10/09/2026
Before Davidson became the bike-friendly community we know today, there was Julia Holt.
In January 1897, Holt purchased a Crescent ’97 bicycle and began learning to ride, making her the first woman identified as a cyclist in Davidson’s surviving local records.
This photograph was taken in 1909 at her wedding, held in front of the Holt family home. That house still stands today as the Copeland House on Main Street, directly across from Davidson College.
Nearly 130 years later, bicycles remain a familiar part of life around Davidson. 🚲
Photo: Davidson College Archives.