History of Duke University - Move To Durham: 1887-1900

Move To Durham: 1887-1900

In 1887, Yale-educated economist John Franklin Crowell became President of Trinity College. Committed to the German university model which emphasized research over recitation, Crowell directed a major revision in the curriculum and convinced the trustees to move to a more urban location. In 1892, Trinity opened in Durham, largely due to the generosity of Washington Duke and Julian S. Carr, powerful and respected Methodists who had grown prosperous through the tobacco industry (see American Tobacco Company and Duke Power). Carr donated the site, which today is Duke's East Campus, while Washington Duke contributed $100,000 for the endowment and construction of a female dormitory named after his daughter Mary, with the stipulation of placing women on an "equal footing with men".

John C. Kilgo became president in 1894 and greatly increased the interest of the Duke family in Trinity. Washington Duke offered three gifts of $100,000 (about $2,200,000 in 2005 dollars) each for endowment. Trinity was the first white institution of higher education in the South to invite Booker T. Washington to speak (in 1900). That same year, the first Native American student graduated from Trinity.