney (1779-1862)
4. February 1844 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 MoreheadSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 22
5. 1845 to 1846 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 DavisUNC University Archives (For the Record): Slave Labor and Old East
6. 1847–1849 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. People: David L. Swain, Charles Phillips, Alexander Jackson DavisSearch the index · North Carolina Architects and Builders, NC State University Libraries: Cosby, Dabney (1779-1862)
7. 1848 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 BattleSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 513
8. 1850 to 1852 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 SmithSearch the index · UNC Names in Brick and Stone: PlayMakers Theater
9. summer 1856 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. People: David L. SwainSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 29