Chairman Blake House
(ca. 1860)
The home of Davidson College’s first Chairman of the Faculty is one of the oldest surviving buildings continuously associated with the school.
318 and 312 Chairman Blake Ln, Davidson, NC 28036
According to local tradition, John Rennie Blake (1825-1900) was the first occupant of the Chairman Blake House, built shortly after he joined the Davidson College faculty in 1861. A native of Greenwood, South Carolina, and a graduate of the University of Georgia, Blake taught at several institutions before coming to Davidson as Professor of Astronomy and Philosophy. He remained at Davidson until 1885, when he retired and returned to his home in Greenwood. Professor Blake contributed greatly to the survival of Davidson College both during and after the Civil War. Despite calls for closure of the institution – the college graduated only eleven students in 1866, far short of the forty-six member graduating class of 1860 – Blake was among those who urged for continued operation of the college. As Bursar (effectively, the chief financial officer) of Davidson College in the late 1860s and early 1870s, he assumed numerous responsibilities, including personally repairing various campus facilities.
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In 1871, following the death of Davidson College President G. Wilson McPhail, the college’s Board of Trustees voted to institute a new system of governance for the school. In deference to the wishes of the faculty, rather than elect another president, the Board vested executive power in the Chairman of the Faculty, a newly created position to be elected by the faculty. Similar governance structures had been adopted at several other academic institutions at that time, including the University of Virginia. Shortly after the Board’s decision, the Davidson faculty elected Blake as their inaugural Chairman of the Faculty. He served in that capacity until June 1877, when the Board of Trustees voted to re-establish the office of President and elected Reverend A. D. Hepburn to that position. Major accomplishments achieved during Blake’s tenure as Chairmanship included substantial faculty salary increases (funded by increased tuition), enforcement of stringent entrance examinations, expansion of Board of Trustees membership beyond the Presbyteries of North Carolina, major fund raising campaigns, and an enriched curriculum.
Following Blake's retirement, the Chairman Blake House was occupied by Professor William Daniel Vinson of the Mathematics Department. A native of Sumter County, South Carolina, and a graduate of Washington and Lee University, Vinson joined Davidson’s faculty in 1883. He resided in the house until his death in 1897. The Chairman Blake House has served since as the residence of a series of individuals associated with Davidson College. The house is one of the oldest houses having a continuous association with the college and is one of the finer examples of a Greek Revival style cottage extant in Mecklenburg County.