Oak Row
(ca. 1837)
Oak Row is one of two remaining buildings that date back to the earliest days of Davidson College.
308 N Main St, Davidson, NC 28036
Along with its sister building Elm Row, Oak Row constitutes part of the original Quadrangle of the Davidson College campus. As two of the campus’ eight original buildings, the small four-room structures were erected shortly before the college opened its doors to students in March 1837. Both buildings served initially as dormitories. The eight original campus building were constructed of some 250,000 bricks purchased from the kiln of Major John Caldwell at a cost of four dollars per thousand. Of those first eight buildings, only Oak Row and Elm Row remain, and they have been in constant use since their completion.
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Oak Row was one of a series (probably three in total) of one-story brick dormitories that initially stood on the western side of the Quadrangle, stretching from Eumenean Hall to a point opposite the President’s House. Four students were assigned to each of Elm Row’s four original rooms. The two buildings have served numerous purposes over the years, including as the campus infirmary, fraternity houses, student organization offices, the home of the college’s Music and Art departments, and meeting and classroom space.
The style and placement of the buildings suggest that the founders of Davidson College hoped to duplicate the ambience of Thomas Jefferson’s famous “Lawn” at the University of Virginia. The exteriors of the buildings retain their original Jeffersonian Classical features, but the interiors of the structures have been altered extensively over the years. Oak Row and Elm Row are two of the five extant antebellum structures – including President’s House, Philanthropic Hall, and Eumenean Hall – on Davidson’s campus. Oak Row and Elm Row were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.