Winston Residence Hall
Winston Residence Hall opened in 1948 as a dormitory for men students, along with Connor and Joyner. It is named in honor of UNC president George Tayloe Winston. In the late 1960s the hall was renovated for women students. In 1973 the dorm became the first room-by-room coed residence hall at UNC, and it was the location for a sleepover by then chancellor Nelson Ferebee Taylor and other administrators who wanted to bring attention to overcrowded conditions in student housing.
George Tayloe Winston attended UNC from 1866 to 1868, completing his education at the U.S. Naval Academy and Columbia University. When the university reopened in 1875, Winston returned to teach Latin and German. He became UNC president in 1891 and became known for expanding enrollment and programs and fiercely defending the need for state support for the university. He left in 1896 to be president of the University of Texas, returning to North Carolina in 1899 to assume the presidency of the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now North Carolina State University) —that campus has a building named in his honor as well, originally built in 1910 for the engineering program. While a proponent for public education and other progressive ideas, Winston was also an avowed white supremacist. His 1901 article, "The Relation of the Whites to the Negroes," argued for a hierarchical view of society, with whites inherently superior to African Americans.
Date Established: 1948
Date Range: 1948 – Present