Duke University -- Durham, NC
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Shorelander
N 36° 00.090 W 078° 56.364
17S E 685725 N 3986078
An academic and athletic powerhouse in Durham, North Carolina.
Waymark Code: WM1J2G
Location:
Date Posted: 05/15/2007
Views: 161
Duke University was originally founded as Brown's Schoolhouse in 1838 by Methodists and Quakers in the town of Trinity, North Carolina. Over the next twenty years, due to new charters and increased scopes, the school would go through a few different incarnations: Union Institute Academy in 1841 (after getting its charter from the state); Normal College in 1851; and Trinity College in 1859. The school would stay in Trinity until 1892, at which time it moved to its current location in western Durham, North Carolina.
The move to Durham was sponsored largely by two Methodist businessmen who had become wealthly through the tobacco industry: Washington Duke and Julian S. Carr. It would be James B. Duke, son of Washington, who in 1924 founded the Duke Endowment for the university, prompting then-president of Trinity College to push to rename the school Duke University.
It was in the late '20s and early '30s that the bulk of Duke's campus was constructed, starting with East Campus from 1925-1927. This area, currently home to some classrooms, a student union, Lilly Library, and freshman dormitories, is in the Georgian Style, and from 1930 to 1972 was home to the Women's campus. West Campus was the next to be built, being constructed from the late 1920s to the mid 1930s. It's gothic main quads are quite beautiful, with Duke Chapel forming the centerpiece of a visual feast of stone and arches. Nearby are the extraordinary Sarah P. Duke gardens, occupying 55 acres.
The school would expand over the years, adding buildings to both campuses as well as spreading to the area between the campuses, aptly called Central Campus. Engineering (now known as the Pratt School) would form its own school in 1939, and the Fuqua School of Business would open in 1969. The school is also home to the Trinity College of Arts and Science (keeping the school's lineage from its early days), the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, the School of Medicine, the School of Law, the Divinity School, and the Nursing School.
Duke is a center for research along with its neighbors in the Research Triangle. Particular fields of research at Duke include medicine (engineering the first artificial blood vessels, for instance, as well as mapping the final human genome in the Human Genome Project), science, engineering, and business.
Famous alumni include President Richard Nixon; Senator Elizabeth Dole; Physics Nobel Laureates Hans Dehmelt, Robert Richardson, and Charles H. Townes; former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos; and Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Styron. Also among the ranks of alumni are many business leaders: Steven Black, Co-CEO of JPMorgan Chase; John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems; David R. Goode, chairman and CEO of Norfolk Southern; John J. Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanley; Edmund Pratt, former CEO of Pfizer; and Richard Wagoner, Jr., CEO of General Motors.
Duke University is also famously home to Division I athletics. As members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Duke has won eight NCAA titles as of 2007: four in women's golf, three in men's basketball, and one in men's soccer. The men's basketball team is one of the most storied and lauded in NCAA history, with students camping out in K-Ville (named after current coach Mike Krzyzewski) for good seats to games in Cameron Indoor Stadium, one of the NCAA's smallest (and therefore most intense) venues. The women's basketball team is also excellent, having risen to prominence in the 1990s under the leadership of coach Gail Goestenkors.
Other Duke sports may fall under the shadow of its legendary basketball program, but they are still notable. The football team, while not currently, was once a powerhouse, having appeared in two Rose Bowls (in 1938 and 1942, hosting the latter for its only appearance outside of Pasadena, California) and winning seven ACC championships. The women's golf team, as attested to by their four championships through the 1990s and 2000s, is excellent. Duke's mascot is the Blue Devil, and their rivalry with the nearby University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of the most fierce in all of sports.
Name: Duke University
Location/Address:
100 Chapel Dr
Durham, NC USA
27708
Phone Number: 919-684-8111
Web Site: [Web Link]
Type of School: Undergraduate School with Graduate Programs
School Affiliation: Private -- Independent
Date Founded: Initially 1838, with subsequent reformations
Enrollment: ~6200 undergrads, ~6000 graduate students
Nicknames/Mascots: Blue Devils
School Colors: White and Duke Blue
School Motto: Eruditio et Religio — Knowledge and Faith
Location of GPS Coordinates: Duke Chapel
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