Longtime employee David Beam (left), owner Tim Helfrich, and barista Andy Simkus behind the counter at Summit. (David Boraks photo)

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

For the past decade, Summit Coffee has been an anchor of Davidson’s downtown, not only attracting locals and visitors with its blend of good coffee and good music, but also supplying an atmosphere that has fed our town’s resurgent sense of community.

It’s a comfortable, reliable, always-on venue where patrons can catch a coffee buzz – and catch up on the local buzz. Read the full story

The name “Woods Hall” will have a special meaning to Davidson residents when the new building is dedicated Friday at Woodlawn School. The building will house Woodlawn’s upper school and will be named for James Baker Woods III, a soldier from Davidson killed in action during the Vietnam War.

See below for more on the dedication ceremony, and also news of a silo in Charlotte with public art by a Davidson Day teacher, plus a full calendar of upcoming school events.
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Planning director Kris Krider talks about possible traffic flows during a walking tour of the Metrolina Warehouse site with residents, town officials and developers Wednesday night. (David Boraks photo)

A mixed-use development proposed for the Metrolina Warehouse site at Jackson and Depot streets downtown could create new ties between downtown and the West Side by bringing new residential and commercial uses to what is now an industrial block, planners and a developer said Thursday.

Representatives of developer GreenHawk Partners LLC, of Raleigh, joined planners, and residents at a two-day planning workshop to develop potential layouts for the warehouse site. The meeting, which wrapped up Thursday night at Town Hall, was the first step in what could be a year-long process for a development that is likely to transform downtown Davidson.

“It has a great potential for making a connection between the West Side and downtown,” Davidson planner Parviz Moosavi said Thursday. Read the full story

Workers are renovating the former Bill’s Anchor Grill on Hwy. 115. (David Boraks photo)

Bill’s Anchor Grill, a popular hangout on Highway 115 just north of the Iredell County line, is being revived by a new owner who says he wants to bring back the grill’s tradition of a basic meal at a modest price. Read the full story

‘Around Davidson’ column has 50 years of history

BY LAURIE DENNIS
DavidsonNews.net

It is, in some respects, an unfathomable transformation. What began as handwritten scraps of paper assembled into articles for a weekly newspaper is about to be transformed into online postings that can be read anywhere in the world. “Around Davidson,” a society column that dates to at least the 1960s, will debut this Thursday, Jan. 10, as a regular feature on DavidsonNews.net.

As envisioned by Brenda Barger, the column’s internet incarnation will carry on a tradition started by the late Elizabeth Woods, who spent 40 years detailing births (but not deaths), visits, travels, luncheons, marriages, baptisms and other assorted happy news of Davidson.

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Commissioners also declare Ada Jenkins

Center ‘historic’ and agree to seek

financing for Parks & Rec building

The Davidson Town Board on Tuesday approved a plan to use a portion of future tax revenues from a designated area along rail lines to fund the proposed North Corridor Commuter Rail Project. The board also approved a historic designation for the 70-year-old Ada Jenkins Center, voted to seek $625,000 in financing to buy an unspecified “community building” for Parks & Recreation Department programs, and approved a reduction in the amount of glass required on the exterior of new buildings.

Meanwhile, commissioners also approved a resolution that will allow them to depart from usual practice and conduct formal business – including votes on two projects – at their monthly work session Nov. 27. Read the full story

The monthly Town Board work session is Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Town Hall, with an agenda that includes discussions of affordable housing deed restrictions, animal control, the town’s aging task force and the proposed 7-story Meeting Place retail and office project off Exit 30. Also on the calendar this week are a public workshop on development in the Davidson-Concord Road/N.C. 73 and festivities at Davidson College surrounding Saturday’s inauguration of new president Tom Ross. For those and other events this week …
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Church members dedicated this cross and cornerstone from the former Lorimer Street Chapel as part of Sunday’s 50th anniversary celebration.

St. Alban’s Episcopal Church has had much to celebrate lately. First the arrival of a new rector, then the debut of a new weekly Saturday evening Celtic service. Sunday the congregation marked 50 years in Davidson. Next week the celebrations will conclude, at least for now, with the official welcoming of the Rev. David Buck and his new associate, the Rev. Meg Buerkel. Read the full story