Marion Stuart Davis (1877-1959), a civil engineer and architect with deep roots in the area, had a long and productive practice headquartered in his native Louisburg. He planned residences, educational buildings, and especially churches there and elsewhere in central and eastern North Carolina. He was one of the many small-town architects whose work helped define the character of their own and nearby communities.

Part of a locally prominent family, Marion was one of nine children of educator Matthew Smart Davis and his wife, Sarah Louisa Hill. Matthew Smart Davis, born to a plantation family in Warren County, was educated at the University of North Carolina, and served for many years beginning in 1856 as the headmaster of Louisburg Male Academy and from 1896 until his death in 1906 as president of Louisburg Female College. (Both Matthew Smart Davis and Marion Stuart Davis were frequently referred to as M. S. Davis).

Although Marion S. Davis apparently knew he wanted to be an engineer or architect, he experienced difficulty in charting an educational course to achieve his goal. He began his studies at the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now North Carolina State University) but left to attend Trinity College in Durham. Obtaining an appointment to the United States Military Academy, he studied at the National Preparatory Academy in Highland Falls, N.Y., before enrolling at West Point. He left without obtaining a degree. Years later, Davis told his son that he should have remained in Raleigh to earn a degree from a respected institution. In 1913, Davis married May Amanda Holmes, and the couple had four children: Marion Stuart Jr., Kenneth H., Ida May, and Sarah I. Marion Davis was buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Louisburg.

To recover from the loss of time and money, Davis took a position with the International Correspondence Schools of Scranton, Pennsylvania, which offered courses in varied aspects of industrial science. Working for this company in 1902 from a boarding house in Fayetteville, Davis recruited students from small towns in southeastern North Carolina. He also pursued a course through the school and by 1904 believed he was ready to find work as a draftsman. He considered moving to Baltimore, but decided to return to Louisburg. In addition to his family ties, he likely was encouraged by the robust economic and population growth in Louisburg at this time—prosperity fueled in part by the local tobacco market.

Davis soon began a long association with Louisburg College. The college centered on the large antebellum Main Building (later the Administration Building) constructed by Warren County builder Albert Gamaiel Jones, which served during the elder Davis’s leadership, but the early twentieth century growth of the school created a need for additional buildings. In 1906, the year his father died, Marion served as superintendent of buildings. He designed the Matthew S. Davis Memorial Building, which was completed in 1913. He later developed plans for the Pattie Julia Wright Memorial Dormitory (1926), the Franklin County Memorial Building (1929), and the Holton Gymnasium (1949-50).

Early in his career, Davis participated in Louisburg’s rapid growth. “M. S. Davis, architect,” advertised in the Raleigh News and Observer (July 24, 1907) for bids from builders construct a frame “six-room cottage” in Louisburg, and said that plans and specifications for others were in preparation. He designed residences for local merchants Brantley G. Hicks, Frank B. McKinne, and others. The Franklin Times reported on July 23, 1909, that Davis was superintending the remodeling of L. P. Hicks’s house on Elm Street in Louisburg, which promised to be “an ornament to that part of town.” The same newspaper (April 6, 1917) cited the First National Bank, designed by Davis and located on the northwest corner of Main and Nash streets, as “one of the handsomest banking houses in this entire section of the state”. He also produced house plans for clients in Littleton and Warrenton, which remain to be identified.

As a civil engineer during the 1910s, Davis played an important role in road and street construction. He planned road projects in Franklin, Iredell, Nash, and Wake counties. Working for the State Highway Commission in 1917, he developed estimates for paving Louisburg’s streets.

Davis is best known for designing churches, church education buildings, and schools throughout North Carolina’s coastal plain and piedmont regions. An active Methodist layman, Davis garnered many contracts through his relationship with the Duke Endowment, which was established in 1924 and provided funds for the construction and maintenance of Methodist churches in rural North Carolina and for other endeavors. In the 1950s, toward the end of his long career, Davis also designed buildings for other denominations, such as Cedar Rock Baptist Church in eastern Franklin County, as well as schools in the area.

Davis was active in the community in many other ways. During the Great Depression, he opened an insurance agency in Louisburg. He participated in the Louisburg Rotary Club and in the Louisburg Lodge No. 413, A.F. and A.M. He served as chairman of the Franklin County Industries Association in 1956, which sought to bring new manufacturing facilities to the area. Although Davis may have regretted not obtaining a college degree, his academic training and hard work resulted in tangible benefits for the people of his county and state.

The building list here is only a sampling of his work, chiefly in his home community. Further information on his career and his buildings beyond Franklin County may be found in the extensive Marion Stuart Davis Papers (#5073) at the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. See https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/05073/. The collection’s finding guide lists more than 50 folders for specific buildings—primarily churches—dating from the 1910s into the 1950s— in Benson, Bunn, Durham, Edenton, Faison, Fayetteville, Goldsboro, Hamilton, Henderson, Kenansville, Pittsboro, Rich Square, Warrenton, Williamston, Wilmington, Windsor, and Youngsville. Further research is needed to learn more about these buildings and their conditions.

The Franklin Times (Louisburg, N.C.)

Marion Stuart Davis Papers, Southern Historical Collection, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Vickie E. Mason, The Historic District of Louisburg, North Carolina (1990).

_Tour Historic Louisburg, North Carolina: Walk, Bike, or Drive _(2015).

George-Anne Willard, Louisburg College Echoes: Voices from the Formative Years, 1787-1917, With a Summary of the Expansion Years, 1917-1987 (1988).