With the exception of Fairview and Caldwell Lanes, the primary streets and roads throughout the neighborhood are named after Southern authors and writers. The narrow “byways” are all named for local people who were in the chain of title for property purchased for the New Neighborhood.
The history of the Town of Davidson and Davidson College is ripe with the name Caldwell, including members of the original building committee for Davidson College in the 1830s. Caldwell Lane in the neighborhood is named after John F. Caldwell, a man largely responsible for early development of the south side of Concord Road. In 1905, John Caldwell built a frame house at the corner of Concord Road and Woodland Street. In 1917, Caldwell’s son Roy occupied another new home next to his parent’s home on the same side of Concord Road.
Woodland Street was originally named Caldwell Street. This section developed by John Caldwell was known to the town as “Eastern Heights.” We possibly owe Mr. Caldwell a bit of gratitude for making the first request for street lights and sidewalks in this area.
Few, if any homes existed along either side of the one-lane section of Concord Road beyond Thompson Street in the 1920s. In 1916, however, John Caldwell bought and enlarged an existing tenant farmhouse and moved there with his second wife. This house was eventually occupied by Mrs. Caldwell’s sister, Miss Lenora Patterson. There is a picture of the original house in Mary Beaty’s book. This house (now at 857 Concord Road) was discussed in the December newsletter since it eventually was rebuilt in 1982 and became the residence of the Gambles. Although “officially” known early as the Lenora Patterson house because of her long residence there, a plaque was put on the house when Doug Boone developed the area designating it as the Patterson-Gamble house.
John Caldwell also served as a member of Davidson’s Board of Commissioners in 1918 and was in the insurance business (John F. Caldwell, Insurance) as far back as 1915.