"Philanthropic Hall is a small but strikingly monumental two-story rectangular brick building three bays wide and three bays long, with the second level expressed as a piano nobile. A handsome prostyle tetrastyle portico dominates the main (northwest) facade. The brick walls are laid in both Flemish and common bonds, with Flemist bond employed on the sides and upper section of the main facade, and common on the rear and the lower portion of the facade.
At the first level, the main facade is divided by four plain, heavy stuccoed brick piers that rise from slightly projecting bases, and support the Doric columns above. The two flanking bays at the first level are filled with a brick screen wall above a high stuccoed water table. The central bay is of brick recently covered with stucco and features a large, open round-headed arched entrance accented only by a plain keystone, inscribed "Philanthropic Hall, 1837." This entrance provides access to the concealed stair that rises on each side behind the brick screen walls in two flights to a cental entrance landing on the floor above.
At the second level, which is separated from the first
by a granite stringer, a massive column rises above each of the four piers.
Corresponding full-height corner pilasters with simple molded caps occur
at each end of the facade. The tympanum of the well-proportioned pediment
is covered with horizontal flush weatherboards. The main central entrance,
located at this level, consists of a double door and sidelights. The entire
entrance is framed by wide fluted pilaster strips with roundel corner blocks
supporting a lintel marked by a central rectangular panel containing a
Greek fret pattern. Flanking the entrance are large windows containing
six-over nine sash and featuring stone sills and wooden lintels surmounted
by a row of headers. they are louvered blinds."
"The sides of the building are divided into three bays by full-height stuccoed pilasters that repeat the design of the corner pilasters. The head of an iron tie rod running throught the building is visible in each pilaster. Each bay is marked at both levels by windows like those flanking the main entrance. In the northeast side is a central basement entrance with a two-light transom and a granite stoop.
The main floor of Philanthropic Hall houses one large hall, which is ornamented with fine classical trim. It is bounded by a wide molded baseboard and a delicate plaster cornice. A large plaster medallion containing concentric rings of acanthus, rosebud, and palmette motifs, located in the center of the ceiling, reasppears in quarter sections in the corners of the room. The outer acanthus ring of the quarter section carries around the room in front of the molded cornice. Suspended from the medallion is a crystal chandelier."
"The chandelier in Philanthropic Hall is a duplicate of the original under which Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, (1808-1873) was married to Eugenie de Montigi, Comtesse de Teba, in 1853. It is a French production and was exhibited at the Crystal Palace in London in 1851, and afterwards sent to New York and exhibited there in the Crystal Palace in 1853. The latter exhibition was a financial failure and to pay its obligations, a number of the exhibits were sold and among them was this chandelier. It was purchased by Mr. William White of Sumter, South Carolina, and presented to the Philanthropic Society of Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina, during the spring of 1853. The chandelier was restored to its usefulness in 1956 when both Philanthropic Hall (built in 1850) and Eumenean Hall (build in 1849) were restored through the generosity of Mrs. Clarence Hodson of Orange, New Jersey, and rededicated in appropriate ceremonies during the Homecoming festivities on October 27, 1956)"