Gerrard Hall

In the chronology

1. about 1821 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
2. 1822 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
3. 1833 Trustees name the new chapel Gerrard Hall The trustees sold Major Charles Gerrard's 2,560-acre service tract in Tennessee for $6,400, voted $2,000 of it toward finishing the new chapel that had stood unfinished since about 1824, and resolved that the building be known forever as Gerrard Hall in his memory. People: George E. Badger, William Polk, William Gaston
4. November 1835 Philanthropic Society has a cast made of Caldwell's features In November 1835, at the Philanthropic Society's request, Caldwell's body was taken up so that the artist Alfred S. Waugh could make a plaster cast of his face. The bust made from it stands in Gerrard Hall.
5. 1837 Gerrard Hall is finished and holds its first commencement Gerrard Hall, the new chapel begun more than a decade earlier, was completed in 1837 under carpenter Thomas Waitt, and that year's commencement was held in it. The Raleigh Register described a roomy building with large galleries, and the old chapel, Person Hall, was soon given over to classrooms.
6. June 1839 Elisha Mitchell preaches the university's first baccalaureate sermon At the 1839 commencement Mitchell, chosen by the faculty, preached the first of the baccalaureate sermons to the graduating class. The choice of preacher was later given to the senior class.
7. June 27, 1839 Faculty appoints the first chief marshal of commencement For the commencement of June 27, 1839, attended by every living former governor but one, the faculty named the first chief marshal, Thomas Davis Meares, who had led the Delphian seceders. The choice of marshal soon passed to the students.
8. 1842 Graduates receive Bibles at commencement for the first time The 1842 commencement was the first at which each member of the graduating class was given a Bible bearing the president's autograph, a custom still kept in 1907. People: David L. Swain
9. 1842 Mitchell demonstrates electromagnetic motion at commencement When the 1842 society orator could not come, Elisha Mitchell showed the audience electromagnetic apparatus the university had just bought in Boston and produced rapid motion by magnetism alone. He judged that the cost of copper and zinc would keep it from competing with steam.
10. 1842 Person Hall is partitioned into four classrooms With Gerrard Hall now the chapel, the old chapel, Person Hall, was divided by thick walls and chimneys into four recitation rooms for the professors of Latin, Greek and rhetoric and the tutor of ancient languages.
11. June 1846 False alarm sets off a panic in the chapel at commencement During the 1846 commencement someone shouted that the gallery was falling, and the packed crowd rushed for the doors while some jumped from windows, until President Swain, Governor Graham and other trustees calmed it. No one was hurt, and more pillars were placed under the galleries before the next commencement. People: David L. Swain, William A. Graham
12. June 3, 1846 Morehead gives the Alumni Association address in Gerrard Hall With no orator found from the class of thirty years before, the association's president, former governor Morehead, delivered the address at the meeting of 36 alumni in Gerrard Hall. People: William A. Graham
13. December 11, 1849 to January 4, 1850 Trustees let student church members worship at their own churches Petitions from several denominations reached the board in December 1849 asking to ease compulsory Sunday worship in the college chapel. On January 4, 1850 the trustees voted down a broader plan and adopted Samuel F. Patterson's rule letting communicants attend the church of their choice while all others still attended chapel, a rule that stood about ten years. People: David L. Swain, William Mercer Green, Samuel Finley Patterson
14. 1860 commencement Archbishop John Hughes preaches the commencement sermon Invited again by the senior class, the Roman Catholic Archbishop Hughes preached the baccalaureate sermon, speaking without notes for an hour and three quarters on love of God and of neighbor. Some Protestant critics attacked the choice, and a Hillsborough Recorder correspondent charged that he was treated discourteously, which the university denied. People: F. M. (Fordyce Mitchell) Hubbard
15. December 18, 1860 Trustees allow students to be excused from chapel worship Answering a memorial from the Episcopal convention that compulsory chapel on Sunday violated conscience, the trustees adopted Judge Matthias E. Manly's scheme letting the president excuse students whose parents lived in the village, who belonged to another church in town, or who or whose parents objected in writing. Morning and evening prayers stayed compulsory. People: William Horn Battle
16. 1861 commencement Seniors in the army granted diplomas without examinations With the consent of the trustees, the faculty granted degrees to all members of the senior class, though many had joined the army and did not stand their examinations. Only thirty of the eighty-seven graduates were present in person, and the Latin salutatory was dropped because its speaker was with his regiment at Yorktown.
17. 1862 commencement Commencement held without its ball or marshals The ball managers told the trustees the seniors' ball could not be held unless the board gave $200 or $300, and the trustees did not answer, so it was omitted for the first time. A quarrel between seniors and juniors over the marshal left the commencement without marshals or music.
18. March 14, 1867 James Phillips dies in the college chapel On the morning of March 14, 1867, James Phillips went early to the college chapel to lead morning prayers and was found dead on the rostrum as the bell rang. He had taught at the university since 1826 and was buried in the Chapel Hill Cemetery.
19. October 1877 University Day is established At Kemp P. Battle's request, seconded by Zebulon B. Vance, the executive committee made October 12, the anniversary of the laying of Old East's cornerstone in 1793, a permanent holiday. At the first observance in Gerrard Hall, decorated by Cornelia Phillips Spencer and village women, Battle spoke on the charter and the cornerstone. People: Zebulon B. Vance, Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Kemp Plummer Battle
20. 1884 Randall speaks on North Carolina folklore at commencement Graduating with the class of 1884, Randall was class prophet at the Class Day exercises in the Chapel and gave the commencement speech 'North Carolina Folk Lore', which met with unusual applause. People: Samuel Mallett Gattis
21. March 11-14, 1886 The annual YMCA convention meets at Chapel Hill The Young Men's Christian Association's annual convention met at Chapel Hill, with sessions in Gerrard Hall, reports from associations around the state and a Sunday talk to townspeople in the Baptist church. Professor J. W. Gore was chosen its president. People: Thomas Hume
22. June 5, 1889 The university celebrates the centennial of its charter Alumni from Colorado to Florida filled Memorial Hall for a roll call of classes back to 1824, then sat down to a banquet for three hundred in Gerrard Hall with delegates from Harvard, Yale, Virginia and other schools. The reunion led to an annual alumni banquet, branch alumni associations and a drive to endow a chair of history. People: Kemp Plummer Battle
23. May 10, 1890 Professor Adolphus W. Mangum dies Mangum, a Methodist minister who had taught mental and moral science, history and English since the reopening, died after a long illness. Josephus Daniels gave a memorial address in Gerrard Hall on May 31, 1891. People: Josephus Daniels, Adolphus Williamson Mangum
24. January 22, 1892 The new Glee Club gives its first concert The Glee Club, formed in 1891 under Professor Karl P. Harrington, gave its first concert in Gerrard Hall and then toured Raleigh, Salem, Greensboro, Durham, Wilmington and other towns, giving its profits to the athletic association.
25. March 1895 President Winston turns back a legislative effort to cut the university's funding Two years after the move to confine the university to graduate study failed, church-college allies in the 1895 General Assembly tried to shrink its state appropriation; Winston rallied alumni legislators and prevailed after Populist leader Marion Butler came out for the university. Students met him at the west gate on his return and escorted his hired coach and four to a bonfire and celebration at Gerrard Hall. People: Marion Butler
26. January 27, 1897 Edwin Alderman is inaugurated as president in Gerrard Hall About a hundred legislators and Governor Daniel L. Russell rode a special train from Raleigh through sleet for the ceremony, where Kemp P. Battle presented Alderman and the new president spoke for an hour and a half on the university as the people's school. The lawmakers were made honorary members of the Di and Phi societies and met with school superintendents who had come to honor one of their own. People: Daniel Lindsay Russell, Kemp Plummer Battle
27. 1900-01 Gerrard Hall is renovated and its south portico torn down Gerrard Hall got a new roof and interior: chairs replaced the pews, the old doors were walled up and two new doors opened on the east. The decaying south porch and its columns were pulled down.
28. May 10, 1905 The Leonidas Polk Chapter of the UDC holds Confederate memorial exercises On May 10, 1905, the Leonidas Polk Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy held memorial exercises in Gerrard Hall, reading the roll of students who had served in the Confederate army. Children and adults then carried flowers to decorate soldiers' graves in the village cemetery. People: Thomas Hume
29. May 17, 1908 Chapel Hill holds a memorial service for Cornelia Phillips Spencer Cornelia Phillips Spencer died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1908. On May 17 the university held a service in her memory in Gerrard Hall, opening with the hymn she wrote for the 1875 reopening. People: Collier Cobb, Kemp Plummer Battle
30. Fall 1909 Gerrard Hall is refitted and daily chapel resumes for every undergraduate With money Venable got from the legislature, Gerrard Hall's interior was renovated so that all undergraduates fit, and Dean Graham set a half-hour program before noon with ministers, faculty, trustees and other guest speakers. Upperclassmen had been excused from chapel for want of seats. People: Edward Kidder Graham, Francis Preston Venable
31. January 19, 1909 Woodrow Wilson speaks in Gerrard Hall on Robert E. Lee's centennial On January 19, 1909, the university marked the hundredth birthday of Robert E. Lee in Gerrard Hall, with Princeton president Woodrow Wilson as the speaker. People: Francis Preston Venable
32. July 4, 1918 Orange County holds a Fourth of July war rally on the UNC campus At the Governor's request the UNC Summer School invited the county to its July 4, 1918 celebration, and at least 3,000 people came for a parade, a flag raising and S. M. Gattis's address in Memorial Hall. The county Council of Defense met in Gerrard Hall, and Adolph Vermont's pageant on French-American friendship played in Battle's Park. People: M. C. S. Noble, Adolph Vermont, J. Cheshire Webb, Samuel Mallett Gattis
33. Thanksgiving 1918 The university Woman's Association holds a Thanksgiving peace festival To pay for layettes and other war relief, the Woman's Association planned a Thanksgiving Peace Celebration: a Gypsy Festival moved by rain into the Y.M.C.A., ending with a pageant in Gerrard Hall. It raised $350, $150 of it for the United War Fund.
34. December 8, 1918 A memorial service for President Graham fills Gerrard Hall Every seat in Gerrard Hall was taken for the formal memorial service for Edward Kidder Graham, held after the epidemic had eased. Horace Williams and R. D. W. Connor spoke, and J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton read a tribute from C. Alphonso Smith. People: R. D. W. Connor, J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, Henry Horace Williams
35. 1919 Frederick Koch reads A Christmas Carol in Gerrard Hall Koch brought his annual reading of Dickens's A Christmas Carol to UNC when he arrived in 1918. The Raleigh News and Observer described a 1919 reading in Gerrard Hall, with carols by university singing groups in the two intermissions, and he gave the reading 39 times on the UNC campus.
36. February 10, 1919 Students open the Graham Memorial fund drive in Gerrard Hall At a student rally led by Albert Coates, with William H. Bobbitt and Luther Hodges also speaking, students and faculty pledged $20,000 toward a building now budgeted at $150,000. The drive reached about $70,000 by its June deadline and $120,000 by the end of 1919. People: Albert Coates, William H. (William Haywood) Bobbitt, Luther H. Hodges
37. March 2, 1919 Gerrard Hall memorial service for Marvin H. Stacy Students, faculty and friends met in Gerrard Hall to remember Stacy, who had died of influenza on January 21. Former president Francis P. Venable, a childhood friend, and Albert Coates for the students spoke. People: Francis Preston Venable, Albert Coates
38. March 1921 Tuskegee principal Robert Russa Moton speaks in Gerrard Hall Moton, Booker T. Washington's successor at Tuskegee Institute, told his campus audience that he accepted social separation of the races and promised good relations so long as whites gave Black people education and industrial fairness.
39. 1925 George Washington Carver speaks in Gerrard Hall The Tuskegee scientist visited the campus, speaking from the platform of Gerrard Hall and showing a display at the YMCA, without the outcry that met James Weldon Johnson's classroom visits two years later.
40. 1926 Kay Kyser takes over the UNC campus band from Hal Kemp Kay Kyser, a UNC student and cheerleader who could not read music, took over leadership of the campus dance band in 1926 when Hal Kemp graduated. The new band held its first rehearsal in Gerrard Hall.
41. 1926–1927 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.
42. November 19, 1931 Langston Hughes reads in Gerrard Hall after Contempo prints "Christ in Alabama" Milton Abernethy of Contempo invited Langston Hughes to Chapel Hill and printed his Scottsboro poem "Christ in Alabama" in the issue dated December 1, timed to appear days before the visit. Hughes spoke and read to students and townspeople in Gerrard Hall on the night of November 19, 1931. People: Guy Benton Johnson, Langston Hughes
43. September 9-10, 1932 Albert Coates convenes the Institute of Government's first statewide school for public officials About six hundred officials and citizens from nearly every county came to Chapel Hill for a two-day meeting Coates had promoted all summer. Frank Graham opened the Friday evening session in Gerrard Hall and Harvard law dean Roscoe Pound gave the closing address on Saturday, when the organizing committee approved hiring Coates as director with a staff. People: Frank Porter Graham, O. Max Gardner
44. September 8, 1934 Catholics organize a congregation in Chapel Hill The Catholic Church of Chapel Hill was organized under its first priest, Francis J. Morrissey. With no building of its own, it held services in Gerrard Hall on the university campus.

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