Sparrow’s Nest, the small brick building behind Belk Dormitory, served throughout the years as a laundry facility, storage and office space. New evidence discovered in the College archives confirms it was also quarters for enslaved people in the nineteenth century.

Sparrow’s Nest is a pre-Civil War building that was owned by local merchant Thomas Sparrow and his family until the College acquired it in 1908. Martha Gimson, historic sites and program manager and Hilary Green, James B. Duke Professor of Africana Studies, are working to establish a concrete history of the building as part of their broader research into the history of slavery and exploitation at Davidson. At the start of the semester, they found a letter Sparrow’s granddaughter wrote in 1959 where she described the space as “always used as a servants’ dwelling.”

“We found the smoking gun,” Gimson said.

“It [the letter] confirmed that, despite what people want to say currently, that it was not a slave cabin, the family itself confirmed, in their own words, it was a slave cabin,” Green said.

In the archives, enslaved people are almost always referred to as servants. For example, faculty meeting minutes from 1855 describe the duties of the “College servant” which include making fires and cleaning students’ rooms. An 1839 budget from the board of trustees’ meeting minutes includes $854 for “servants hire.” That money went to a local slave owner. Davidson typically rented enslaved people, which was standard practice among universities.

“Our use of servant as a colloquialism to describe slavery allowed for some of that myth making and diminishing who’s actually working in the buildings,” Green said.

Sparrow’s Nest had long been known as slave quarters, evidenced by 1960s Davidsonian articles  that describe it as such. However, in the 1980s and 90s, a sort of questioning and “lessening” of its history emerged.

“There’s been so much conjecture over what this building was, nobody was referencing the fact that the family who owned that building said, ‘Oh no, it definitely was servants quarter,’” Gimson said.

Changes in how students have understood the building over time are a key part of what Green is studying.

“When did it stop being knowable? It is not in the current zeitgeist like it used to be,” Green said. “The history of the building, but also the history of how student knowledge of the building changed over time, is something that I’m really interested in.”

A Murky History — The Slave Quarters 

Confirming that Sparrow’s Nest was used as a slave quarters is one step forward in Gimson and Green’s efforts to investigate the building’s origins and illuminate Davidson’s history in connection with the Commission on Race and Slavery. Most buildings on campus have a physical plan, file or some sort of related tax records connected to their origin. Sparrow’s Nest has no such thing.

Thomas Sparrow, for whom the building is named, was a local merchant who ran a shop behind Main Street. His family lived on the land that Richardson Dorm now occupies and his brother, Patrick Sparrow, was one of Davidson’s founding professors.

An 1850 census record lists Sparrow as having 11 enslaved people on his property. Working under a merchant, Green thinks they likely stocked and cleaned the store. Some also probably worked in the house as cooks and maids. As for the specific people who lived in Sparrow’s Nest, the archives provide limited clues.

In “My Unreconstructed Grandmother” a story and obituary of sorts written by another one of Sparrow’s granddaughters, she describes a man, “old John” who was a body servant for her father, Sparrow’s son, when he was a boy. Green said he probably would have lived in Sparrow’s Nest.

“As a body servant to the son when he’s a student on campus, he’s going to tend to his needs, whether in the dormitory, in the classroom, he’s going to be the one who helps him dress,” Green said. “He was that personal valet, so he would have been with him and very much in proximity to the campus.”

People and families of color continued to live in the space after the Civil War— likely domestic workers for the Sparrow family who rented the space. Mary Kirkpatrick Harrison, who wrote the “smoking gun” letter, wrote in a separate letter around 1958 or 1959 that the “little brick house” was occupied by a family or families of colored people as far back as she can remember, “eighty years at least,” so dating back to the 1870s.

In the 1870 census, there are four individuals who, according to Green, might be connected with the physical building. Their names are Virgil Thomas, Nancy Hart and Jane and Martha Black. In the 1880 census, Alex Wilson is listed  as a servant in the Sparrows household.

Archival records reveal that the Sparrow family also used the space as a kitchen and to do laundry. Much of the online research on Sparrow’s Nest includes references to the male students who visited Sparrow’s four daughters at their nearby home. The libguide entry, for example, cites a 1961 Davidsonian article that includes one sentence on the family’s ties to slavery.

“He [Sparrow] had four attractive daughters who managed to charm a goodly portion of the nearby student body,” the article states. “It became the fashion of the young men to visit the Sparrow home. In time, things got so cozy that the place was fondly spoken of as the ‘Sparrow’s Nest.’ […] Pappa Sparrow could not, of course, get along without his servants.”

The College acquired the Sparrow home and Sparrow’s Nest in 1908 and continued to use it as a boarding house for several years. In the 1960s, the space was used for storage and from 1974-1990 it was a campus security office. Since 1990, it has been an office for Physical Plant.

During renovations in July 2017, Physical Plant discovered shoes, glass bottles, marbles and several other artifacts beneath the floor. Some are thought to be from the time of slavery and others more recent, but a complete cataloging has not happened yet. They were displayed in the library for a few months and have lived in the library and library annex since then.

“It was just really let’s just get it out of the ground and then we can figure out something better,” Gimson said.

Gimson is working on identifying all of the artifacts, cleaning them and figuring out the best way to use them in telling the story of the building.

Today — The Office

Today, Sparrows Nest is an office. The interior has been renovated several times over the years, including a bathroom addition. An original fireplace is one of the few historic elements left.

There are no signs or physically present information of its history or origins as slave quarters. Green brings students to the site as part of her race and campus histories class. Each semester, she said the majority of students she brings out there do not know what the building is, much less stopped on their walk to Commons to contemplate its history.

Online information about Sparrow’s Nest includes past Davidsonians, the aforementioned libguide, a D-Blog post about renovations and a digital archival entry, most of which name the building as a house for slaves or servants, but do not dive into the details.

Jacinthe Galpine, Davidson’s director of emergency management currently works in Sparrows Nest. She looked into its history when she was told it would be her office.

“I’m not African American but I am a person of color, and so that got me as in how do I occupy a space that might have had a really, really dark history in a way that is respectful and thoughtful,” Galpine said.

The administration told Galpine they could put her in another office if she didn’t feel comfortable, but she wanted to try it out. She said she feels a presence in the building.

“I’d come in and I’d say my prayers, and then I would say ‘to whoever’s in this building with me  I’m praying for your soul as well’,’” Galpine said. “That always made me feel settled and calm, like I was making peace with the building.”

That sense of connection informs how Galpine believes the building should be remembered.

“I’d love for Sparrows Nest, and even for some of those other smaller buildings on campus that might have a dark past, for them to be commemorated in an appropriate way,” Galpine said.

Looking Forward — The Memorial 

Figuring out an intentional and meaningful way to commemorate Davidson’s historical buildings and other elements of College history is what Green, Gimson and others are working on. Gimson is a historical archeologist, the first Davidson has ever hired.

“The thing is once people find things in archives, it’s like, ‘why didn’t we know this before?’ Well, nobody asked the question, no one is looking or it wasn’t a priority,” Gimson said.

A lot of the information on Sparrows Nest comes from the archives, but Gimson has also turned to crowdsourcing from the community.

“A piece of paper can only tell you so much of a human story,” Gimson said. “That’s why we welcome the involvement from anyone who has information to share.”

Looking to the future, Green has three priorities: identifying who exactly lived there and under what conditions, continuing to teach the space in her class and developing physical signage as a first step in historicizing the space.

“I don’t want people to go by and not recognize, or have the luxury to not recognize what the original building was,” Green said.

Creating signs means working with students, descendants, administrators and other community members who want their voices heard. Green and Gimson admitted that it will likely be a long process. In Green’s words, “there will always be people who are never happy, including myself.”

Still, signs would only be the beginning. Green framed the College’s work toward reparations around action and honesty.

“One thing about reparations is telling the truth is part of reparations,” Green said. “Having a more truthful narrative is just as important as other forms of repair.”

This story was originally published on Davidsonian on March 26, 2026.