Helper Hotel
(ca. 1848)
A longtime fixture of the Davidson landscape, the Helper Hotel is the handiwork of the builder responsible for the College’s Eumenean and Philanthropic Halls.
225 and 215 North Main Street, Davidson, NC 28036
The Helper Hotel, the oldest surviving building in Mecklenburg County to have once served as a hotel, developed in stages. Lewis Dinkins, a prominent builder from Charlotte, undertook construction of the initial structure in the 1840s while he was engaged with another prominent project in Davidson. After securing contracts with the Eumenean and Philanthropic literary societies of Davidson College for the construction of their two meeting halls, Dinkins anticipated a future need for lodging for visitors to the college and for a convenient off-campus store for students. He therefore launched the first phase of what would become the Helper Hotel building as a private endeavor across Statesville Road from the campus in an effort to capitalize on that anticipated opportunity. Dinkins constructed the small inn and store building on an axis with the Eumenean and Philanthropic Halls using the same Jeffersonian Classicism architectural style and even duplicating many of the details of those buildings.
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First leased as a store building to Leroy Springs in December 1848, the structure was purchased by Hanson Pinkney Helper, a native of Davie County, in 1855. Helper expanded the structure, transforming it into a thirteen-room hotel that he named the Helper Hotel. Helper made several modifications to the structure over the years, including the addition of a two-story portico to the building’s east side in the late 1850s and the "widows' walk" or observatory in 1871.
The building housed a variety of commercial enterprises over the years. In the late 1800s, Dr. J. J. Dupuy operated a drug store in the big north room on the first floor. Two of his daughters, Julia and Merle Dupuy, married Davidson students who later became Presidents of Davidson College, Henry Louis Smith and Walter Lee Lingle. The Sloan family of Davidson purchased the building in or around 1901. Sadie Sloan Bohannan operated the inn during the 1920s and 1930s as a weekend rooming house for visiting college girls. Davidson College purchased the Helper Hotel in 1946. Architect Grover C. Meetze, who served as director of the College’s physical plant, supervised the restoration of the building in 1971. The Helper Hotel building has since been used by the college for a variety of purposes, including as space for offices and classrooms. The building includes a second floor V.I.P. suite for visiting scholars and honored guests.