<hi rend="bold">William R. Davie's Description of the Site of the University, September 25, 1793:</hi> Electronic Edition. Davie, William Richardson, 1756-1820 Funding from the University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill supported the electronic publication of this title. Text scanned (OCR) by Brian Dietz Images scanned by Bari Helms Text encoded by Brian Dietz First Edition, 2005 ca. 12K The University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, North Carolina 2005

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 University of North Carolina Papers (#40005), University Archives, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill William R. Davie's Description of the Site of the University, September 25, 1793 [William R. Davie] 2 pages, 2 page images 1793 Call number 40005 (University Archives, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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 </bibl> </taxonomy> </classDecl> </encodingDesc> <profileDesc> <langUsage> <language id="eng">English</language> </langUsage> <textClass> <keywords scheme="unc_history"> <list> <item> Any special keywords assigned for this project </item> </list> </keywords> </textClass> </profileDesc> <revisionDesc> <change> <date>2005-11-10,</date> <respStmt> <name>Brian Dietz</name> <resp/> </respStmt> <item>finished TEI/XML encoding.</item> </change> </revisionDesc> </teiHeader> <text id="unc03-04"> <body> <div1 type="report"> <pb id="unc03-04-p01" n="67"/> <head><name key="pn0000399" reg="Davie, William Richardson" type="person" rend="yes">William R. Davie's</name> Description of the Site of the <name key="name0001146" reg="University of North Carolina" type="organization">University</name>, September 25, 1793</head> <opener> <dateline> <name key="name0000455" reg="Halifax, NC" type="place" rend="yes">Halifax</name> <date>Sept 25 1793</date> </dateline> </opener> <p>We are authorized to assure the public that the corner-stone of the building of the <name key="name0001146" reg="University of North Carolina" type="organization">University</name>, undertaken by Mr<name key="pn0001863" reg="Patterson, James" rend="yes" type="person"> Patterson</name> will be laid on the 10th of Oct. next; when the commissioners and a number of gentlemen will attend to assist at the ceremony. The sale of the lots in the <name key="name0000165" reg="Chapel Hill, NC" type="place" rend="yes">village</name> will take place on the same day. The <name key="name0000165" reg="Chapel Hill, NC" type="place">town</name> consists of one principal street laid off in lots of two acres each, parallel with the North front of the buildings there are also 6 lots of four acres each, located on the most elegant situations contiguous to the <name key="name0001146" reg="University of North Carolina" type="organization">University</name>.</p> <p>The seat of the <name key="name0001146" reg="University of North Carolina" type="organization">University</name> is on the summit of a very high ridge, there is a gentle declivity of 300 yards to the <name key="name0000165" reg="Chapel Hill, NC" type="place">village</name>; which is situated on a handsome plain considerably lower than the site of the publick buildings, but so greatly elevated above the neighboring country, as to furnish an extensive and beautiful landscape, composed of the heights in the vicinity of <name key="name0003093" reg="Eno River" type="place" rend="yes">Eno</name>, <name key="name0003099" reg="Little River" type="place" rend="yes">Little</name> and <name key="name0003095" reg="Flat River" type="place" rend="yes">Flat</name> rivers.</p> <p>The ridge appears to commence about half a mile directly East of the buildings where it rises abruptly several hundred feet; This peak is<pb id="unc03-04-p02" n="68"/>called <name key="name0000877" reg="Piney Prospect" type="place" rend="yes">Point-Prospect</name>; the flat country spreads off below—like the ocean, giving an immense hemisphere, in which the eye seems to be lost in the extent of space.</p> <p>There is nothing more remarkable in this extraordinary place than the abundance of springs of the purest and finest water; which burst from the side of the ridge and which have been the subject of admiration both to hunters and travellers ever since the discovery and settlement of that part of the country—several of the lots on the North side of the <name key="name0000165" reg="Chapel Hill, NC" type="place">town</name> have the advantage of including a spring.</p> <p>The <name key="name0001146" reg="University of North Carolina" type="organization">University</name> is situated about 25 miles from the city of <name key="name0000934" reg="Raleigh, NC" type="place" rend="yes">Raleigh</name>, and 12 miles from the town of <name key="name0000484" reg="Hillsborough, NC" type="place" rend="yes">Hillsborough</name>, and is said to be in the best direction for the road—the great road from <name key="name0000178" reg="Chatham County, NC" rend="yes" type="place">Chatham</name>, and the country in the neighborhood of that county, to <name key="name0000864" reg="Petersburg, VA" rend="yes" type="place">Petersburg</name>, passes at present directly through the <name key="name0000165" reg="Chapel Hill, NC" type="place">village</name>: and it is a fortunate and important circumstance both to the institution and the <name key="name0000165" reg="Chapel Hill, NC" type="place">town</name>, that the road from all the Western country to the seat of government will also pass through this place, being the nearest and best direction.</p> <p>This <name key="name0000165" reg="Chapel Hill, NC" type="place">town</name> being the only seat of learning immediately under the patronage of the public, possessing the advantages of a central situation, on some of the most public roads in the state, in a plentiful country and excelled by few places in the world either for beauty of situation or salubrity of air, promises with all moral certainty to be a place of growing and permanent importance.</p> </div1> </body> </text> </TEI.2>