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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis.

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Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 4,401–4,600 of 6,234, 200 to a page.Back to highlights

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  1. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

  2. 1950s
  3. Construction or physical change · 118 West King Street, Hillsborough Bozo and Lillian Taylor open a second dining room at the Hillsboro Lunch

    R. T. (Bozo) Taylor Jr. and Lillian Taylor, then running the Hillsboro Lunch, opened a newly renovated dining room next to their old quarters, giving them two dining rooms for daily meals and catering. The Hillsboro Merchants Association soon began holding its luncheon meetings there.

  4. Founding or opening · 206 West Main Street, Carrboro La Pizza holds its grand opening on Carrboro's West Main Street

    La Pizza opened on Friday, November 8, 1957, selling only pizza, in eight kinds and two sizes, under candlelight with checkered tablecloths. Chuck Gerke ran it as operator.

  5. Founding or opening · Hillsborough The Orange County Historical Museum opens

    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.

  6. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill The first televised ACC regular season game is played at Woollen Gym

    Television producer C. D. Chesley brought his cameras into Woollen Gym for Carolina's fourteenth meeting with Clemson, the first regular season ACC game ever televised. McGuire's team won 79-55.

  7. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Elementary School Chapel Hill Elementary pupils play carols with professional musicians at the school Christmas program

    At the Chapel Hill Elementary School Christmas programs on December 17, 1957, directed musically by Adeline McCall, supervisor of music in the Chapel Hill schools, children playing psalteries, violins and bells accompanied the carols with two harpists, violinist Dorothy Alden and flutist Dorothy Hickok. The programs also staged the play Alias Santa Claus.

  8. Construction or physical change · Cedar Grove School, 5800 NC 86 North, Cedar Grove A kitchen and cafeteria are added to Cedar Grove School

    A one-story brick kitchen and cafeteria, 78 by 49 feet, was finished behind the gymnasium late in 1958 to Archie Royal Davis's plans. One open dining room filled two-thirds of it, with the kitchen, dishwashing and storage along the north side.

  9. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Anne Firor Scott moves to Chapel Hill and takes a temporary history post at UNC

    Anne Firor Scott and her husband Andrew Scott moved to Chapel Hill in 1958, when he joined UNC's political science department and she took a temporary position in history. They lived in the Highland Woods neighborhood for 47 years.

  10. Construction or physical change · Cedar Grove Carr Store Road is paved through 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.

  11. Construction or physical change · Central High School (now Hillsborough Elementary), 402 North Nash Street, Hillsborough Central High's new gymnasium is finished after the fire

    After the main building of Central High School burned in 1958, Archie Royal Davis designed a new school building and a gymnasium for the site; the gymnasium was finished in late 1958.

  12. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Cornelia Spencer Love serves as a founding trustee of the Chapel Hill Public Library

    Love was a trustee of the public library from its start in 1958 until 1970 and secretary of its board of directors. The library began in a small house in downtown Chapel Hill.

  13. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Engineer Bob Anderson joins City Planning and Architecture Associates

    Engineer Bob Anderson joined the Webb and Stewart firm in 1958 and later became Stewart's partner.

  14. Disaster or outbreak · University Presbyterian Church, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Fire destroys the Presbyterian church on East Franklin Street

    The University Presbyterian Church burned in 1958. The congregation built a larger church on the same site three years later.

  15. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill George Brown Tindall joins the UNC history faculty

    Tindall, who took his graduate degrees at UNC, returned in 1958 as an associate professor of history and taught until he retired as Kenan professor emeritus in 1990.

  16. Construction or physical change · Hillsborough Presbyterian Church, Hillsborough Hillsborough Presbyterian Church builds and moves into a new manse

    A new manse drawn by pastor C. H. Reckard was finished and occupied early in 1958.

  17. Property or economic transaction · Ledbetter-Pickard Stationery, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Joe Page becomes sole owner of Ledbetter-Pickard Stationery

    Page, a clerk in the East Franklin stationery store before the war, bought Herbert Ledbetter's share in 1947 and the rest of the business when Pickard died in 1958.

  18. Founding or opening · Kemp's Phonograph Records, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Kemp Nye opens Kemp's Phonograph Records on East Franklin Street

    Nye, who had worked for Milton Abernethy, opened a record shop in the store the Smiths' bookshop had just left.

  19. Construction or physical change · Mount Bright Baptist Church, Hillsborough Mount Bright Baptist Church buys its first electronic organ and moves to full-time services

    In Fred J. Boddie Jr.'s three-year pastorate the congregation bought its first electronic organ and moved to a full-time schedule of services.

  20. Property or economic transaction · Bellevue Mill Village, West Hillsborough The Bellevue mill village is platted and its houses sold to private owners

    After the mill company had been sold by 1956, its village was surveyed into lots in 1958 so the houses could be sold. Unlike the Eno mill houses, which were carried off to new sites, the Bellevue houses stayed where they were, which is why the village keeps its original streets but has irregular lot lines.

  21. Founding or opening · Intimate Bookshop, 119 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Intimate Bookshop moves into the old Berman Department Store on East Franklin Street

    After Sam Berman's death, Paul and Isabel Smith moved their bookshop into the store his department store had used, the 119 East Franklin building it kept for forty years.

  22. Appointment, election or service · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill William S. Powell becomes curator of the North Carolina Collection

    Powell, who had joined the university library's North Carolina Collection in 1951, was named its curator after Mary Lindsay Thornton retired.

  23. Construction or physical change · 207 East Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill The University's telephone system plans to double its East Rosemary Street exchange

    The University-owned Chapel Hill telephone system announced a $300,000 addition that would double the size of its exchange building on East Rosemary Street, along with better party-line service. Bids for the addition were opened in March.

  24. Disaster or outbreak · Hillsborough Central High School burns

    On the morning of February 14, 1958, fire destroyed the 1936 main building of Central High School, Hillsborough's high school for Black students, including its office, auditorium and several classrooms. Students moved into a newly built structure meant for junior high use, and a new main classroom building designed by Archie Royal Davis went up on the site in 1958.

  25. Construction or physical change · 402 North Nash Street, Hillsborough The school board orders a new main building for Central High on the day of the fire

    The night the old Central High building burned, the county board set aside $214,892 for a new 18-classroom building designed by Archie Royal Davis's firm. Construction went on through 1958.

  26. Life event · Hillsborough Portrait painter Clement Strudwick dies and is buried in Hillsborough

    Clement Read Strudwick, who had painted in a workshop behind his parents' Hillsborough home, died on February 26, 1958. His funeral was held in the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church and he was buried in the Hillsborough cemetery.

  27. Construction or physical change · Timbercrest subdivision, Timberly Drive, northeast of Chapel Hill Doris and James Field begin plans for the Timbercrest subdivision

    Doris Gates Field and James MacDonald Field started planning Timbercrest, a subdivision on a thirty-seven-acre tract northeast of Chapel Hill, in February 1958, and kept five and a half acres of it for their own Modernist house.

  28. Construction or physical change · Lot 94, Hillsborough Hillsborough and New Sharon Methodists dedicate the parsonage they built together

    The two churches put up a new parsonage on lot 94 in 1957-58 at a cost of about $22,000 and dedicated it on a Sunday afternoon in March 1958, with W. A. Seawell as pastor and Taylor Bivins chairing the building committee.

  29. Protest or organizing · Cedar Grove School, 5800 NC 86 North, Cedar Grove A Cedar Grove delegation asks for a classroom and playground to win accreditation

    Seeking state accreditation, a delegation from the school asked the board for one more classroom so the library could be used as a library again, land for a playground, paint for the north wing and outdoor floodlights. The board took no action.

  30. Founding or opening · 228 South Churton Street, Hillsborough The Hillsboro post office moves into Fred Cates's new building on South Churton Street

    The post office moved to a new air-conditioned building by the Eno at the south edge of town, which Fred Cates built for about $25,000 and leased to the government over the objections of the mayor and town board. It was dedicated on August 9 before about 200 people.

  31. Law, policy or court · Cedar Grove School, 5800 NC 86 North, Cedar Grove The state declines to accredit Cedar Grove School for lack of space

    Ruth Lawrence Woodson, state supervisor of the Black elementary schools, refused accreditation because the school had too few classrooms and was using its library as a fourth-grade room. Her report counted the parents' involvement, a staff study program, the office, auditorium and clinic room in its favor.

  32. Law, policy or court · Carrboro Carrboro voters approve merging their school district with the Chapel Hill unit

    On August 5, 1958 the Carrboro school district voted 713 to 303 to merge with the Chapel Hill city school unit and levy a 15-cent school tax, after a spring vote had failed. The county board sold the old Carrboro School to R. B. Todd for $30,000 in September 1959.

  33. Founding or opening · 122 West King Street, Hillsborough The Osbunn Theater reopens under a new operator after W. M. Chance's death

    The Osbunn Theater, closed for several months after the death of its owner W. M. Chance, reopened under Sam R. Owens of Durham, who leased it from the Chance family. Owens had run drive-in theaters in Durham, Burlington and Fayetteville.

  34. Property or economic transaction · Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough Bill France leases Orange Speedway to the Orange County Board of Education

    Bill France signed a ten-year lease letting Hillsboro High School use the Orange Speedway grounds as its athletic field, for $100 a year, while races continued.

  35. Founding or opening · Chapel Hill The Ackland Art Museum opens

    UNC dedicated the William Hayes Ackland Memorial Art Center on September 20, 1958, the morning after a preview for faculty. Ackland had left his bequest to Duke, which refused it, and nine years of litigation sent it to Chapel Hill; the Georgian building held galleries, an art library, classrooms, studios and offices.

  36. Founding or opening · Chapel Hill Binkley Baptist Church organizes

    Fifty-six charter members established the congregation, initially worshiping on campus.

  37. Appointment, election or service · Orange County Moses Burt retires after 23 years as Orange County's agent for Black farmers

    Moses Cimuel Burt, a World War I veteran trained at NC A&T, Hampton and Cornell, retired as the county's African American extension agent in September 1958. Since 1935 he had backed farm programs in the county's Black schools and helped start 4-H clubs.

  38. Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill Ruth Faison Shaw brings her finger-painting case histories to the University

    The Chapel Hill News Leader reported that Shaw, recently of Chapel Hill, was giving the University more than a thousand case histories on personality diagnosis through finger painting and was working as its consultant in therapy.

  39. Founding or opening · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill Public Library opens

    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.

  40. Hill Hall, Chapel Hill The Chapel Hill Choral Club sings Bach's Christmas Oratorio

    The Chapel Hill Choral Club, directed by Joel Carter, performed the first three parts of Bach's Christmas Oratorio in Hill Hall as part of the Tuesday Evening Series.

  41. Construction or physical change · Carrboro Elementary School, Ash Street, Carrboro A new Carrboro Elementary School is built at the end of Ash Street

    With the new school open, the 1921 graded school on West Main Street, where Josie Sturdivant had been principal until about 1947, was converted to Carrboro Town Hall.

  42. Construction or physical change · Central High School (now Hillsborough Elementary), 402 North Nash Street, Hillsborough Archie Royal Davis's new main building for Central High goes up

    After the 1958 fire, Archie Royal Davis designed a two-story, flat-roofed brick main building and a barrel-roofed gymnasium for Central High School. The main building went up in 1959-60; the campus is now Hillsborough Elementary.

  43. Construction or physical change · Hillsborough Cameron Park School in Hillsborough gets its first addition

    Three years after it opened, the county enlarged Cameron Park School with a second section of building, raised under Superintendent G. Paul Carr to plans by the architect Archie Royal Davis.

  44. Law, policy or court · Carrboro Carrboro's schools join the Chapel Hill city unit

    The merger Carrboro voters approved in August 1958 took effect with the 1959-60 school year, taking 462 pupils out of the Orange County system; in 1958-59 Carrboro Elementary had stayed under the county board while high school pupils and Black elementary pupils could attend Chapel Hill schools free.

  45. Statistic or record · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill's city directory lists sixteen bricklayers, twelve in Black neighborhoods

    The 1959 Hill's Chapel Hill directory named sixteen bricklayers, twelve of them living in Northside and other historically Black neighborhoods. By 1962 the list had grown to eighteen, including John, Handy and Leo Campbell.

  46. 603 West Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill Charlie Mason's motor court on West Rosemary Street was lodging Black travelers

    Mason's Motor Court at 603 West Rosemary Street, with the Starlite Supper Club, gave Black travelers and touring musicians a place to stay when other Chapel Hill hotels turned them away. The building is gone and the Greenbridge condominiums now stand on the site.

  47. Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill Community Church dedicates its first building

    The building housed worship, classes, and offices.

  48. Closing or ending · Eno River near University Station, Eno Township Duke Power dismantles its Eno steam plant

    Duke Power sold most of the equipment of its standby steam plant in Eno Township to the Sid Rancer Company, a junk dealer, for $30,500 before January 1, 1960, and tore down six of the twelve company houses. The county lost several hundred thousand dollars in tax valuation.

  49. Construction or physical change · Efland-Cheeks School, Efland Efland-Cheeks School gets its first addition

    An addition went up in 1959 on the north side of the 1952 Efland-Cheeks School, which Archie Royal Davis had designed for Black children in western Orange County. A modern wing larger than the original school followed around 1980.

  50. Law, policy or court · Institute of Government, Chapel Hill Institute of Government staff draft a new state law on municipal annexation

    Assistant directors Philip Green Jr., George Esser and Jake Wicker wrote a new North Carolina annexation law for a state study commission. The law, which stayed unchanged for more than forty years and became a model elsewhere, let the state's cities grow without being ringed by small incorporated suburbs.

  51. Construction or physical change · J. H. and Pauline McAdams House, 418 Revere Road, Hillsborough J. H. and Pauline McAdams build a Ranch house on Revere Road

    Their brick house at 418 Revere Road, with its shallow hipped roof, banks of awning windows and built-in carport, is the survey's model example of the Ranch house in Hillsborough.

  52. Property or economic transaction · Hillsborough, Nash-Hooper House Mary Claire Engstrom and her husband buy the Nash-Hooper House in Hillsborough

    In 1959 Mary Claire Engstrom, who had earned a UNC doctorate in English literature in 1939, and her husband, UNC French professor Alfred G. Engstrom, bought the Nash-Hooper House in Hillsborough. From then on she turned her research to the history of Hillsborough and its surroundings.

  53. Property or economic transaction · Murphey School, Old NC 10 at Murphy School Road, Hillsborough vicinity Mount Herman Baptist Church leases the closed Murphey School

    Once the school closed, the county board leased the empty building to Mt. Herman Baptist Church for one year at $25 a month.

  54. Closing or ending · Murphey School, Old NC 10 at Murphy School Road, Hillsborough vicinity Murphey School closes and its pupils go to Hillsborough

    After years of falling attendance the county closed Murphey School in 1959 and moved its pupils to the elementary schools in Hillsborough.

  55. Storyline · 14 events · Chapel Hill Research Triangle Park and Orange County's growth

    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.

  56. Founding or opening · The Hub, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Robert Rosenbacher opens The Hub, a men's clothing store, on East Franklin Street

    The Hub took the store Charles Shields had just closed after 36 years of running his Home Owned Grocery there. It stayed 37 years, closing in 1996.

  57. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Robert Seymour becomes the first pastor of Binkley Memorial Baptist Church

    Robert Seymour came to Chapel Hill in 1959 as the first minister of the Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church, organized the year before. He led it until 1988.

  58. Appointment, election or service · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Samuel Selden leaves the Playmakers and Harry E. Davis takes over the Department of Dramatic Art

    Selden left Chapel Hill in 1959 to chair the Department of Theatre Arts at UCLA, and Harry E. Davis became chairman of the Department of Dramatic Art.

  59. Construction or physical change · Fairview Extension, Hillsborough The Fairview Extension is platted and filled with look-alike Ranch houses

    The south end of Fairview, west of North Nash Street and south of US 70, was platted in 1959. Its houses are three variations on one Ranch design that differ only in their outside materials, which suggests they were built on speculation.

  60. Statistic or record · Knapp Building, Institute of Government, Chapel Hill The Institute's dormitory lodges sixteen thousand overnight guests in a year

    Sixteen thousand people stayed overnight in the Knapp Building's dormitory during the 1959-60 academic year, and attendance at Institute events and instruction had grown about tenfold since the building opened in 1956.

  61. Construction or physical change · Masonic Hall, 200 West Franklin Street, at Church Street, Chapel Hill The Masonic Hall on West Franklin Street is torn down for a department store parking lot

    The Masonic Hall at Church Street was razed and its ground paved as a parking lot for the Belk-Leggett store next door.

  62. Founding or opening · 305 West Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill The Oh Boy Drive-In opens at West Rosemary and Church streets

    The Oh Boy Drive-In, run by the Boy family of Durham, was nearing completion at the corner of West Rosemary and Church streets in early July 1959. It was hiring in early August and serving cars by late August.

  63. Law, policy or court · School of Law and Institute of Government, Chapel Hill The law faculty and the Institute staff vote against merging the Institute into the law school

    When Albert Coates pressed again to fold the Institute of Government into the UNC law school, both the law faculty and the Institute's own staff voted the idea down. Assistant director John Sanders warned that the Institute's service work would be subordinated to the law school and its identity lost.

  64. Construction or physical change · University United Methodist Church, 150 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill University Methodist Church adds a Sunday school wing

    The congregation built an education wing on the east side of its brick church at 150 East Franklin Street in 1959.

  65. Closing or ending · 309 East Main Street, Carrboro The Chapel Hill News Leader suspends publication

    The semiweekly Chapel Hill News Leader announced in its January 29, 1959 issue that it was stopping publication. The paper had gone into receivership.

  66. Publication, speech or performance · Orange Speedway and the Colonial Inn, Hillsborough A Hollywood crew films a racing drama at Orange Speedway and the Colonial Inn

    A film company shot scenes for a television drama starring James Whitmore at Orange Speedway and the Colonial Inn in Hillsborough. Speedway co-owner Enoch Staley brought in several well-known drivers, among them Buck Baker, for close-up scenes.

  67. Law, policy or court · Institute of Government, Chapel Hill A state audit reports irregularities in the Institute of Government's accounts

    State Auditor Henry Bridges reported a gap of $5,064.32 in the Institute's books, caused by careless record keeping and slow deposit of room fees and book sales, not by missing money. Coates took the blame and paid $5,100 at once; he was repaid once he documented the spending, but staff who had not been warned in advance were angry.

  68. Closing or ending · 117 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill The University tears down the Abernethy house on South Columbia Street for Ackland grounds and parking

    UNC bought the house from the widow of Dr. Eric A. Abernethy, long the director of the University Infirmary, and tore it down to extend the Ackland Art Center grounds and make a gravel lot of about 60 faculty parking spaces. The house dated from 1905 and had housed many students.

  69. Property or economic transaction · 110 East Main Street, Carrboro Dwight Ray and Seaton Lloyd sell the Lloyd-Ray Hardware Store after 37 years

    The partners sold the Carrboro hardware store they had opened in 1922, long a gathering place for local politics. Tilden Hardware and Furniture Store held its grand opening in the same space on May 1, 1959.

  70. Protest or organizing · Cedar Grove School, 5800 NC 86 North, Cedar Grove Cedar Grove's advisory committee asks for two more classrooms

    Lonnie Thompson, Arthur Wells, Carter White, Wayne Compton and Oscar Beasley of the school's advisory committee asked the board for a two-classroom addition. The board agreed to consider it and in August approved Archie Royal Davis's plans with a $20,000 limit.

  71. Founding or opening · 122 US Highway 70, near the US 70 and NC 86 intersection, Hillsborough Orange County's first ABC liquor store opens north of Hillsboro

    Two months after voters approved county liquor stores on February 3, the first ABC store opened in a new building that also held the county ABC warehouse, near where Highways 70 and 86 meet. It was the county's first legal whiskey sale in the modern era.

  72. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Public Library, Chapel Hill Chapel Hill Public Library shows Bayard Wootten photographs after her death

    Weeks after Bayard Wootten died in New Bern, the Chapel Hill Public Library displayed her 1930s photographs of western North Carolina, made to illustrate two UNC Press books, Backwoods America and Cabins in the Laurel.

  73. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Sandy McClamroch is elected to the Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen

    McClamroch, one of five candidates for three seats, was elected on May 5, 1959 with F. E. Strowd and Roland Giduz, and was sworn in with Mayor Oliver K. Cornwell the following Monday night. Campaigning, he had called for coordinating town and university planning and for bringing the university's payments for town services above the table.

  74. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Mayor Cornwell presses the state to widen the highways into Chapel Hill

    Sworn in for a new term with aldermen F. E. Strowd and Sandy McClamroch, Mayor Cornwell wrote to the state's director of highways urging four-lane roads toward Durham and Raleigh and calling U.S. 15-501 and N.C. 54 major entrances to the university.

  75. Founding or opening · Eastgate Shopping Center, 1800 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Chapel Hill's ABC liquor store opens in Eastgate Shopping Center

    The county ABC system's Chapel Hill store opened in Eastgate Shopping Center and sold between $2,000 and $3,000 of liquor a day in its first two days, about half again the daily average at the Hillsboro store, which had opened April 10.

  76. Appointment, election or service · Orange County O. David Garvin resigns as health director of the five county district

    Garvin, health director for Orange, Person, Chatham, Lee and Caswell counties since 1944, resigned effective June 15, 1959 to rejoin the U.S. Public Health Service in its Chronic Disease Branch. The paper described him as a native of Wagner, South Carolina.

  77. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Stanley Vickers's parents apply for his transfer from Northside Elementary to Carrboro Elementary

    After ten-year-old Stanley Boya Vickers finished fifth grade at Northside Elementary School in June 1959, his parents, Thomas Lee and Lattice Vickers, filed a written application to have him reassigned to Carrboro Elementary School, which was much nearer their home. The school board denied it on August 3, 1959.

  78. Construction or physical change · 110 King Street (now 114 West King Street), Hillsborough Duke Power opens its remodeled Hillsboro office on King Street

    Duke Power Company held an open house at its newly remodeled Hillsboro office, then numbered 110 King Street, showing new facilities and electric appliances. Manager C. B. Parris had served the town's customers since 1936.

  79. Health or relief action · Hillsborough Health officer asks county commissioners for money to buy polio vaccine

    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.

  80. Life event · Chapel Hill Jim Tatum dies at Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill

    Tatum apparently contracted an overwhelming viral infection while visiting Canada with the coaches Peahead Walker and Frank Howard, and died one week after entering Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill. He was buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.

  81. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill school board refuses Stanley Vickers a transfer to all-white Carrboro Elementary and adopts a first-grade proximity policy

    The Chapel Hill City Board of Education denied ten-year-old Stanley Vickers a transfer from all-Black Northside Elementary to the nearer all-white Carrboro Elementary School, and at the same meeting adopted a policy that first-grade reassignment requests based on geographic proximity would ordinarily be granted starting with the 1960-61 year. UNC law dean Henry Brandis, who had voted for the transfer, resigned from the board in protest and called the action legally and morally indefensible.

  82. Law, policy or court · White Cross White Cross voters turn down a merger with the Chapel Hill schools a second time

    White Cross voters defeated a merger of their school into the Chapel Hill city district, 116 to 110, a year after Carrboro had joined it; a first vote had failed in May 1958. A third vote failed in the spring of 1960, and the county closed the school in 1961. The county board sold the White Cross property to Edmiston Realty Company for $14,900 in 1967.

  83. Chapel Hill Brandis returns for the Vickers hearing, then leaves the Chapel Hill school board

    Brandis withdrew his August 3 resignation so he could sit at the board's hearing on Stanley Vickers's transfer request on August 31. He resigned again after that meeting, and the board named a committee to find his successor.

  84. Construction or physical change · NC 49 near the Alamance County line, Carr precinct, Cedar Grove Township Orange County builds its third ABC store near the Alamance line at Carr

    The county ABC board put up a concrete-block liquor store on Mutt Byrd's land about 200 yards from the Alamance County line on the Roxboro-Burlington highway, with opening expected in mid-September. By early 1960 nearly all of its sales went to Alamance County customers.

  85. Property or economic transaction · 301 West Main Street, Carrboro The county school board sells the old Carrboro School to the Town of Carrboro

    After the new Carrboro elementary school opened, the Orange County Board of Education accepted the town's $30,000 bid, the only one at an August auction, for the empty 14-classroom building and auditorium on West Main Street. The town planned to make it a municipal building, and voters approved a $95,000 bond issue for the purchase and renovation on March 19, 1960.

  86. Founding or opening · South Hamilton Road, Glen Lennox, Chapel Hill Chapel Hill opens its Glen Lennox fire station

    The town's second fire station, on South Hamilton Road in Glen Lennox, opened without ceremony when two pumper trucks moved in from the main station on Columbia Street. The aldermen had let contracts in February for the building, designed by Archie Davis of Durham and paid for from 1957 bonds.

  87. Law, policy or court · Orange County Orange County commissioners give a cool reception to a Research Triangle planning request

    At a special meeting, Orange County commissioners gave only a lukewarm reception to a request to help fund a land development survey for the Research Triangle area and took no action pending firm figures. The Chapel Hill Weekly reported that the county expected to gain mostly new residents and school costs from the park rather than industry, and commissioners discussed zoning the area northeast of Chapel Hill toward the Durham County line.

  88. Property or economic transaction · North Carolina Industrial Home for Colored Girls (Efland Home), 201 Redman Crossing, Efland James and Myrtle Graham, a Black Efland couple, buy the old Efland Home cottage

    In December 1959 James Nills Graham, called Nello, and Myrtle McAdoo Graham, both raised on Efland farms, bought the former reformatory cottage and 2.4 acres, and the Graham family kept it for more than fifty years. They belonged to White Cross A.M.E. Church and are buried there.

  89. 1960s
  90. Construction or physical change · 330 West Orange Street, Hillsborough A mill house is moved from South Wake Street to West Orange Street

    The small house at 330 West Orange Street, built around 1941, is a mill house moved in the 1960s from the 200 block of South Wake Street.

  91. Construction or physical change · Nursing Home, 401 North Churton Street, Hillsborough A nursing home is built at 401 North Churton Street

    A one-story brick nursing home, built in the form of the Ranch houses of its day, goes up about 1960 at 401 North Churton Street.

  92. Construction or physical change · Masonic Lodge, 210 West Orange Street, Hillsborough A two-story lodge for Prince Hall Masons and the Eastern Star is built on West Orange Street

    A concrete-block lodge was built in the 1960s at 210 West Orange Street for St. James Lodge No. 494 of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge and the St. Anita Maria chapter No. 622 of the Eastern Star. It stands on the site of a school for Black children shown on the 1924 Sanborn map and gained a rear wing in 1991.

  93. Construction or physical change · Central High School (now Hillsborough Elementary), 402 North Nash Street, Hillsborough A vocational building is added at Central High School

    Between 1960 and 1962 the county added a one-story, flat-roofed, brick-veneered vocational building with metal awning windows to the Central High campus in Hillsborough.

  94. Construction or physical change · 5 Marilyn Lane, Chapel Hill Architect Arthur Cogswell designs his own house on Marilyn Lane

    Cogswell's 1960 house at 5 Marilyn Lane sits on two levels in a slope, planned on George Matsumoto's four-foot grid and sided in vertical pine, with a short bridge from the drive to the door and a living room under a row of small glass-ended gables. It won an award from the North Carolina chapter of the AIA.

  95. Construction or physical change · Mary Louise and Richard Wade Williams Jr. House, 4707 Whitfield Road, northeast of Chapel Hill Architect Wade Williams builds a Wright-influenced house for himself on Whitfield Road

    Durham architect R. Wade Williams designed a flat-roofed Modernist house with exposed-aggregate block walls and dark-red board siding for himself and his wife, kitchen designer Mary Louise Gunter Williams, on an eighteen-acre wooded tract northeast of Chapel Hill. Her parents helped pay for it.

  96. Statistic or record · Orange County Census counts Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro in

    The 1960 census counted 42,970 people in Orange County, 12,573 in Chapel Hill and 1,997 in Carrboro. Chapel Hill township had 25,030, up from 18,222 in 1950.

  97. Construction or physical change · Central High School (now Hillsborough Elementary), 402 North Nash Street, Hillsborough Central High builds its "300" elementary wing

    Another classroom building, the "300" wing or Elementary School building, went up at Central High from 1960 to 1962. With a vocational and band building finished in 1962, the campus reached the six buildings that stand today.

  98. Orange County Charles E. Maddry writes a history of Mount Moriah Baptist Church

    Charles Edward Maddry wrote a history of Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Orange County; it survives in his papers at UNC.

  99. Property or economic transaction · East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Cornelia Spencer Love gives private funds toward a new library on East Franklin Street

    Love donated private money during the 1960s to help build the town's new public library on East Franklin Street.

  100. Construction or physical change · 222 Hillcrest Circle, Chapel Hill Don Stewart designs a Japanese-influenced house for Robert and Ruth Mace

    Around 1960 Stewart's work turned toward Asian models, as in the one-level house he drew for physicist Robert Mace and his wife Ruth at 222 Hillcrest Circle, off East Franklin Street. Its wide roof overhang and the screen beside the entrance have a Japanese cast, and a tall porch shades the south side.

  101. Construction or physical change · 903 Coker Drive, Morgan Creek Hills, Chapel Hill Don Stewart designs the Bowers-Nelson House in Morgan Creek Hills

    Built about 1960 at 903 Coker Drive, this small house on a sloping lot is Stewart's most direct borrowing from Japanese houses. Its post-and-beam frame is exposed outside and was first painted in bright colors, and paper shoji screens slide on tracks to divide the rooms.

  102. Publication, speech or performance · University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill Edward and Elizabeth Waugh publish The South Builds

    Architect Edward Waugh and his wife Elizabeth published The South Builds with the University of North Carolina Press in 1960, a survey of new Southern architecture that favored modern buildings suited to the region's climate.

  103. Founding or opening · Coker Hills, Elliott Road and Clayton Road, Chapel Hill Henry Roland Totten develops the first sections of Coker Hills

    Coker College hired UNC botanist Henry Roland Totten, a colleague of the late W. C. Coker, to develop its Estes Drive land, and the first sections of Coker Hills went up along Elliott and Clayton roads in 1960 and 1961. The rest of the neighborhood was built out through 1972.

  104. Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough Methodist Church, Hillsborough Hillsborough and New Sharon Methodist churches each become a station church

    Two years after they finished their shared parsonage, Hillsborough and New Sharon left the charge arrangement and each became a station church with its own pastor.

  105. Construction or physical change · US 70 at Interstate 85, near the Durham County line James Freeland builds the General Joseph E. Johnston Motel at US 70 and Interstate 85

    Builder James Freeland put up the General Joseph E. Johnston Motel on US 70 near the new Interstate 85, part of a roadside group with his ice rink and, across the highway, the General Sherman Restaurant.

  106. Construction or physical change · Holiday Park, northwest of Hillsborough James J. Freeland develops Holiday Park with a swimming pool

    In the 1960s Freeland built Holiday Park northwest of town, a development with its own pool and other amenities; some of its houses were former Eno Mill village houses moved to the site.

  107. Property or economic transaction · Colonial Inn, West King Street, Hillsborough James J. Freeland remodels and sells the Colonial Inn

    Freeland, who also restored and moved old buildings, owned the Colonial Inn on West King Street for a time and remodeled it before selling it in the 1960s.

  108. Chapel Hill Manly Wade Wellman teaches creative writing at the university

    Wellman taught creative writing classes in the Evening College of the University of North Carolina and was known for helping new writers.

  109. Construction or physical change · Mallett House (Patterson-Palmer House), 173 West Margaret Lane, Hillsborough Mrs. Erle G. Hill restores the Patterson-Palmer House with architect Archie Royal Davis

    Owner Mrs. Erle G. Hill restored the Federal house on West Margaret Lane with architect Archie Royal Davis, replacing the roof, dormers, front portico, shutters and siding and returning the rooms to their first plan. By 1963 it was shown on Hillsborough's spring pilgrimage.

  110. Statistic or record · North Carolina Memorial Hospital, Chapel Hill North Carolina Memorial Hospital admits its 100,000th patient

    UNC A to Z records that the hospital welcomed its 100,000th patient in 1960, eight years after it opened.

  111. Construction or physical change · Cleveland House, 107 Pine Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Political scientist Gordon Cleveland designs his own Colonial Revival house on Pine Lane

    Ellington & Sparrow built the side-hall house for Gordon and Martha Cleveland on a sloping lot with a full basement.

  112. Property or economic transaction · Bellevue Manufacturing Company, South Nash Street at Eno Street, West Hillsborough The Bellevue mill changes hands and runs as Hillsboro Mills

    In the 1960s the mill was sold to investors from the Northeast, and trade directories list it as Hillsboro Mills.

  113. Founding or opening · Chapel Hill The Chapel Hill Friends Meeting opens its meetinghouse

    Mildred Ringwalt, who joined the Chapel Hill Friends in 1959, was influential in building the Quaker meetinghouse that opened in 1960 and later raised money to enlarge it. A Carolina Friends School tribute says she sold most of her Oriental art to finance the building and anonymously gave the money to finish it.

  114. Founding or opening · Glendale, Chapel Hill The Glendale subdivision is developed north of Battle Park

    During the 1960s the Glendale subdivision was built on the hilly ground north of Battle Park, with houses by Cogswell/Hausler and other modernist firms.

  115. Construction or physical change · Haralson-Strudwick House site, 114 West Queen Street, Hillsborough The Haralson-Strudwick House on West Queen Street is torn down

    The antebellum house that Dr. Edmund Strudwick had enlarged was razed in 1960. Its brick kitchen was kept and enlarged as a residence, and a Dutch Colonial Revival house went up on the site in 1969.

  116. Construction or physical change · Piedmont Electric Company building, 129 East Tryon Street (205 North Cameron Street), Hillsborough The Piedmont Electric office on East Tryon Street is raised to two stories

    The flat-roofed brick office built for the Piedmont Electric Company around 1950 as a one-story building was enlarged to two stories in 1960.

  117. Construction or physical change · Bellevue Manufacturing Company, South Nash Street at Eno Street, West Hillsborough The open court in the middle of the Bellevue mill is roofed over for storage

    For more storage, the owners roofed the space inside the U-shaped mill with open-web steel trusses running from the main mill to the weaving room and closed its east side with a new wall, removing the 1923 stair tower.

  118. Construction or physical change · Hickey House, 3 Iris Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill UNC football coach Jim Hickey builds a two-story Colonial Revival house on Iris Lane

    The weatherboarded house has a pedimented entrance porch and a garage wing topped by a small cupola. Hickey lived there until 1977.

  119. Chapel Hill UNC gives John Lindsay Morehead an honorary doctor of laws

    The university honored Morehead, principal officer of the Morehead Foundation, as the architect of the Morehead scholarship plan.

  120. Construction or physical change · Bream House, 3 Buttons Road, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill William Van Sprinkle designs a long Contemporary Ranch on Buttons Road for Charles and Kay Bream

    The six-bay house for the radiology professor mixes vertical wood and brick, with sliding windows and a carport set on the diagonal. Sprinkle, known for Colonial Revival work, here turned to a modern design.

  121. Founding or opening · 104 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Ted Danziger opens the Zoom-Zoom, a carryout restaurant on West Franklin Street

    Ted Danziger opened Zigger's Zoom-Zoom, a carryout and home delivery restaurant managed by Hal Sieber, a block from his Rathskeller. Its menu ran from rotisserie chicken to lasagna in casseroles.

  122. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill The Vickers family files its federal suit against the Chapel Hill City Board of Education

    Suing through his parents, Stanley Vickers asked the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina to declare his right to attend the public schools without racial discrimination. After the board turned down his June 1960 application to Chapel Hill Junior High, the complaint was amended to seek that school, and the case was tried on October 5, 1960.

  123. Storyline · 35 events · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill freedom movement

    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.

  124. Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill The Chapel Hill Nine sit-in

    Nine Black young men held Chapel Hill’s first sit-in at Colonial Drug.

  125. Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill Lincoln High students picket Colonial Drug and sit in at the Bus Station Cafe

    The day after the sit-in, nearly 100 Black high school students picketed Colonial Drug after manager John Carswell roped off its booths, while others filled the counter at the Bus Station Cafe until proprietor Leo Eliadis closed it and were served standing at the Long Meadow Dairy Bar.

  126. Property or economic transaction · Dud's Tavern, 633 Cornelius Street (US 70), Fairview, Hillsborough The Gormleys take over Dud's Tavern as Gormley's Truck Stop and Restaurant

    Mr. and Mrs. L. H. Gormley, who had run the Castle Steak House in Durham, took over Dud's Tavern on Highway 70 and advertised it as Gormley's Truck Stop and Restaurant.

  127. Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill The Chapel Hill sit-in movement forms an executive committee and retains counsel

    At a Tuesday night meeting the Lincoln High demonstrators and their adult supporters organized, set up an executive committee to coordinate the lunch-counter protests and acquired legal counsel.

  128. Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill The Chapel Hill CORE Committee rejects a second truce and resumes picketing as 27 ministers back the protests

    After a week-long pause the students' 12-member executive committee, led by Harold Foster, declined the Human Relations Committee's request for a second truce and resumed afternoon picketing at Colonial Drug and Long Meadow Dairy. Twenty-seven Chapel Hill ministers issued a statement commending the peaceful, non-violent picketing.

  129. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill aldermen refuse Chief Blake's picketing-control ordinance

    The Board of Aldermen unanimously declined to pass an ordinance against blocking sidewalks that Police Chief William W. Blake had requested as a safety measure, saying its passage would be misread as interference with the peaceful picketing at Colonial Drug.

  130. Appointment, election or service · Orange County W. C. George and Lucius Cheshire are named Orange County managers of I. Beverly Lake's campaign

    I. Beverly Lake named W. C. George of Chapel Hill and Lucius M. Cheshire of Hillsborough, both directors of the pro-segregation North Carolina Defenders of States Rights, co-managers of his campaign for governor in Orange County.

  131. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Martin Luther King Jr. speaks in Chapel Hill

    Invited by campus religious groups and the Carolina Forum, King spoke at University Baptist Church on May 8, 1960, visited two UNC sociology classes, and addressed an overflow crowd in Hill Hall on May 9 on the struggle for racial justice.

  132. Competition or sporting achievement · Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough Lee Petty wins at Orange Speedway from the front row beside his son Richard

    Lee Petty, 46, led all 110 laps to win the May race at Orange Speedway. His son Richard Petty had the pole, the first time the father and son started together on the front row.

  133. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill school board admits its first Black pupils to a white school, three first graders at Estes Hills Elementary

    Acting under its new proximity policy, the board voted unanimously to grant three of twelve Black reassignment applications for the 1960-61 first grade at previously all-white Estes Hills Elementary School. Applications to transfer to the white junior high school, including Stanley Vickers's, were refused.

  134. Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill aldermen pay the town's share of the Research Triangle planning commission budget

    The Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen appropriated $1,545, six percent of the $25,750 budget of the Research Triangle Regional Planning Commission for 1960-61. The commission also asked the Orange County commissioners for four percent, or $1,030.

  135. Property or economic transaction · Nash House, 124 South Boundary Street, Chapel Hill Roland and Clara McClamroch deed the Nash house to their daughter Anna McClamroch McFall

    English professor Roland McClamroch and his wife had bought the house from the Nashes and rented it to Robert and Alpha Wettach, who moved out around 1960. The house stayed in the McClamroch family until 1983.

  136. Property or economic transaction · Hillsborough The county board buys 100 acres from S. T. Latta for a new consolidated high school

    The board bought 100 acres from S. T. Latta in August 1960 for a new county high school, set aside $100,000 toward the building in July 1961 and accepted construction bids in May 1962. The school opened as Orange High School in 1963.

  137. Construction or physical change · 112 North Churton Street, Hillsborough The Hillsboro Savings and Loan Association lays the cornerstone of its North Churton Street office

    Cornerstone ceremonies were set for the association's new office on the east side of North Churton Street, half a block north of the court square, under construction since early June. Charles C. Hartmann of Greensboro designed the one-story Colonial Revival building with a drive-in window.

  138. Founding or opening · 808 Christopher Road, Chapel Hill Young and Wilkins open the Better Homes and Gardens Idea Home on Christopher Road

    The 1960 Better Homes and Gardens Idea Home, built by David Curl for the Chapel Hill realtors Young and Wilkins, opened for public tours at 808 Christopher Road, across the bypass from Glen Lennox. It was the only Idea Home shown in North Carolina that year and stayed open through October 2.

  139. Law, policy or court · Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough An Orange County jury convicts four men of arson and conspiracy in the Reverie plant fire

    After a three-day trial in Orange County Superior Court, a jury found four men, among them an ILGWU representative from Atlanta, guilty of burning the Reverie Lingerie plant. Judge Raymond Mallard sentenced them the next day to five to twelve years, and all appealed.

  140. Competition or sporting achievement · Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough Richard Petty wins his first race at Orange Speedway

    Richard Petty, 23, took the pole and led all 110 laps of the September 100-mile race at Orange Speedway, finishing a lap ahead of Ned Jarrett. His father Lee had won the track's May race.

  141. Construction or physical change · Cedar Grove School, 5800 NC 86 North, Cedar Grove Two classrooms are added to the south wing of Cedar Grove School

    The two classrooms at the south end of the original wing, built to Archie Royal Davis's plans on bids taken in fall 1959, were finished by September 6, 1960, when the board inspected them with Davis and contractor Lindsay Fogelman.

  142. Closing or ending · Dickson house, NC 86 at Interstate 85, outside Hillsborough The Dickson house near Hillsborough is left empty when its last tenant moves out

    The last tenant left the Dickson house, General Johnston's headquarters in 1865, and the house owned by Mary R. Few stood vacant beside the new Interstate 85 interchange. In March 1961 the News of Orange reported it crumbling while a motel site next door was offered for sale.

  143. Law, policy or court · Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, South Road (NC 54) and Country Club Road, Chapel Hill The university's attorney finds the trustees never deeded the cemetery to the town

    In a letter of November 11, 1960 to J. A. Branch of the university business office, university attorney J. A. Williams reported no sign that the trustees had ever conveyed title to the cemetery land to Chapel Hill.

  144. Naming or commemoration · Knapp Building, Institute of Government, Chapel Hill Governor Luther Hodges accepts the Knapp Building for the state at its dedication

    A four-day dedication of the Institute of Government's headquarters, for which officials were invited by congressional district and the Kughler murals were unveiled, closed with Governor Hodges accepting the million-dollar building on behalf of the state. Senator Sam J. Ervin Jr. stayed for the whole program.

  145. Founding or opening · US 70 at Interstate 85, near the Durham County line James Freeland opens his rebuilt Holiday Ice Rink beside the General Johnston Motel

    James Freeland opened a new 65 by 180 foot Holiday Ice Rink on US 70 three miles west of Durham, replacing a rink whose roof had caved in under snow the winter before. It stood next to his new General Johnston Motel.

  146. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Aycock suspends a basketball player in the betting scandal and makes Dean Smith head coach

    After the player Doug Moe accepted $75 from a gambler in 1961, Chancellor Aycock suspended him and said the integrity of the institution was involved. Aycock then raised assistant coach Dean Smith to head coach.

  147. Storyline · 20 events · Cane Creek, Orange County Cane Creek Reservoir and Bingham Township

    From the first engineering studies of 1961 to the filling of the reservoir in 1989: OWASA's Cane Creek Reservoir, the watershed land purchases, and the Bingham Township farm families displaced.

  148. Law, policy or court · Carrboro Carrboro Elementary School enrolls its first Black pupils

    Eight Black first graders were assigned to Carrboro Elementary under the 1961 zoning map, the school Stanley Vickers had been refused two years earlier. All but two requested and received transfers back to the Black school, so two Black children enrolled at Carrboro that fall.

  149. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill assigns first graders by residence zone and becomes the first North Carolina district with no all-white school

    A school board elected on a desegregation platform took office on July 1, 1961 and adopted a single first-grade attendance map, assigning 24 Black children to Glenwood, 10 to Estes Hills and 8 to Carrboro Elementary after the zones were redrawn to reduce Carrboro's share. When school opened, every school in the district had at least one Black pupil for the first time in the state's history, and no incidents were reported.

  150. Protest or organizing · Varsity Theatre, Chapel Hill Church and student groups picket Chapel Hill's Varsity Theatre

    Local church groups and student organizations picketed the Varsity Theatre after Black patrons were refused entry. Later that year the management agreed to admit Black UNC students with ID, and the town's theaters were fully desegregated by early 1962.

  151. Appointment, election or service · Orange County Clara Jones is appointed a supervisor of the Orange County schools

    Clara Jones, a Person County principal for twenty-seven years, joined the county staff as supervisor in 1961, assigned to the Cedar Grove, Efland-Cheeks and A. L. Stanback schools for Black children. After integration she ran special education testing and placement, and she retired in 1974.

  152. Storyline · 24 events · Carrboro Desegregating the Chapel Hill and Carrboro schools

    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.

  153. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Frank McGuire leaves UNC and Dean Smith succeeds him

    McGuire left Chapel Hill in 1961 to coach the Philadelphia Warriors of the NBA. Dean Smith, who had joined his staff as an assistant in 1958, became head coach of the Tar Heels.

  154. Life event · Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, South Road (NC 54) and Country Club Road, Chapel Hill Historian J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

    J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton (1878-1961), the historian who built the Southern Historical Collection in the university library, was buried in the cemetery.

  155. Founding or opening · US 70 at Interstate 85, near the Durham County line James Freeland's General Sherman Restaurant opens at US 70 and Interstate 85

    The General Sherman Restaurant, built by James Freeland across the highway from his General Johnston Motel, opened around the clock and was billed as Orange County's newest. It became a common place for Democratic Party dinners and club luncheons in the early 1960s.

  156. Founding or opening · West Franklin Street (later 423 West Franklin Street), Chapel Hill Leo Eliadis closes his bus station grill and opens Leo's Restaurant on West Franklin Street

    After a Duke student sat in the Black section of the Chapel Hill bus station grill in June 1961 and was arrested at Leo Eliadis's request, Eliadis shut the grill. By early September he had opened Leo's Restaurant on West Franklin Street.

  157. Construction or physical change · Mount Bright Baptist Church, Hillsborough Mount Bright Baptist Church buys the Ellison lot and builds its first parsonage

    Under its pastor Fred J. Boddie Jr. the congregation bought the Ellison home lot and put up its first parsonage there.

  158. Appointment, election or service · David Faucette House, 1830 Halls Mill Road at the Eno River, north of Efland Teacher Maude Faucette retires after a long career in elementary schools

    Maude Faucette, the last of the family at the house on the Eno, taught elementary school, seventh grade above all, in Orange and Caswell counties and in Arkansas before retiring in 1961.

  159. Construction or physical change · Field-Robbins House, 4911 Timberly Drive, Timbercrest, northeast of Chapel Hill The Field-Robbins House goes up on Timberly Drive

    Doris and James Field built a Modernist house of contrasting materials and varied roof levels on their Timbercrest land in 1961 but lost it after defaulting on the mortgage. Dermatologist Jack Robbins and nurse Catherine Robbins bought it in August 1962, finished the interior and lived there the rest of their lives.

  160. Construction or physical change · University Presbyterian Church, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Presbyterians build a larger church where the burned one stood

    Three years after the 1958 fire, a new and bigger Presbyterian church went up on the old site on East Franklin Street.

  161. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill The first Black students enter the formerly white Chapel Hill junior-senior high school on Franklin Street

    For 1961-62 the board granted two of three Black applications to the white junior high school and later reassigned a fourth child who had moved into the district, while the federal court ordered Stanley Vickers admitted to the eighth grade there. Sheila Florence, who described herself as one of the first four Black students and who graduated from Chapel Hill High School on Franklin Street in 1965, was one of them, and Eugene Hines was another Black student in the school.

  162. Construction or physical change · Navy Hall (later Jackson Hall), UNC campus, Chapel Hill The former Navy Hall becomes the Faculty Club

    Because the Monogram Club building was again underused, the university turned it over to a Faculty Club in 1961.

  163. Construction or physical change · Lloyd log house, 501 Bolin Brook Farm Road, Calvander (Chapel Hill vicinity) Troy and Robin Andrews return to the farm and enlarge the old Lloyd log house

    After Troy Andrews retired in 1961 and inherited the farm with his sister Nita, he and Robin moved back and renovated and enlarged the early nineteenth-century hewn log house built for the Lloyd family, living there while they planned their new house.

  164. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill UNC considers the Jordan Reservoir for its water and Okun argues for Cane Creek

    While Okun was on sabbatical in 1961 the university began considering the Jordan Reservoir as a water source; on his return he persuaded the board that Cane Creek, which his students had studied in the 1950s, was the better site.

  165. Property or economic transaction · Morgan Creek, Chapel Hill William Lanier Hunt gives 103 acres of the Morgan Creek gorge to UNC

    Hunt gave UNC and the state about 103 acres of creek gorge and Catawba rhododendron bluffs along Morgan Creek, which became the William Lanier Hunt Arboretum, part of the North Carolina Botanical Garden lands.

  166. Founding or opening · Chapel Hill L. J. Phipps and Stanley Peele form a law partnership in Chapel Hill

    Chapel Hill attorney L. J. Phipps took Stanley Peele, associated with him since he was admitted to the bar in 1959, into partnership.

  167. Protest or organizing · White Cross School, north side of NC 54 west of SR 1952, White Cross Black parents at White Cross ask to send their children to White Cross School

    The parents of 23 Black children living near White Cross applied to move them from the Hillsboro Negro elementary school, a long daily bus ride away, to the white school in their own community. Most of the children had gone to school in Chapel Hill until White Cross voters again turned down a merger with the Chapel Hill district in 1960.

  168. Law, policy or court · White Cross School, north side of NC 54 west of SR 1952, White Cross The county school board refuses the White Cross transfer requests

    The Orange County Board of Education turned down the Black families' request, saying no reassignment had been asked for within ten days of the parents being notified of their children's school.

  169. Construction or physical change · Behind Swain Hall, East Cameron Avenue, to the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, Chapel Hill UNC moves the Mitchell family graves from the campus to the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

    Four graves of Elisha Mitchell's infant sons and grandsons, in the old Mitchell garden near the center of campus, were exhumed under archaeologist Joffre Coe to make room for the expansion of the university's television and communications work. They were reburied in the Horace Williams plot in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery with the Rev. Vance Barron officiating.

  170. Founding or opening · US 70 at Interstate 85, near the Durham County line Orange County's fourth ABC store opens at US 70 and Interstate 85

    Orange County's fourth and largest ABC liquor store opened beside the General Sherman Restaurant, half a mile from the Durham County line. James Freeland built the colonial-style building and leased it to the county board; it was said to be the only ABC store in North Carolina on an interstate highway.

  171. Property or economic transaction · Highway 70 (419 Cornelius Street), Hillsborough Kenan Oil Company buys A. J. Snipes Jr.'s oil business and brings Phillips 66 to Hillsboro

    Kenan Oil Company of Durham, the Phillips 66 franchise holder, bought A. J. Snipes Jr.'s Esso distributorship on Highway 70, its first foothold in Hillsboro, and kept Snipes on as its local agent.

  172. Law, policy or court · White Cross School, north side of NC 54 west of SR 1952, White Cross Floyd McKissick represents the White Cross children at a school board hearing

    At a hearing on the transfers, the children were represented by Durham attorney Floyd McKissick; the county board denied them again, reading a statement it had prepared before the hearing began.

  173. Construction or physical change · 304 Revere Road, Hillsborough Carr's Super Market opens its new store across the street in Hillsboro

    Carr's Super Market began a six-week grand opening of its new $250,000 store, five times the size of its old one across the street, with a terrazzo floor. Building began in April 1960, and Brodie Carr's son saw it through after his father had a stroke.

  174. Law, policy or court · White Cross School, north side of NC 54 west of SR 1952, White Cross The school board's lawyer advises closing White Cross School rather than fight the case

    A. H. Graham, attorney for the county board, told it the transfer fight could not be won and recommended shutting White Cross School instead.

  175. Founding or opening · 301 West Main Street, Carrboro Carrboro shows off its new town hall in the old Carrboro School

    Several hundred people toured the renovated school at an open house. It now held the mayor's and clerk's offices, an auditorium, the public library, the police and fire departments with a jail, and National Guard quarters; the town had begun moving in that winter.

  176. Founding or opening · 112 North Churton Street, Hillsborough The Hillsboro Savings and Loan Association opens its new downtown office

    The association held a public open house with prize drawings at its new office on North Churton Street, the building later known as the Hillsborough Savings Bank. Its 1950 office stayed open as a second location.

  177. Closing or ending · White Cross School, north side of NC 54 west of SR 1952, White Cross The county board votes to close White Cross School and send its white pupils to Hillsborough

    Rather than admit the Black children, the Orange County school board decided to close White Cross School at the end of the school year and move its 75 white pupils to Cameron Park School in West Hillsboro, a step it tied to its ten-year building program.

  178. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill McClamroch is sworn in as mayor and Joe Page is named to his aldermen seat

    McClamroch and three re-elected aldermen, Adelaide Walters, Paul Wager and Hubert Robinson, were sworn in at the Monday night meeting of the Board of Aldermen by Recorder's Court Judge William Stewart. The board named businessman Joe Page to the unexpired two year aldermen's term McClamroch left on becoming mayor, and elected Mrs. Walters mayor pro tem.

  179. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Sandy McClamroch is elected mayor of Chapel Hill without opposition

    McClamroch ran unopposed for mayor in the May 1961 town election. Before the vote he took questions from residents at a public meeting at the Negro Community Center sponsored by the Chapel Hill Fellowship for School Integration and the Civic Club, and on a WUNC radio panel, saying he wanted to improve the town's public relations and would discuss merging Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

  180. Construction or physical change · Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church, Jones Grove Church Road off Coleman Loop Road, Hillsborough vicinity Jones Grove dedicates a concrete-block church built by its own members

    Congregants Otha Thompson and A. J. Breeze served as general contractors and Thomas Watkins supplied lumber for a front-gable concrete-block sanctuary paid for with members' gifts. The 1928 frame church to the west was torn down when it was done.

  181. Founding or opening · Chapel Hill A.D. Clark Pool opens

    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.

  182. Protest or organizing · Orange County Chapel Hill church women ask the county for a welfare office in Chapel Hill

    A group from the Chapel Hill Council of United Church Women, including Mildred Ringwalt, asked the Orange County commissioners for a branch welfare office in the Chapel Hill area with a caseworker at least two days a week, and offered volunteers. The acting welfare superintendent replied that lay volunteers could not do casework.

  183. Construction or physical change · 207 East Main Street, Carrboro Workmen begin tearing down Dave Neville's old store at Main Street and the railroad

    Dismantling began on the frame store at Main Street and the University Railroad tracks, known over the years as Dave Neville's general store, Partin's grocery and the Carrboro Feed and Seed Store. Owner Harvey Bennett took it down at the town board's informal request, since Carrboro's fire code barred prolonging the life of frame buildings downtown.

  184. Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Federal court rules Chapel Hill denied Stanley Vickers a junior high transfer because of his race

    Chief Judge Edwin M. Stanley of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina held that the Chapel Hill City Board of Education had refused Vickers reassignment to all-white Chapel Hill Junior High School on account of race and that he was entitled to be admitted there for the 1961-62 school year. The suit had been filed on February 2, 1960 and tried on October 5, 1960.

  185. Founding or opening · 209 East Main Street, Carrboro The Railway Express Agency moves its office to East Main Street in Carrboro

    The Chapel Hill express office moved into new quarters at 209 East Main Street in Carrboro, with room for customers to park. Its old building on North Columbia Street was coming down for the new Orange Savings and Loan office.

  186. Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill University National Bank of Chapel Hill becomes part of Central Carolina Bank

    The University National Bank of Chapel Hill merged into the Durham Bank and Trust Company, which took the new name Central Carolina Bank and Trust Company. Both Chapel Hill offices reopened under the new name, with O. Gordon Perry as manager for Chapel Hill.

  187. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill President John F. Kennedy speaks at UNC

    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.

  188. Competition or sporting achievement · Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough Joe Weatherly wins the first 150-miler at Orange Speedway

    Joe Weatherly won the 150-mile race that closed the 1961 Grand National season at Orange Speedway, the first race of that length at the track, setting a lap record of 95.15 miles per hour and a race average of 86.11.

  189. Founding or opening · Dud's Tavern, 633 Cornelius Street (US 70), Fairview, Hillsborough Dud Walters reopens his old tavern as Dud's Fish House

    J. Dud Walters and his wife reopened the former Dud's Tavern and Truck Stop after renovations as Dud's Fish House and Restaurant, serving fish and seafood with curb service and take-home orders.

  190. Founding or opening · North side of U.S. Highway 70, behind the Phillips 66 station, Hillsborough Kenan Oil opens its new bulk plant and warehouse north of Hillsborough

    Work began in September on a bulk plant and warehouse on the north side of Highway 70 behind the Phillips 66 station, and the company invited the public to inspect the finished plant and offices on Saturday, November 11.

  191. Competition or sporting achievement · Chapel Hill Lincoln High's football team wins an undefeated state championship

    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.

  192. Construction or physical change · Highway 70 (Cornelius Street), Hillsborough Godfrey's Home Supply Store moves into a new building on Highway 70

    E. W. "Booster" Godfrey opened a new, larger building for his hardware, clothing and household goods store next door to his old location on Highway 70 north of Hillsboro, with Esso gas out front.

  193. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Ruth Faison Shaw holds a finger-painting show in Chapel Hill

    The Chapel Hill Weekly ran a page of photographs of a finger-painting show by Shaw, showing her at work and a display in a garden.

  194. Protest or organizing · NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill Student Peace Union symbols are painted on UNC's military buildings and the armory gun

    In one of the first antiwar acts on campus, someone painted the Student Peace Union insignia on several military buildings and on the antiaircraft gun in front of the Naval Armory.

  195. Publication, speech or performance · Institute of Government, Chapel Hill Albert Coates gives Chancellor Aycock a 158-page account of the Institute's past and needs

    Using staff tallies of thirty years of Institute publications, training and finances, Coates wrote Chancellor William B. Aycock a long report on how the Institute began and grew and what it would need. It also argued for waiving the retirement rule in his case, and it became the core of his later published history of the Institute.

  196. Founding or opening · Chapel Hill Arthur Cogswell opens his own architecture firm in Chapel Hill

    Arthur Cogswell, a UNC graduate of 1952 who trained in architecture at State College and spent the late 1950s in Don Stewart's office, opened his own Chapel Hill practice in 1962, designing flat-roofed, cantilevered houses in the spare manner he learned from George Matsumoto.

  197. Appointment, election or service · Cedar Grove School, 5800 NC 86 North, Cedar Grove Belton Edwards becomes principal of Cedar Grove School

    Belton Edwards, a South Carolina native and North Carolina A&T graduate, followed Harold Webb as principal in 1962 and stayed until 1968, when he became the first Black member of the Orange County Board of Education. George Pierce succeeded him at the school.

  198. Construction or physical change · Beta Theta Pi Fraternity House, 114 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill Beta Theta Pi builds a social hall annex and remodels its house

    In 1962 the chapter put up a frame social hall behind the house, enclosed the porte cochere, raised the south wing to match the north wing, and replaced the main stair.

  199. Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Binkley Baptist Church takes James Forbes as a student intern

    Under Robert Seymour, Binkley Memorial Baptist Church accepted James A. Forbes Jr., a Black divinity student, as its intern in 1962.

  200. Construction or physical change · NROTC Naval Armory, 221 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill Failing roof trusses at the Naval Armory are replaced with steel

    In 1962 three of the armory's wooden roof trusses failed from a design flaw and poor 1942 lumber, and scaffolding held up the drill hall roof; Clancy and Theys Construction swapped in steel trusses one at a time, finishing in 1963 at a cost of about $25,500.

  201. Construction or physical change · South campus, UNC, Chapel Hill Four high-rise dormitories go up on UNC's south campus

    Between 1962 and 1967 the firm of Graves and Toy built Craig, Ehringhaus, Morrison and Hinton James, steel-framed residence towers faced in brick and grouped around Chase Hall at the south edge of campus. Open metal balconies on the back serve as hallways to the student suites.

  202. Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill Frederick Brooks gives a guest lecture at UNC

    While working on IBM's System/360, Brooks visited UNC for an interview and a guest lecture, Ten Research Problems in Computer Science, which impressed the administration and led to the new department.

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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 October 1, 2026.

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Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026