Steward’s Hall

In the chronology

Storyline about this site, with a page of its own:

• Steward's Hall and the University commons, 1797–1819

1. January 10, 1794 Trustees adopt the plan of instruction and set the university's opening for January 15 The board ordered the McCorkle committee's scheme into effect, fixed tuition by subject and created a presiding professor at $300 a year plus fees. It also resolved to build a steward's house before the opening and set a bill of fare for Commons with no drink but water. People: Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, John Haywood, William Lenoir Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 50
2. December 9, 1797 Pleasant Henderson is chosen steward of the university Pleasant Henderson moved from Mt. Pleasant to Chapel Hill in 1797 and was chosen steward of the University of North Carolina, following John Taylor in the post. A UNC Libraries exhibit records that he owned nineteen enslaved people. NCpedia: Henderson, Pleasant
3. 1801 Students stone steward Pleasant Henderson's house Complaints about the food at Steward's Hall under stewards John Taylor and Pleasant Henderson helped fuel the student uprising of 1799. In 1801 Henderson's house was stoned, and he did not reapply for the stewardship. Documenting the American South: Steward's Hall
4. 1802 Pleasant Henderson gives up the stewardship and opens a store Henderson gave up the university stewardship in 1802 and declined the trusteeship he was elected to. About this time he went into business as Henderson and Searcy, and he kept his Chapel Hill residence while serving as clerk of the House of Commons from 1807 to 1830. NCpedia: Henderson, Pleasant
5. July 1804 A quarrel at the 1804 commencement ball ends in a stabbing and a trial before the trustees At the commencement ball in Steward's Hall, Hyder Ally Davie twice trod on the toes of Henry Chambers of Salisbury while dancing. Outside, Chambers struck him and Davie stabbed Chambers in the neck with a penknife. The trustees, among them William R. Davie and William Polk, tried the case in the chapel the next day. People: William Richardson Davie, William Polk William Hooper, Fifty Years Since: An Address Delivered before the Alumni of the University of North-Carolina (1859), scan p. 17 · Also: Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I
6. 1808 Thirty-eight students petition the faculty over food at Steward's Hall Signers including John Branch complained of too little butter and of beef often unsound and full of vermin. The faculty found the wording defiant and had it rewritten, and suspended John R. Stokes and Elias Foord for refusing to sign the milder version. Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 215
7. 1819 The university stops running Steward's Hall and lets students board where they choose Ending the old commons, the trustees rented Steward's Hall to Mrs. Burton, who had to feed students for no more than $9 a month the first year and allow the commencement ball in the dining room free. Board there had risen from $30 a year in 1795 to $95 in 1818. Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 274
8. 1824 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. Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 297
9. November 1833 Students win the use of Steward's Hall for the commencement ball A committee chosen by a mass meeting of students, with Christopher C. Battle as its writer, petitioned the trustees on November 6, 1833 for a room in Steward's Hall for the commencement ball, and the trustees agreed. The ball managers then invited leading men of the state, among them Governor Swain. People: David L. Swain, John H. Watson Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 348
10. 1844 University ends student commons at Steward's Hall 1844 was the last year the university ran Steward's Hall, the frame dining house in the middle of what is now Cameron Avenue where students had taken their meals. It was rented as a private house the next year and later sold, and part of it went into the village school building. Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 614
11. 1847 Trustees dispose of Steward's Hall In 1847 the wings of Steward's Hall, the old college dining hall, were given to President Swain to build a servants' house and the main building was sold. For some years before, it had been rented to keepers who boarded any students who chose to eat there. People: David L. Swain Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 431

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