Davidson
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Davidson

Davidson

Small North Carolina college town with a classic Main Street and Davidson College at its heart.

Davidson is a small college town north of Charlotte, home to Davidson College. Main Street has a classic small-town feel -- a soda shop, Summit Coffee (popular with the mountaineering-inclined intellectual crowd), and shops selling everything from garden gnomes to horse tack. In front of St Alban's Episcopal Church, the country's first Homeless Jesus bronze statue sleeps on a public bench — a piece of public art that has divided the town and won it international press.

Davidson College regularly hosts concerts, plays, and other performances in its Duke Family Performance Hall, giving the town a cultural life well beyond what its size would suggest. The campus itself — including the Davidson College Arboretum and the Greek Revival Eumenean and Philanthropic Halls — is open to the public. It is an easy day trip from Charlotte and worth a stop for anyone passing through on I-77.

Guide

Eating Out

Davidson's Main Street and the few blocks around it have a surprisingly varied dining scene for a town of 13,000 — driven partly by the college and partly by the wealthy lake-house crowd from the surrounding suburbs.

Kindred is the local star — a James Beard-finalist restaurant from a husband-and-wife chef team, serving inventive American cooking in a former 1914 pharmacy. Reserve well ahead. Toast Cafe does the brunch business; Davidson Soda Shop, on Main Street since 1947, is the place to go for an old-school milkshake and burger. Summit Coffee is the morning gathering point, particularly for the local hiking and running crowd; their cold-brew is genuinely good.

For something casual, North Harbor Club sits on the water at Lake Norman, ten minutes' drive away, with a deck where you can watch the boats come in.

Guide

Getting There

Davidson sits on I-77, about 20 miles north of downtown Charlotte and 30 miles south of Statesville. By car it is the obvious approach — exit 30 from I-77 puts you a mile from Main Street.

The nearest airport is Charlotte Douglas International, about 30 minutes by car. The Charlotte Area Transit System runs an express bus from uptown Charlotte to Davidson, useful if you are coming up for a college event without a car.

Amtrak does not serve Davidson, but the Crescent train stops in Charlotte, from which you can pick up a rental car or the bus.

Guide

Things to Do

Davidson is a one-college town, and most of what is worth seeing here either belongs to or borders Davidson College. Beyond the campus, Main Street is good for a stroll, the lakefront on Lake Norman is reachable on foot, and the village's eccentric public art keeps things interesting.