Chronology

Everyday Life & Traditions: 318 dated entries from the full dataset. Back to the highlights →

1. Colonial and Regulator years · 1000–1774
2. c. 1000–1600 Indigenous communities occupy the Eno River ValleyArchaeological period · Eno River valley

   Excavations at the Hogue and Wall sites on the Eno near Hillsborough show farming communities growing corn, beans and squash, first in small scattered settlements (Haw River phase, about 1000–1400) and then in compact palisaded villages (Hillsboro phase, about 1400–1600). The Wall site village held perhaps 100 to 150 people in the mid-1400s.

3. 1701 John Lawson reached Occaneechi Town on the Eno and wrote about its people and the trading pathEno River

   John Lawson visited Occaneechi Town on the Eno.

4. May 27, 1730 Virginia pays an interpreter to the Saponi and Occaneechi IndiansColonial record · Williamsburg, Virginia

   Charles Kimball petitioned the Virginia House of Burgesses for his allowance as interpreter to the Saponi and Occaneechi Indians. The petition shows the Occaneechi still named separately seventeen years after they left the Eno, and enough people speaking only their own language for an interpreter to be worth paying.

5. 1733–1754 The Saponi scatter between Virginia and the Catawba and a group settles in Granville CountyMigration · Granville County, North Carolina

   After living briefly with the Catawba the Saponi returned to Virginia in 1733 and had to petition Lieutenant Governor Gooch for leave to resettle. Over the next twenty years they broke into small groups and moved south to the Catawba and back again, and by 1754 about twelve or fourteen Sapona men with as many women and children were living on Colonel William Eaton's land in Granville County, North Carolina.

6. 1752–1766 Creation of Orange County and HillsboroughStoryline · Hillsborough

   The General Assembly created Orange County in 1752 from parts of Granville, Johnston and Bladen counties. William Churton laid out its county seat in 1754 where trading paths crossed the Eno. The town was called Orange, then Corbin Town, then Childsburgh from 1759, and took the name Hillsborough in 1766.

7. March–April 1752 St. Matthew’s Parish is establishedInstitutional milestone · Hillsborough

   The act of the spring 1752 General Assembly session that created Orange County also made it the Anglican Parish of St. Matthew, with its own vestry. The parish's first church stood in Hillsborough by about 1768, but today's St. Matthew's Episcopal Church descends from a congregation reorganized in 1824.

8. 1756 Moravians record a visit from Indians living at a fort near the Haw RiverDocumentary record · Orange County

   The Moravian settlers near present Winston-Salem recorded a visit in 1756 from Indians described as Cherokees from the fort near Haw River. The Haw was then in Orange County and a long way from any known Cherokee town, and the entry places an Indian settlement in the county decades after the Piedmont was supposed to be empty of them.

9. 1756 (traditional date) New Hope Presbyterian Church is organizedInstitutional milestone · New Hope

   New Hope Presbyterian Church, south of Hillsborough on the road to Chapel Hill, dates its establishment to 1756, when Scots-Irish settlers from the Hawfields area formed the congregation. Its early records burned in 1827, and D. I. Craig's 1891 history judged it was formally organized later, probably by Henry Patillo about 1765.

10. c. 1759 St. Mary's congregation is establishedInstitutional milestone · St. Mary's community

    Anglicans established St. Mary's Chapel about 1759 on land given by Thomas Holden, about seven miles northeast of Hillsborough, to serve northern Orange County. The congregation joined the Episcopal convention in 1819 and built the present brick chapel, consecrated in 1859; regular services ended in the early 1930s.

11. c. 1760 New Hope congregation builds its first log churchBuilding completion · New Hope

    Settlers still attached to the Hawfields congregation built a rough meetinghouse, which the church describes as log, about five miles south of Hillsborough and a quarter mile east of the road to Chapel Hill. An octagonal log church on higher ground replaced it, which the church dates to 1775.

12. 1766–1771 The Regulator crisisStoryline · Hillsborough

    Orange County farmers organized in 1766 against high fees, taxes and dishonest county officers, calling a meeting at Maddock's Mill that October. Protest turned violent at the Hillsborough court in September 1770 and ended with the Regulators' defeat at Alamance on May 16, 1771 and the hanging of six at Hillsborough on June 19.

13. October 10, 1766 Farmers met at Maddock’s Mill to press the county’s officers to account for fees and taxesCountywide

    Delegates from Orange County neighborhoods met at Maddock's Mill to ask their assemblymen and vestrymen how public money was spent. The officers refused to attend, and the meeting resolved that such conferences between voters and their representatives should be held every year.

14. 1771–1881 How Orange County’s boundaries changedStoryline · Alamance (then Orange)

    Between 1771 and 1777 the legislature carved Guilford, Wake, Chatham and Caswell counties wholly or partly out of Orange, then took Alamance from its west in 1849 and Durham from its east in 1881. Records filed under Orange County before those dates can therefore concern places that now lie in other counties.

15. Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799
16. 1787–1820 Indian families from Virginia settle the Texas community in northern Orange CountySettlement · Orange County

    Charles Whitmore, Jesse Whitmore and Jacob Jeffries appear on the Orange County return used for the 1790 federal census, which was compiled from a tax list of 1787. Families of the same names had moved southwest from Greensville County in Virginia, and by 1820 the settlement later called Texas, or Pleasant Grove, was intact, with the Corn and Jeffries families holding tracts of several hundred acres.

17. November 1789 The state treasury's money and papers are carried out of HillsboroughGovernment removal · Hillsborough

    The House of Commons voted to pay John Armstrong of Orange County three pounds for taking the Treasury's books and papers from Hillsborough to Fayetteville, and five pounds each to nine men of the Orange Company of Horse who guarded the money on the road. The treasurer's office had been kept in the town since 1786 in the confiscated store known as the Blue House.

18. 1789–1795 The founding of the university and Chapel HillStoryline · Chapel Hill

    The General Assembly chartered the university on December 11, 1789. Meeting at Hillsborough in August 1792, the trustees voted to build within fifteen miles of Cyprett's Bridge, and that November their commissioners chose New Hope Chapel Hill. The Old East cornerstone was laid October 12, 1793, and the first student, Hinton James, arrived February 12, 1795.

19. 1790 The county tax list counts 36 white polls and 82 taxable enslaved people in Hillsborough townTax list · Orange County

    Orange County's 1790 tax list returned 2,272 polls and 406,106 acres across its eight districts, with a separate list for Hillsborough town showing 36 white polls against 82 black polls. William Hooper was charged for 22 of them, John Taylor for 10 and Francis Childs for 5.

20. March 1790 Fire destroys the greater part of HillsboroughFire · Hillsborough

    A letter written at Hillsborough early in March 1790 reported that the greatest part of the town had been destroyed by fire a few days earlier, news that reached New Bern by March 18 and was printed in the State Gazette of North Carolina on March 27. The district and county courthouse was among the buildings lost, the courts moved into a private house, and the General Assembly ordered a replacement built on the same lot before the year was out.

21. November and December 1790 General Assembly orders a new district courthouse built at HillsboroughAct of assembly · Hillsborough

    Alexander Mebane of Orange brought in the bill, and the act named William Watters, Absalom Tatom and Jeduthan Harper commissioners to raise a courthouse on the lot where the burned one had stood and to sell off its brick and remains. It was paid for by a poll and land tax on Orange and by lighter taxes on Wake, Chatham, Caswell, Granville and Randolph, the counties of the Hillsborough district.

22. 1791 Eagle Lodge is chartered at HillsboroughFounding or opening · Hillsborough

    Eagle Lodge No. 19 was chartered at Hillsborough in 1791, among the first lodges under the Grand Lodge of North Carolina, with George Doherty as its first secretary. It stayed active until 1799 and then lay dormant until the masons revived it in 1819 under a new charter and a new number.

23. By 1792 Faucett's grist mill is working at the Eno ford northwest of HillsboroughMill · Eno River northwest of Hillsborough

    The county's architectural survey records the Faucett Mill in operation by at least 1792, at a place where a wagon road forded the Eno River northwest of Hillsborough, and says it may have been built as early as the 1760s by the Quaker milling family of Isaac Lowe. Mills of this kind ground the corn and wheat that Orange farmers hauled north to Petersburg or south toward the Cape Fear, and doubled as gathering places; the Faucett family later added a house that served as an inn and tavern.

24. 1792 James Hogg of Hillsborough gathers Orange County land and money for the university siteSubscription · Orange County

    Hogg, a Hillsborough merchant who sat on the commission that fixed the university's place, brought in pledges of land and about 1,600 dollars from people in Orange County for the New Hope Chapel Hill site. The ground chosen lay roughly twelve miles from Hillsborough on the road running from Petersburg through the town and on south to Pittsboro.

25. August 4, 1792 Meeting in Hillsborough, UNC's trustees vote to place the university within fifteen miles of Cyprett's BridgeChapel Hill

    Twenty-five of the university's forty trustees gathered at Hillsborough on August 2, 1792, and on August 4 voted to build within fifteen miles of Cyprett's Bridge. The site itself was chosen later: in early November a commission chaired by Frederick Hargett toured the area and recommended New Hope Chapel Hill in southern Orange County.

26. March 20, 1793 Hillsborough gets the first post office in Orange CountyFounding or opening · Hillsborough

    A post office opened at Hillsborough on March 20, 1793 with David Ray as postmaster, the first in the county; Chapel Hill followed on July 1, 1795. Letters were left at the office for recipients to collect, and for decades it moved from one Churton Street or King Street business to another.

27. February 12, 1795 Hinton James arrives as UNC’s first studentEducation milestone · Chapel Hill

    Hinton James became UNC’s first student on February 12, 1795.

28. 1797 The Assembly orders the sale of the ruinous St. Matthew's church buildingAct of assembly · Hillsborough

    An act of 1797 authorised the sheriff to sell the old Anglican church on Lot 98, described as in a ruinous and decayed situation and not used for divine worship for a number of years. The building went soon afterwards, and around 1800 the town had no church at all.

29. 1798 UNC holds its first commencementEducation milestone · Chapel Hill

    UNC’s first graduating class included Hinton James and six other students.

30. 1799 and 1800 A free Black distiller works on East King Street as the county counts its Black residentsBusiness · Hillsborough

    Africa Parker, a free Black man, was running a distillery on East King Street near William Courtney's house in Hillsborough in 1799. The census the next year counted 3,327 enslaved people and 100 free Black people in Orange County alongside 12,222 white residents.

31. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
32. 1801–1865 Orange County’s nineteenth-century academiesStoryline · Hillsborough

    Hillsborough Academy reopened under Andrew Flinn in 1801 and grew under William J. Bingham, who left in 1844 to open his own school at the Oaks. The Burwell School for girls ran from 1837 to 1857. The Nash and Kollock School and Hillsborough Military Academy opened in 1859; the military academy sent its cadets home in May 1865.

33. 1815 Ayr Mount is completedBuilding completion · Hillsborough

    Scottish-born merchant William Kirkland built Ayr Mount, a Federal-style brick plantation house near Hillsborough, in 1815. Its brick was made on the plantation, and carpenter John J. Briggs, a mason named Collier and joiner Elhannon Nutt worked on the house.

34. February–December 1822 The Franklin Library Society is organized in Hillsborough and chartered by the General AssemblyFounding or opening · Hillsborough

    The Franklin Library Society was established in Hillsborough on February 7, 1822, for the promotion of learning and cultivation of virtue. The General Assembly incorporated it that December, giving it the power to hold property, sue and be sued, and make its own bylaws.

35. December 1825 The House of Commons postpones the Franklin Library Society's request for a book lotteryHillsborough

    Hillsborough's Franklin Library Society asked the General Assembly for leave to raise up to three thousand dollars by lottery to buy useful books for its library. The petition, signed December 14, 1825 by the society's officers including librarian Thomas C. Palmer, was read in the House of Commons on December 23 and indefinitely postponed.

36. 1829 University Presbyterian Church is organizedInstitutional milestone · Chapel Hill

    Chapel Hill's Presbyterians organized a congregation in 1829, meeting in homes and university buildings, with university faculty serving as ministers. Their first sanctuary on Franklin Street was dedicated September 23, 1849, and the congregation, long called Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, took the name University Presbyterian Church in the 1960s.

37. 1830 The census lists the Texas community families as free Negro heads of householdCensus record · Orange County

    The 1830 federal census for the North District of Orange County listed the Whitmores, Jeffrieses, Corns, Burnettes, Haithcocks and Joneses among free Negro heads of household. Through the nineteenth century county and federal records almost always classed these families as free colored or mulatto, and almost never as Indian.

38. 1840s The Hogan-Rogers House was built on the Hogan plantation on Purefoy RoadBuilding · Purefoy Road, Chapel Hill

    The house on Purefoy Road, on land now owned by St. Paul AME Church, dates to the 1840s and stood on the Hogan plantation, where enslaved people lived in its basement. INDY Week reported in 2012 that many Rogers-Eubanks residents descend from people held on the plantation.

39. January 29, 1849 The legislature passed the act creating Alamance County from western OrangeAlamance (then Orange)

    The General Assembly ratified an act on January 29, 1849, to lay off Alamance County from the part of Orange west of a line nine miles west of Hillsborough, if Orange voters approved. They voted for division 1,257 to 1,001 on April 19, and Governor Charles Manly proclaimed the act in force on April 24, 1849.

40. 1854 Chapel Hill Baptist Church is organizedInstitutional milestone · Chapel Hill

    Chapel Hill Baptists organized the Baptist Church of Chapel Hill in 1854 under William Henry Merritt, George W. Purefoy and Brantley J. Hackney, with Elder J. P. Mason as first pastor. Its first building went up in 1854–55, and the congregation is now University Baptist Church.

41. 1855 and 1860 Abner Burnette is twice prosecuted for carrying a gun and once recorded as IndianCourt case · Orange County

    Abner Burnette of the Texas community was indicted in Alamance County in 1855 for carrying a gun, which was unlawful for free persons of color. He pled guilty and was fined thirty one dollars. Indicted again in 1860 he pled not guilty, was convicted and was fined five cents. The 1860 census for Orange County recorded him as Indian, and the 1870 Alamance County census as mulatto.

42. 1861–1865 Orange County during the Civil WarStoryline · Chapel Hill

    Students left Chapel Hill to enlist from late April 1861, and Hillsborough Military Academy's founder, Charles Tew, left in May to command a Confederate regiment. The university stayed open as enrollment fell to about a dozen. Federal cavalry held Chapel Hill from April 16 to May 3, 1865, as many newly freed people left town or joined the army.

43. Late April–early May 1861 Orange County companies mobilize for Confederate serviceMilitary · Countywide

    Answering Governor John W. Ellis's call, Capt. R. J. Ashe's Orange Light Infantry was to report at state headquarters on April 27, 1861, with about $1,000 raised by Chapel Hill residents, and was made the first company of the First Regiment of North Carolina Volunteers. The Orange Guards were drilling at Fort Macon by early May.

44. May 20, 1861 North Carolina secedes from the UnionPolitical milestone · Countywide

    Meeting in Raleigh on May 20, 1861, the state convention, with Orange County's delegates William A. Graham and John Berry among its members, unanimously adopted an ordinance dissolving North Carolina's union with the United States and the same day ratified the provisional Confederate constitution.

45. April 16 – May 3, 1865 Union troops occupy Chapel HillMilitary · Chapel Hill

    Wheeler's Confederates pulled out of Chapel Hill on Easter Sunday and Federal cavalry commanded by Smith D. Atkins rode in the same day. Atkins assured President David Lowry Swain that residents would be treated civilly, posted guards from the Ninth Michigan at houses that asked for them, and a Federal guard was set over the university, where officers were quartered in dormitories and horses were stabled in college buildings.

46. 1865–1878 Freedom, schools, and Black community-building after emancipationStoryline · Hillsborough

    After emancipation, Black residents of Orange County built their own institutions. Chapel Hill's First Baptist Church formed in September 1865; Job Berry and Philadelphia Quakers opened Hillsborough's freedmen's school in the old courthouse on June 5, 1866; Black residents bought land for a Chapel Hill school in 1866; and St. Paul AME bought its church lot in 1878.

47. September 3, 1865 First Baptist Church organizes independentlyFounding or opening · Chapel Hill

    The minute books of the church now called University Baptist record a unanimous vote on September 3, 1865 to let the colored patrons withdraw and organize a church of their own, and note that sixty-one colored members were dismissed that month for the purpose. The new congregation, later First Baptist Church of Chapel Hill, met at first in the old Quaker schoolhouse on Franklin Street under Rev. Eddie H. Cole.

48. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
49. July 4, 1866 Freedpeople hold a Black Fourth of July celebrationCountywide

    Cornelia Phillips Spencer's journal records that the Black residents of Chapel Hill marched in procession behind a banner, heard an address by Colonel J. J. Guthrie and a reading of part of the Declaration of Independence by Jurdon Swain, then sat down to a dinner they had provided themselves on the ground bought from the Craigs for their new school house. The banner mottoes were "Respect for Former Owners" and "Our Hope is in God".

50. 1869–1898 Racial-terror lynchings in Orange CountyStoryline · Countywide

    Six people are documented as lynched in Orange County: Washington Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, Daniel Morrow, Wright Malone and Cyrus Guy in 1869, and Manly McCauley in 1898. In September 2022 the county commissioners apologized for racial-terror lynchings and approved markers, citing five cases without naming the victims.

51. October 20, 1869 Governor Holden warns Orange County it may be declared in insurrectionLaw or policy · Orange County

    Holden's proclamation of October 20, 1869, named Lenoir, Jones, Orange and Chatham counties and said that in Orange the jail had been forced, two Black prisoners taken out and shot, and three other Black men hanged. He warned that he would declare those counties in a state of insurrection and use the whole power of the state if the violence continued.

52. October 1869–March 1871 Orange County in the Kirk–Holden WarStoryline · Countywide

    Governor Holden named Orange County in his October 1869 warning about Klan violence, Hillsborough men were named in a Klan plot against Senator T. M. Shoffner, and Kirk's militia arrested Josiah Turner Jr. at Hillsborough in August 1870. Orange men Frederick N. Strudwick, William A. Graham and John W. Graham then helped bring, prosecute and decide Holden's impeachment.

53. December 1869–January 1870 Klansmen from Hillsborough ride to kill Senator T. M. Shoffner and turn backAttempted assassination · Hillsborough and Alamance County

    A Klan party coming from Orange County that included Hillsborough legislator Frederick N. Strudwick and A. Hedgepeth of Hillsborough gathered at a Bradshaw home in Alamance County to kill state senator T. M. Shoffner, author of the anti-Klan militia bill. Dr. John A. Moore, sent by James E. Boyd, told them Shoffner had gone to Greensboro, and they turned back.

54. Late 1800s Black-owned family farms and sawmills made up the Rogers-Eubanks areaSettlement · Rogers Road

    By the late nineteenth century the area between Homestead and Eubanks roads, north of Carrboro and Chapel Hill, was a neighborhood of Black-owned family farms and sawmills set among forest. RENA and the Town of Carrboro both date settlement of the wider area to the 1700s.

55. December 9, 1870 Orange County representative Frederick N. Strudwick moves to impeach Governor HoldenImpeachment · North Carolina House of Representatives, Raleigh

    Frederick N. Strudwick of Orange introduced the House resolution to impeach Governor William W. Holden, which the House adopted on December 14, 1870. On December 19 he chaired the Committee of the Whole that adopted the eight articles of impeachment and elected the seven House managers.

56. January 23, 1871 William A. Graham of Hillsborough joins the prosecution of Governor HoldenImpeachment · North Carolina Senate chamber, Raleigh

    The House managers announced to the impeachment court that former governor William A. Graham of Hillsborough, with Thomas Bragg and Augustus S. Merrimon, would act as their counsel. Graham argued points of evidence for the prosecution through the trial.

57. January 31, 1871 Hillsborough constable describes Orange County Klan killings to a U.S. Senate committeeGovernment investigation · U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.

    W. G. Turrentine, a Hillsborough constable, told the Senate select committee in Washington that five Black men had been killed in Orange County and many people whipped, some for voting Republican. He described how, in August 1869, 75 to 100 disguised men forced the Hillsborough jail and shot a prisoner held on a barn-burning charge, who died.

58. March 7, 1871 Lucinda Morrow of Hillsborough testifies at Governor Holden's impeachment trialCourt case · North Carolina Senate chamber, Raleigh

    Called by Holden's defense, Lucinda Morrow, then living in Hillsborough, described disguised men breaking into her Cane Creek home in Orange County in the fall of 1869 and hanging her husband, Thomas Jefferson Morrow. Prosecution counsel William A. Graham objected to her evidence, and Augustus S. Merrimon argued it was irrelevant unless tied to Alamance County.

59. March 22, 1871 Senate convicts Holden on the article charging Turner's arrest in Orange CountyImpeachment · North Carolina Senate chamber, Raleigh

    The state Senate found Governor Holden guilty, 37 to 12, on Article III, which charged him with the unlawful arrest of Josiah Turner Jr. in Orange County on August 5, 1870, and also convicted him on Articles IV through VIII. Senator John W. Graham of Orange then offered the order of judgment removing Holden from office and barring him from state office, which the Senate adopted.

60. 1873 Robert F. Hoke obtains a charter for the Chapel Hill Iron Mountain RailroadLaw or policy · Orange County

    While the university was closed, Robert F. Hoke, owner of an iron mine north of Chapel Hill, obtained a state charter for a railroad to carry ore from Iron Mountain to the North Carolina Railroad.

61. 1879 The railroad is rechartered as the State University RailroadLaw or policy · Orange County

    The legislature rechartered the stalled iron-mine line as the State University Railroad, shifting its purpose to a rail link for the university, with UNC president Kemp P. Battle working alongside Hoke to raise funds.

62. April 14, 1881 Voters approve forming Durham County from eastern Orange and part of WakeCountywide

    Under an act ratified February 28, 1881, voters in the territory cut from eastern Orange and western Wake approved the new county on April 14, 1881, the Orange portion voting 1,464 to 250. Governor Thomas J. Jarvis then proclaimed Durham County established.

63. 1882–1913 From West End to Carrboro: railroad, mills, and a new townStoryline · Carrboro

    In 1882 a university railroad spur ended a mile west of Chapel Hill, and the settlement of West End grew around its boxcar depot. Thomas Lloyd opened a gin and grist mill in 1883 and the Alberta Cotton Mill in 1899, which Julian Carr's Durham Hosiery bought in 1909. Incorporated as Venable in 1911, the town became Carrboro in 1913.

64. 1886 Thomas F. Lloyd buys out his partner and adds a flour mill by the depotFounding or opening · Carrboro

    Lloyd bought William Pritchard's share of the steam grist mill and cotton gin the two had built north of the station in 1883, and had a flour mill built on the property.

65. 1888 UNC plays its first intercollegiate football seasonSports milestone · Chapel Hill

    Organized football began at UNC in 1888.

66. October 1893 The Chapel Hill News, forerunner of The News of Orange County, begins publicationPublication · Hillsborough

    The weekly that became The News of Orange County began in Chapel Hill in October 1893 as The Chapel Hill News. Renamed The News, it moved to Hillsboro between 1936 and 1941 and took the title The News of Orange County in 1944. The paper still dates its founding to 1893.

67. 1897–1899 Eno Presbyterian builds at Cedar GroveDated milestone · Cedar Grove

    The replacement church was constructed over three years.

68. 1897 The Old Well rotunda is builtBuilding completion · Chapel Hill

    University president Edwin Alderman had the well's wooden cover replaced in 1897 with a rotunda of eight fluted Doric columns under a dome, modeled on the Temple of Love at Versailles and designed by registrar Eugene Lewis Harris.

69. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
70. About 1900 The Texas community builds Jeffries Cross Church and Martin's Chapel Baptist ChurchFounding or opening · Pleasant Grove Township

    Around the turn of the twentieth century the community built two churches on land given by Joe and Levi Jeffries and by Sam Martin, in place of the circuit riding preachers who had served the settlement before. Social life in the community turned on its churches and its school.

71. October 30, 1902 Baptists organize Union Chapel in West EndFounding or opening · Carrboro

    On land Thomas Lloyd deeded for churches, Baptists and Methodists shared a small Weaver Street building on alternate Sundays, and the Baptists organized as Union Chapel with seventeen charter members; the congregation became Venable Baptist in 1911 and Carrboro Baptist in 1914.

72. 1906 Herbert and Alice Blackwood purchase and revitalize the farmLand or property · Blackwood Farm

    Herbert and Alice Blackwood purchased the farm and renewed its house and agricultural buildings.

73. February 26, 1909 The legislature creates the Chapel Hill Graded School DistrictInstitutional milestone · Chapel Hill

    An act ratified February 26, 1909 created the Chapel Hill Graded School District, with a special school tax and six trustees, among them Charles H. Herty and N. W. Walker, who ran its schools free of the Orange County board. Voters had to approve it in May; the city school system dates its founding to 1909.

74. 1910 Hillsboro Public Library is counted among North Carolina's early free public librariesFounding or opening · Hillsborough

    A 1954 history of North Carolina public libraries names the Hillsboro Public Library among the free public libraries established in North Carolina by 1910, fifteen in all. A later survey dates Hillsboro's library to 1910 in its list of the twenty-eight public, society and Y.M.C.A. libraries in the state's first library report.

75. 1910–1915 Mill houses go up for the Lloyd Manufacturing Company's workersBuilding opening · Carrboro

    One-story frame houses with front porches were built between 1910 and 1915 as worker housing for the Thomas F. Lloyd Manufacturing Company; 25 of them form the Thomas F. Lloyd Historic District on the National Register.

76. 1910–1911 Lloyd organizes a second mill company and builds a yarn millFounding or opening · Carrboro

    Thomas F. Lloyd organized the Thomas F. Lloyd Manufacturing Company in February 1910 and built a second mill across Main Street from the Alberta mill in 1910 and 1911 to spin cotton yarn.

77. January 27, 1911 UNC plays its first varsity basketball gameSports milestone · Chapel Hill

    UNC defeated Virginia Christian 42–21 in Bynum Gymnasium in its first varsity basketball game.

78. About 1913 A new wood-frame railroad station is built in CarrboroBuilding opening · Carrboro

    The depot that still stands beside Carr Mill was built around 1913, replacing the earlier West End stop that had drawn settlement to the end of the line.

79. By February 1913 The Lloyd yarn mill becomes Durham Hosiery Mill No. 7Institutional milestone · Carrboro

    The Thomas F. Lloyd Manufacturing Company mill was sold to Durham Hosiery Mills, which ran it as Mill No. 7 alongside Mill No. 4, the former Alberta mill.

80. 1913–2018 Silent SamStoryline · Chapel Hill

    On June 2, 1913, the United Daughters of the Confederacy and UNC alumni dedicated a Confederate soldier statue in McCorkle Place, and Julian Carr's dedication speech boasted of whipping a Black woman. The monument drew decades of protest until demonstrators pulled it down on August 20, 2018.

81. November 29, 1915 Billy Strayhorn, who spent boyhood summers in Hillsborough, was bornHillsborough

    Composer and pianist Billy Strayhorn was born in Dayton, Ohio. From about age five he stayed with his grandparents at Margaret Lane and Hillsborough Avenue in Hillsborough, attended his first year of school there, learned piano in their home, and spent breaks and summers in the town into his early teens.

82. About 1916 Eno Cotton Mill reports 150 women among its 500 workersWomen's labor · Hillsborough

    Reports from the years before the wartime changes count about 500 workers at Hillsborough's Eno Cotton Mill, 150 of them women and 50 children under 16, on a 60-hour week. The top average daily wage for women was $1.75 against $4.00 for men; at the smaller Bellevue mill nearby women's top average was $2.50.

83. 1916–1969 Segregated schooling and the rise of Lincoln and Central High schoolsStoryline · Chapel Hill

    In 1916 the Chapel Hill school district bought Louis Hackney's school and renamed it Orange County Training School, later Lincoln High. Hillsborough's Black high school opened in 1936 and became Central High in 1948. Desegregation closed Lincoln as a high school in 1966, discarding its name and colors, and after 1968 walkouts Central's students moved to Orange High.

84. 1916 The Lloyd grist mill burns and is rebuilt in brickBuilding opening · Carrboro

    The original wood-frame grist mill buildings burned in 1916 and were replaced by the brick mill that survives on B Street; lightning gutted its interior in 1921.

85. 1917–1919 Orange County mobilizes for World War IMilitary · Countywide

    Orange County organized a Council of Defense, Red Cross chapters in Chapel Hill (May 28, 1917) and Hillsborough (June 1, 1917), Liberty Loan and War Savings drives, and food conservation committees. On October 1, 1918, 650 UNC students were inducted into the Student Army Training Corps, and volunteers nursed the sick during the influenza epidemic.

86. 1918 The Carolina Playmakers are organizedInstitutional milestone · Chapel Hill

    Frederick H. Koch organized the Carolina Playmakers at UNC.

87. October 1918 Influenza epidemic strikes Chapel HillDisaster or violence · Carrboro

    Spanish influenza swept the University in early October 1918, putting the campus and its student soldiers under a three-week quarantine. By October 23 about 300 students had been ill and three had died, and President Edward Kidder Graham died of influenza and pneumonia on October 26.

88. March 14–15, 1919 Carolina Playmakers present their first billChapel Hill

    The first bill included Thomas Wolfe’s The Return of Buck Gavin, with Wolfe in the title role.

89. About 1920–1925 Billy Strayhorn stays with his grandparents in Hillsborough and starts schoolChildhood residence · Hillsborough

    From about age five Strayhorn came from Ohio with his mother and siblings to his grandparents' house at the corner of Margaret Lane and Hillsborough Avenue, attended his first year of school in the town, and took to the piano his grandparents kept. He returned for breaks and summers into his early teens.

90. 1921–1922 Louis Round Wilson's survey finds thin library collections in Orange County's white schoolsPublication · Orange County

    A questionnaire of Orange County's 48 white schools for 1921–22, including the Chapel Hill and Hillsboro graded schools, found seven with no library and 3,692 volumes for 1,586 pupils, slightly more than two books per pupil. Ten of the 25 teachers who answered said the books were used "not very much"; Wilson published the results in January 1923.

91. 1923 Ellis Store and post office opensDated milestone · Cedar Grove

    Allen A. Ellis built a new crossroads store.

92. July 1923 Sutton's Drug Store opens on Franklin StreetBusiness opening · Chapel Hill

    J. L. Sutton and J. L. Alderman, a UNC pharmacy graduate, opened the Sutton and Alderman drugstore with a soda fountain in the Strowd Building on Franklin Street, in space vacated by Jack Sparrow's shop. As Sutton's Drug Store it marked its centennial in 2023 as a downtown gathering place.

93. 1924 Carrboro Baptist Church completes its brick church at Greensboro and MainBuilding opening · Carrboro

    The mill-town congregation borrowed $50,000 to build a brick church at the corner of Greensboro and Main streets, paying off the debt in 1942; the building is now the Town's Century Center.

94. 1924 Fire on East Main Street leads to brick rebuildingDisaster · Carrboro

    A 1924 fire destroyed wooden stores on East Main Street and merchants rebuilt in brick, forming the core of what became the Carrboro Commercial Historic District.

95. 1925–1943 Black clubwomen open the North Carolina Industrial Home for Colored Girls at EflandBlack women's institution-building · Efland

    After years of fundraising, the North Carolina federation of Black women's clubs led by Charlotte Hawkins Brown opened a home and school for Black girls on about 140 acres of farmland on US 70 at Efland. The state gave only occasional small grants, and the home closed at Efland in 1943 before reopening under state sponsorship in Rocky Mount in 1944.

96. 1925 Hillsborough women organize the Hillsborough Garden ClubWomen's civic organizing · Hillsborough

    Twelve Hillsborough women met in an old school building in 1925 to form a garden club, and began by cleaning lots in the business district and planting crepe myrtles along the downtown streets. The club later sponsored the founding of the Orange County Historical Museum.

97. April 1927 Chapel Hill Community Club women question local legislators on the women's billsWomen's political organizing · Chapel Hill

    The Community Club's legislative committee asked the state women's lobby how Orange County's legislators had voted on measures backed by women's organizations, including the Australian ballot, child labor and the Efland school for Black girls, and then voted to write each legislator for a statement of his position.

98. 1930 Durham Hosiery closes Mill No. 4, the former Alberta millClosing · Carrboro

    Durham Hosiery Mills stopped operations at Mill No. 4 in 1930 as the Depression cut into the hosiery business.

99. 1930 The Martin School is consolidated into Pleasant Grove Union SchoolSchool consolidation · Pleasant Grove Township

    The Martin School, attended almost entirely by Indian children, was merged in 1930 with several other small schools to form Pleasant Grove Union School. The change was unpopular in the community because the school would no longer be exclusively Indian, though it brought better facilities and was in time accepted.

100. September 1931 Schley Grange No. 710 is charteredFarm organization · Schley

     Thirty residents of the Schley farming community north of Hillsborough chartered Schley Grange No. 710, one of five Orange County Granges formed in the state Grange revival of 1929 to 1931. In November the county Board of Education sold the Grange the Schley School building, empty since the county's 1928 school consolidation, for $122.

101. 1932–1977 Water for the towns: University Lake, the 1976–77 drought, and OWASAStoryline · Chapel Hill

     The University dammed Morgan Creek in 1932 to create University Lake. Droughts in 1968 and 1976–77 forced rationing and purchases from Durham, and on February 16, 1977 the Orange Water and Sewer Authority, organized by the county and both towns, took over the university and town systems. A long fight over a Cane Creek reservoir followed.

102. 1933 A community library begins at the Carrboro schoolLibrary milestone · Carrboro

     In 1933 Nellie Roberson gave the Carrboro school 145 books as the nucleus of a library for grown people as well as children. Built up by teachers, pupils and parents, it was formally dedicated in May 1937 and lent adult books to Carrboro residents.

103. 1934–1935 The Texas community asks the Bureau of Indian Affairs for an Indian schoolPetition · Pleasant Grove Township

     Clayton Jeffries, Charles Will Jeffries and others retained a lawyer, drew up a list of Indian families, made contact with the Indian community in Person County that already had a state sponsored school, and wrote to Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier seeking a federal school for their children. A bureau agent visited and reported the families to be Indian, and the bureau's letters called the settlement an Indian community, but no assistance was ever given.

104. Between 1936 and 1940 Passenger trains stop running on the University RailroadClosing · Carrboro

     Mixed passenger service on the ten-mile line between University Station and Carrboro ended as car ownership spread and roads improved, leaving the line to freight.

105. September 11, 1937 Farm women open the Orange County curb market in CarrboroWomen's farm work · Carrboro

     A curb market run by Orange County farm women opened in the former McCauley store in Carrboro, selling vegetables, fruit, chickens, eggs, sausage, preserves and canned goods. It was organized with the county home demonstration agent, with thirteen women signed on as sellers before opening.

106. 1938–1941 Archaeologists excavate the wall site believing it to be Occaneechi TownArchaeological excavation · Hillsborough

     Joffre Coe began digging a village site on a bend of the Eno at Hillsborough in 1938 in the belief that it was the town John Lawson visited in 1701, and Robert Wauchope carried the work on in 1940 and 1941 with federal funding. A state highway marker for the Occaneechi village was erected at Hillsborough in 1941. The village Coe had found was in fact an earlier settlement of about 1400 to 1600.

107. 1938–1939 Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation is incorporated and energizes its first linesRural electrification · Hillsborough

     Piedmont Electric, a rural electric cooperative formed under the federal Rural Electrification Administration loan program, received its North Carolina incorporation papers in 1938. In 1939 its first substation, in Hillsborough, energized lines to members' homes for the first time.

108. 1938 The Chapel Hill post office opens on Franklin StreetBuilding completion · Chapel Hill

     A new federal post office was built in two stages on the site of the old one at Franklin and Henderson streets. Postal workers moved into its rear section early in 1938 while the old building was torn down and the front half built, and the finished post office began full operation on July 1, 1938.

109. June 1938 Durham Hosiery closes its last Carrboro millClosing · Carrboro

     Durham Hosiery Mills dissolved its business at Mill No. 7 in June 1938 and laid off the workers, ending the company's operations in Carrboro.

110. May–July 1939 A lent library truck carries books to schools and crossroads stores across Orange CountyOrange County

     For May, June and July 1939 a bookmobile with a revolving shelved turret was lent to the county, run by Lucile McDade and her assistant Louise Carroll, who stopped at schools and crossroads stores. The county board of education and the Confederate Memorial Library in Hillsboro paid its operating costs, and the WPA and the Hillsboro library lent the books.

111. 1940 Census finds nearly half of Orange County's Black-owned farms in Cedar Grove TownshipCensus · Cedar Grove Township

     The 1940 census counted 1,753 Black and 1,671 white residents in Cedar Grove Township, the county's only township with a near-even racial balance, and about three-fourths of the township lived on farms. Nearly half of Orange County's 503 Black-owned farms were in the township, which also had the county's highest share of Black tenant farmers.

112. 1941–1942 Orange, Chatham and Person counties share a trained librarian under the new state aidInstitutional milestone · Hillsborough

     In the first year of state aid for public libraries, Chatham, Orange and Person counties shared one trained librarian, Ernestine Grafton, while each county kept its own book collection and bookmobile service. The state's 1941–42 library statistics list her as librarian at Hillsboro, Siler City and Roxboro.

113. December 1941 Chapel Hill organizes civilian defense after Pearl HarborWar mobilization · Chapel Hill

     Within days of Pearl Harbor, Mayor John Foushee called for hundreds of civilian-defense volunteers, and armed sentries guarded the airport, the University Lake dam and the power plant. A control center opened at the Carolina Inn, with a branch volunteer office for Black residents at Perry's barber shop, and UNC students formed a volunteer training corps.

114. February–May 1942 The Orange County Public Library bookmobile makes stops in Chapel HillChapel Hill

     In late February 1942 the Chapel Hill Weekly announced that the county bookmobile, with librarian Ernestine Grafton in charge, would park in front of the Texaco station from noon to 2 p.m. for browsers and borrowers. That spring the bookmobile offered a $5 prize to the school collecting the most waste paper, with the proceeds buying children's books, and a state aid increase let the library order books on readers' requests.

115. May 1942–October 1945 Navy Pre-Flight School operates at UNCMilitary · Chapel Hill

     Commissioned at UNC in May 1942, the U.S. Navy Pre-Flight School trained 18,700 cadets before it was decommissioned on October 15, 1945. Cadets ate in Lenoir Hall and drilled in a Navy-built armory that opened in 1943. George H. W. Bush trained there as a cadet, Gerald Ford taught there, and Ted Williams played on its baseball team.

116. June 1942 A wartime munitions plant opens in the former Mill No. 7Founding or opening · Carrboro

     National Munitions Corporation converted the empty Mill No. 7 on Roberson Street into a shell-loading plant that pressed tetryl pellets for Navy anti-aircraft ammunition, growing from about 126 workers to more than 500; an explosion hit its pellet houses on September 6, 1942.

117. August 8, 1942 Chapel Hill High School burnsDisaster or violence · Chapel Hill

     Fire destroyed the Chapel Hill high school building on South Columbia Street, then the Pittsboro highway, early on Saturday, August 8, 1942. The school board arranged to hold grades 10 to 12 in rooms at the Baptist church and the ninth grade at the elementary school, and wartime material shortages delayed a new building for years.

118. June 1944 Wartime day nursery opens for the children of Black working mothers in Chapel Hill and CarrboroChildcare for working women · Chapel Hill

     A federally funded day nursery for Black children opened at the Orange County Training School, caring for thirty children aged two to six from 7:15 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. while their mothers worked. Parents paid for food, and by October 1944 two nursery schools were running, one in the Masonic building on the edge of Carrboro and one on Brooks Street.

119. August–September 1944 Orange County schools stay closed until after September 18 during the polio epidemicOrange County

     On the recommendation of the State Health Officer and Governor Broughton, the State Board of Education kept all North Carolina public schools closed until after September 18 because of the infantile paralysis epidemic. Orange County schools, which Superintendent R. H. Claytor had planned to open September 14, were held back with the rest, though teachers still reported on September 14.

120. September 1, 1944 Orange County's Black home demonstration clubs hold their first dress contest in HillsboroBlack women's rural clubs · Hillsborough

     Women from every Black home demonstration club in the county modeled thirty-six dresses, suits and accessories they had made at the Hillsboro high school auditorium. By 1946 the clubs met monthly in rural communities including White Oak Grove, Jordan Grove, Cool Springs, Cedar Grove, Harmony, Ridge Road, St. Mary's, Sartin and Carr.

121. November 30, 1944 Home demonstration clubs report the year's work at Achievement Day in HillsboroFarm women's work · Hillsborough

     At the county home demonstration clubs' Achievement Day at the courthouse, the home agent reported that women had canned an average of 350 quarts and that 94 percent made their own clothes, and that the women's curb market in Chapel Hill had taken in $30,280.68 over the past year. Clubs from Caldwell, Carr, Cedar Grove, Efland, New Hope, Orange Grove, St. Mary's, Schley and Murphy had made 699 garments and 744 other articles for the Red Cross.

122. Civil rights era · 1945–1975
123. 1945 The former Alberta mill reopens as Carrboro Woolen MillsFounding or opening · Carrboro

     After fifteen idle years the modernized Mill No. 4 building reopened as Carrboro Woolen Mills, which ran until the early 1960s.

124. Fall 1945 The Negro Community Center opens for community useBuilding completion · Chapel Hill

     After the Navy Pre-Flight School wound down, the community center returned to town control on October 24, 1945 and opened to Black residents of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. By December a nursery school filled the basement, and an all-Black board chaired by Hubert Roberson ran the building under the Town Recreation Commission.

125. 1946 Victory Village is built to house married veterans at UNCPostwar housing · Chapel Hill (UNC south campus)

     As returning veterans pushed enrollment to about 6,800, the federal government put up the prefabricated metal houses of Victory Village on 65 acres of UNC's south campus in 1946. About 350 student families lived there, and the last units were torn down in the early 1970s for the expansion of UNC Hospitals.

126. March 1947 Orange County polio chapter reports buying an infant-size iron lungOrange County

     In its annual report, the Orange County chapter of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis said it had spent $500 in direct aid to polio patients and bought a $550 infant-size iron lung, kept for the time being at Watts Hospital.

127. 1947–1968 Occoneechee Speedway, HillsboroughStoryline · Hillsborough

     Bill France and four partners chartered a company in September 1947 to build a one-mile dirt oval by the old Occoneechee Farm, and it opened in June 1948. The track held a race in NASCAR's first Strictly Stock season in 1949, was renamed Orange Speedway in 1954, and closed after Richard Petty won its last race on September 15, 1968.

128. October 27, 1947 The League of Women Voters of Chapel Hill applies for recognitionWomen's political organization · Chapel Hill

     Thirty-three women applied for provisional status as the League of Women Voters of Chapel Hill, raising the required finance money that fall. The league later became the League of Women Voters of the Chapel Hill Area in 1997 and of Orange, Durham and Chatham Counties in 2001.

129. 1948 Hyconeechee Regional Library is establishedFounding or opening · Countywide

     The three county library systems incorporated as one region to enlarge book collections, run a shared bookmobile and provide trained supervision. The regional board held its second meeting on September 13, 1948 at the Confederate Memorial Library in Hillsboro, with Sydney Green of Orange County as president and Mrs. Douglas Davis as regional librarian.

130. June 27, 1948 Occoneechee Speedway opensFounding or opening · Hillsborough

     Occoneechee Speedway, a one-mile dirt oval that Bill France and four North Carolina partners built on the old Occoneechee Farm horse track outside Hillsborough, opened with a 100-mile NASCAR stock car race won by Fonty Flock.

131. August 26–September 13, 1948 Polio postpones the opening of Orange County schools twiceOrange County

     With 12 polio cases counted in the county by early August, Superintendent Glenn T. Proffitt, on the advice of health director O. David Garvin, moved the school opening from September 1 to September 7. After a second postponement the county schools opened on Monday, September 13, 1948, for about 4,000 pupils.

132. November 1948–December 1949 Schley Grange brings telephones to fifty-one families and wins a national community awardCommunity improvement · Schley

     For a National Grange and Sears-Roebuck Foundation contest, Schley Grange members cleared right-of-way, cut cedar poles and strung three miles of wire so the telephone company could give service to 51 families; they also held a soil conservation workshop with the extension service. Schley won the national prize in November 1948, and the new brick Grange hall it paid for was dedicated on December 6, 1949 before about five hundred people.

133. August 7, 1949 NASCAR comes to Occoneechee SpeedwayHillsborough

     Occoneechee Speedway near Hillsborough hosted the third race of NASCAR's first Strictly Stock season, a 200-lap event won by Bob Flock. It is the only dirt track from that inaugural season that still survives.

134. March 22, 1950 Carrboro Civic Club opens a public libraryFounding or opening · Carrboro

     The Carrboro Public Library, a project of the Carrboro Civic Club, opened on March 22, 1950, with an open house at the club's building near the Carrboro school. Mrs. Jack Shields was librarian, and books were lent free each Wednesday afternoon, with loans from the bookmobile and the county library in Hillsborough adding to the collection.

135. August 10, 1950 Health officer closes the University pool as polio cases rise in Chapel HillChapel Hill

     After an emergency conference with six Chapel Hill physicians, District Health Officer O. David Garvin ordered the University swimming pool and all recreational facilities closed, with six polio cases in Chapel Hill and three more in the county. He asked parents to keep children at home or on their own block but did not recommend cancelling University classes or closing nursery schools.

136. January to March 1951 Orange Fire Protective Association buys Orange County's first rural fire truckFire protection · Hillsborough and rural Orange County

     Because Hillsboro's town fire truck was restricted to calls within about a mile and a half of town, rural residents formed the Orange Fire Protective Association and raised money through one-time memberships of $10 for a house and more for farm buildings. By March 15, 1951, 260 members had given $4,500 and a Ford fire truck for the countryside had arrived, crewed by the town's volunteer firemen.

137. February 1951 Lucille Caldwell becomes the Negro Community Center's first paid directorEmployment milestone · Chapel Hill

     Lucille Caldwell was hired in February 1951 as the first paid director of Chapel Hill's Negro Community Center on Roberson Street, now the Hargraves Center. A town history calls her North Carolina's first Black professional recreation administrator. She led the center for twelve years and resigned in 1963.

138. May 1951 Orange County's seventeen home demonstration clubs count 443 membersWomen's extension work · Orange County

     During National Home Demonstration Week the county reported 443 women in 17 home demonstration clubs, served by two white agents and one Black agent, with 80 volunteer leaders who had held 62 meetings attended by 1,459 people the year before. Clubs made 38 United Nations flags for schools, churches and Grange halls as part of a citizenship study.

139. 1951–1955 Desegregating the University of North CarolinaStoryline · Chapel Hill

     After a 1951 federal court decision in McKissick v. Carmichael, five Black students began law school classes at UNC on June 22, 1951. In September 1955, again under court order, LeRoy and Ralph Frasier and John Lewis Brandon of Durham registered as the university's first Black undergraduates.

140. October 1952 UNC cancels two football games after a player and three students get polioChapel Hill

     The University of North Carolina called off its football games with Georgia on October 4 and N.C. State on October 11, 1952, because a player and three other students had been stricken with polio.

141. January 1953 WCHL begins broadcastingBroadcast milestone · Chapel Hill

     WCHL, Chapel Hill's new commercial radio station, went on the air in January 1953 at 1360 on the dial with 1,000 watts, broadcasting from sunrise to sunset from a site on the Durham highway. General manager Sandy McClamroch ran it with partners Roy E. Fullen and Lonnie Dark; its first broadcast was set for January 18.

142. February 14, 1954 Chapel Hill American Legion post gives an iron lung to N.C. Memorial HospitalChapel Hill

     The Chapel Hill post of the American Legion presented an iron lung, bought for about $1,600, to North Carolina Memorial Hospital, with Congressman Carl T. Durham making the presentation. Hospital director Robert R. Cadmus said the hospital had treated 90 polio patients, two from Orange County, in its first 18 months; it was the hospital's second iron lung.

143. July 21–27, 1955 Orange County first and second graders get their second Salk shotsChapel Hill; Hillsboro

     The district health department gave second Salk vaccine doses to children who had their first shot in the spring: in Chapel Hill on July 21 and 22 for pupils of the Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Glenwood, Northside, White Cross and Little Red Schoolhouse schools, and in Hillsboro on July 27, with school buses sent to county schools. Turnout at Hillsboro was low, with only 65 children by 11 a.m.

144. April 11, 1957 The General Assembly lets Hillsboro convey the library lot to the Hillsboro Library AssociationLaw or policy · Hillsborough

     A 1957 act authorized the Hillsboro town commissioners to convey the lot at Tryon and Churton streets holding the Hillsboro Library to the Hillsboro Library Association, and an adjoining lot to the Presbyterian church. Either lot would revert to the town if it stopped being used for the purpose named in the act.

145. November 1957 Orange County Historical Museum is foundedInstitutional milestone · Hillsborough

     The Hillsborough Garden Club, led by Mrs. Clarence Jones, founded the Orange County Historical Museum, which opened in November 1957 on the second floor of the 1845 Orange County Courthouse after the county commissioners approved the space and gave $250. The museum moved to its Churton Street home in 1983.

146. 1958 Carr Store Road is paved through Cedar GroveRoads · Cedar Grove

     Carr Store Road, the east-west road through the Cedar Grove crossroads, was paved in 1958, about a decade after the north-south Efland-Cedar Grove Road. Until then farmers in the area could find farm-to-market roads impassable for months of the year.

147. December 15, 1958 Chapel Hill Public Library opensFounding or opening · Chapel Hill

     Chapel Hill's first public library held its formal opening on December 15, 1958 in the east wing of the Hill House on West Franklin Street, with about 4,500 books, 2,000 of them lent by state and regional libraries. It moved to its own building at 523 East Franklin Street in 1967 and to Pritchard Park in 1994.

148. From 1959 Research Triangle Park and Orange County's growthStoryline · Chapel Hill

     The Research Triangle Foundation, formed in 1959, ran the research park planned between Durham and Raleigh around UNC, N.C. State and Duke. That November Orange County commissioners said the park would bring the county mainly new residents and school costs rather than taxable industry, and began discussing county-wide zoning.

149. July 13, 1959 Health officer asks county commissioners for money to buy polio vaccineHillsborough

     District health director O. David Garvin asked the Board of County Commissioners for a special appropriation to buy Salk vaccine for schoolchildren and pregnant women who could not pay, after federal vaccine allotments were cut and shots became required for school entry. The board agreed to provide funds if needed but told him to seek March of Dimes money from the county polio chapter first.

150. 1960–1964 Chapel Hill freedom movementStoryline · Chapel Hill

     Nine Lincoln High students began Chapel Hill's sit-ins at Colonial Drug on February 28, 1960. Through 1963 and 1964 Black residents and UNC students picketed, marched and sat in, and held a Holy Week fast at the post office, but the aldermen narrowly rejected a public accommodations ordinance and many businesses stayed segregated until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

151. 1961–1966 Desegregating the Chapel Hill and Carrboro schoolsStoryline · Carrboro

     After the school board refused in 1959 to admit ten-year-old Stanley Vickers to Carrboro Elementary, his parents sued, and their 1961 win in federal court set the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools on the course to desegregation. In 1966 all-Black Lincoln High merged into Chapel Hill High, and Lincoln's name, colors and mascot were left behind.

152. 1961–1963 Orange County Board of Education closes Caldwell SchoolSchool closing · Caldwell

     The school board voted in 1961 to close the white-only Caldwell School, built in 1925, as desegregation approached. After a plan to send its pupils to Cameron Park in Hillsborough, they were assigned to Aycock School in Cedar Grove by May 1963, and the county could not sell the building until 1973.

153. June 15, 1961 A.D. Clark Pool opensBuilding opening · Chapel Hill

     Chapel Hill's swimming pool for Black residents, at the Roberson Street community center and now the A.D. Clark Pool, was dedicated on June 15, 1961. Cornelia Spencer Love gave $40,000 to build it, Black residents supplied labor and raised money for the bath house, and Adolphus D. Clark led the pool association.

154. October 12, 1961 President John F. Kennedy speaks at UNCSpeech or visit · Chapel Hill

     President John F. Kennedy received an honorary degree at UNC's University Day ceremony, held on the University's 168th birthday, and spoke to an estimated 32,000 people in Kenan Stadium. He pledged that Americans would be neither Red nor dead, and announced a $1 million federal materials research contract for UNC.

155. November 22, 1961 Lincoln High's football team wins an undefeated state championshipSports milestone · Chapel Hill

     Coach William D. Peerman's Lincoln High Tigers won the state 2-A football championship for Black high schools on November 22, 1961, beating previously unbeaten Ridgeview High of Hickory 22-0 to finish 12-0. The season was unbeaten but not unscored upon: Harnett High scored six points in the eastern title game.

156. January 1962 Hyconeechee Regional Library director David Flick writes a books column for the News of Orange CountyAppointment · Orange County

     By January 1962 the News of Orange County was running "Between the Covers," a column of news and comment on books in the public library by the director of the Hyconeechee Regional Library. The North Carolina Library Association's 1962 directory lists David Flick as the region's director, at Yanceyville.

157. 1963 Aycock and Hillsborough High schools are consolidated into Orange High SchoolSchool consolidation · Cedar Grove

     When Orange High School opened in 1963, the county consolidated the high school grades of Aycock School in Cedar Grove and Hillsborough High School into it, and the older buildings became junior high or elementary schools. Some Aycock seniors went to Eastern Alamance High School in Mebane, but most went to Orange High.

158. 1963 David Caldwell's family bought a home on Rogers RoadFamily settlement · Rogers Road

     David Caldwell, later a RENA leader, said his family moved from Merritt Mill Road to Rogers Road when Black families got the chance to buy homes there. He recalled a farming neighborhood of about thirteen houses, with dirt roads and cornfields.

159. 1963–1968 Speaker Ban controversyStoryline · Countywide

     The General Assembly passed the Speaker Ban on June 26, 1963, barring known Communists and people who had pleaded the Fifth Amendment from speaking on state campuses. In March 1966 Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker spoke to UNC students from the Franklin Street side of the wall, and a federal court struck the law down on February 19, 1968.

160. March 22, 1964 More than 25,000 Orange County residents take Sabin oral polio vaccine on one SundayChapel Hill; Carrboro; Hillsborough; Cedar Grove; Efland

     The Durham-Orange County Medical Foundation ran a Sunday oral polio vaccine campaign at eight public school feeding stations in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, Cedar Grove and Efland. A total of 25,679 people took the vaccine on a sugar cube, about 56 percent of the county, with Glenwood School alone serving 5,063; a second dose was set for May 17.

161. March 22, 1964 The Holy Week fast began on the Franklin Street post office lawnProtest · Chapel Hill

     At sunrise on Palm Sunday, Freedom Committee members John Dunne, Pat Cusick, James Foushee and the Rev. LeVert Taylor began an eight-day, water-only fast on the grounds of the Chapel Hill post office, planned to last through Easter. The fast was aimed at the Board of Aldermen, and a fifth faster joined within two days.

162. May 20, 1965 Three Black students desegregate Aycock School in Cedar GroveSchool desegregation · Cedar Grove

     Under the county's Freedom of Choice plan, three Black families asked for their children to be transferred to the white Aycock School, and on May 20, 1965 the three students were assigned and began attending. United States Marshals escorted at least one of them.

163. March 2, 1966 Barred from campus by the Speaker Ban, Frank Wilkinson addressed UNC students from the Chapel Hill side of the wallChapel Hill

     After Acting Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson refused him campus speaking privileges, Frank Wilkinson spoke for about 10 minutes from the Franklin Street sidewalk while about 1,200 students and faculty stood across the low stone wall on McCorkle Place. Student body president Paul Dickson introduced him and predicted a court case.

164. October 14, 1966 The Association for the Preservation of the Eno River Valley formsPreservation action · Eno River

     Residents who had begun organizing in 1965 against plans to dam the Eno for a water-supply reservoir formed the Association for the Preservation of the Eno River Valley on October 14, 1966. Led by Margaret and Holger Nygard, it began the campaign that preserved the river corridor in Durham and Orange counties.

165. From 1967 Black student activism at UNCStoryline · Chapel Hill

     Black students founded the Black Student Movement at UNC in November 1967. It presented 23 demands to Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson in December 1968, backed the cafeteria workers' strike of 1969, and in the 1990s pressed for a freestanding Black cultural center, which opened as the Sonja Haynes Stone Center in 2004.

166. March 13, 1967 The U.S. Supreme Court decided Klopfer v. North Carolina, the speedy-trial case that grew out of a Chapel Hill sit-in arrestCourt case · Washington, D.C.; Orange County case

     The Supreme Court applied the constitutional speedy-trial right to state prosecutions in Peter Klopfer’s case.

167. February 19, 1968 A federal court struck down the Speaker Ban law in Dickson v. SittersonCourt case · Chapel Hill

     A three-judge federal court in Greensboro ruled North Carolina's Speaker Ban law unconstitutional because it was too vague. The suit had been filed in March 1966 by UNC student leaders and the two barred speakers, Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker, and UNC's leaders hoped the ruling ended the long controversy.

168. August 10, 1968 Cone Mills honors Eno plant workers, most of them women, for fifty years at the millWomen's labor · Hillsborough

     At the Eno Plant's seventieth anniversary celebration in Hillsborough, Cone Mills recognized at least six of its 385 employees for fifty or more years of work at the mill, five of them women.

169. September 15, 1968 Final race at Orange SpeedwayHillsborough

     Richard Petty won by seven laps in the last NASCAR Grand National race at Orange Speedway near Hillsborough, as the Occoneechee track had been called since 1954. The track closed after the race.

170. From 1969 Chapel Hill and Carrboro music sceneStoryline · Carrboro

     Cat's Cradle opened in a small basement club near the UNC campus in 1969 and, after several moves, settled in Carrboro in 1993. With Merge Records, founded in Chapel Hill in 1989, and bands such as Superchunk and Polvo, the local scene drew national press in the early 1990s as a possible "next Seattle."

171. 1969 The Cat's Cradle opens in Chapel HillBusiness opening · Chapel Hill

     Cat's Cradle opened in 1969 as a tiny basement music club near the UNC campus, named for Kurt Vonnegut's novel. After moves within Chapel Hill it settled at 300 East Main Street in Carrboro in 1993, where it became a regular stop for touring acts.

172. 1969 UNC foodworkers’ strugglesStoryline · Chapel Hill

     UNC cafeteria workers struck twice in 1969 over pay and working conditions.

173. 1972 Efland and Orange Grove volunteer fire departments are incorporatedFire protection · Efland

     As the Orange Rural Fire Department's board worked from 1971 to set up fire districts covering the whole county, rural communities formed their own departments: the Orange Grove Volunteer Fire Department in 1972 and the Efland Volunteer Fire Department on September 8, 1972. New Hope followed in February 1973.

174. 1972–2019 Rogers Road environmental justiceStoryline · Chapel Hill

     In 1972 officials placed the county landfill on Eubanks Road beside the historically Black Rogers Road community, promising it would run about ten years. It was expanded instead and did not close until 2013, and residents' organizing through the Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association helped win a sewer line for the neighborhood, completed in 2019.

175. 1973 The Community Center is renamed for William M. HargravesMemorial or commemoration · Chapel Hill

     Chapel Hill's Roberson Street Center, built in the 1940s as the town's segregated Negro Community Center, was renamed in 1973 the William M. Hargraves Recreation Center. Hargraves, a Black resident who had served on the Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation Commission, had died in an automobile accident.

176. August 1974 The ArtSchool is foundedInstitutional milestone · Carrboro

     Jacques Menache, who had earned an MFA at UNC the year before, opened the ArtSchool in Carrboro in August 1974 to offer art classes. By 1978 the Carrboro ArtSchool also ran a gallery theatre, and the organization later became The ArtsCenter, which moved to Roberson Street in 2023.

177. September 1974 The Carolina Gay Association formsProtest or organizing · Chapel Hill

     Students who had met weekly since February 1974 as the Gay Awareness Rap Group won recognition from UNC's Dean of Student Affairs in early September 1974 and took the name Carolina Gay Association. The group met in Craige dormitory and in 1976 sponsored the first Southeastern Gay Conference.

178. By July 1975 Chapel Hill churches and residents sponsor Vietnamese refugee familiesDated milestone · Chapel Hill and Carrboro

     By July 1975 Chapel Hill residents had sponsored two Vietnamese refugee families and expected more. Four churches pledged about $1,500 for a family sponsored by UNC historian Thomas Reefe, and volunteers were directed to INFO, a referral service in the Inter-Church Council building.

179. Recent decades · 1976–2026
180. 1976 The Alberta Mill complex is listed on the National RegisterInstitutional milestone · Carrboro

     The mill, the railroad depot and the brick grist mill were listed together on the National Register of Historic Places, a year after the 1975 nomination made during the fight over demolishing the mill.

181. 1976 The idle Carrboro depot is converted into The StationBuilding opening · Carrboro

     Lee Epting and Mike Macomson finished renovating the disused depot in 1976 after two years of negotiations, reopening it as The Station restaurant, later a music venue.

182. April 3, 1976 WUNC-FM returns to the air as an NPR affiliateBroadcast milestone · Chapel Hill

     UNC's radio station WUNC, which had begun FM broadcasting in 1952 and had been silenced by equipment problems in the early 1970s, returned to the air from Chapel Hill on April 3, 1976, as a National Public Radio affiliate.

183. 1977 Carrboro Civic Club's public library closesInstitutional milestone · Carrboro

     The Carrboro Civic Club, which had run a volunteer public library since 1950 with some help from the town and Hyconeechee Regional Library, told the town in 1976 that it could no longer administer it, and the library had closed by 1977. An attempt in 1974 to turn the library over to town government had failed, and Hyconeechee's bookmobile served Carrboro until 1995.

184. February 16, 1977 OWASA commenced operations, taking over the water and sewer systems of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and the universityCarrboro

     The three separately owned systems serving the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Carrboro were transferred to the Orange Water and Sewer Authority, which began serving the whole Carrboro and Chapel Hill community as a single public utility that day.

185. December 1977 Caldwell and Cedar Grove volunteer fire departments are incorporatedFire protection · Caldwell and Cedar Grove

     The Caldwell Volunteer Fire Department was incorporated on December 6, 1977 and the Cedar Grove Volunteer Fire Department a week later, on December 13, extending local fire protection across the northern townships.

186. 1979 Carrboro Farmers’ Market is establishedInstitutional milestone · Carrboro

     The market dates its founding to 1979, following organizing and planning in 1977.

187. 1979 The Orange County Women's Center is establishedWomen's organizing · Chapel Hill

     An anonymous $30,000 gift in March 1979 created a fund for an Orange County Women's Center, meant to give office space to the rape crisis center, the Women's Health Counseling Service and the Orange-Durham Coalition for Battered Women, along with classes and counseling. By April 1980 it was open at 307 North Columbia Street, and it later merged with the Family Violence Prevention Center of Orange County to form Compass Center.

188. July 4, 1980 The first Festival for the Eno is heldFestival or tradition · West Point on the Eno, Durham

     The Eno River Association held the first Festival for the Eno on July 4, 1980, at West Point on the Eno, a Durham city park on the river. The yearly festival of traditional music, crafts and trades raises money for land protection in the Eno River basin.

189. November 5, 1981 Friends of the Orange County Public Library is foundedFounding or opening · Countywide

     Residents organized the Friends of the Orange County Public Library on November 5, 1981, to raise money and advocate for a county library preparing to move into larger quarters in Hillsborough. The group incorporated on May 3, 1982, and the IRS recognized it as a 501(c)(3) charity in June 1983.

190. February 1982 Bill Neal and Gene Hamer reopen Crook's CornerBusiness opening · Chapel Hill

     Bill Neal, a former manager of La Residence, and Gene Hamer leased Crook's Corner, a West Franklin Street barbecue restaurant opened by Cam Hill in 1978 and closed in November 1981, and planned to reopen it in February 1982 serving Southern-style meals. Under Neal and later chef Bill Smith it became nationally known.

191. 1983 Orange County Public Library refers overdue cases to the Dispute Settlement CenterPublic service · Hillsborough

     County librarian Kathleen Moeller-Peiffer reported in 1983 that the library's first attempt to settle overdue cases through the local Dispute Settlement Center had worked: of five patrons sent mediation notices, three returned or paid for their books. The library planned to use the process every three months for its most delinquent materials.

192. By September 1983 Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen opensBusiness opening · Chapel Hill

     Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen, a drive-through biscuit restaurant from a small chain begun in Henderson and Louisburg in 1977 and 1978, was operating at 1305 East Franklin Street in Chapel Hill by September 1983.

193. 1983–1986 The Fredricks site is found and excavated and Occaneechi Town is locatedArchaeological excavation · Hillsborough

     UNC archaeologists trying to relocate the Wall site in the spring of 1983 found European trade goods among Indian pottery in a garden about a hundred yards away, and dug there for four seasons. They uncovered a palisaded village of about a quarter of an acre with ten to twelve houses set around a plaza, a sweat lodge and a cemetery outside the stockade, and identified it as the Occaneechi town Lawson visited in 1701.

194. 1984 Eno Mill closesDated milestone · West Hillsborough

     Textile production ended at the Hillsborough plant.

195. April 1987 Orange County Public Library receives a $50,000 bequest from Rebecca B. WallGift · Hillsborough

     The library received $50,000 from the estate of Rebecca B. Wall, a retired Veterans Administration hospital librarian and former Orange County Board of Education member who died on April 2, 1986. The fund had grown to more than $100,000 by 2010, when the library dedicated its Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection at the new Main Library.

196. November 3, 1987 Joe Herzenberg wins election to the Chapel Hill Town CouncilElection · Chapel Hill

     Joe Herzenberg placed third in the four-seat Town Council race at the municipal election of November 3, 1987, with 3,308 votes, behind Nancy Preston and Roosevelt Wilkerson, and said he was the first openly gay elected official in the history of North Carolina. He was sworn in at the Council's organizational meeting on December 7, 1987, with his neighbor Lightning Brown administering the oath.

197. 1987–1995 LGBTQ political firsts in Chapel Hill and CarrboroStoryline · Carrboro

     Joe Herzenberg's election to the Chapel Hill Town Council in November 1987 made him North Carolina's first openly gay elected official. Carrboro created a domestic partnership registry in September 1994 and Chapel Hill followed in 1995, and in November 1995 Carrboro elected Mike Nelson, the state's first openly gay mayor.

198. 1988 Carrboro residents begin campaigning for a public libraryCivic campaign · Carrboro

     Plans for a Carrboro library were first proposed in 1988, and residents formed a Friends group that raised money, lobbied town and county governments and worked on site selection. Their campaign led to the Carrboro library that opened in the McDougle schools in May 1995.

199. June 1988 Weaver Street Market opensBusiness opening · Carrboro

     Weaver Street Market, a cooperative grocery owned by both its customers and its workers, opened in Carrboro in June 1988. Start-up money came from a Center for Community Self-Help loan, a $200,000 Community Development Block Grant from the Town of Carrboro, and shares and loans from local supporters.

200. 1992 Orange, Person and Caswell make their Hyconeechee libraries county departmentsGovernance · Orange County

     The Hyconeechee Regional Library board and the three county governments made each county library a department of its own county, responsible for procurement, personnel, accounting, travel and facility maintenance. The regional library kept regional policy, collection development, grants and the regional budget under a joint contract with the counties.

201. December 1992 The Chapel Hill sound gains national attentionCultural movement · Chapel Hill and Carrboro

     Spin's December 1992 feature "Robbing the Cradle," its title a play on the Cat's Cradle, looked at Polvo and other local bands as record scouts hunted for the next big thing after Seattle. By January 1993 the Daily Tar Heel counted about six publications calling Chapel Hill the next Seattle, and Details and Time followed that year.

202. 1993 Brenda Stephens becomes director of the Orange County library systemAppointment · Orange County

     Brenda W. Stephens, who had started her library career driving the county bookmobile in 1976, became director of the Orange County Library System in 1993. By the end of that year North Carolina Libraries identified her as director of the Hyconeechee Regional Library, and a 2025 profile calls her the first Black director of a regional library system in the state.

203. 1993 Chinese School at Chapel Hill is foundedCommunity school · Chapel Hill

     The Chinese School at Chapel Hill, which teaches Chinese language and culture, was founded in 1993 in a community that had grown around UNC since graduate students from mainland China began arriving in the early 1980s. The IRS recognized it as a tax-exempt organization in December 1999.

204. 1993 Orange County commissioners decline to fund a Carrboro libraryGovernment decision · Carrboro

     The county commissioners turned down the Friends of the Carrboro Library's request for library funding in 1993. With a new middle school under construction, the Friends were encouraged to pursue a library in the school's media center instead.

205. 1993 The Cat's Cradle moves to CarrboroBusiness relocation · Carrboro

     After about six months dark, the club reopened in the former Nice Price Books space at 300 East Main Street, a standing-room hall holding about 750.

206. January 23, 1993 Community Church joins the Unitarian Universalist AssociationDated milestone · Chapel Hill

     Members approved affiliation after years of discussion.

207. October 12, 1993 UNC and Chapel Hill celebrate their bicentennialChapel Hill

     UNC marked 200 years since the laying of Old East's cornerstone with a Bicentennial Convocation in Kenan Stadium, where President Bill Clinton spoke to about 45,000 people. The town dedicated Michael Brown's mural of the October 12, 1793, lot auction at the Franklin Street post office.

208. March 1994 Carrboro Board of Aldermen votes to help fund a branch library at McDougleGovernment decision · Carrboro

     The Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to fund a Carrboro branch of the Orange County library that would share space and resources with the McDougle Middle School media center. Carrboro and Orange County both provided funding for the library that year.

209. 1995–1998 Chapel Hill Museum is organized in the former town libraryInstitutional milestone · Chapel Hill

     In 1995 a museum study committee proposed a town museum for the former public library at 523 East Franklin Street, and in November the town council agreed to negotiate a rent-free lease with Chapel Hill Museum Inc. The nonprofit museum opened its first exhibit to the public in February 1998.

210. 1995–2022 Friends run a community art gallery in the Carrboro Branch LibraryCultural program · Carrboro

     The Friends of the Carrboro Branch Library set up a gallery for two-dimensional art in the shared library and McDougle schools media center, run by a volunteer art committee. By 2015 it had shown more than 1,750 local artists in more than 60 exhibitions, and by the time the branch closed in 2022 it had shown more than 2,000.

211. 1995 Orange County ends bookmobile service to fund the Carrboro branchPublic service · Orange County

     When the Carrboro branch opened at McDougle in 1995, Orange County moved money to it by cutting the library's bookmobile service to the whole county. The bookmobile had been Carrboro's main public library service since the Civic Club library closed in 1977.

212. May 1995 Carrboro Branch Library opens at McDougle SchoolFounding or opening · Carrboro

     The Carrboro Branch of the Orange County Public Library opened in McDougle Middle School in May 1995, sharing space with the school library and open after school hours and on Sundays. Books circulated from May 1 and the ribbon was cut on May 21, with the Friends of the Carrboro Library having raised $2,000 toward its $46,000 budget.

213. 1996 Maple View Farm builds a creamery and begins bottling its own milkDairy farming · Hillsborough

     Maple View Farm, which had begun dairying near Hillsborough in 1963 when Orange County had about 100 dairy farms, built a creamery in 1996 and began bottling milk on the farm in glass bottles in place of selling to a co-op. It opened an ice cream shop in 2000; by 2019 only two dairy farms remained in the county.

214. 1996 RTPnet puts a public Internet computer in the Orange County Public LibraryPublic service · Hillsborough

     The community network RTPnet bought a Pentium PC for $1,746.88 in May 1996 as a public access terminal for the Orange County Public Library in Hillsborough, and by July it was installed running Windows 95 in kiosk mode. In October RTPnet reported the library computer on the Internet through a local provider, with classes being taught.

215. August 20, 1996 East Chapel Hill High School opensBuilding opening · Chapel Hill

     East Chapel Hill High School opened on August 20, 1996, to relieve crowding at Chapel Hill High School, with construction still under way around it. It enrolled grades nine through eleven that first year, most of them transfers from Chapel Hill High, and held an opening celebration on November 17.

216. September 1996 Chapel Hill building inspectors count homes destroyed and damaged by Hurricane FranDamage assessment · Chapel Hill

     The town's Building Inspection Department reported four homes near Airport Road, Homestead Road and Culbreth Road destroyed, 391 homes with major damage and 222 with minor damage.

217. 1996–1998 Duke Forest closes and salvages timber after Hurricane FranNatural disaster · Duke Forest

     Fran brought down more than 1,400 trees across 35 miles of Duke Forest roads, damaged the Bobby Ross Jr. Memorial Picnic Shelter and a research tower in the Blackwood Division, and kept parts of the forest closed for three to six months. A helicopter crew salvaged about 800,000 board feet from 163 acres within two weeks, and salvage through summer 1998 recovered 2 million board feet from 540 acres, worth about $260,000.

218. September 1996 Orange Regional Landfill takes Hurricane Fran yard waste free as Chapel Hill faces tens of thousands of tons of debrisCleanup · Chapel Hill; Orange Regional Landfill

     The Orange Regional Landfill on Eubanks Road accepted yard waste at no charge until further notice. Town Manager Cal Horton estimated Chapel Hill had 25,000 to 40,000 tons of fallen limbs and trees and said the town would eventually remove curbside debris, while urging residents to haul debris to the landfill themselves.

219. September 5–6, 1996 Hurricane Fran strikes Orange CountyDisaster or violence · Countywide

     Hurricane Fran came ashore on the night of September 5, 1996 and crossed to the Triangle overnight. In Chapel Hill winds topped 70 mph, falling trees caused about 29,000 power outages and UNC cancelled classes, and the Eno at Hillsborough hit a record flow. No one in Orange County was killed.

220. September 6–9, 1996 Hurricane Fran causes about 29,000 power outages in Chapel HillUtility outage · Chapel Hill

     Trees on power lines caused about 29,000 outages in Chapel Hill; more than 12,000 residents were still without electricity on Sunday evening, September 8, and about 10,000 on Monday afternoon. Duke Power had 1,800 workers plus 1,000 on loan from other utilities in the area and expected to restore Chapel Hill by the middle or end of that week.

221. September 6, 1996 Hurricane Fran fells old trees on UNC's north campusNatural disaster · UNC campus, Chapel Hill

     Fran brought down several roughly 200-year-old trees around New West Hall and left North Campus and Cameron Avenue covered in fallen trees, while the Davie Poplar survived. University power came back within hours, and Sitterson Hall opened as a place for people to recharge batteries, get ice and water and shower.

222. September 6–10, 1996 Mayor Rosemary Waldorf declares a state of emergency in Chapel Hill after Hurricane FranEmergency declaration · Chapel Hill

     Waldorf declared a town state of emergency on Friday, September 6, because of storm damage and power outages, and residents were urged to stay home; UNC cancelled Friday classes at 3 a.m. She partially lifted the emergency at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, September 10, keeping it in force where utility crews were still working.

223. September 6–9, 1996 OWASA issues a boil-water advisory after Hurricane Fran knocks out its pumpingUtility outage · Chapel Hill; Carrboro

     The Orange Water and Sewer Authority told Chapel Hill and Carrboro customers to boil water from Friday evening, September 6, after its University Lake pump station lost power and the system lost pressure, and the wastewater plant flooded. The advisory was lifted at 1:50 p.m. Monday, September 9, after lab tests found no contamination; the area drew emergency water from Durham, and a conservation order was lifted soon after.

224. September 6, 1996 The Eno River at Hillsborough reaches its highest recorded flow during Hurricane FranFlood · Eno River, Hillsborough

     The USGS gauge on the Eno River at Hillsborough recorded a peak of 10,800 cubic feet per second at a gauge height of 21.13 feet, the largest peak in its record until Tropical Storm Chantal in July 2025.

225. September 11, 1996 UNC suspends afternoon classes for a campuswide Hurricane Fran cleanupCampus event · UNC campus, Chapel Hill

     Chancellor Michael Hooker suspended classes from noon on Wednesday so students, faculty and staff could clear storm debris. Nearly 1,000 students reported to the Old Well within the first hour, working with University forester Kirk Pelland's crews, and Coker Arboretum staff expected their cleanup to run into the winter.

226. September 12, 1996 A 70-foot oak weakened by Hurricane Fran falls on Venable HallCampus event · Venable Hall, UNC campus, Chapel Hill

     A 70-foot white oak fell against Venable Hall at about 2:10 p.m., damaging handrails on the building's steps; no one was hurt. University forester Kirk Pelland said Fran's winds and Wednesday's heavy rain had left many old campus trees at risk, and Executive Vice Chancellor Elson Floyd asked people to report damaged trees to the Grounds Division.

227. September 17, 1996 Carrboro aldermen take up a tree-cutter registration plan after Hurricane Fran scamsLaw or policy · Carrboro

     The Board of Aldermen discussed asking tree removal workers to identify themselves at town hall before starting work, after Mayor Mike Nelson cited a resident who paid $800 in advance to remove Fran-felled trees and the workers did not return. Staff were to bring a formal proposal to the next meeting.

228. By 1997 Orange County Public Library offers English as a second language classesPublic service · Hillsborough; Carrboro

     By December 1997 the library held a Saturday English as a second language class in Hillsborough and English conversation and beginning English classes at the Carrboro Branch Library, run by an ESL coordinator. A 1999 statewide article said the library had started ESL tutoring and a conversation group several years before and that demand led the county to fund a full-time coordinator.

229. June 15, 1998 Northside Gymnasium opens at Hargraves ParkBuilding opening · Chapel Hill

     Chapel Hill's Northside Gymnasium at William H. Hargraves Park, beside the Hargraves Center on North Roberson Street, opened to the public on June 15, 1998. Construction began April 21, 1997, paid for in part with parks bonds voters approved in November 1996, and the gym was dedicated on September 16, 1998.

230. 2000–2001 County Library Services Task Force recommends expanding library service across Orange CountyLaw or policy · Orange County

     In June 2000 the Board of Commissioners created a 14-member Library Services Task Force to study county library service. Its 2001 report recommended raising library funding to the state per-capita average, starting library projects in the northern and southern parts of the county together, building an Orange County heritage center, and offering Internet-based library service in the Carrboro Century Center.

231. 2000 Orange County and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools put the McDougle branch library under contractLaw or policy · Carrboro

     A contract between Orange County and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Board of Education made the public library in the McDougle schools a branch of the Orange County Public Library, with a county-employed branch librarian. The schools provided space and utilities, the county paid for furnishings, insurance, janitorial service and staff stipends, and branch hours were not to overlap school hours.

232. February 2001 Hyconeechee Regional Library receives a Gates Foundation grant for public computersInstitutional milestone · Hillsborough

     The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation committed $58,581 to Hyconeechee Regional Library in Hillsborough to expand public access to computers and the Internet.

233. 2003 Historic Occoneechee Speedway trail opens to the publicPreservation action · Hillsborough

     A public walking trail opened in 2003 on the Occoneechee Speedway site near Hillsborough, crossing the surviving clay oval of the old NASCAR track. The landowner, the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust (later the Jenrette Foundation), built it with the volunteer Historic Speedway Group.

234. 2003 Holy Family Catholic Church in Hillsborough holds its first Spanish MassCongregation · Hillsborough

     Holy Family parish in Hillsborough, which had grown from about 107 families in 1986 to about 250 in 1999, celebrated its first Spanish Mass in 2003 as Latino members joined the congregation. By 2012 the parish counted about 680 families and held a Sunday Spanish Mass alongside its three other services.

235. 2003 Orange County Public Library moves its catalog to the Polaris systemInstitutional milestone · Orange County

     The library replaced its Galaxy automation system with Polaris. County budgets later list remote access to the online catalog and to patrons' own library accounts through Polaris.

236. 2004 Second library task force calls for a new main library of 30,000 to 65,000 square feetLaw or policy · Hillsborough

     A second Library Services Task Force, appointed in January 2004, recommended building a centrally located main library of 30,000 to 65,000 square feet sized for 2025 population estimates, a southwest branch in Carrboro combining the McDougle branch and the Cybrary, and an Orange County heritage center.

237. February 17, 2004 Robert Campbell petitioned Chapel Hill for bus service to the Rogers Road neighborhoodPetition · Rogers Road

     Minister Robert Campbell asked the Chapel Hill council to extend free transit service to the Rogers Road community, noting that it lacked sidewalks and sewer service and that children walked along the landfill's heavy truck route. He suggested rerouting underused Airport Road buses.

238. April 21, 2004 Cedar Grove Branch Library opens in northern Orange CountyFounding or opening · Cedar Grove

     Orange County opened the Cedar Grove Branch Library in two rooms of the Northern Human Services Center, a former school, to serve Cedar Grove and northern Orange. Budgets describe books, Spanish-language materials, children's and adult programs, computer classes and materials borrowed from other regional libraries.

239. August 30, 2004 The Carrboro Cybrary opens in the Century CenterFounding or opening · Carrboro

     The Cybrary, a branch of the Orange County Public Library focused on computer and Internet access, opened in Room 5 of the Carrboro Century Center with five computer stations, current books and a paperback exchange. The Town of Carrboro provided the space. It closed on January 31, 2025, when its services moved to the Southern Branch Library.

240. September 29, 2004 WCOM community radio begins broadcastingBroadcast milestone · Carrboro

     WCOM, a 100-watt low-power FM community station run by the nonprofit Public Gallery of Carrboro, first went on the air at 103.5 FM from Carrboro at 11:27 p.m. on September 29, 2004. Its founders included Jacques Menache and Ruffin Slater, and it first broadcast from a building at Weaver and Greensboro streets.

241. 2005 Carrboro formed the New Horizons task force for the Rogers Road areaInstitutional milestone · Carrboro

     Carrboro created the New Horizons task force to serve residents of the Rogers Road area it was annexing. The town's Rogers Road sidewalk and bus stop project, begun in 2018, grew out of the task force's work.

242. June 27, 2005 Chapel Hill council took up how to carry out a Rogers Road small area planPlanning milestone · Chapel Hill

     Under a 2002 resolution adopted jointly by Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro, Chapel Hill had agreed to plan the residential area west of the Greene Tract around Rogers and Purefoy roads, including an affordable housing site. The manager recommended starting after four neighborhood conservation districts were finished, with the Planning Board leading.

243. 2006 Carrboro annexed subdivisions on the west side of Rogers RoadAnnexation · Carrboro

     Carrboro annexed six subdivisions north of Homestead Road, including Fox Meadow and Highlands, bringing part of the Rogers Road area inside town limits. In September 2004 the aldermen had voted 6 to 1 to go ahead even though the historic neighborhood had asked the two towns to move their annexation boundary so the community would not be split.

244. 2007 Residents founded the Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood AssociationFounding or opening · Rogers Road

     About 85 households founded RENA as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, putting a long-running informal community alliance on a formal footing. RENA went on to organize the Coalition to End Environmental Racism and to run the neighborhood's community center.

245. 2007 St. Paul AME Church bought land on Rogers Road for a new church campusLand purchase · Rogers Road and Purefoy Drive, Chapel Hill

     The Chapel Hill congregation bought more than 22 acres for a worship complex with a banquet hall, wellness center, daycare, senior and affordable housing, athletic fields and a cemetery. The land, at Rogers Road and Purefoy Drive, became the site of the planned St. Paul Village.

246. May 2007 Orange County's Museum and Historical Society MergeInstitutional milestone · Hillsborough

     In May 2007 the Orange County Historical Museum, founded by the Hillsborough Garden Club in 1957, merged with the Hillsborough Historical Society to form the Historical Foundation of Hillsborough and Orange County, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The News of Orange reported the merger in its June 20, 2007 issue.

247. FY 2007–08 County library begins offering downloadable videosInstitutional milestone · Orange County

     The FY 2007-08 county budget added funds for MyLibraryDV, letting regional library patrons download videos in the library or on their own computers.

248. August 27, 2007 Carrboro High School opensBuilding opening · Carrboro

     Carrboro High School on Rock Haven Road was dedicated with a ribbon-cutting on August 23, 2007, and began classes on August 27 with more than 600 students under principal Jeff Thomas. The Carrboro Citizen called it the town's first high school.

249. 2008 A state highway marker for Billy Strayhorn goes up in HillsboroughHistorical marker · Hillsborough

     The North Carolina Office of Archives and History put up marker G-125 on South Churton Street. It calls Strayhorn a jazz composer and pianist who wrote Take the A Train for the Duke Ellington Orchestra and points a quarter mile west to his boyhood home site.

250. March 5, 2008 Eve Carson, UNC’s Student Body President, is killedDisaster or violence · Chapel Hill

     Eve Marie Carson, 22, UNC's student body president and a Morehead-Cain Scholar from Athens, Georgia, was abducted from her Chapel Hill home early on March 5, 2008, robbed and shot on Hillcrest Road near campus. Demario Atwater pleaded guilty in 2010, and a Hillsborough jury convicted Laurence Lovette on December 20, 2011.

251. 2009 Burma Art Therapy Project begins in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City SchoolsSchool program · Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools

     The Art Therapy Institute began a school-based art therapy program for adolescent refugees from Burma in partnership with Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and the refugee community in Orange County. A later UNC evaluation estimated that about 400 Burmese families lived in the county.

252. January 12, 2009 Lucinda Munger becomes Orange County library services directorAppointment · Hillsborough

     Lucinda Munger became library services director for Orange County, heading the main library in Hillsborough and three branches.

253. January 22, 2009 Sheriff Pendergrass defends Orange County's enrollment in Secure CommunitiesPolice policy · Hillsborough (Orange County)

     At a county commissioners' meeting, Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass explained his decision to enroll the Orange County jail in the federal Secure Communities pilot, which checks the fingerprints of people booked into jail against federal databases including immigration records. Commissioners, who had resolved in 2007 not to join the 287(g) program, raised concerns but took no action.

254. February 2009 Cliff's Meat Market is honored for serving Carrboro's Spanish-speaking customersBusiness · Carrboro

     Cliff's Meat Market in Carrboro received Orange County's Pauli Murray Award in the business category; owner Cliff Collins was nominated for reaching out to the Spanish-speaking community. The butcher shop, open since 1973, had hired Latino staff as Spanish-speaking customers began asking for cuts in Spanish.

255. March–June 2009 Commissioners reject closing the Carrboro and Cedar Grove branch librariesLaw or policy · Carrboro; Cedar Grove

     Facing recession cuts while opening the new Hillsborough main library, the county manager proposed closing the Carrboro branch at McDougle School and the Cedar Grove branch and moving their staff to the new building. After opposition from Commissioner Mike Nelson, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen and residents, commissioners rejected the closures and used reserve funds to staff the new library in the budget adopted in June 2009.

256. March 16, 2009 Chapel Hill council received the Rogers Road Small Area Plan Task Force's final reportPlanning milestone · Chapel Hill

     Council members Mark Kleinschmidt and Bill Strom presented the report, and the council voted 9 to 0 to send it to advisory boards, Carrboro, Orange County, OWASA and the city schools, with a joint public hearing planned for October 2009. Rev. Robert Campbell of RENA thanked the council for giving the community a voice.

257. June 12–August 31, 2009 UNC's library exhibited Rogers Road family histories drawn from Emily Eidenier Pearce's bookExhibit · UNC University Library, Chapel Hill

     The exhibit We're All Family Here: Preserving Community Heritage in the Rogers Road Neighborhood of Chapel Hill introduced families who had shaped the area from the 1700s on. It was inspired by Pearce's 2009 history Rogers Road, which RENA presents as part of its History Project.

258. November 2009 Flyleaf Books opensBusiness opening · Chapel Hill

     Flyleaf Books, an independent bookstore in the Midtown Market shopping center on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Chapel Hill, opened in November 2009 with a soft opening set for November 16. Jamie Fiocco, Sarah Carr and Land Arnold ran the store, and its grand opening followed on January 9, 2010.

259. January 8, 2010 Orange County Main Library opens on Margaret LaneFounding or opening · Hillsborough

     The county's new 23,500-square-foot Main Library at 137 West Margaret Lane in Hillsborough held its grand opening on January 8, 2010, after planning that began with a task force in 2000 and a groundbreaking in April 2008. It added a teen center, a 90-person meeting room and a local history area.

260. 2010–2011 Orange County Public Library begins lending eBooks and KindlesInstitutional milestone · Orange County

     In the 2010-11 budget year the library added an eBook collection and Kindle readers, provided through donations from the Friends of the Orange County Public Library. The next year it added an OverDrive eBook collection for download to patrons' own devices.

261. 2010–2011 Orange County Public Library forms a Teen Advisory BoardInstitutional milestone · Hillsborough

     The library completed its first year of teen programming in the 2010-11 budget year and established a Teen Advisory Board.

262. August 1, 2010 Orange County closes the Cedar Grove Branch LibraryClosing · Cedar Grove

     The county closed the Cedar Grove Branch Library, northern Orange County's only staffed library, effective August 1, 2010, citing 502 registered borrowers and a cost per patron far above other branches. Its materials and computers went to the main library and the Cybrary, and some Cedar Grove items were reused in 40 Literacy Bag outreach kits.

263. 2011 Commissioners drop a proposed bookmobile and fund year-round Sunday hours at the main libraryLaw or policy · Hillsborough

     The manager's recommended 2011-12 budget included $317,315 for a new bookmobile, $252,500 of it to finance the vehicle. Commissioners did not approve it and instead allocated $128,500 to expand service, including 60 hours a week with year-round Sundays at the main library from September 1, more Kindles, and more money for books, databases and programs.

264. March 6, 2012 Carrboro aldermen approve criteria for siting a freestanding libraryPlanning decision · Carrboro

     The Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to approve criteria, recommended to the Orange County commissioners, for siting a freestanding southwest Orange County library in Carrboro, whose county branch was then housed in McDougle School. Aldermen ranked transit, walking and cycling access first, while Nerys Levy of the Friends of the Carrboro Branch Library asked for ample parking for older patrons and stressed access to computers and information.

265. June 7, 2012–August 26, 2013 School Board converts Frank Porter Graham Elementary into a Spanish dual-language magnet schoolSchool program · Carrboro (Frank Porter Graham Elementary)

     After a district report named serving students with limited English and closing the achievement gap as the main purposes of dual language, and after forums that included sessions for Spanish-speaking and Karen and Burmese families, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board approved converting Frank Porter Graham Elementary into a Spanish-English magnet school. It reopened as the district's first dual-language magnet on August 26, 2013, with more than 500 students.

266. 2012–2013 Orange County Main Library introduces RFID self-checkoutPublic services · Hillsborough

     During the 2012–13 fiscal year the Main Library in Hillsborough put radio frequency identification tags and self-checkout stations into service. Patrons used self-checkout for 63 percent of transactions, above the library's 50 percent goal, and the next year's objective was 70 percent.

267. July 1, 2012 Hyconeechee Regional Library is dissolvedInstitutional closure · Orange County

     The regional library Orange County had shared with Person and Caswell counties closed on July 1, 2012, ending the county's annual matching contribution and leaving the Orange County Public Library to operate as a county system on its own. In the following budget year the county moved library software costs into its IT department, absorbed a lower state aid estimate, and replaced the Polaris catalog system with Sierra.

268. 2013 Orange County Public Library adopts its first strategic planPlan adoption · Orange County

     The FY 2013–14 county budget reported that the library was creating a strategic plan, and county capital documents later refer to the approved Library Strategic Plan 2013–16, which charged the library with serving rural residents. The county called the 2017–2020 plan the library's second.

269. 2014 Chapel Hill extended its extraterritorial jurisdiction over the Historic Rogers Road areaLaw or policy · Rogers Road

     Because none of the neighborhood lay inside Chapel Hill's limits, the town could not legally spend money on its sewer, so the council held a public hearing set for October 15, 2014 on bringing its part of the area under the town's extraterritorial jurisdiction. Afterward the neighborhood was split between Carrboro and Chapel Hill's ETJ.

270. 2014 RENA and the Jackson Center produced the Historic and Vibrant Rogers Road reportReport · Rogers Road

     The Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association and the Marian Cheek Jackson Center put together survey analysis and community feedback on the neighborhood's future. Two years later the same partners ran the planning process behind Mapping our Community's Future.

271. 2015 Hillsborough votes to remove "Confederate Memorial" lettering from the former libraryMonument removal · Hillsborough

     The 1934 public library building on North Churton Street, home of the Orange County Historical Museum since 1983, still carried part of its "Confederate Memorial Library 1934" sign. After museum leaders asked in June 2015 to take the words down, saying some Black residents felt unwelcome, the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners voted that year to remove the sign from the pediment.

272. February 3, 2015 Frank Heath tells the Carrboro Board of Aldermen that the Cat's Cradle has outgrown its buildingPublic hearing · Carrboro

     At the second public hearing on a proposed arts and innovation center and hotel at East Main Street, Heath said the Cat's Cradle and the ArtsCenter were both too big for their buildings and that expansion had become urgent. He called it a dilemma for a small town with two successful arts organizations.

273. 2015–2016 Orange County Public Library begins lending Wi-Fi hotspotsPublic services · Orange County

     In the 2015–16 fiscal year the library and county IT staff piloted lending Wi-Fi hotspots to residents of southern Orange County and added hotspots to the lending collection at its libraries. Federal CARES Act money later doubled the hotspot inventory to meet pandemic demand.

274. 2016 County capital plan budgets a Southern Branch library at 203 South Greensboro StreetPlanning decision · Carrboro

     Orange County's FY 2016–21 capital plan scheduled $6,375,000 in FY 2017–18 to design and build a Southern Branch library replacing the Cybrary and the Carrboro branch at McDougle School, after commissioners directed staff to work with Carrboro on siting it on the town-owned 203 South Greensboro Street property. The plan projected ten staff positions, two of them moved from existing Carrboro library operations.

275. June 2016 Cedar Grove Community Center opens with a self-service library stationPublic services · Cedar Grove

     Orange County dedicated the renovated Cedar Grove Community Center, once home to the Cedar Grove Negro School, in June 2016, with a self-serve library station beside the building. The $180,000 kiosk offered automated borrowing in northern Orange County without a staffed branch; the county's FY 2021–22 budget ended support for it, citing poor performance and low patron use.

276. 2017–2018 Orange County's library branches are merged into one catalogPublic services · Orange County

     Preparing for the Southern Branch, the library merged the holdings of the Main Library, the Carrboro branch at McDougle School and the Cybrary into a single catalog during the 2017–18 fiscal year and added the Cedar Grove kiosk's items. Staff reported an immediate rise in circulation at all three branches and in items sent between locations by courier.

277. August 2018 New Hope Elementary starts a Spanish dual-language program in Orange County SchoolsSchool program · New Hope (Orange County Schools)

     After a year and a half of planning, New Hope Elementary opened a 50-50 Spanish-English dual-language program for 48 kindergarten students at the start of the 2018-19 school year, taught on alternating days in English and Spanish. The principal described it as a way for Latino students to take pride in their heritage and keep the Spanish they use with their families.

278. February 26, 2019 Hillsborough holds a celebration of Billy StrayhornCommemorative event · Hillsborough

     A day of events called A Celebration of Billy Strayhorn began at the historical marker on South Churton Street and ran on at the Orange County Main Library and the Burwell School Historic Site. Mayor Tom Stevens, the musician Yahyah Corbett, the choreographer David Rousseve, the Duke professor Thomas DeFrantz and the puppeteer Jeghetto took part.

279. August 2019 A mural for Billy Strayhorn is painted on South Churton StreetPublic art · Hillsborough

     Max Dowdle painted an eleven by thirty five foot mural called Take the A Train on the side of 226 South Churton Street, the building that houses the record store and bar Volume. Volume's owner Tony Lopez proposed it, the Tourism Development Authority paid for it, and the Arts Council and the Historic District Commission approved it.

280. March 2020 Mutual Aid Carrboro opens a COVID-19 solidarity fund for workersMutual aid · Carrboro

     Mutual Aid Carrboro partnered with NC Piedmont DSA to raise money for workers sent home without pay, running a solidarity fund for emergencies such as evictions and utility shutoffs. Applications were offered in Spanish, English and Chinese, with interpreter lines for Karen, Burmese and Kinyarwanda speakers.

281. March 11–13, 2020 Cat's Cradle plays its last shows before the pandemic shutdownBusiness closure · Cat's Cradle, Carrboro

     Destroyer played the main room at 300 East Main Street on March 11, 2020, and Songs From the Road Band played the Back Room on March 13, the club's last shows before COVID-19 closed it. Heath said he began rescheduling on the night of March 11, when the NBA suspended its season, and the March 14 shows were cancelled.

282. March 2020–May 2022 COVID-19 transforms Orange CountyDisaster or violence · Chapel Hill

     Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro declared states of emergency on March 13, 2020, and the county and its three towns ordered residents to stay home from March 27. UNC moved undergraduate classes online in August 2020 after campus clusters. The county emergency, extended more than a dozen times, expired on May 1, 2022.

283. March 13, 2020 Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools launches Food for Students meal distributionFounding or opening · Chapel Hill

     CHCCS, the Town of Chapel Hill, PORCH and volunteers began handing out free meals to students as schools closed, starting from about 20 sites. By December 21, 2020 the program had distributed more than 900,000 meals from 37 sites.

284. March 13, 2020 Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro declare a COVID-19 state of emergencyLaw or policy · Orange County

     Orange County government and the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro declared states of emergency to prepare for COVID-19, allowing emergency procedures and funding. The county declaration, extended more than a dozen times, stayed in force until May 1, 2022.

285. March 16, 2020 Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and Orange County Schools close under a statewide orderInstitutional milestone · Orange County

     Governor Roy Cooper closed all North Carolina public schools for at least two weeks from Monday, March 16, 2020, shutting both Orange County districts. CHCCS then began online classes for grades 6-12 and sent learning packets home for grades K-5 at the end of March while serving meals to students.

286. March 18, 2020 Orange County Public Library closes its buildings and sets out a free book shelfInstitutional milestone · Orange County Public Library, Hillsborough

     With its buildings closed, the library kept the Hillsborough and Carrboro book drops and phone reference running, stopped charging late fees, and from March 18 set out a free book and DVD shelf outside the Main Library in Hillsborough.

287. March 20, 2020 Orange County Health Department identifies the county's first COVID-19 casesPublic health · Orange County

     The health department announced that Orange County residents had tested positive for COVID-19 at the State Laboratory of Public Health and were isolating at home. Health Director Quintana Stewart said the response was shifting from containment to mitigation.

288. March 27–May 8, 2020 Orange County and its three towns issue a joint stay-at-home orderLaw or policy · Orange County

     Orange County, with Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough, ordered residents to stay home except for essential needs from 6 p.m. on March 27, 2020, three days before the statewide order took effect. Set to run until April 30, it was extended to May 8 to match the state order.

289. March 30–April 29, 2020 Governor Cooper's statewide stay-at-home order takes effectLaw or policy · Orange County

     Executive Order 121, signed March 27, 2020, took effect at 5 p.m. on March 30 and ordered North Carolinians to stay home except for essential work and activities, capping gatherings at 10 people. Orange County's joint order had begun three days earlier.

290. April 2020 Orange County and the towns launch a Housing Helpline for emergency rental aidFounding or opening · Orange County

     Orange County and the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough opened a Housing Helpline in April 2020 to connect residents with emergency rent, utility and deposit assistance. The county's Emergency Housing Assistance program paid out $2.5 million to 1,005 residents in 2020, and an Eviction Diversion Program followed in July 2020.

291. April 10, 2020 Orange County reports its first COVID-19 deathPublic health · Orange County

     The health department reported that a resident in their 70s under hospice care at PruittHealth-Carolina Point, one of two long-term care facilities with outbreaks, had died of COVID-19 complications. The county then had 104 confirmed cases, and PruittHealth had at least 86 positive cases among residents and staff.

292. May 22, 2020 Drive-through food distribution at Chapel Hill Public Library serves 576 householdsMutual aid · Chapel Hill Public Library

     PORCH, the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina and the Town of Chapel Hill ran a drive-through food distribution in the Chapel Hill Public Library's lower parking lot, serving 576 households, or 2,391 people, with about 40 volunteers.

293. June 12, 2020 Orange County requires face coveringsLaw or policy · Orange County

     Orange County and its towns extended the local state of emergency through August 31, 2020 and required face coverings from 5 p.m. on June 12 when people could not keep six feet apart.

294. June 16, 2020 Orange County Commissioners adopt a countywide Language Access policyPublic services · Orange County

     The Board of County Commissioners approved a policy requiring free interpretation and translation for residents with limited English across all county services, and directing each county department to keep a language access plan and train its staff.

295. July 16, 2020 Orange County Schools votes to open the school year onlineInstitutional milestone · Orange County

     The Orange County Schools board voted unanimously to begin the 2020-21 year with remote-only classes for at least the first four weeks, on the recommendation of Superintendent Monique Felder.

296. July 30, 2020 Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools extends online-only classes intoInstitutional milestone · Chapel Hill

     The CHCCS board unanimously accepted interim Superintendent Jim Causby's recommendation to keep classes virtual through at least January 15, 2021. On December 18, 2020 the board kept remote learning in place through at least February.

297. July 31, 2020 North Carolina musicians release Cover Charge to benefit the Cat's CradleBenefit album · Carrboro

     Twenty-five North Carolina acts, among them Superchunk, the Mountain Goats, Tift Merritt and Iron and Wine, recorded cover songs for an album to raise money for the closed Carrboro club. Musician and UNC professor Florence Dore organized it, and Heath said presales were running better than expected.

298. 2021 County budget closes the McDougle branch and consolidates Carrboro service at the CybraryClosing · Carrboro

     Orange County's FY 2021–22 budget closed the Carrboro branch library at McDougle School, moved its staff to the Cybrary and lengthened Cybrary hours from 44 to 54 a week to match the Main Library, whose hours were cut from 68 to 54. The two changes together saved $143,083, and the same budget ended support for the Cedar Grove library kiosk.

299. Early January 2021 Health department vaccinates its first recipients at drive-through clinicsPublic health · Orange County

     By early January 2021 the Orange County Health Department had vaccinated about 1,000 Phase 1a personnel at drive-through clinics in Hillsborough and Chapel Hill and opened sign-ups for residents 75 and older, more than 4,200 of whom registered.

300. January 11, 2021 UNC Health opens a large vaccination clinic at the Friday CenterPublic health · Friday Conference Center, Chapel Hill

     UNC Health opened its largest appointment-only COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Friday Conference Center in Chapel Hill, starting with people 75 and older. Staff expected about 600 patients a day in the first week and up to 1,500 a day at full capacity.

301. January 25–March 15, 2021 Orange County Schools students return to classroomsInstitutional milestone · Orange County

     Kindergarten and first-grade students returned for hybrid in-person classes on January 25, 2021. Students in grades 2-12 followed in two rotating cohorts on March 8 and March 15, a month earlier than planned, after Senate Bill 37 required districts to offer in-person instruction.

302. February 28, 2021 Orange County Health Department launches a health equity websitePublic health · Orange County

     The health department launched a health equity webpage to stay accountable to residents on racial equity, citing the county commissioners' June 16, 2020 declaration of structural racism as a public health crisis.

303. March 21, 2021 Gaps in vaccination among Black and Hispanic residents reportedPublic health · Orange County

     Chapelboro reported that Black residents were 12.4 percent of Orange County's population but 9 percent of those vaccinated, and Hispanic residents 8.6 percent and 5.5 percent. The county was working with church leaders and advocates in a Human Services Consulting Group and had held clinics at the Hargraves Community Center and in Cedar Grove.

304. March 22, 2021 Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools students return for hybrid classesInstitutional milestone · Chapel Hill

     The CHCCS board voted unanimously on March 4, 2021 to begin hybrid in-person instruction on March 22, nearly a month before the April 19 start it had approved in February. Students attended in cohorts two days a week, and roughly half could remain fully remote.

305. May 1, 2021 Pop-up vaccine clinic held at the Rogers Road Community CenterPublic health · Rogers Road Community Center, Chapel Hill

     The Orange County Health Department held a pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Rogers Road Community Center for Hispanic and Asian American residents, many of whom do not speak English, after local volunteers asked for one and printed flyers in several languages.

306. June 9, 2021 Crook's Corner announces its closureInstitutional closure · Chapel Hill

     On June 9, 2021, the owners of Crook's Corner told customers the West Franklin Street restaurant was closing, saying the COVID-19 crisis had made their position untenable. Gene Hamer and chef Bill Neal opened it in 1982, Bill Smith later led the kitchen, and the James Beard Foundation named it an America's Classic in 2011.

307. 2021–2025 Orange County Public Library adds Spanish-language classes and bilingual storytimesPublic services · Carrboro

     Beginning in the 2021–22 fiscal year the library offered Spanish-language computer basics classes with the Family Success Alliance and UNC's Community Workshop Series. By 2023–24 it held storytimes in English and Spanish at Carrboro's Century Center, added Spanish interpretation to free computer classes and ran a health series for Spanish speakers with El Centro Hispano, and in 2024–25 it added bilingual storytimes at the Carrboro Farmers' Market and monthly conversational Spanish programs.

308. July 6, 2021 Orange County Public Library reopens its Main Library buildingInstitutional milestone · Hillsborough

     After more than a year of closure and appointment-only curbside pickup, the Main Library reopened with distancing measures under the county's plan to reopen facilities through July 2021. In Carrboro the branch at McDougle School closed on June 13 and the Cybrary opened for browsing on August 6.

309. August 11, 2021 Orange County reinstates an indoor mask mandateLaw or policy · Orange County

     As the delta variant spread, Orange County and the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough required masks inside buildings and businesses from 5 p.m. on August 11, 2021.

310. November 16, 2021 Orange County Public Library ends overdue finesPolicy decision · Orange County

     Orange County commissioners approved a fine-free model for the county library, and overdue fines ended the next day. Library staff had found that fines fell hardest on residents facing economic hardship; charges for lost or damaged items continued.

311. March 7, 2022 Orange County lifts its indoor mask mandateLaw or policy · Orange County

     Orange County and its three towns ended the indoor mask requirement on March 7, 2022. UNC-Chapel Hill lifted its campus mandate the same day, and Orange County Schools planned to make masks optional on March 10.

312. May 1, 2022 Orange County's COVID-19 state of emergency expiresLaw or policy · Orange County

     The county's COVID-19 emergency declaration, in force since March 13, 2020 and extended more than a dozen times, expired at 5 p.m. on May 1, 2022, making it the longest-running state of emergency in county history.

313. May 5, 2022 Ground is broken for the Southern Branch Library in CarrboroConstruction · Carrboro

     Carrboro and Orange County broke ground at 203 South Greensboro Street for the Orange County Southern Branch Library and civic building known as The 203 Project, after both boards gave final approval on March 15, 2022. Mayor Damon Seils led the program, with remarks by commissioners' chair Renee Price, County Manager Bonnie Hammersley, Town Manager Richard J. White III and Nerys Levy of the Friends of the Southern Branch Library.

314. July 18, 2022 Erin Sapienza is named director of the Orange County Public LibraryAppointment · Orange County

     County Manager Bonnie Hammersley named Erin Sapienza library director after she had served as interim director since October 2021, when director Lucinda Munger resigned. Sapienza joined the library in June 2013 as a branch manager, became community services librarian in October 2015 and assistant director in March 2020.

315. 2023–2025 Orange County Main Library begins sensory-friendly browsing hoursPublic services · Hillsborough

     After staff training with the Autism Society of North Carolina, the library started a Sensory Friendly Browsing Hour during the 2023–24 fiscal year. In 2024–25 it installed sensory-friendly furnishings in the Youth Services area and held monthly sensory-friendly browsing hours for families.

316. August 28, 2023 Zijie Yan, a UNC professor, is killed on campusDisaster or violence · Chapel Hill

     On August 28, 2023, Zijie Yan, an associate professor, was shot and killed in UNC's Caudill Labs, and the campus locked down for about three hours. Graduate student Tailei Qi was arrested that afternoon and charged with first-degree murder; the case had not come to trial by March 2026.

317. November 2023 Orange County Public Library starts DELIVEReads home deliveryPublic services · Orange County

     The library and Orange County Transportation Services began delivering library materials to residents unable to visit because of illness, disability, physical limitations or transportation problems, with up to ten items a month and staff selections on request. The service made 180 deliveries in its first fiscal year and later extended to caregivers.

318. January 2024 The News of Orange merges with the Mebane EnterpriseBusiness merger · Hillsborough and Mebane

     Womack Publishing announced on January 3, 2024, that its weeklies The News of Orange County and the Mebane Enterprise would merge at the end of January. The combined paper, with a section for Mebane, covers Mebane, Hillsborough and Efland from the News of Orange office in Hillsborough, and the Mebane office closed.

319. March 19, 2024 Carrboro backs a study of turning the old University Railroad line into a greenwayLaw or policy · Carrboro

     The Town Council unanimously approved an agreement to study converting the 11-mile rail corridor, which still carries coal to UNC's cogeneration plant, into a multi-use trail once the plant stops using coal.

320. June 30, 2024 Buckhorn Flea Market closes on Buckhorn RoadBusiness · Buckhorn Road, Orange County (near Mebane and Efland)

     The Buckhorn Flea Market on Buckhorn Road in western Orange County, known to many Spanish speakers as La Pulga de Mebane, closed after about four decades when a trucking company bought the land. Its 300 to 500 weekend vendors were largely Latino immigrants, and the Mebane City Council voted on July 1 to annex and rezone the property for a truck terminal.

321. 2024–2025 A bilingual book walk is installed at Efland-Cheeks Community ParkPublic services · Efland

     The county parks department and the library installed a bilingual English–Spanish book walk at Efland-Cheeks Community Park during the 2024–25 fiscal year, paid for by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library. It brought a library reading program to a rural part of the county without a branch.

322. 2024–2025 Interlibrary loan returns through UNC-Chapel HillPublic services · Orange County

     Working with UNC-Chapel Hill, the Orange County Public Library restored interlibrary loan during the 2024–25 fiscal year at no cost to patrons. The county had charged $1 plus library costs, raised the fee to $3 in October 2013 and cut it from $4 back to $3 in 2018 before the service lapsed.

323. October 15–November 7, 2024 Carrboro and Orange County name the Drakeford Library ComplexNaming · Carrboro

     The Carrboro Town Council on October 15 and the Orange County commissioners on November 7, 2024 approved naming the building under construction at 203 South Greensboro Street for Robert "Bob" Drakeford, Carrboro's first Black mayor. A naming committee of two council members, two commissioners and two Friends of the Library members recommended the name on September 24 after a community survey drew more than 200 responses.

324. 2025–2026 Food pantries open at the Main Library and the Southern BranchPublic services · Hillsborough; Carrboro

     During the 2025–26 fiscal year the library built a permanent food pantry in the Main Library lobby in Hillsborough and worked with a local Girl Scout troop to establish one at the Southern Branch in Carrboro. The Main Library also collected 424 pounds of food for the Orange Congregations in Mission pantry.

325. July 6–7, 2025 Tropical Storm Chantal floods Orange CountyDisaster or violence · Chapel Hill

     Chantal dropped up to 10 inches of rain on Orange County on the night of July 6, 2025. Chapel Hill crews made more than 50 water rescues around Camelot Village and Eastgate Crossing, Carrboro's Weatherhill Pointe flooded, and the Eno at Hillsborough set a record crest on July 7. The county declared an emergency that day.

The other dated entries wait behind a subject, a place, an era, a month, or the All dated entries switch, and each storyline’s page carries its own component entries. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. Each card’s “Correct this” link opens the contact form with the entry already named. Suggest an event →

Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated September 14, 2026.