Renovations bring the historic Davidson School gym back to life
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Walking into the renovated historic Davidson School gymnasium off South Street, you can imagine the sounds of a previous era - kids playing basketball or throwing a dodge ball. Sunlight streams in through a wall of 36-pane windows. Your shoes squeak on the newly finished floor.
A $4 million renovation of the gym is now complete after a year of work. The project revives and updates the town-designated historic landmark, which was built in 1937.
Town officials will formally reopen the gym with a dedication on Saturday, June 20, 2026 at 10am.
The building is behind the old Davidson School at 251 South St., which the town also renovated and now serves as Davidson Town Hall. The project creates the town's first indoor recreation center.
For many longtime Davidson residents, the school and gym are filled with memories from their years going to classes there. Town Project Manager Doug Wright is among them and has been showing off the renovations recently.
"Myself, Mayor (Rusty) Knox, and some of the other people that have been visiting did go to school in this building and use this gym growing up," Wright said.
Wright remembers playing tennis, kickball and dodge ball (remember that?) in the gym when he was a student. And there was a climbing rope, something he said "you don't find in school anywhere anymore."
"It's just been amazing to see this site back in use, and these buildings renovated, and it just is a fantastic thing for those of us and for everybody else using it," Wright said.
The project was funded by a $2 million American Rescue Plan Act grant through Mecklenburg County, $1.5 million in town general obligation bonds, and $500,000 in additional town funds.
HISTORY
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission has described the gymnasium as "a fine example of the later New Deal public works projects that were accomplished in Mecklenburg County." It's described as "classically inspired," with arched windows and solid brick walls.
The gym pre-dates the school building that now houses the town offices. It was designed by architect Willard G. Rogers as part of the original Davidson Academy school.
The entire site at 251 South Street had been a school since 1893, when the Davidson Academy opened on a lot donated by the Shelton family. That original building was destroyed in a fire in 1946.
A new school building, designed by Charlotte architect Louis Asbury, took its place in October 1948, for students in grades K-12. Later, it shifted exclusively to elementary school students. In 1994, Davidson Elementary School opened farther south on South Street and the elementary school shut down.
After that, the building was used for the Davidson International Baccalaureate Middle School, which closed in 2011, and briefly as a private religious school.
Davidson bought the 5.1-acre site with the school and the gym from Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools for $2.46 million in 2018.
RENOVATIONS
The old gym has captured the imaginations not just of history buffs, but filmmakers. In 2013, the athletic gear maker Under Armour made it the setting of a TV commerical with Charlotte Hornets basketball star Kemba Walker.
At the time, Steve Battista, a senior vice president and creative director for Under Armour, told the former news site DavidsonNews.net he was attracted by “the look and feel of the gym. You couldn’t pay a set designer to build something like that. It’s so authentic and real.”
The old gym had fallen into disrepair in recent years. The town's renovations have updated the building, while also preserving the building's historic character. The Historic Landmarks Commission signed off on the work in early 2025.
"We needed an indoor recreation space, and of course we acquired this property with the (school) building," Wright said. "It had been sitting for years in a state of neglect, and it was a great opportunity for us to bring back a historic structure that was part of the town."
"The entire floor system was replaced. There was no heat or air conditioning functioning in the building. There was no accessible restroom. There was a balcony that was structurally unsafe," he said.
Wright said all the original windows remain. The gym's aging wood floor was replaced with solid new polished wood flooring. And the wooden court is now set up for both basketball and volleyball.
Wooden bleachers at either end of the basketball court have been restored, and new steel structures were erected to support new basketball goals.
The building is handicap-accessible, with an accessible rest room on the main level. Other new restrooms have been built at either end of the court below the main floor level, where old locker rooms used to be. And new lighting was installed throughout.
Wright said the building will be available for community use. In the past, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools made it available for pickup basketball, contra dances and other community events. He said some of those uses could return.
For more about the gym renovation, see the town website. https://www.townofdavidson.org/1647/251-South-Street-Historic-Gymnasium-Reno
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