Davidson College - Quips and Cranks Yearbook (Davidson, NC)

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Monuments To The Davidson Tradition EUMENEAN HALL — a lasting reminder of Da- vidson ' s tradition of literary societies. CHAMBERS — the building we all know and love 26 STUDENT LIFE

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Two New Examples NEW BUILDINGS 2S

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Perhaps few today realize that the drinking fountain on the campus was once the college well and its only source of water. The present fountain is the third well, on the same location. Its evo- lution took place over a period of years, the current structure standing since 1925. Though Davidson ' s history goes back to 1837, even fifty years later the campus was still a meadow. There were no water works — no hot or cold show- ers. A student drew his water from the well. As most of us know, Oak and Elm Rows, still in use on the campus, were among the very first buildings and were two of the first dormitories. If a student wanted a bath he had to build a fire, go to the well and draw the water, carry it back to his room, pour it in a ke ttle and put it on the fire. He had to have a bucket of water handy to cool the boiling bath wa- ter to the right temperature. The portable tin bath tubs usually held two buckets of water, one hot, one cold. In Davidson ' s yearbook of 1897 there is a page listing Our Needs. Included among them is this note — Water works are almost absolutely necessary. It has been estimated that fifty to sixty years later (in 1949) the college was using 100 gallons of water per student each day. The old-fashioned bucket and wind- lass well was covered by a wooden sum- mer house canopy with lattice work sides. In the Davidsonian of May 17, 1916, there is a reference to the 1916 class gift. The buckets and windlass were re- placed by the pedal type drinking foun- tain of Italian marble. On the base is engrave d the class motto and numeral. The original lattice work (the sides) has been removed. It was the class of 1925 that was re- sponsible for replacing the wooden cover with the present brick and concrete su- perstructure. The architectural scheme was designed to match the new Cham- bers Building. — Taken from a publication of the office of public information, December 1966. OLD BUILDINGS 27