Two-year Louisburg College campus is just a few blocks north of downtown

The 75-acre campus of private two-year Louisburg College sits along North Main Street just a few blocks north of downtown Louisburg, N.C., in Franklin County.

Open in some form since 1787, the institution evolved through several names and iterations while serving either all-male or all-female student bodies before becoming coeducational in 1931. But it took its current name in 1891 after the Duke family of Durham, N.C., purchased it. The Duke family donated the school to the North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Church in 1907.

Today the college — Franklin County is immediately north of Wake County, home of the state capital, Raleigh — consists of 20 buildings. The school’s website claims Louisburg is the nation’s “oldest chartered, two-year, church-related, coeducational college.” 

The website says Louisburg College offers three degree paths — an associate of arts in general college (the most popular), an associate of science in general science and an associate of science in business. 

Enrollment, based on the school’s website, has ranged from 687 in 2016 to 490 in the COVID-19 year of 2020. The school’s Wikipedia entry reports its enrollment as 380, although there is no time frame (date) associated with that number. The school’s tuition is about $20,000 a year for commuters and $35,000 for boarders. Like most institutions of higher learning, academic and other scholarships, grants and financial assistance are available.

The school also offers students an impressive list of interscholastic sports. They are baseball, softball, volleyball, football, cheerleading, esports, and men and women’s soccer, basketball, cross country and track and field. Athletic scholarships ranging from $500 to $18,000 are available.

School alumni include Otis Nixon, who played for several Major League Baseball teams during his professional career (1983-99), most notably the Atlanta Braves, Montreal Expos and Cleveland Indians. Nixon had held the Braves’ single-season record for stolen bases (72, set in 1991) until Ronald Acuna Jr. bettered it by one in 2023.

Main Street intersects the campus, with the Seby B. Jones Performing Arts Center and Hoover Taft Classroom buildings and Cecil W. Robbins Library on the east side of the thoroughfare, and the remainder of campus, including Old Main (pictured in the photo leading off the post), on the west side.

To view a full gallery of the images I took at Louisburg College, follow the link in this sentence. 

East of Main Street on the campus are the Robbins Library (above), Jones Performing Arts Center (below) and Taft Classroom Building (second photo below). Norrtis Theatre, in the third photo below), is part of the Performing Arts Center. 

Old Main (above), featuring Greek Revival architecture, is distinguished in that it has buildings attached to it on both sides: Davis Hall (first photo below) to the north and Franklin Hall (second photo below) to the south.

The Pattie Julian Wright Memorial Dormitory (above), just off to the side of Old Main, is as distinguished looking as a dormitory can get. Below, the passage way to the student center and athletic complexes on the far west end of campus. 

The entrance to Jordan Student Center and Duke Dining Hall (above) with a closeup to another door entrance to the building (below). An outdoor patio behind the dining center appears in the second photo below. 

The Roger G. Taylor Athletic Center (above), which houses the Historic Holton Gymnasium (below). Two other photos of the athletic center appear in the second and third photos below. 

A Hurricanes team bus (above) and a field for the school's intramural sports programs (below).

  

The walkway to Hillman-Morris Residence Hall (above) and a closeup of a few of the trees that are part of the hall's landscape (below). 

Above: The Joyner Honor Students Residence Home, at the north end of campus fronting North Main Street. 

Benson Chapel (photos above and below) sits on the east campus, just in front of Patten Residence Hall. 

Above: The south end of Patten Residence Hall.

Above and below: Two trees in the green area east of Old Main, one traditional (above) and another decorated for the season (below). 

Courthouse anchors quaint downtown business district of Louisburg, NC

I first visited Louisburg, N.C., Franklin County, in January 2021. The first batch of the COVID vaccines had come to North Carolina, and that was the one of the first places I heard about having it available. 

It was a long drive for me — an hour, almost exactly; Franklin County is immediately north of Wake County, home of the state capital, Raleigh. But to get the vaccination was worth it. I had to return a month later to get the second round of COVID immunization. The shots were administered on the grounds of the Franklin County Health Department, sort of the far eastern fringe of the town limits. 

I never got to see the heart of Louisburg's downtown on either of those trips, and I later learned there is a two-year Methodist private community college in the town. That piqued my interest, given my fondness for photo-documenting university and college campus landscapes. So I made a mental note to try and get back to Louisburg to check out the downtown and college campus.

That happened Dec. 5. It again took me an hour to reach Louisburg, but I started shooting downtown and worked my way on foot to the college campus a few blocks north of the heart of downtown. 

Today's post will be devoted to the downtown area; the next post will focus on the college campus. A full gallery of images taken in downtown Louisburg can be view by following the link in this sentence. 

Because Louisburg is the county seat, the heart of its downtown is the county courthouse, shown in the photo leading off the post. While in Louisburg, I learned two things -- both dovetailing to the four years of Latin I took when I was in high school.

The first is illustrated in the photo below, a mural I came across on the town's Nash Street. The Latin phrase "Esse Quam Vidieri" means to be, rather than to seem, which I learned, by researching the phrase online after I got home, is the state motto of North Carolina. 

While doing that research, I came across another Latin phrase, "Leges Juraque Vindicamus," which means "We defend laws and justice." And that, it turns out, is the Franklin County motto.

While Main Street is the original merchants' district in Louisburg, a few blocks east of Main is North Bickett Boulevard, which is the local name for U.S. 401. It's a much-more traveled thoroughfare and has quite a few business establishments there. A couple blocks east of Bickett on Industrial Drive is where the County Health Department is located, and that was my destination on my first visits to Louisburg back in 2021. 

For a gallery containing all the images I took in downtown Louisburg, follow the link in this sentence. The three churches are in separate galleries in the Communities/North Carolina/Louisburg folder. 

A view of the intersection of Nash and Main streets (above), looking northeast. A closer view of the town clock (below) and an even closer view of the clock (second photo below). 

The Tar River flows just south of the start of the main downtown business district along Main Street. Above is the Main Street bridge over the river, looking south. 

Above: A view of Johnson Street, looking northeast from Main Street. 

Above: While standing on the Main Street bridge, I got this shot of the Tar River, looking east. 

The Judge Hamilton Hobgood Courthouse Annex (above), located across Main Street from the courthouse. Just north of the annex, are these shops (below), including one of several law offices I came across sprinkled around the courthouse. 

Above: The Franklin County Administration Building on Johnson Street, catty corner from the courthouse. 

Mad Flavorz Wing Lounge (above) at 200 E. Nash St., and a view of North Main Street shops (below), including The Loft, an event-hosting business. 

Outside Tar Bank Brewing Company (above), 108 N. Main St., there is a mailbox for children to mail letters to Santa Claus (below). The brewery is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so I was out of luck given that I did my shoot on a Tuesday.  

A long focal-range compression shot (above) of Main Street, looking north from the north end of the Tar River bridge. Below, a shorter-range shot of Main Street, again looking north, just outside the main business district. 

Above: A southward look at the Main Streete business district from just north of Nash Street. 

Above and below: Front and side views of a seasonal display outside this shop (unnamed) on Main between Nash and Franklin streets, next door to Tar Bank Brewing. In the second photo below, a mural on the north side of the unnamed shop.  

The town post office (above) had this interesting tree (below) growing outside its building. 

Above and next two below: Views of Louisburg Baptist Church, 302 N. Main St. 

Above: A stately home just north of the Baptist Church on North Main Street. 

Above: I used this tree to frame the turret-highlighted home behind it. 

Above: The morning light was not kind to me when I tried to photograph the front facade of Louisburg United Methodist Church at 402 N. Main St. 

Above and next three photos below: Natural light was more helpful when I reached St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 305 N. Church St., later in the afternoon and took these shots.