The Civil War in North Carolina



Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina and Eminent North Carolinians

Bookmark and Share



the donor, but as far as may be practicable to perpetuate its remembrance,

        Resolved, Therefore that $2,000, part of the purchase money of said land shall be applied to the finishing of the new Hall at the University, and that the same shall be called by the name of 'Gerrard Hall.' "

        Five years afterwards this resolution was carried into effect. I wish you to note particularly the spelling of the name of the old hero. The original will and the orbituary notice in the North Carolina Journal, published at Halifax, by Hodge & Wills, Oct. 16th, 1797, give the name Gerrard. Judges Gaston and Badger in their resolution have the same spelling, which I am particular about, because unfortunate carelessness has often confounded our benefactor's name with that of Stephen Girard, the benefactor of Philadelphia. I am quite sure that in every respect, except in wealth and money-making cunning our gallant lieutenant of the revolution was vastly the superior of the Philadelphia trader.

        I witnessed once in this Hall one of those exhibitions of uncontrolable, unreasoning fright, which sometimes happen to crowds and which the ancients attributed to temporary madness, inspired by the God, Pan. A cry was raised "the Gallery is falling!" There was a rush of the crowd amid screams of terror. There was for a moment imminent danger of trampling to death in the narrow stair-cases. I recall vividly how firm and severe was the attitude of President Swain, of Morehead, Graham, Battle, and other Trustees, who sat on the rostrum. There was no serious damage done. Some gallant young men, who were on the outside, displayed their heroism by catching in their arms the frightened damsels leaping from the windows, but I heard no complaints on either side. A $100 reward offered on the spot failed to detect the giver of the false alarm.

        An architect's examination proved that not Sampson, in all his long-haired glory, could have pulled down the galleries, even if they were loaded with bad Philistines, instead of good North Carolinians, but still additional pillars were inserted and other alterations made to give public confidence and afford larger room

        When this Hall was built it was intended to have a broad avenue running along the Southern wall, East and West. Hence the porch on the South side of the building. The merchants of the village claimed that this would injure their trade by diverting travel from Franklin Street, and the plan was abandoned to the mystification of all who do not know this veracious history.

        We will now return to what we call the South, but what was known for many years as the "Main" Building, the old plan of grand structures to face the East, just as the capitols at Washington and Raleigh, were faced under the influence of orientalization was soon abandoned, and the European plan of a quadrangle--in old times a veritable prison in which the students were locked at night, giving rise to the expression "being in quad," was adopted, probably at the suggestion of Dr. Caldwell and Prof. Harris, who were educated at Princeton. Its corner stone was laid in 1798. Its walls reached the height of a story and a half, and then remained roofless for years. Dr. Wm. Hooper in his "50 Years Since," a most interesting and amusing production, tells how the students of that day packed in the East Building four in a room, built cabins in the corners of the South in order to secure greater privacy for devotion to their books, and how, "as soon as spring brought back the swallows and the leaves, they emerged from their den and chose some shady retirement, where they made a path and a promenade," like the Peripatetics of ancient Greece. He states moreover, what sounds strange to us, that holidays were sometimes
Page 350 of 471
Index - Contents
Featured Books & CD-ROMS