Presidents’ Drive, Denison’s primary entrance off Granville’s town square, has reopened to traffic after a 12-week restoration project that improved access and revitalized the college’s iconic campus gateway.
In addition to improvements to the entrance, the Presidents’ Drive project enabled the delivery of construction materials for the college’s new data sciences center, which includes a sweeping renovation and expansion of Doane Hall at the top of The Hill.
Set to open in fall 2026, the new center will advance Denison’s vision to become the first liberal arts college with a state-of-the-art campus hub devoted to integrating data literacy across the curriculum.
There’s never a good time to close your main entrance, said Jake Preston, director of Physical Plant and Capital Projects. However, the data sciences center project provided a window to breathe new life into the North Main Street entrance.
“We know Presidents’ Drive holds space in the memories of Denisonians,” Preston said. “It’s our visitors’ first experience on campus, so we took advantage of the Doane Hall construction window to restore that first impression and renew that sense of arrival to Denison.”
The project required removing the existing road materials on Presidents’ Drive to a depth of two feet, installing new drainage, building a new stone foundation, and finishing with over eight inches of asphalt surface.
The drive has been widened to a consistent 20 feet, improving safety and access. Using materials inspired by campus architecture — including red brick, limestone, and blue stone pavers — the invigorated Presidents’ Drive feels like a natural extension of The Hill.
A new path to the top of The Hill
It’s difficult to imagine visiting Denison without ascending the iconic and calf-stretching Presidents’ Drive, but when the college first opened for classes in 1831, it quite literally wasn’t on the map. Instead, campus was entered via Burg Street through the West Gate entrance near today’s Shorney Hall.
Denison Professor and one-time acting President Fletcher O. Marsh orchestrated the current entrance off Main and College streets.
Marsh’s home was on the site of what is now Reese House. Its location may have spurred him to act on his vision of an elegant, curved entryway to campus. In 1967, he purchased the acreage, surveyed the sinuous road, and donated that land to the college.
Pictured (clockwise from left): Fletcher O. Marsh, development of the main entrance and future site of Presidents’ Drive, and an illustration of Marsh’s home on The Hill.
Denison constructed the drive, and in a shrewd move, Marsh sold the acreage, minus the portion he deeded to Denison, for the original purchase price. His road was quickly adopted as the main entrance to campus.
A road by any other name
For many years, Marsh’s entryway was named College Avenue. Records surrounding the change to Presidents’ Drive are unclear.
Denison Archives places the official name change between 1930 and 1960. According to Denison University 1831-1931, a Centennial History — Frances Shepardson’s book honoring the college’s centennial celebrations — in 1931, “the Entrance and Drive Way, as it was noted, were improved.”
On Arbor Day that year, elms were planted along the drive, and small plaques honoring each president were installed. This may be the source of today’s moniker, but for several decades until the mid-1960s, maps indicated “Main Drag” was the name of choice.
By any name and measure, Marsh’s visionary entrance to Denison has proven a splendid success, welcoming generations of students, families, faculty, staff, alums, and notable visitors to The Hill.