The Graham Memorial, 1918–1932

In the chronology

Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 15 dated events in the chronology →

1. October 26, 1918 President Edward Kidder Graham dies of influenza and pneumonia at his home in Chapel Hill Graham, 42, president since 1914 and regional director of the Student Army Training Corps for the South Atlantic states, died on Saturday night after five days' illness. The SATC battalion escorted the funeral, conducted at the grave by W. D. Moss of the Presbyterian church; Josephus Daniels and Newton D. Baker sent tributes. People: Edward Kidder Graham, William Dygnum Moss, Josephus DanielsThe Tar Heel, October 30, 1918, p. 1
2. 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, Charles Alphonso Smith, Edward Kidder GrahamSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 177
3. December 1918 Trustees and faculty back a $150,000 student building as Edward Kidder Graham's memorial A joint committee of trustees and faculty, meeting in the governor's office in mid-December, agreed to raise $150,000 privately for the student activities building Graham had hoped for, to stand where Person Hall was. Albert Coates ran the drive and by the end of January 1919 announced $20,000 pledged by students, $14,500 of it in one night. People: Louis Round Wilson, Albert Coates, Edward Kidder GrahamSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 192
4. 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. HodgesSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 39 · Also: The News (Chapel Hill), February 20, 1919, p. 1
5. by February 20, 1919 Orange County students at the University organize a county club The 23 Orange County students at the University organized a county club, with Thomas J. Wilson III as president, S. R. Cole as vice-president and Miss Pickard as secretary-treasurer. At an early meeting they laid plans to ask the people of Orange to do their part toward the Graham Memorial building.Search the index · The News (Chapel Hill), February 20, 1919, p. 3
6. March 15, 1919 A Chapel Hill committee opens the town canvass for the Graham Memorial fund A committee for Chapel Hill wrote to the townspeople that the local campaign for the Graham Memorial, a student activities building in memory of President Edward Kidder Graham, was beginning and that members would call for subscriptions. No quota was set; the students had already pledged between $20,000 and $25,000 of the $150,000 sought. The committee called it the first town campaign for a large campus enterprise since 1904. People: W. S. Roberson, C. B. Griffin, Milton E. HoganSearch the index · The News (Chapel Hill), March 20, 1919, p. 1
7. by June 5, 1919 Edward Kidder Graham's Education and Citizenship is published G. P. Putnam's Sons of New York published Education and Citizenship, a 270-page volume of the late president's addresses and papers edited by Louis R. Wilson, H. W. Chase and Edwin Greenlaw, with an introduction by E. A. Alderman of the University of Virginia. People: Louis Round Wilson, Harry Woodburn Chase, Edwin GreenlawSearch the index · The News (Chapel Hill), June 5, 1919, p. 1
8. June 1919 UNC trustees provide for the education of Edward Kidder Graham's young son At commencement the University trustees named a committee to see to the education and support, until he turned 21, of 'Sonny' Graham, the orphaned son of the late President Edward Kidder Graham, who had been in the care of his aunts, the Misses Moses of Chapel Hill. The News called him a child of the University.Search the index · The News (Chapel Hill), June 19, 1919, p. 5
9. June 1919 UNC trustees turn the campus's growth southward and call for a landscape plan Planning for 1,500 students the next year, the trustees combined their committees on buying land and on buildings, authorized them to hire a landscape engineer to draft a development plan, and decided that new building should move toward the south end of the campus rather than into four dormitories proposed for the north end. They also voted a monument over the graves of President and Mrs. Graham. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, Charles T. Woollen, John Sprunt Hill, J. Bryan (John Bryan) Grimes, James Alexander GraySearch the index · The News (Chapel Hill), June 26, 1919, p. 1
10. 1924 Work begins on Graham Memorial on the site of the burned University Inn Construction of Graham Memorial started where the University Inn had stood until the 1921 fire. By 1928 only its social room was in use.Search the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 233
11. February 1924 Chase and Coates rally students to revive the Graham Memorial drive President Chase, Albert Coates and student body president Julian Allsbrook held a special chapel meeting in Memorial Hall to restart the stalled fund drive, with plans cut back to a smaller building whose exterior was under way. In March Coates set out a University Life Unification Plan centered on the building. People: Albert CoatesSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 63
12. by March 26, 1925 Scaffolding comes down from Graham Memorial, its inside left unfinished With the scaffolding taken down in late March 1925, Arthur C. Nash's Graham Memorial stood finished outside, but the money had run out: the interior was bare concrete and steel, the front balustrade and the pilaster capitals were missing, and the portico on the campus side was only a concrete floor, the Weekly reported. People: Arthur Cleveland NashThe Chapel Hill Weekly, March 26, 1925, p. 2