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).