Holt-Henderson-Copeland House
(ca. 1850s)
Once the home of Davidson’s first doctor, this Italianate-style dwelling served for more than 100 years as a student boarding house.
305 N Main St, Davidson, NC 28036
The Holt-Henderson-Copeland House, one of Davidson’s oldest buildings, is actually a house within a house. The original core of the structure – the portion comprising the southern wing of the front façade – was constructed in the 1850s by local tailor Jacob Coldiron. Dr. William A. Holt, Davidson’s first physician, and his wife Julia purchased the home in 1862 and later enlarged and remodeled the residence to its present Italianate style, all before 1909. The house remains one of the few surviving examples of the Italianate styling within the smaller towns of Mecklenburg County.
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Holt’s medical practice lasted more than twenty years. He treated patients in an office located within a rear extension of the Holt-Henderson-Copeland House. Meanwhile, Julia conducted one of the town’s earliest schools for local girls in Tammany Hall on the Davidson College campus. The Holts also took in Davidson College students as boarders, becoming one of the most popular boarding houses in town by the 1880s in part due to its proximity to the College’s campus.
Mrs. Miles Henderson purchased the house following Julia Holt's death in December 1912. The house served continuously as a boarding house until the property was sold by Mrs. Henderson’s son to the Reverend William Creecy Copeland and his wife Henrietta in 1944. William Copeland, a 1916 graduate of Davidson College and a Presbyterian minister, had returned to Davidson to manage the Henderson boarding house in 1935. Copeland preached at several churches in the area and also gardened and helped his wife run the boarding house. During World War II he trained Air Force pilots stationed in Bennettsville, South Carolina, which provided enough money to enable him to open a general store on Davidson’s Main Street, only a few blocks from the Holt-Henderson-Copeland House. In the mid-1970s the Copelands moved to Montreat, North Carolina. The Holt-Henderson-Copeland House has since been used both as a retail store and as housing for Davidson College.