Chronology

A sacred music society forms and an organ is ordered for the university chapel

The Raleigh Register reported a new society for the study of sacred music at the university and an organ, paid for by private gifts, already built in New York. The trustees later paid $50 to bring it to Chapel Hill.

Subject: Person Hall

E. Hunt opens a photography studio and student boarding house

Hunt took over the building that had been Isaac Partridge's University Hotel and used it for a photographic studio and rooms for students. He had closed both and left Chapel Hill before 1863.

The new Glee Club gives its first concert

The Glee Club, formed in 1891 under Professor Karl P. Harrington, gave its first concert in Gerrard Hall and then toured Raleigh, Salem, Greensboro, Durham, Wilmington and other towns, giving its profits to the athletic association.

Subject: Gerrard Hall

The university Dramatic Club takes its plays on tour

Directed by Professor Samuel May, the club staged London Assurance in Chapel Hill, Tarboro, Wilson and Wilmington and Modern Ananias in Chapel Hill, Winston-Salem, Greensboro and Reidsville.

The Glee Club first sings the song that became Hark the Sound

William Starr Myers's verses, set to the campus tune "Amici" and first called "Hail to the Brightest Star," were sung by the Glee Club at a commencement concert. Printed in the 1907 Yackety Yack, the song became the university's anthem.

Charles T. Woollen becomes the first director of the university band

Charles T. Woollen, a university administrator, became the first director of the university band in 1903 and led it until 1919. The band first performed at a university baseball game in 1904 and was giving concerts on the Alumni Building steps by 1906.

Shepperd Strudwick builds a Churton Street house designed by Ralph Adams Cram

Shepperd Strudwick built a Neoclassical Revival house on Churton Street to a design Ralph Adams Cram drew about 1904; Cram's wife Elizabeth was the sister of Strudwick's wife Susan. The site had been cleared in 1903 by moving the antebellum W. J. Bingham House down East Union Street, and the house was finished about 1908. It was later named Tamarind.

The University Dramatic Club stages a student show

On May 1, 1907, the University Dramatic Club acted a student-written show with a mock sermon and a burlesque faculty meeting. L. W. Parker was the club president.

Summer School students perform the colonial play Esther Wake

In the summer of 1912 the Summer School for Teachers presented Esther Wake, a play by instructor Adolf Vermont about colonial North Carolina, on the steps of Smith Hall.

Subject: University Summer School · Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre)

The Tar Heel Theatre opens on Franklin Street beside Strowd's garage

A new movie house run by Lindsey and Strowd opened in one of the new buildings on Franklin Street, with a balcony and modern fittings. S. J. Brockwell's new Pickwick went up in the same row.

Frederick H. Koch is hired as professor of dramatic literature

Recruited by Edwin Greenlaw from the University of North Dakota, where he had founded the Dakota Playmakers, Frederick Henry Koch signed in late May 1918 at $2,500 a year to teach dramatic literature, a title he chose. He arrived that summer meaning to build a folk drama program in North Carolina.

People: Frederick H. Koch · Edwin Greenlaw · Edward Kidder Graham

Subject: Carolina Playmakers

The Hillsborough Community Chorus formally organizes

Already singing at patriotic gatherings, the chorus organized at the Hillsborough Library on September 2, 1918, with Mrs. W. D. Benton as director, and gave the Red Cross $73 from an August concert. It later planned four concerts a year to help the Daughters of the Confederacy build a public library as a memorial to the county's Confederate soldiers.

People: Shepperd Strudwick (1868-1961)

Frederick Koch reads A Christmas Carol in Gerrard Hall

Koch brought his annual reading of Dickens's A Christmas Carol to UNC when he arrived in 1918. The Raleigh News and Observer described a 1919 reading in Gerrard Hall, with carols by university singing groups in the two intermissions, and he gave the reading 39 times on the UNC campus.

Subject: Gerrard Hall

Paul John Weaver is hired as the University's first director of music

Chase completed the hiring, begun by Graham, of Weaver of St. Louis as the first director of music, a full professor at $2,750. Chase asked him to take music education out to the state's schools, as Frederick Koch was doing with drama.

People: Harry Woodburn Chase

The Forest Theatre, an outdoor amphitheatre, is built at the edge of Battle Park

The university's open-air theatre on the western edge of Battle Park dates from 1919. It now carries the name of drama professor Frederick Koch.

Subject: Forest Theatre · Battle Park

A thunderstorm halts Esther Wake at Cameron Park during the homecoming

University Summer School students staged Adolph Vermont's play Esther Wake, on the early history of Hillsborough and Orange County, at Cameron Park for more than 5,000 people. A heavy thunderstorm stopped it in the second act.

People: Adolph Vermont · Albert Coates · N. W. Walker

Subject: University Summer School

Bayard Wootten photographs the Playmakers' outdoor Taming of the Shrew

Bayard Wootten of New Bern came to Chapel Hill to photograph the Carolina Playmakers' outdoor production of The Taming of the Shrew, the start of years of Playmakers work. That month she also urged the University to have aerial photographs made of the growing campus.

Subject: Carolina Playmakers

Hatcher Hughes wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Hatcher Hughes, a UNC graduate and former instructor in English there, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Hell-Bent fer Heaven, a play about a mountain preacher. He was then teaching at Columbia University in New York.

Fire destroys the Pickwick Theatre on Franklin Street

An early-morning fire burned the Pickwick movie theatre and the O'Kelly pressing club next door, and sparks threatened the fraternity houses nearby. Until it was rebuilt, films were shown in Gerrard Hall.

People: W. S. Roberson

Subject: Pickwick Theatre

The rebuilt Pickwick Theatre opens on Franklin Street

S. J. Brockwell's new fireproof Pickwick, built on the site of the burned one, opened with seats for 750, and crowds were turned away from the first show. W. S. Roberson ran it under lease.

People: W. S. Roberson

Subject: Pickwick Theatre

Chase keeps the University Press from publishing Collier Cobb's book on evolution

Geologist Collier Cobb had a manuscript on evolution in hand at the University of North Carolina Press. Chase wrote him that the book was good but that putting it out under the university's imprint would read to enemies as a challenge while the antievolution fight was still on. It was never published by the press.

People: Harry Woodburn Chase · Collier Cobb

Kay Kyser takes over the UNC campus band from Hal Kemp

Kay Kyser, a UNC student and cheerleader who could not read music, took over leadership of the campus dance band in 1926 when Hal Kemp graduated. The new band held its first rehearsal in Gerrard Hall.

Subject: Gerrard Hall

Bayard Wootten opens a Chapel Hill studio over Foister's store

Bayard Wootten arranged with R. W. Foister to use the upper floor of his store as a studio, making portraits there every Saturday and taking photographs in homes and outdoors. By 1928 the Wootten-Moulton Studio over Foister's was her Chapel Hill base.

Samuel Selden joins the Carolina Playmakers as technical director

After five years in New York theater, including the Provincetown Playhouse, Selden came to the University of North Carolina in 1927 as technical director of the Carolina Playmakers.

Part of The Carolina Playmakers and the founding of UNC Press · 20 events

Subject: Carolina Playmakers

W. B. Sorrell begins building a moving-picture theatre on Franklin Street

Contractor Charles Martindale began preparing the ground for the theatre on the north side of Franklin Street next to Berman's store. It was leased to Publix-Saenger Theatres and was expected to open in September 1927, with Sorrell's jewelry and optical shop in one of its two storefronts.

Press governors object to Paul Green's introduction to Congaree Sketches

Called before Chase and the press's board, assistant editor William T. Couch heard Royster and the others condemn Green's introduction, which said neither race could leave the ditch until whites gave Blacks a hand. Couch pointed out that some 150 advance copies were already out, and the book went out as printed. Six months later, at Chase's order, unsold copies went to a commercial publisher, which reprinted it without Green's introduction.

People: William T. Couch · Paul Green · Harry Woodburn Chase · James Finch Royster

Adeline McCall plays piano in a Folk Music Institute laboratory concert

The university's Institute of Folk Music held its second laboratory concert at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, December 9, 1931, in Hill Music Hall, with Lamar Stringfield on flute, Adeline McCall on piano and Thor Johnson on viola. The program included a composition by Herbert Hazelman, an Asheville freshman.

Subject: Hill Hall

The Carolina Playmakers stage a Shaw-Henderson Festival

The Carolina Playmakers held a Shaw-Henderson Festival in Chapel Hill honoring Archibald Henderson, George Bernard Shaw's authorized biographer. It featured Shaw's You Never Can Tell, the play whose 1903 amateur performance had first drawn Henderson to Shaw.

Part of The Carolina Playmakers and the founding of UNC Press · 20 events

Subject: Carolina Playmakers

Kay Kyser's band closes the May Frolics dances in the Tin Can

Kay Kyser and his orchestra, made up of former UNC students, played the formal dance that closed the fourth annual May Frolics in the Tin Can. The band also gave a benefit concert in Memorial Hall the next afternoon.

Subject: Memorial Hall

Benjamin Swalin joins the UNC music faculty

Benjamin F. Swalin, a violinist with a Vienna doctorate, took a position in the University of North Carolina's Music Department in 1935. He went on to direct the North Carolina Symphony from 1939 to 1972, and by 1946 was on indefinite leave from the department for the symphony.

People: Maxine M Swalin

Betty Smith comes to Chapel Hill with the Federal Theatre Project

The Federal Theater sent Smith to Chapel Hill in 1936 to work with Frederick H. Koch of the Carolina Playmakers. She stayed when the federal project expired, helped Koch compile American Folk Plays and took his classes for him in his absence.

People: Frederick H. Koch

Subject: Carolina Playmakers

William Meade Prince moves back to Chapel Hill to teach art

The illustrator William Meade Prince and his wife, Lillian Hughes Prince, moved from Westport, Connecticut, to Chapel Hill, where he became a lecturer in the university's art department.

People: Lillian Hughes Prince

A puppet Hansel and Gretel is staged in Adeline McCall's music series for children

The Music Club and the Parent-Teacher Association presented Hansel and Gretel, a puppet show with music, at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 9, 1936, in Hill Music Hall. It was the fifth in a series of music events for children under Adeline McCall's direction, and elementary school children sang songs from Humperdinck's opera.

Subject: Hill Hall

Betty Smith edits a collection of plays with Frederick Koch and Robert Finch

Smith coedited Plays for Schools and Little Theatres with Koch and Finch in 1937 and wrote a catalog of one-act plays.

Part of The Carolina Playmakers and the founding of UNC Press · 20 events

People: Frederick H. Koch

The old Pickwick reopens as the Pick, a second movie house under the Carolina's management

After standing empty for several years, the remodeled Pickwick reopened as the Pick under the Carolina Theatre's management, planned for second-run, foreign-language and Western films.

Subject: Pickwick Theatre

The WPA rebuilds the Forest Theatre in stone

Works Progress Administration crews remade the amphitheatre in local stone: a screen wall along Country Club Road, curved seating following the hillside, towers for lights and sound, and a rough stone stage. The present structure dates from this rebuilding.

Subject: Forest Theatre · Battle Park

Illustrator William Meade Prince and his wife Lillian build a house in Greenwood

William Meade Prince, the illustrator who taught art at the university, and his wife Lillian were building a home in the Greenwood neighborhood at the end of 1941. He lived and worked there until his death in 1951.

People: Lillian Hughes Prince

William Meade Prince becomes head of the university's art department

William Meade Prince took charge of the University of North Carolina's art department during World War II, while also making posters and drawings for wartime causes.

Frederick Koch dies and is buried in the old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Koch, who taught dramatic literature and playwriting at UNC for twenty-six years and organized the Carolina Playmakers, died on August 16, 1944 and was buried in the old Chapel Hill Cemetery. Samuel Selden succeeded him as chair of the Department of Dramatic Art and director of the Playmakers.

People: Samuel Selden

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery · Carolina Playmakers

Andy Griffith plays his first role, in The Gondoliers at Memorial Hall

Andy Griffith, who had arrived at Carolina in July 1944, auditioned on a whim and made his stage debut in a Carolina Playmakers production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers at Memorial Hall.

Subject: Memorial Hall · Carolina Playmakers

The Pick Theatre on East Franklin Street closes

The Pick Theatre shut its doors in 1946. Its building was later remodeled for J. B. Robbins's House of Fashion, a clothing store that ran until 1969.

Marinda McPherson sings a joint recital at the Orange County school auditorium

Mrs. M. D. McPherson and Galvin Lampley gave a joint recital in the Orange County school auditorium in Hillsboro. She sang The Star by James H. Rogers and Because by Guy d'Hardelot, and Lampley played De Falla and Chopin.

Swalin's newly professional North Carolina Symphony plays Memorial Hall

Benjamin Swalin brought the North Carolina Symphony to Memorial Hall after an expansion campaign that let him hire a professional orchestra for the first time. The Daily Tar Heel's critic, a longtime skeptic, wrote that it had become the most capable musical organization then playing in the state.

Subject: Memorial Hall

C. S. Cates opens a new movie theater in the old Hollywood Theatre building in West Hillsborough

Cates, a World War II veteran, remodeled the building the Hollywood Theatre had used, with new sound and projection equipment and seats, and advertised the opening for Wednesday, May 1, with a contest to name the house.

Bayard Wootten shows her Mobile photographs at Person Hall

Bayard Wootten gave a talk, A Photographer Discusses Mobile in the Spring, in the small gallery at Person Hall, where a collection of the pictures she had made in Mobile that spring was on exhibit.

Subject: Person Hall

Joel Carter directs the Chapel Hill Choral Club

Joel Carter of the university's Music Department was musical director of the Chapel Hill Choral Club, a town choir founded in 1921, for fourteen years. The club's records he kept are now at Wilson Library.

A federal appeals court awards the Ackland Trust to the university at Chapel Hill

After Duke refused Ackland's bequest, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled for UNC-Chapel Hill over Rollins College, citing the university's finances, its graduate arts program and its nearness to Duke.

Subject: Ackland Art Museum

William Meade Prince dies at his home in Greenwood

William Meade Prince, illustrator, former head of the university's art department and author of The Southern Part of Heaven, died by suicide in the studio of his Greenwood home. The Weekly wrote that the village felt the loss deeply.

UNC dedicates the Forest Theatre to Frederick Koch

In 1953 the university dedicated the stone amphitheatre in Battle Park to Koch, who had developed the site of the 1916 Shakespeare tercentenary dramas into a permanent theatre after he joined the faculty. The stone stage and seating had been rebuilt with Works Progress Administration funds in 1940.

Subject: Forest Theatre

Edmund Strudwick's portrait of C. T. Council is given to the School of Pharmacy

University President Gordon Gray presented a portrait of Durham's C. T. Council, painted by Edmund Strudwick of Hillsborough, to the UNC School of Pharmacy, where Dean E. A. Brecht accepted it at a luncheon in the Morehead building.

People: Gordon Gray · E. A. (Edward Armond) Brecht

Subject: UNC School of Pharmacy · Morehead Planetarium

Francis Vandeveer Kughler paints history murals for the Knapp Building auditorium

At Margaret Knapp's wish the Institute's new building received fourteen large murals by New York painter Francis Vandeveer Kughler, a commission put at $100,000, showing scenes from North Carolina history with living North Carolinians painted in period dress. Kughler began early in 1956, working part of the time in Person Hall on the campus, and all the panels were hung in the auditorium by the fall of 1960.

Subject: Institute of Government

Les Petites Musicales stages The Magic Flute in Hill Hall

An abridged English Magic Flute in Hill Hall used the University Glee Club under Joel Carter, who also sang Papageno, with the former Metropolitan Opera bass Norman Cordon as Sarastro.

Subject: Hill Hall

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.

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

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.

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.

Subject: Hillsborough Presbyterian Church

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.

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.

Subject: Hill Hall

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.

Subject: Carolina Playmakers

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.

Subject: Chapel Hill Public Library

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.

Lillian Hughes Prince leaves funds to the Carolina Playmakers

Lillian Hughes Prince, who had acted in thirty or more Playmakers productions, left considerable funds to the Carolina Playmakers in her will. She died in New York and was buried in Chapel Hill Cemetery.

Subject: Carolina Playmakers · Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Portrait of the late Sheriff Oddie Clayton is hung in the sheriff's office

A portrait of the late Orange County sheriff Oddie Clayton, painted by Hillsborough artist Edmund Strudwick and paid for by public subscription in a drive led by ABC Police Chief Burch Compton, was hung in the county sheriff's office before members of his family.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

Edmund Strudwick speaks against a new federal access road and bridge into Hillsborough

At a public hearing in Hillsborough on a proposed $338,000 federal project for a new access road and bridge into the town, artist Edmund Strudwick opposed it, saying he did not want more cars coming up Churton Street. The News of Orange County called the opposition thin.

Gerard Tempest opens Villa Tempesta, an arts center and café, on East Franklin Street

More than 2,000 people toured artist Gerard Tempest's Villa Tempesta, an Italian-style villa built from pieces of the old Duke and Watts mansions in Durham, at its open house; its studios and espresso café opened for regular business the following Thursday.

Edmund Strudwick finishes a portrait of retired farm agent Don S. Matheson

Hillsborough artist Edmund Strudwick finished a portrait of Don S. Matheson, who retired in 1963 after 34 years as Orange County farm agent. Paid for by public gifts, it was hung in the county agricultural building, and further gifts founded a 4-H fund.

Fire destroys Kemp Nye's record store on East Franklin Street

Kemp's record shop burned out in 1966. A Burger King later opened in a small store on the site.

Samuel Selden returns to Chapel Hill as visiting professor of dramatic art

After UCLA and Southern Illinois University, Selden came back to the Department of Dramatic Art as a visiting professor from 1967 to 1971.

Andy Griffith sets up a scholarship for Carolina drama and music students

Griffith established a scholarship fund in his name for promising dramatic art and music students at Carolina, which the university says continues today.

Marinda Dunnigan McPherson is recorded singing songs she learned from her family

McKellar Israel recorded McPherson in the fall of 1972 and the fall of 1973, singing children's games, play party songs and spirituals she learned from family members, among them songs she first recalled hearing her grandmother Marinda Hart sing about 1920. Israel also interviewed her and her husband David McPherson about community events and history.

Cat's Cradle moves to West Rosemary Street

The club left its first home, a basement room near campus, for 405½ West Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill, its second location.

Subject: Cat’s Cradle

The Carolina Theatre divides its auditorium and adds a second screen

The East Franklin movie house split its viewing area in two to show two films at once.

Subject: Carolina Theatre (1942)

Chris Stamey and Will Rigby form Sneakers

While attending UNC, Stamey teamed with drummer Will Rigby to form the power pop band Sneakers, later joined by guitarist Mitch Easter; the group played Max's Kansas City in New York in 1976 and broke up soon after.

Andy Griffith speaks at University Day in Memorial Hall

Griffith gave the University Day speech in Memorial Hall and recalled fighting back tears as he approached the building where he had first performed.

Subject: Memorial Hall

Elizabeth Cotten is named a National Heritage Fellow

The National Endowment for the Arts named Cotten, a self-taught songster and songwriter born near Chapel Hill and author of Freight Train, a 1984 National Heritage Fellow. The NEA lists her in Syracuse, New York.

Bandleader Kay Kyser is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

James Kern "Kay" Kyser (1905-1985), the bandleader, was buried in the cemetery.

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Dexter Romweber of the Flat Duo Jets lives in the backyard shack he calls the Mausoleum

At 19, the Flat Duo Jets singer and guitarist was living in a shack he had fitted out behind the Romweber family house in Carrboro, sleeping beside a coffin. The house itself, where his siblings Sara and Joe also played in bands, was known for practices and police noise complaints.

Frank Heath buys Cat's Cradle

David Robert and his partners sold the Chapel Hill club to Frank Heath and Richard Fox in 1986; Heath became sole owner in 1987 and still runs the club.

People: Frank Heath

Subject: Cat’s Cradle

Merge Records is founded in Chapel Hill

Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance started Merge in Chapel Hill in 1989, the year they formed Superchunk, to put out their own band's and friends' records on 7-inch singles and cassettes.

People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance

The Gap takes over the old Carolina Theatre on East Franklin Street

The Carolina Theatre gave way to a large Gap clothing store, one of several long-standing East Franklin businesses replaced in these years. A new Carolina Theatre opened in the corner building at Franklin and Columbia by 1994.

Subject: Carolina Theatre (1942)

Cat's Cradle opens at 206 West Franklin Street

After leaving the small 320 West Franklin Street room known as the shoebox in August 1988, the club reopened at 206 West Franklin Street, its fourth location, where it stayed until 1993.

People: Frank Heath

Subject: Cat’s Cradle

Sounds of the South conference marks the opening of UNC's Southern Folklife Collection

More than 300 collectors, folklorists, musicians and archivists met at UNC-Chapel Hill for the official opening of the Southern Folklife Collection with the John Edwards Memorial Collection. Daniel W. Patterson, who helped build the collection, was among the presenters with Alan Lomax and Mike Seeger.

People: Mike Seeger

Subject: UNC Libraries

Superchunk releases its first album

The Chapel Hill band, whose early singles had launched Merge Records, issued its self-titled debut album on Matador; Merge put out the band's later albums from Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance

Nirvana plays Cat's Cradle

Nirvana played the club's West Franklin Street room ten days after the release of Nevermind; Pearl Jam also played the Cradle in 1991, to about 100 people.

Subject: Cat’s Cradle

Local 506 opens on West Franklin Street

Glenn Boothe opened Local 506, an all-ages rock club for emerging and local bands, at 506 West Franklin Street and owned it for about a decade.

Merge Records moves into an office in Carrboro

After working out of several Chapel Hill houses, Merge took space at 120 East Main Street in Carrboro, upstairs from the Armadillo Grill; it moved to a Chapel Hill house in 1996 and to Durham in 2001.

People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance

Merge releases its first full-length, Superchunk's Tossing Seeds

The Superchunk singles collection Tossing Seeds (Singles 89–91) was Merge's first full-length release and its first CD.

People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance

Polvo releases its debut album Cor-Crane secret on Merge

The Chapel Hill quartet's first album came out on Merge in 1992, followed by Today's Active Lifestyles on Merge in 1993.

Entertainment Weekly asks whether Chapel Hill is the next Seattle

A 1993 Entertainment Weekly article proposed Chapel Hill as Seattle's successor and questioned whether Superchunk wanted the role; Rolling Stone the same year floated Superchunk as the next Nirvana.

People: Mac McCaughan

Squirrel Nut Zippers form near Chapel Hill

Jim Mathus and Katharine Whalen, who had moved from Chapel Hill to a farmhouse in Efland, started the band in summer 1993, played their first show that November and signed with Mammoth Records in 1994.

Details magazine profiles the scene as "Chapel Hill-billies"

Details followed Spin with a February 1993 piece on the town's bands, and Time the same year named Chapel Hill as a possible alternative-rock boomtown.

Cat's Cradle closes its last Franklin Street location

The owners of the building at 206 West Franklin Street sold to a developer, and the club scheduled its last show there for May 19; Frank Heath then spent about six months looking for a new site.

People: Frank Heath

Subject: Cat’s Cradle

Archers of Loaf release their debut album Icky Mettle

The Chapel Hill band's first album came out on Alias Records; Merge later reissued it with bonus material.

John Dee Holeman and Joe and Odell Thompson open UNC's bicentennial folk heritage series

Bluesman and buckdancer John Dee Holeman and the Mebane string band duo Joe and Odell Thompson opened From the Outer Banks to the Blue Ridge: A Celebration of North Carolina's Folk Heritage at 2 p.m. on March 23, 1994, in Person Hall. The free series was part of UNC's Bicentennial Observance.

People: Joe Thompson

Subject: Person Hall

Ben Folds Five release their debut album

The piano trio, formed in Chapel Hill around 1993, issued its self-titled first album on the independent Caroline label, then signed with Sony's 550 Music, which released Whatever and Ever Amen in 1997.

People: Ben Folds

Squirrel Nut Zippers release Hot on Mammoth Records

The band's second album and its single "Hell" reached the national charts during the swing revival, and Hot went platinum.

Disney buys Carrboro's Mammoth Records

The Walt Disney Company announced its purchase of the Carrboro-based independent label for about $25 million, and founder Jay Faires signed a long-term employment contract.

Orange County commissioners take up a request to name the Morgan Creek bridge for James Taylor

The Orange County Board of Commissioners was set to vote on a resolution asking the state Board of Transportation to name the U.S. 15-501 bridge over Morgan Creek in Chapel Hill after James Taylor. Alan E. Rimer made the request for the Chapel Hill Museum board, which was planning an exhibition on Taylor.

Subject: Chapel Hill Museum

The U.S. 15-501 bridge over Morgan Creek is named the James Taylor Bridge

The 1987 bridge on U.S. 15-501 South, a mile from Taylor's boyhood home, was named the James Taylor Bridge at a public ceremony at the Dean Smith Center held by the N.C. Department of Transportation and the Chapel Hill Museum. Taylor attended.

Subject: Chapel Hill Museum

John Dee Holeman plays a free blues concert at Graham Memorial

John Dee Holeman, accompanied by Billy Stevens, played a free noon concert at Graham Memorial on September 30, 2004, in the Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence's Thursdays on the Terrace series. Many of that semester's concerts tied in with William Ferris's course on Southern music.

People: William R. Ferris

Subject: Graham Memorial

Andy Griffith gives his career memorabilia to Wilson Library

Griffith donated his collection of career memorabilia, including a guitar, to the Southern Historical Collection at Wilson Library, the same year he was among the first three recipients of the Carolina Performing Arts Lifetime Achievement Award.

Subject: UNC Libraries

A state highway marker for Billy Strayhorn goes up in 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.

Lightnin' Wells and John Dee Holeman play the Hillsborough Arts Council's Traditional Music Series

The Hillsborough Arts Council's 2007 Traditional Music Series presented Lightnin' Wells and John Dee Holeman at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 24, 2007, at the Masonic Lodge, 142 West King Street, in downtown Hillsborough.

Subject: Eagle Lodge

Merge Records marks its 20th anniversary with the XX Merge festival

The label held four nights at Cat's Cradle and a finale at UNC's Memorial Hall, with film screenings at the Ackland Art Museum and a free show at the Orange County Social Club in Carrboro.

People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance

Subject: Memorial Hall · Cat’s Cradle · Ackland Art Museum

First Big Star's Third concert is staged at Cat's Cradle

Stamey served as musical director for a live staging of Big Star's 1975 album Third, which debuted at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro before later shows in London and at South by Southwest in 2012.

Subject: Cat’s Cradle

James Taylor wins the National Medal of Arts

The White House named James Taylor among the 2010 National Medal of Arts recipients for his contributions to American music, citing his voice, his guitar playing and his catalogue of songs. President Obama presented the medals at the White House on March 2, 2011.

UNC graduates wear Alexander Julian's true-blue recycled gowns

UNC's new commencement gowns, designed by Alexander Julian in true Carolina blue with white piping and made from recycled plastic bottles in North and South Carolina mills, were first worn at the May 2011 Commencement.

Cat's Cradle opens the Back Room

The club added a second room holding about 200 people beside its main hall at 300 East Main Street.

People: Frank Heath

Subject: Cat’s Cradle

Merge Records holds its 25th anniversary festival in Carrboro

Merge marked 25 years with a festival built around Cat's Cradle, ending with an outdoor show in the club's parking lot that organizers expected to draw about 3,000 people after the indoor nights sold out. Passes were sold through the Cat's Cradle website.

Part of The Cat’s Cradle and the “Chapel Hill sound” of the 1990s · 27 events

People: Mac McCaughan

Subject: Cat’s Cradle

Frank Heath tells the Carrboro Board of Aldermen that the Cat's Cradle has outgrown its building

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.

People: Lydia Lavelle

Subject: Cat’s Cradle · The ArtsCenter

James Taylor wins the Presidential Medal of Freedom

The White House named James Taylor among the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom for more than 40 years of recording and touring, citing his baritone voice and his guitar playing.

Patrick Dougherty builds A Sight to Behold on the Hillsborough Riverwalk

The Hillsborough Arts Council commissioned the stickwork sculpture, which Dougherty built along the Riverwalk with about 190 volunteers from saplings gathered at Ayr Mount and in the Waterstone development.

Patrick Dougherty builds Step Right Up at the Ackland Art Museum

The Ackland commissioned five stickwork vessels for its front lawn, built by Dougherty with 188 volunteers from maple and gum saplings harvested in Duke Forest and on Triangle Land Conservancy land.

Subject: Ackland Art Museum

Snow collapses the dome of the Riverwalk stickwork sculpture

Winter Storm Diego brought down the dome of A Sight to Behold after about three years on the Riverwalk, and the Hillsborough Arts Council planned a send-off during its Solstice Lantern Walk on December 21.

Hillsborough holds a celebration of Billy Strayhorn

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.

Subject: Burwell School · Orange County Public Library

Merge Records holds its 30th anniversary festival at Cat's Cradle and in Durham

More than 30 acts from the label's roster played MRG30 over four days. The Carrboro nights were at Cat's Cradle, where Superchunk closed the Thursday bill at midnight, and the opening night and after party were in Durham. Fans held a potluck and kickball game at Wilson Park in Carrboro on the Friday.

Part of The Cat’s Cradle and the “Chapel Hill sound” of the 1990s · 27 events

People: Mac McCaughan

Subject: Cat’s Cradle

A mural for Billy Strayhorn is painted on South Churton Street

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.

Chapel Hill creates a poet laureate post and names CJ Suitt the first

The Chapel Hill Town Council voted to launch a poet laureate program, initiated by council members Rachel Schaevitz and Allen Buansi, and appointed CJ Suitt as the first. He took up the role in January 2020, and the town stretched the two-year term to three because of the pandemic.

Cat's Cradle marks 50 years with an anniversary concert series

The "Cat's Cradle Turns 50" series put 50 acts on stage over six nights at the Carrboro club.

People: Frank Heath

Subject: Cat’s Cradle

Cat's Cradle plays its last shows before the pandemic shutdown

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.

Part of COVID-19 in Orange County, 2020–2022 · 31 events

Subject: Cat’s Cradle

North Carolina musicians release Cover Charge to benefit the Cat's Cradle

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.

Part of The Cat’s Cradle and the “Chapel Hill sound” of the 1990s · 27 events

Subject: Cat’s Cradle

Carrboro honors Jacquelyn Gist after 32 years on its governing board

Gist, who lost her seat in the 2021 municipal election, was honored by the council for more than three decades of service. Kept away by COVID-19 concerns, she sent a recorded statement saying she had spent 32 years working so that everyone who came to Carrboro would feel the same sense of place and home she had found there.

Chapel Hill's new visitor welcome center opens with a recorded welcome from James Taylor

The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau opened its welcome center at 308 West Franklin Street with a 10-foot LED screen showing a nine-minute video in which James Taylor talks about "Carolina in My Mind" and performs it.

UNC awards Alexander Julian an honorary Doctor of Arts

At Spring Commencement, UNC-Chapel Hill gave Alexander Julian, a Chapel Hill native who entered with the Class of 1969 and designed the argyle basketball uniforms, an honorary Doctor of Arts, one of six honorary degrees that year.

Merge Records marks 35 years with four shows at Cat's Cradle

Merge celebrated its 35th anniversary with four shows at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, the club that had held its earlier anniversary festivals, in the same year the label was named to the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.

People: Mac McCaughan

Subject: Cat’s Cradle