The Douglas M. and Grace Knight House, also known as the Knight House, is a modernist-style mansion in Durham, North Carolina. Designed by Alden B. Doe, the house formerly served as the official residence for the presidents of Duke University and is now used by the university as an event space, conference room, and guest house. On April 6, 1968, four hundred and fifty university students marched to the house during a moment of silence at Duke University.
History
In 1963, University President Douglas Knight commissioned Alden B. Dow to design the official residence. The modernist-style building was completed in 1966. The landscape design was by Dick Bell, who also designed Pullen Park in Raleigh, North Carolina. The house was named after Douglas Knight, who was president during the construction of the house and was the first president of the university to live in it. University presidents Terry Sanford and Nunnery O. Keohane also lived in Knight House. Knight House is 10,655 square feet and cost $379,971 to build. The house is a low house with ribbed copper roofs. The interior cladding of the house is made of bald cypress.
Located along Academy Road and Pinecrest Road, near the Duke Golf Course, the house covers an area of 436 acres in Duke Forest, near the West Campus of Duke University. It served as the official residence for university presidents from 1966 until 2004, when the original official residence, J. Deryl Hart House, was renovated for Richard H. Brodhead. The house is now used by the university as a guest house, conference room, and event space.
On April 6, 1968, a week-long silent demonstration began at Duke University, following the assassination of Martin Luther King. 450 students marched two miles from campus to Knight House to hand Douglas a list of demands. Knight is in favor of restructuring Duke University to make the institution less threatening to African-American students and staff. Demands included that Knight publish an ad in the Durham Morning Herald calling for a day of mourning for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that he raise the minimum wage to $1.60 for university employees, and that he resign from the then-segregated Hope Valley Country Club. The students also demanded that Knight appoint a committee of students, faculty, and staff to make recommendations on collective bargaining and union recognition at Duke. Knight hosted the students during the protest and invited them to his home, spending the night discussing the terms of their demands.
On September 15, 2012, the house was featured in Modernism in Duke Forest, a tour of six modernist houses in the Duke Forest neighborhood organized by Triangle Modernist Houses and the Durham Preservation Society.