Skip to content
Orange County Public Library (opens the library’s website in a new tab)

Storyline

The University’s PWA building program of 1938–1941

The University’s second round of PWA building, from the 1938 special legislative session to the buildings finished in 1940: the dining hall, the new dormitories, the Carolina Inn addition, the power plant on West Cameron Avenue and the rebuilt Bynum Gymnasium, Alumni Building and Gerrard Hall.

In briefIn August 1938 a special legislative session called by Governor Hoey to match grants from the Public Works Administration approved University building at Chapel Hill, though not all that President Graham had asked for. Federal allotments and a last-minute approval of three more dormitories and a Carolina Inn addition raised the program to $2,349,000 by October, the government paying 45 per cent. Between 1938 and 1941 the University built dormitories, a power plant, an Inn addition, a new dining hall seating 1,050 and a zoology building, and rebuilt the interiors of older halls such as Gerrard Hall and Bynum Gymnasium. Graham dedicated the zoology building as the Wilson Zoology Laboratory in 1941.

Read the full storyRead the 26 eventsAll storylines

Read the events and sources below.

No works in the index are currently linked directly to this storyline. The works below provide background on UNC & Campus Life.

Browse all 10,126 works on UNC & Campus Life Research sources View background reading ↓

The full story

In August 1938 a special legislative session, called by Governor Hoey to match PWA grants, approved $427,000 of University building at Chapel Hill, including a zoology annex and the interior reconstruction of the Alumni Building, Bynum Gymnasium and Gerrard Hall, but not all that President Graham had asked for. By September 16 the Public Works Administration had allotted $235,000 toward a dining hall and two dormitories and $316,000 toward a $700,000 power plant at the west end of Cameron Avenue. A last-minute approval of three more dormitories and a Carolina Inn addition raised the program to $2,349,000 by October 7, the government paying 45 per cent. Work began in December on two women's dormitories opposite the Arboretum, and a men's dormitory near the tennis courts was already rising.

In 1939 contracts were let for the Inn addition, a medical students' dormitory and the dining hall, and the University Press and journalism moved into the rebuilt Bynum Gymnasium, freeing the Alumni Building for its interior work. On May 24 the University sold $250,000 in power plant revenue bonds, the last of four issues totaling $1,173,000. The rebuilt Gerrard Hall was certified in August, and medical students moved into their dormitory on September 13.

The new dining hall at the west end of Emerson Field, seating 1,050, twice as many as Swain Hall, served its first meal at noon on January 2, 1940, and in the following weeks old Swain Hall was taken over by the University's duplicating, accounting, purchasing and stores, and physical plant departments. During the spring holidays of March 1940 the zoology department under Robert E. Coker moved into its new building opposite Venable Hall, and the botany department took over its old rooms in Davie Hall. The Inn addition and the power plant were also completed in 1940. On Thanksgiving morning, November 20, 1941, President Graham dedicated the zoology building as the Wilson Zoology Laboratory, named for Henry Van Peters Wilson, who had taught at the University for 47 years until his death in 1939.

In the chronology

Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 26 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Stacy Residence Hall is completed and named for Marvin H. Stacy Stacy Residence Hall was finished in 1938 and named for Marvin Hendrix Stacy, the dean and acting president who died of influenza in 1919.Search the index · Carolina Story: Virtual Museum of University History: Marvin Hendrix Stacy and Stacy Residence Hall
  2. Special legislative session funds $427,000 in University building at Chapel Hill Called by Governor Hoey to match PWA grants, the special session approved for Chapel Hill a zoology annex to the old medical building (Caldwell Hall), equipment for the new medical building, and interior reconstruction of the Alumni Building, Bynum Gymnasium and Gerrard Hall, $427,000 in all, the state paying 55 per cent. The classroom building, library addition, religious center and dramatic arts building that President Graham had asked for were left out. People: Frank Porter Graham, Clyde Roark HoeySearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 12, 1938, p. 1
  3. The PWA allots $235,000 toward a University dining hall and two dormitories The government allotted $235,000 toward a new dining hall and two dormitories costing $522,000, the University's share to be raised by revenue bonds repaid from room rents and dining hall earnings. The men's dormitory was to close the gap at the east end of the Everett-Lewis-Aycock-Graham group and the women's to stand in the grove opposite the Arboretum.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 9, 1938, p. 1
  4. The PWA backs a new University power plant away from the campus The PWA agreed to pay $316,000, 45 per cent, of a $700,000 power plant to be built near the laundry at the west end of Cameron Avenue, the University raising the rest from an earlier legislative appropriation and revenue bonds. The old plant opposite the Carolina Inn, with its trestle, storage houses and dumps, was to be cleared and the space kept for the science departments.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 16, 1938, p. 1
  5. The faculty grounds committee places the new dining hall on Emerson Field and the zoology building on the South Road The faculty committee on grounds and buildings, chaired by W. C. Coker, decided that the University's new eating hall would go at the southwest corner of Emerson Field and the new zoology building on the south side of the South Road at its fork with the Pittsboro highway, opposite Venable Hall, so that zoology would sit near chemistry and medicine. It also decided that one of the five new dormitories would house medical students near the new medical building; the committee's choice, the Weekly said, was formally a recommendation to the trustees but in practice final. People: William Chambers CokerSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 14, 1938, p. 1
  6. The PWA approves three more dormitories and a Carolina Inn addition for the University An unexpected last-minute PWA approval of a $700,000 project for three dormitories and an addition to the Carolina Inn, which was to include a long-wanted faculty club, raised the University's coming building program to $2,349,000, with the federal government paying 45 per cent. The program also took in a power plant, a zoology building, a dining hall, two other dormitories and the rebuilding of the Alumni Building, Gerrard Hall and Bynum Gymnasium, all to be started by December 31 and finished by the spring of 1940; George Watts Carr of Durham was engaged to design the Inn addition. People: Frank Porter GrahamSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 7, 1938, p. 1
  7. Work begins on two new women's dormitories in the grove opposite the Arboretum The Muirhead Construction Company broke ground for the central building of a three-sided women's court in the grove opposite the Arboretum, and T. W. Poe and Son of Durham took the contract for its twin facing the women's dormitory built the year before; the two were to hold 130 and 102 women and be ready the next September. A men's dormitory at the east end of the outer quadrangle near the tennis courts had been rising since the fall as the first building of the PWA-aided program.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 9, 1938, p. 1
  8. The university builds the dormitory later named Alexander Residence Hall A men's dormitory built at the university in 1939 with funds from the New Deal's Public Works Administration was known as K until the trustees named it for Eben Alexander, the former professor of Greek and first dean of the faculty, at their meeting of June 7, 1941.Search the index · Carolina Story: Eben Alexander (1851-1910) and Alexander Residence Hall · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 13, 1941, p. 3; Chapel Hill Weekly, June 20, 1941, p. 1
  9. Cobb and Homewood start the University's new power plant off West Cameron Avenue with a cooling spray pond Chapel Hill contractors Cobb and Homewood began work on the University's new power plant near the laundry at the west end of Cameron Avenue by building a concrete spray pond about 135 feet square to cool the condenser water. Engineer William C. Olsen was drawing plans for the plant, whose exterior consulting architect Arthur C. Nash was to design or approve; work on the building itself was expected in early summer. People: Arthur Cleveland NashSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 3, 1939, p. 1
  10. Muirhead Construction Company of Durham gets the contract for the Carolina Inn addition and a medical students' dormitory After bids were opened March 1, the contract for a southward addition to the Carolina Inn and a nearby housekeeping dormitory for medical and graduate students, both designed by Watts Carr in the style of the existing Inn, went to the Muirhead Construction Company of Durham. The project, about $400,000 in all, was to add 117 rooms; the dormitory was to be ready for students and the Inn addition by about December 1.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 17, 1939, p. 1
  11. The University lets the contract for its new dining hall at the west end of Emerson Field The general contract for the University's new dining hall went to the A. H. Guion Company of Charlotte for $155,000, with plumbing to W. M. Hunt of Durham for $7,215 and heating and refrigeration to Rowe-Coward of Durham for $23,150. The PWA was granting 45 per cent of the cost and the rest was to come from bonds repaid out of cafeteria revenue; the building was due in 180 days and in use by January.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 14, 1939, p. 1
  12. The University Press, the journalism department and the news bureau move into the rebuilt Bynum Gymnasium The University Press moved from the Alumni Building basement into the former Bynum Gymnasium, its interior completely rebuilt, taking the first and second floors, while the journalism department and the news bureau divided the third. The move cleared the Alumni Building for its interior reconstruction, which was to begin at once. People: William T. Couch, Robert W. MadrySearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 21, 1939, p. 1
Show all 26 dated events
  1. Lenoir Hall is built as the new campus dining hall Atwood and Weeks designed Lenoir Hall, a red brick dining hall with large windows near Wilson Library, at the west end of Emerson Field. The general contract went to a Charlotte company on April 11, 1939, with 180 days to finish, but a strike at the limestone quarries held up the work, and in December 1939 the Weekly listed the $265,400 dining hall among University buildings to be finished in 1940, to open with the winter quarter in January. It served its first meal at noon on January 2, 1940. Little dates its completion to 1939. People: Thomas C. Atwood, Howard Raymond WeeksSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 56 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, April 14, 1939, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, November 3, 1939, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, December 8, 1939, p. 6; Chapel Hill Weekly, January 5, 1940, p. 1
  2. The Alumni Building's interior is renovated The building had held the Atwood and Nash office during the 1920s campus campaign. The 1939 reconstruction of its interior was to begin at once in late April, after the University Press and the journalism department moved out to the rebuilt Bynum Gymnasium; the sociology department and the Institute for Social Research had moved to Woollen Gymnasium in March for the eight or nine months the work was expected to take. A second renovation followed in 1973, and the two left little of that interior.Search the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Arthur C. and Mary S. A. Nash House, National Register nomination (OR2289), p. 19 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, March 17, 1939, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, April 21, 1939, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, January 12, 1940, p. 3
  3. The University sells $250,000 in power plant revenue bonds at 2.736 percent At public bidding in Raleigh the University sold $250,000 in 20-year serial revenue bonds for its new power plant at 2.736 percent interest, which the Weekly said was the lowest rate a state agency had ever paid. It was the last of four bond issues, $1,173,000 in all, that with PWA grants paid for the gymnasium, dining hall, Carolina Inn addition, six dormitories and the power plant.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 26, 1939, p. 1
  4. The University lets the contract to build its new power plant The University awarded the Muirhead Construction Company of Durham $135,780 for the power plant building, turbine and substation foundations and a rail siding with coal trestle, and the Link Belt Company of Philadelphia $24,306 for coal-handling equipment, with the job due by March. The smokestack and concrete cooling pond were already finished, and the whole plant was put at $701,000.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 7, 1939, p. 1
  5. PWA inspectors certify the rebuilt Gerrard Hall as ready for use The PWA made its final inspection of Gerrard Hall in the week before August 25, 1939, and certified the reconstruction of the building, which had been closed for several years after the state insurance department condemned its weakened roof. The hall got a new roof on steel trusses, new floor, balcony columns, lighting and chairs, and seats 476; the state paid 55 percent of the cost and the PWA 45 percent.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 25, 1939, p. 1
  6. Medical students move into the new University dormitory near the Carolina Inn Overtime work by carpenters, plasterers, painters and plumbers let the University open its new dormitory for medical students, at Pittsboro Road and McCauley Street, on the night of September 13, 1939, before the radiators were in. With rooms short for a record enrollment, the University also allowed three students to a room when all three petitioned for it.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 15, 1939, p. 1
  7. MacNider Hall is completed as the first building of the medical school complex The first building constructed in UNC's medical school complex was completed in 1939 and named for MacNider, then dean. The school of medicine moved in at the start of the fall quarter of 1939, and the building was formally opened on December 4, 1939; it cost $428,000, of which the state gave $275,000 and the Public Works Administration the rest.Search the index · Carolina Story: William de Berniere MacNider (1881-1951) and MacNider Hall · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, September 22, 1939, p. 3; Chapel Hill Weekly, December 8, 1939, p. 1
  8. UNC formally opens its new medical building On December 4, 1939, the University held a day of exercises, a tea in the Charles E. Kistler library and a dinner at the Carolina Inn to open formally the new home of its School of Medicine and Division of Public Health, in use since the fall quarter. The building cost $428,000, of which the state gave $275,000 and the PWA the rest; Dr. E. K. Marshall Jr. of Johns Hopkins spoke on sulfanilamide. People: William de Berniere MacNider, Frank Porter GrahamSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 8, 1939, p. 1
  9. The university builds a heating and power plant on West Cameron Avenue In 1940 the university put up a large steel-frame heating and power plant with brick walls at 503 West Cameron Avenue, two to four stories high. Its stepped facade and rounded corners are in the Art Moderne manner.Search the index · NC Digital Collections: Chapel Hill Historic Sites Survey: Final Report (1992), p. 12 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, September 22, 1939, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, October 20, 1939, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, November 24, 1939, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, March 29, 1940, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, May 24, 1940, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, June 13, 1941, p. 1
  10. The University's new dining hall serves its first meal The University's new brick dining hall at the west end of Emerson Field, built with a PWA grant and loan as a self-liquidating project, served its first meal at noon on January 2. Seating 1,050, twice as many as Swain Hall, it had two cafeterias and a restaurant, and its luncheonette under Charlie Gooch opened on January 5.The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 5, 1940, p. 1
  11. The Carolina Inn completes the first of its rear additions The Carolina Inn, which Arthur Nash designed for John Sprunt Hill, gained a rear addition in 1940, the first of three (later ones in 1970 and 1995) that tracked the university's growth. Designed by Watts Carr and built with the help of a PWA grant for about $290,000, the addition passed its final government inspection on January 22, 1940 and was turned over to the University; with its new cafeteria opening on February 2, the enlarged Inn had 92 rooms and 18 apartments. People: John Sprunt Hill, Arthur Cleveland NashSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 60 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, December 2, 1938, p. 6; Chapel Hill Weekly, December 8, 1939, p. 6; Chapel Hill Weekly, January 26, 1940, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, February 2, 1940, p. 1
  12. University business offices move into old Swain Hall With the new dining hall in use, old Swain Hall was taken over by the University's duplicating, accounting, purchasing and stores, and physical plant departments, with J. S. Bennett's self-supporting enterprises and engineer A. R. Hollett, while the medical school's departure from Caldwell Hall let in radio, political science, public speaking and sculpture. The Weekly called it more shifting of quarters than the University had ever crowded into so short a time. People: John S. Bennett, Peter L. Burch, Arthur R. HollettThe Chapel Hill Weekly, January 12, 1940, p. 3
  13. The zoology department moves into its new building During the University's spring holidays the zoology department under Robert E. Coker moved into its new building near the junction of the South road and the Pittsboro highway, opposite Venable Hall, and the botany department took over its old rooms in Davie Hall. The move nearly finished the shifts brought on by the building program, leaving only the new power plant, whose steam and cable tunnel had been held up by the hard winter. People: R. E. Coker, William Chambers CokerThe Chapel Hill Weekly, March 29, 1940, p. 1
  14. The University dedicates its new zoology building as the Wilson Zoology Laboratory On Thanksgiving morning President Graham dedicated the University's new zoology building, built with help from a federal grant on the rise west of the Bell Tower, and named it the Wilson Zoology Laboratory for Henry Van Peters Wilson, who had taught at the University for 47 years until his death in 1939. R. B. House presided, Robert E. Coker, Kemp D. Battle, Ivey F. Lewis and C. D. Beers spoke, and a portrait of Wilson by Alice Kent Stoddard was shown for the first time. People: Frank Porter Graham, R. B. House, R. E. Coker, H. V. WilsonThe Chapel Hill Weekly, November 21, 1941, p. 3

Places in this history

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 9 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

All places and the county map →

Background on UNC & Campus Life

Background reading on UNC & Campus Life. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss this storyline. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

Widely held

Carolina Nursing through the decades: a historic timeline

2025 · The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing

An illustrated online timeline of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing, issued by the school in 2025. One page with portraits.

NC Cardinal

North Carolina baseball: the blue thread and the rise of an ACC power

Johns, Bill · 2025

A 2025 history of University of North Carolina baseball from its nineteenth-century beginnings to the program's rise as an ACC power. Chapters cover the early years on campus, the building of Boshamer Stadium, and the Mike Fox era. Self-published by the author, 288 pages.

NC Cardinal UNC

Tar Heel Bred

Whisnant, Scott · 2025 · Bearface Publishing

Scott Whisnant's memoir of a life measured out in North Carolina basketball seasons. A former sportswriter, Whisnant writes for readers raised in ACC country who learned the fight song early and treated the conference tournament in Greensboro as the high point of the year, recalling family, friends and the personal milestones that fell alongside Tar Heel games. Subjects include humor and anecdotes as well as the team's history. Published by Bearface Publishing in 2025, 318 pages with photographs.

✓ Held at OCPL · BIO WHISNANT WHI NC Cardinal UNC

Bright and tender dark: a novel

Pearson, Joanna · 2024 · Bloomsbury Publishing

Joanna Pearson's novel of a cold case at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Karlie Richards was a nineteen-year-old student when she was murdered; decades later her onetime roommate, divorced and in middle age, finds herself drawn back to the crime as online conspiracy theories about it multiply. A psychological thriller with a Chapel Hill setting, published by Bloomsbury in 2024, 275 pages.

NC Cardinal UNC

Lessons afield : adventures in nature with students and other living things

Wiley, R. Haven · 2023 · Hickory Woods Press

R. Haven Wiley's anecdotes of field work with students at Mason Farm, the university's biological reserve on the edge of Chapel Hill, and at other natural settings in North Carolina. It is natural history and nature anecdotes, personal pieces from a working naturalist. Published in Carrboro by Hickory Woods Press in 2023, 109 pages with illustrations.

UNC
Show 6 more

Putting Down Roots

Burk, William R. · 2023

William R. Burk's history of botany at the University of North Carolina, from its early natural scientists such as Denison Olmsted and Elisha Mitchell through later figures including George Francis Atkinson, Joseph Austin Holmes and Henry Van Peters Wilson, closing with a chapter on the Department of Botany itself. Published in Fort Worth in 2023.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 580.9 BURK UNC

Bloodmarked

Deonn, Tracy · 2022 · Simon & Schuster BFYR

Tracy Deonn's young adult fantasy novel set around the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bree, an African American teenager with newly awakened powers she cannot yet control, learns that the leaders of the secret Order mean to hide the coming demon war, and she and her friends flee so that she can find her own training. Subjects include magic, secret societies, imaginary wars and psychic trauma. Published by Simon & Schuster in 2022, 561 pages.

Reviewed in Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books./Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (2022).

UNC NC State Wake Forest Davidson

A Consequential Life: David Lowry Swain, Nineteenth-Century North Carolina, and Their University

Whichard, Willis P. · 2022

Willis P. Whichard's biography of David Lowry Swain, governor of North Carolina from 1832 to 1835 and president of the University of North Carolina from 1835 until his death in 1868. The subtitle ties Swain, nineteenth-century North Carolina and the university together, and the book belongs with the lives of college presidents and governors. Published in 2022.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC BIO SWAIN WHI NC Cardinal

The dove in the belly

Grimsley, Jim · 2022 · Levine Querido

Jim Grimsley's coming-of-age novel about Ronny, who grew up in a trailer alongside his mother and a string of stepfathers, kept his head down, earned good grades and won a scholarship to UNC in Chapel Hill. On campus he finds his first love and begins to sort out who he is. Subjects include gay college students, first loves and mothers and sons. Published by Levine Querido in 2022, 322 pages.

NC Cardinal UNC NC State

Hooper finds the pitch

Smith, Courtney Soling · 2022 · Orange County Historical Museum

A picture book by Courtney Soling Smith about a Boston terrier named Hooper and a glee club at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Published in 2022 by the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough, 35 unnumbered pages with illustrations, facsimiles and portraits.

UNC CH Historical Society

Together: The Amazing Story of Carolina Basketball's 2021-2022 Season

Lucas, Adam · 2022 · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Athletics

Adam Lucas's account of the 2021-2022 Carolina men's basketball season, Hubert Davis's first as head coach. Davis, appointed in April 2021, was the first Black head coach in the program's history, and the season ended at the NCAA tournament in New Orleans. Published 2022 by the UNC Department of Athletics, 155 pages with color illustrations. Topics include the Tar Heels, Davis, and college basketball in Chapel Hill in the twenty-first century.

NC Cardinal UNC Library of Congress

Research sources

Sources and research tools for this storyline. Research guide: Follow an event across several accounts.

Background

Collections and databases

Local help

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Browse New Arrivals → Meet Local Authors → Explore Local Publishers →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026