The $1,500 construction budget of the Eumenean Society

The Eumenean Society was the first student organization at Davidson College. Founded in 1837 as the Polemic Debating Society, it changed its name to Eumenean Society in 1838. By the 1840s, the members desired a hall for their libraries and as a meeting and debating space, so they set a construction budget of $1,500.

Eumenean Society raised funds for a building in the 1840s and selected its building site on December 14, 1848. However, the group ran short of funds to complete its hall, as did the Philanthropic Society. Davidson's trustees provided the balance of the $2,500 need for construction - a sum equivalent to $96,750 in 2024.

They finished the building in 1849. It is a Greek Revival brick structure with a tetrastyle Doric portico supported by four massive stuccoed brick columns. It served as the headquarters for generations of debaters, including a young Woodrow Wilson, who joined the ranks in 1873.

Today, the building is a National Register of Historic Places site. It still hosts Eumenean meetings, though it also has to share the space with faculty offices and regular classes. You can still see some of the original furniture inside the main hall, which occupies the entire upper level.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons