Chronology

UNC renovates the Naval Armory to house all three ROTC branches

After a 1993 push from the Army and Air Force units, the university chose to keep the aging armory and spent more than $400,000 refitting it for Navy, Army and Air Force ROTC, closing the rifle range, cleaning up lead found there, and enclosing much of the drill deck for offices.

UNC wins the Sears Directors' Cup

Carolina won the Sears Directors' Cup for its all-sports record under athletics director John Swofford, the only ACC program to win the award.

Perry Deane Young speaks at Chapel Hill High School after gay-authored books are pulled from a reading list

After four gay- and lesbian-authored books were pulled from an English teacher’s multicultural reading list at Chapel Hill High School, Young and author Susan Johnson spoke at an evening program there and joined a panel. The Orange Lesbian and Gay Association and Many Voices, One Community sponsored it.

People: Mike Nelson

Subject: Chapel Hill High School

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

Carrboro Board of Aldermen votes to help fund a branch library at McDougle

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

Subject: McDougle School · Orange County Public Library

The Few's Ford site near Hillsborough joins the Study List

The state archaeology branch presented Few's Ford, outside Hillsborough, with two sites in Cabarrus and Davidson counties, and on April 14, 1994 the committee approved all three for the Study List. The minutes record no discussion of Few's Ford itself.

The Old Chapel Hill Cemetery is listed in the National Register

On June 3, 1994 the National Park Service listed the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery in Chapel Hill in the National Register of Historic Places.

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Carrboro Board of Aldermen adopts a domestic partnership registry

The Board voted unanimously to amend the Town Code so that statements of domestic partnership could be filed with the Town Clerk, set the effective date at October 11, 1994, added a $40 registration fee, and extended the financial disclosure required of elected officials to cover their domestic partners. The Board took no action on a third proposal to extend health insurance benefits to domestic partners of town employees.

People: Mike Nelson · Jacquelyn Gist · Ellie Kinnaird

Merge Records has its office in Carrboro

Merge Records had its office in Carrboro on Main Street, a few steps from the Armadillo Grill, where Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance ran the label. Merge had started in Ballance's spare room in Chapel Hill, and in 2001 McCaughan and Ballance bought a building in downtown Durham for it.

People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance

Owens 501 Diner is honored for turning a former gas station into a diner

The Chapel Hill Appearance Commission recognized Owens 501 Diner at a Town Council meeting for the creative reuse of a commercial building, a rehabilitated gas station made into a diner. The diner was advertising for staff in all positions in November 1992.

UNC hires Jenny Levy to start its women's lacrosse program

Carolina added women's lacrosse as a varsity sport and in October 1994 named Levy, then an assistant coach at Georgetown, its first head coach. She is still the only head coach the program has had.

People: John Swofford

Charles and Lucile McDougle Middle School is dedicated

The middle school that opened in the fall of 1994 was officially named the Charles and Lucile McDougle Middle School and dedicated on November 6, 1994. The school's history says McDougle was a teacher, principal and central office administrator in a career of more than forty years, and that Lucile McDougle taught for more than forty years.

Subject: McDougle School

A new A. L. Stanback Middle School opens south of Hillsborough

Orange County opened a new A. L. Stanback Middle School just south of town, carrying the name of the old Central High principal to a new building.

People: A. L. Stanback

An old frame store on South Hillsborough Avenue is torn down

An earlier frame store building at 219 South Hillsborough Avenue was demolished in 1995, and a one-and-a-half-story house was built on the site the next year.

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

Chapel Hill creates a domestic partner registry

The Town of Chapel Hill established a domestic partner registry in 1995, the year after Carrboro adopted its own. The Town added sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression to its employment protections in 2004.

Charles Kuralt receives the Charles Frankel Prize

The National Endowment for the Humanities gave Charles Kuralt the Charles Frankel Prize, the award now called the National Humanities Medal, for chronicling American life for CBS News, above all in his On the Road reports.

Elson Floyd serves as UNC's first executive vice chancellor

Chancellor Michael Hooker hired Floyd in 1995 for the newly created post of executive vice chancellor, overseeing auxiliary services, facilities, business and finance, human resources, information technology, student affairs and university advancement. He left in 1998 to become president of Western Michigan University.

People: Michael Hooker

First annual Occaneechi powwow on the Eno planned for downtown Hillsborough

John Jeffries planned the first annual powwow on the Eno River in downtown Hillsborough. The band now holds its annual powwow and fall festival on its tribal land in Alamance County.

People: John Blackfeather Jeffries

Friends run a community art gallery in the Carrboro Branch Library

Soon after the Carrboro Branch Library opened in 1995 in the shared McDougle schools media center, the Friends of the Carrboro Branch Library set up a gallery for two-dimensional art, run by a volunteer art committee, with shows running by about 1997. By 2015 it had shown more than 1,750 local artists in more than 60 exhibitions, and by the time the branch closed in 2022 it had shown more than 2,000.

Subject: Orange County Public Library · McDougle School

Gold family donates future park land

The donation supplied land later developed as Gold Park.

Hillsborough builds a new police station on North Churton Street

The Hillsborough Police Department moves into a new two-story brick building at 127 North Churton Street in 1995; it was going up during the 1994 survey.

John Blackfeather Jeffries serves as chairman of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation

Jeffries chaired the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation from 1995 to 2000 and remained on its tribal council through 2020.

N.C. Neurosciences Hospital opens at UNC Hospitals

The N.C. Neurosciences Hospital opened in 1995 as a specialized hospital within the UNC Hospitals complex in Chapel Hill.

Subject: UNC Medical Center (N.C. Memorial Hospital)

Orange County ends bookmobile service to fund the Carrboro branch

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

Subject: McDougle School · Orange County Public Library

Poet Alan Shapiro joins the UNC English faculty

Poet Alan Shapiro began teaching at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1995. He became Kenan Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing and later retired as professor emeritus.

Randall Kenan returns to UNC as a visiting professor

Kenan, who decided on a writing career in UNC English classes, came back to Chapel Hill in 1995 as a visiting professor, and read that February in the Second Sunday series at Wilson Library.

Subject: UNC Libraries

William Ferris receives the Charles Frankel Prize

The National Endowment for the Humanities gave William R. Ferris the Charles Frankel Prize, the award now called the National Humanities Medal, as director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and a scholar of the American South.

Yonni Chapman founds the Freedom Legacy Project at UNC

While a UNC history graduate student, Chapman founded and directed the Freedom Legacy Project, a student group that documented the history of racial justice struggles at the university and publicly questioned the Silent Sam statue and the naming of Saunders Hall.

Part of Silent Sam · 15 events

Annie Dillard is UNC's Morgan Family Writer-in-Residence

Dillard spent a week at UNC in the English department's Morgan Family Writer-in-Residence program, meeting creative writing students and giving a free public reading in Memorial Hall on February 1. The Daily Tar Heel reported a full house.

Subject: Memorial Hall

The Alexander Hogan Plantation site in Duke Forest joins the Study List

The state archaeology branch presented the plantation site in Duke Forest on April 13, 1995. Members observed that such sites were not unique but were becoming rare, and that Duke's long ownership had kept this one undisturbed; the committee approved it unanimously.

Subject: Duke land purchases in Orange County

A Lustron house on Stephens Street joins the Study List

On July 13, 1995 the committee placed the Lustron house at 109 Stephens Street in Chapel Hill on the Study List. Discussion turned to how many intact Lustron houses survived in North Carolina and whether a statewide count was needed; staff noted that intact examples in other states had been nominated under the exception for buildings less than fifty years old.

Subject: Williams Lustron House (109 Stephens Street)

Commission of Indian Affairs recognition committee votes to deny the Occaneechi petition

The Recognition Committee of the NC Commission of Indian Affairs voted to deny state recognition, finding the petitioners had not met five of the eight required criteria. The band then sought a contested case hearing, filed January 3, 1996.

Michael Hooker is inaugurated as chancellor at Chapel Hill

Hooker, who took office on July 1, 1995, was inaugurated on University Day. A Hugh Morton photograph records university president C. D. Spangler at the ceremony in Chapel Hill.

People: C. D. Spangler Jr.

The first Douglass Hunt Lecture is given at UNC

Carolina Seminars held its first Douglass Hunt Lecture on October 23, 1995, honoring Hunt's service to the university. Chancellor Paul Hardin spoke of him there.

UNC razes the Michie House, the last private home on campus, for parking

Demolition crews took down Sallie Markham Michie's house at South Columbia Street and Cameron Avenue three weeks after a judge ordered it sold to UNC by eminent domain. Michie had willed it to the DAR and the Magna Carta Dames on condition it never go to the University; the state paid the two groups $550,000.

Mike Nelson is sworn in as mayor of Carrboro

At the Board of Aldermen meeting of December 5, 1995, outgoing mayor Eleanor Kinnaird gave closing remarks and Mayor-elect Michael R. Nelson took the oath of office, along with aldermen-elect Jay Bryan, Hilliard Caldwell and Alex Zaffron. The Board then appointed Diana McDuffee to the alderman seat Nelson vacated.

People: Mike Nelson · Ellie Kinnaird · Hilliard Caldwell · Diana McDuffee

A chancellor's task force recommends sprinklers and alarms in every fraternity and sorority house

After the Phi Gamma Delta fire, the Chancellor's Committee on Greek Affairs Fire Safety Task Force reported that all Greek houses should have sprinkler systems and alarms.

A hurricane destroys the old Thomas Cox Ellis wing of the Dr. C. M. Hughes House

The mid-1800s frame house of Thomas Cox Ellis, kept as the kitchen ell when his son-in-law Dr. Claude M. Hughes built his larger house beside it in 1912, was destroyed by a hurricane in 1996.

Allan Gurganus is a visiting scholar at UNC's Institute for the Arts and Humanities

Gurganus spent 1996 as a visiting fellow of UNC's Institute for the Arts and Humanities and presented at the institute's symposium Echoes of Home, Imitations of Return in Hill Hall that October.

Subject: Hill Hall

Black public works employees bring a discrimination charge against the Town of Chapel Hill

The Black Public Works Association, with the NAACP's help, filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging racial discrimination in promotions, pay and training in Chapel Hill's Public Works Department, where about 75 of some 110 employees were Black and none were managers. The EEOC assigned an investigator in the summer of 1996.

People: Cal Horton

Ellie Kinnaird is elected to the North Carolina Senate

Kinnaird left the Carrboro mayor's office for the state Senate, where she sat from 1997 until 2013 representing a district that included Orange County. She had earned a law degree from North Carolina Central University while serving as mayor.

Farmers’ Market moves to Town Commons

The market opened at its new town-center site.

Subject: Carrboro Farmers’ Market

Hillsborough Elementary School opens in the old Central High buildings as the county's first year-round school

After standing closed for several years, the former Central High campus on North Nash Street reopened in 1996 as Hillsborough Elementary School, the first year-round school in Orange County.

Subject: Central High and Central Elementary, Hillsborough

Maple View Farm builds a creamery and begins bottling its own milk

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

Perry Deane Young writes a column for the Chapel Hill Herald

Young, a Vietnam War correspondent and author, wrote a column for the Chapel Hill Herald from 1996 to 2003.

RTPnet puts a public Internet computer in the Orange County Public Library

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

Subject: Orange County Public Library

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.

The 1920s Orange County Jail on Court Street is greatly enlarged

The Neoclassical Orange County Jail at 125-131 Court Street, built in 1926 facing the courthouse with the deputy's apartment upstairs, is enlarged in 1996 with a series of flat-roofed wings reaching back to East Margaret Lane.

Subject: Orange County jail, Hillsborough

The Hub closes after 37 years on East Franklin Street

Robert Rosenbacher's men's clothing store, open since 1959, shut in 1996 and a Starbucks coffee shop moved into its space.

The Village Companies sells WCHL to Curtis Media Group

The Village Companies sold WCHL, then the smallest of its dozen or so media outlets, to Curtis Media Group, which paired it with Durham's WDNC and moved it out of Chapel Hill.

Subject: WCHL radio

State reviewers back the Hogan Plantation site nomination over Orange County's objection

After a September 12, 1995 hearing, the Orange County Historic Preservation Commission found the Duke Forest site ineligible, and the county commissioners agreed, while the tract was under study for a new county landfill. That kept the nomination from the committee in October 1995 until Duke Forest appealed. On January 10, 1996 the committee heard the case, one member questioned whether landfill politics had shaped the county's finding, and it approved the nomination unanimously for the Keeper to decide.

Subject: Duke land purchases in Orange County

The News and Observer runs a series on the end of the Hogan family dairy near Carrboro

Sally Hicks's four-part series followed the Hogan family as they gave up their 450-acre dairy near Carrboro, long in the family, and turned it into a housing subdivision.

Chapel Hill Town Council recommends site OC-17 beside the Eubanks Road landfill for the next county landfill

After the search narrowed to four sites judged permittable, the council voted 7 to 2 to recommend a reduced site OC-17, adjacent to the existing landfill, as the county's next sanitary landfill. INDY Week reports that the county commissioners and the Hillsborough board also voted for it that month, with Carrboro Mayor Mike Nelson opposed.

People: Mike Nelson

Chapel Hill authorizes buying land beside the landfill to widen its buffer

The council unanimously authorized the town manager to buy the 4.05-acre Wilson property adjoining the Eubanks Road landfill at $6,000 an acre to expand a minimal buffer, subject to approval by Carrboro and Orange County.

Fire at the Phi Gamma Delta house kills several students

Early on the morning of May 12, 1996, commencement day, fire swept the Phi Gamma Delta house on West Cameron Avenue, across from the Carolina Inn, and killed five students; three more were hurt. The house had no sprinklers, and the deaths pushed the university and the Greek houses to take fire safety seriously.

Four governing boards hold a unified public hearing on a new landfill next to the Eubanks Road site

The Orange County commissioners, Chapel Hill council, Carrboro aldermen and Hillsborough commissioners took comment on site 17 and three alternatives. Neighbours including David Caldwell, Kathy Schinley and Cornelius Kirschner spoke against it, B.B. Olive presented a 39-signature petition, and Frank Emory, representing Duke University, said the poorest residents lived nearest site 17.

People: David Caldwell Jr.

Frances Hargraves carries the Olympic torch down Franklin Street

The 1996 Olympic torch relay passed through Chapel Hill and Carrboro on its way to Atlanta. Frances Hargraves, 82, a retired special education teacher chosen as one of five Chapel Hill Community Heroes, took the flame from Chuck Stone at Columbia Street and carried it down Franklin Street.

People: Chuck Stone

The Historic District Commission approves tearing down the McDade House after a one-year delay

Chapel Hill's Historic District Commission granted University Baptist Church a certificate of appropriateness to demolish the brick McDade House, the last house still standing on that end of Franklin Street, but held off demolition for a year so preservationists could try to save it.

Subject: University Baptist Church

McDougle Elementary School opens on the shared McDougle campus

McDougle Elementary School, named like the middle school for Charles and Lucille McDougle, opened on August 20, 1996 and shares its campus with McDougle Middle School.

Subject: McDougle School

Hurricane Fran causes about 29,000 power outages in Chapel Hill

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

Hurricane Fran fells old trees on UNC's north campus

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

Subject: McCorkle Place (with the Davie Poplar)

Mayor Rosemary Waldorf declares a state of emergency in Chapel Hill after Hurricane Fran

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

OWASA issues a boil-water advisory after Hurricane Fran knocks out its pumping

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

The Eno River at Hillsborough reaches its highest recorded flow during Hurricane Fran

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

UNC suspends afternoon classes for a campuswide Hurricane Fran cleanup

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

People: Michael Hooker

Subject: The Old Well

A 70-foot oak weakened by Hurricane Fran falls on Venable Hall

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

People: Elson S. Floyd

Subject: Venable Hall

Carrboro aldermen take up a tree-cutter registration plan after Hurricane Fran scams

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

People: Mike Nelson · Hilliard Caldwell

Ben Folds Five record Whatever and Ever Amen at Folds's Chapel Hill home

After a summer on the Lollapalooza tour, the band recorded its second album in the small living room of Folds's Chapel Hill house with producer Caleb Southern. The album went on to sell more than a million copies.

Chapel Hill building inspectors count homes destroyed and damaged by Hurricane Fran

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

Duke Forest closes and salvages timber after Hurricane Fran

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

Subject: Duke land purchases in Orange County

Orange Regional Landfill takes Hurricane Fran yard waste free as Chapel Hill faces tens of thousands of tons of debris

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

People: Cal Horton

Jones Grove names its fellowship hall for the Brooks family

The congregation named its 1991 fellowship hall in honor of the Brooks family, who had founded, led and given land to the church.

Subject: Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church

The Botanical Garden gives William Lanier Hunt its Flora Caroliniana Award

The North Carolina Botanical Garden presented Hunt with its Flora Caroliniana Award as founder of the Botanical Garden Foundation, land donor and supporter of the garden, the day before he died.

Subject: North Carolina Botanical Garden

Allan Gurganus and Marly Youmans sign books to fund a Habitat for Humanity house

Hillsborough novelist Allan Gurganus and Carrboro author Marly Youmans signed books at the Intimate Bookshop in Eastgate, with 15 percent of the evening's sales going to a new Habitat for Humanity house sponsored by seven fraternities and sororities and four parishes.

Subject: The Intimate Bookshop

UNC tears down the Scuttlebutt, the wartime Navy canteen

The Scuttlebutt snack bar at Cameron Avenue and South Columbia Street, built as a Pre-Flight School canteen, was razed after more than fifty years of feeding students.

Subject: The Scuttlebutt

Assembly of Governments agrees compensation items for neighbors of the landfill

Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro met as an Assembly of Governments in 1997 to take up benefits for people living near the Orange Regional Landfill and agreed a set of compensation items. In 2007 Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton wrote that not all of them had been carried out.

People: Mark Chilton

Beta Theta Pi alumni begin renovating the chapter house

Following an alumni capital campaign, work began in 1997 to bring the 1929 house up to code while keeping its plan and original materials; architect and Beta alumnus Arthur Cogswell Jr. led it, and the Betas were the first fraternity to add a sprinkler system after the 1996 fire.

People: Arthur Cogswell

Subject: Beta Theta Pi Fraternity House

Occaneechi Band members build a replica village on the Eno in Hillsborough

Tribal members led by John "Blackfeather" Jeffries built a replica of the palisaded Occaneechi village beside the Eno River in Hillsborough, modelled on the site excavated by UNC archaeologists. The village fell into disrepair and was dismantled in 2003.

People: John Blackfeather Jeffries

Orange County Public Library offers English as a second language classes

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

Subject: Orange County Public Library

Orange County chooses to keep expanding the Eubanks Road landfill instead of opening a new site

With site OC-17 blocked, the county announced it would expand the existing landfill rather than close it. A new construction and demolition landfill was later built on the north side of Eubanks Road.

Valerie Foushee is elected to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board

Foushee was elected to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro city schools board in 1997 and served until 2004, pressing for equity in the schools. It was the first of the local offices she held over 25 years in local and state government.

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

Chapel Hill's Town Council votes to move the McDade House to a town parking lot

After months of debate, the Town Council voted unanimously to move the McDade House off University Baptist Church's land to Parking Lot 5, between Franklin, Church and Rosemary streets, to save it from demolition.

Subject: University Baptist Church

Mary Claire Engstrom dies

Mary Claire Engstrom, born in Kansas City in 1906, died on May 20, 1997. She had lived in Hillsborough and continued her historical research there until her death.

Mayor Mike Nelson proclaims June Lesbian and Gay Pride Month in Carrboro

At the Board of Aldermen meeting of June 3, 1997, Mayor Michael Nelson issued a proclamation naming June Lesbian and Gay Pride Month in the Town of Carrboro.

People: Mike Nelson

Carrboro aldermen vote to buy the Carrboro Baptist Church property

After months of talks, the Board of Aldermen voted 5 to 2 to buy the church at Greensboro and Main streets, with room for the police and recreation departments. The town remade it as the Century Center, with the sanctuary as a hall seating about 250.

Subject: Carrboro Baptist Church (Century Center)

The McDade House is taken apart brick by brick and carted away from West Franklin Street

When it could not be moved whole before the church's deadline, the McDade House was dismantled piece by piece under a plan approved by the Historic District Commission and paid for by real estate appraiser Tom Heffner. The work finished on July 11, 1997, and the parts went into storage in Franklinton to await rebuilding on the town lot.

Chapel Hill approves digging on the Neville Tract to build new landfill cells

The council voted 9 to 0 for a special use permit letting the Orange Regional Landfill take earth from the Neville Tract to build containment cells and for daily cover, with access across landfill property to Eubanks Road. Work was to begin by 1999 and end by 2007.

Reviewers deny the OWASA Jones Ferry Road water plant a place on the Study List

The Orange Water and Sewer Authority's Jones Ferry Road Water Treatment Plant was among five central region requests on July 10, 1997. Staff recommended denial because of modern alterations, and the committee accepted the staff recommendations without separate discussion of the plant.

Charles Kuralt is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Kuralt died on July 4, 1997 and was buried on the UNC campus in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. About 1,600 people attended a memorial service in Memorial Hall, where Hugh Morton and William C. Friday spoke.

People: William C. Friday

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery · Memorial Hall

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.

William C. Friday receives the National Humanities Medal

President Clinton and Hillary Clinton presented Friday with one of the first National Humanities Medals. The NEH cited him as president emeritus of the University of North Carolina, which he led from 1956 to 1986, and executive director of the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trusts.

People: Bill Clinton

The Carr family cabin near Hillsborough joins the Study List

The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Carr family cabin near Hillsborough on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.

A bronze statue of James K. Polk is dedicated on University Day

A bronze statue by the Marshville sculptor Stephen H. Smith, showing Polk as a young man speaking to a crowd and standing on a carved outline of the United States, was dedicated on University Day 1997.

Duke University easement to NASA stalls landfill candidate site OC-17

Chapel Hill's manager reported that Duke University had filed an easement in favor of NASA on candidate site OC-17, leaving the towns unable to test the land. The council voted 8 to 0 to have the town attorney write to the U.S. Attorney and called an Assembly of Governments for October 22, 1997.

People: Cal Horton

Jenrette's preservation trust buys the Occoneechee Speedway site

Preservation North Carolina, which had bought the old speedway from France Staley, LLC in June 1997, sold it to the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust under protective deed restrictions.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Former UNC police officer C. E. Swain sues the university

Alan McSurely filed suit for C. E. Swain, a fired UNC police officer, alleging discrimination and violation of his constitutional rights; Swain said he came under pressure after ticketing the daughter of trustee Billy Armfield. The two asked the Black Student Movement for support the next day.

People: Michael Hooker

A Knapp Foundation gift funds an addition, renamed the Knapp-Sanders Building

The Knapp Foundation contributed to a large addition to the Institute of Government building, and the name was extended to honor John Lassiter Sanders, the Institute's second director.

People: John L. Sanders

Subject: Institute of Government

General Assembly creates the UNC Health Care System

Legislation in 1998 created the UNC Health Care System, bringing UNC Hospitals and the clinical work of the School of Medicine under one entity.

Subject: UNC School of Medicine · UNC Medical Center (N.C. Memorial Hospital)

Hillsborough annexes Daniel Boone Village and Boone Square

About 76 acres of Freeland's South Churton Street complex came into the town limits in 1998, by which time many of its buildings stood empty and the land was seen as ready for redevelopment.

Subject: Daniel Boone Village

Orange County buys 39 acres to expand the park at Cedar Grove

The county bought thirty-nine acres behind the old Cedar Grove School to enlarge its recreation park.

Subject: Cedar Grove schools

Project HomeStart opens

Project HomeStart, transitional housing for homeless families on Homestead Road, opened in 1998 as a joint project of the Inter-Faith Council and the Orange County/Durham Coalition for Battered Women. By October it housed five families; it now runs as IFC's HomeStart shelter for women and families.

Subject: Inter-Faith Council for Social Service

Sara Foster opens a Chapel Hill branch of Foster's Market

Sara Foster opened a second Foster's Market at 750 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Chapel Hill as an expansion of her Durham restaurant.

Thomas S. Rankin buys the Ira Ellis House

Thomas S. Rankin bought the Ellis house and its mostly wooded 60-acre tract on the Eno, where he lives with his wife Jill McCorkle. The owners later paid for a history of the house (2012) that the state's 2016 survey drew on.

People: Jill McCorkle

Subject: Rev. Ira Ellis House (Little Ayr Mount)

Wallace Kuralt closes the Intimate Bookshop's East Franklin Street store

Forced to cut back, Kuralt gave up all but one of his Intimate Bookshops, and the one he kept was not the long-time store at 119 East Franklin. The empty building was to be remodeled for a Sephora cosmetics shop.

Subject: The Intimate Bookshop

West Chapel Hill joins the Study List as a historic district

The National Register Advisory Committee placed the West Chapel Hill neighborhood as a historic district on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register. It came to the committee as a public request.

The University Laundry is renamed for housekeeping leaders Kennon Cheek and Rebecca Clark

On January 28, 1998 the trustees voted to rename the 1920s University Laundry for Kennon Cheek and Rebecca Clark, who led campus housekeepers in the 1930s and 1940s. The building was rededicated on September 17, 1998.

People: Rebecca Clark · Kennon Cheek

Kevin Callaghan opens Acme Food and Beverage Company at 110 East Main Street in Carrboro

Acme opened in the old Lloyd-Ray Hardware building about March 1998; that November its owner, Kevin Callaghan, joined the yearly RSVVP restaurant fundraiser for the first time. By 2005 it was known for cooking with local and organic ingredients.

The Earnhardt family gives Triangle Land Conservancy an easement on the Andrews farm

Jean and John Earnhardt, Troy and Robin Andrews's daughter and son-in-law, and their sons' families donated a conservation easement to Triangle Land Conservancy in March 1998, protecting 120 acres of the old Andrews farm around Bolin Creek from development.

Subject: Bolin Brook Farm (Troy and Roberta Andrews House)

Annie Dillard joins the Rubin writers panel at the North Carolina Literary Festival

At the North Carolina Literary Festival at UNC, Dillard sat on a panel of writers who had studied under Louis Rubin, with Lee Smith, Katie Letcher Lyle, Margaret Gibson, Sylvia Wilkinson and Elizabeth Seydel Morgan, in Hamilton Hall.

People: Lee Smith · Louis D. Rubin Jr. · Sylvia Wilkinson

Elizabeth Spencer reads in Memorial Hall at the North Carolina Literary Festival

Spencer gave a program in Memorial Hall on the Saturday of the North Carolina Literary Festival at UNC, sponsored by the Center for the Study of the American South.

Subject: Memorial Hall

The Cedar Grove Rural Crossroads Historic District is listed in the National Register

On April 23, 1998 the National Park Service listed the Cedar Grove Rural Crossroads Historic District in Cedar Grove in the National Register of Historic Places.

State and university leaders welcome UNC President Molly Broad at a dinner in Chapel Hill

On the eve of her inauguration as the 15th president of the UNC system, hundreds of state and university leaders, including Gov. Jim Hunt and former presidents Bill Friday and C. D. Spangler, gathered at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center to welcome Molly Corbett Broad.

People: William C. Friday · C. D. Spangler Jr.

Mike Fox is named UNC head baseball coach

Athletic director Dick Baddour hired Fox, a former Tar Heel second baseman, as the 24th head coach in UNC baseball history. He came from 15 seasons at N.C. Wesleyan College and took over before the 1999 season.

Jeffery Beam writes Song of the University Worker for the trustees

Beam, then vice chair of the UNC-Chapel Hill Employee Forum, wrote the poem for the forum's presentation to the university's Board of Trustees on May 28, 1998.

Elson Floyd receives a C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award

Floyd, then executive vice chancellor, received UNC's Massey Award for service to the University, weeks before leaving for the presidency of Western Michigan University.

Carrboro renames its community park for Hank Anderson

The Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to rename Carrboro Community Park on N.C. 54 for Alderman Henry "Hank" Anderson III, on a motion by Alderman Jacquelyn Gist. The 55-acre park is one of the town's largest.

People: Jacquelyn Gist

Chapel Hill sets conditions for new solid waste sites before handing control to the county

The council unanimously directed its Landfill Owners Group members to secure a construction and demolition waste site by fall 1998, naming land on the north side of Eubanks Road next to the landfill, with eminent domain if needed, and the Greene Tract as options. It said pending solid waste issues had to be settled before any change in governance.

The Carolina Inn joins the Study List

The committee approved the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill for the Study List on July 9, 1998, among twenty public requests from the central and southeastern regions. The same meeting recommended the West Chapel Hill Historic District for nomination, and the inn's own nomination followed on April 8, 1999.

Subject: The Carolina Inn · West Chapel Hill Historic District

The Old Tavern and White Oak Grove School join the Study List

The National Register Advisory Committee placed the log Old Tavern at 419 Hillsborough Street, Chapel Hill, and the White Oak Grove School for Black children near Cedar Grove on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.

Subject: White Oak Grove School · Old Tavern (419 Hillsborough Street)

Chapel Hill backs countywide funding to extend water lines to the Rogers Road neighborhood

By a 7 to 2 vote the council said water service lines for the community around the landfill should be paid for from a countywide revenue source so that all county residents share the cost, and opposed using the sales tax for those benefits.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board adopts its school assignment and reassignment policy

Policy 4150 set the rules the district followed when it redrew attendance lines. As revised on April 2, 2009, its priorities for reassignment were walk zones, full use of buildings and equity, meaning balanced family income and achievement among schools and short travel times.

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

Administrative law judge recommends state recognition of the Occaneechi Band

After a contested case hearing that ran from February 1997 to July 1998, an administrative law judge recommended that the Commission of Indian Affairs grant the Occaneechi Band tribal recognition.

The West Chapel Hill Historic District is listed in the National Register

On December 31, 1998 the National Park Service listed the West Chapel Hill Historic District in Chapel Hill in the National Register of Historic Places.

Subject: West Chapel Hill Historic District

Community Land Trust in Orange County is incorporated

Local activists and governments incorporated the Community Land Trust in Orange County to keep homes permanently affordable through ground leases.

El Centro Latino serves Latino residents from Carrboro

El Centro Latino, incorporated in 1999, provided educational and social services, advocacy and cultural activities for Latinos in and around Orange County from Carrboro. It closed the day before Thanksgiving 2009 after funding losses and eight executive directors in ten years.

Fairview residents build a baseball field on a former dump

Residents built a ball field on the site of an old dump in 1999 and started a league to use it. For a decade it and a set of swings were about all Fairview Park had.

Subject: Fairview Park

Joal Hall Broun joins the Carrboro Board of Aldermen

In early 1999 Joal Hall Broun, an assistant public defender, was appointed to fill out the term of the late Alderman Hank Anderson, and she won election to the board that fall. She served on the board until 2011.

People: Joal Hall Broun · Hank Anderson

Paul Jones becomes director of ibiblio.org at UNC

After directing MetaLab from 1997, Paul Jones became director of ibiblio.org, the university's public digital library, in 1999. The same year he became a clinical associate professor in UNC's schools of journalism and of information and library science.

The solid waste interlocal agreement set 60 acres of the Greene Tract aside as Headwaters Preserve

The 1999 Solid Waste Management Interlocal Agreement set the terms for disposing of the 104 acres that stayed in joint ownership and allowed 60 acres to be deeded to Orange County, which became the Headwaters Preserve. In 2002 the three governments adopted a resolution identifying acreage on the joint portion for preservation and affordable housing.

Two large rear wings are added to the Ira Ellis House

Owner Thomas Rankin added two-story weatherboarded wings at the back of the brick house, one in 1999 and one in 2005, forming a U around a rear courtyard; a darkroom and a large pond came about 2000. The state later judged the additions too large for the house to qualify for the National Register.

Subject: Rev. Ira Ellis House (Little Ayr Mount)

Willie Scroggs is UNC's point person for the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games

As an athletics administrator Scroggs was the university's point person for the Special Olympics World Summer Games, part of which were held in Chapel Hill.

Mama Dip's Kitchen moves across West Rosemary Street into a new building at number 408

Mildred "Mama Dip" Council's restaurant, serving Southern country cooking since 1976, moved from across the street into a new building at 408 West Rosemary Street in February 1999.

People: Mildred Council

Subject: Mama Dip’s Kitchen

Hickory Grove School near Carrboro joins the Study List

On April 8, 1999 the committee approved Hickory Grove School, listed on the agenda under Carrboro, with the day's other central and southeastern public requests. Staff had recommended all of them except a Chatham County house.

The Cabe-Pratt-Harris House is listed in the National Register

On April 27, 1999 the National Park Service listed the Cabe-Pratt-Harris House near Chapel Hill in the National Register of Historic Places.

Chancellor Michael Hooker dies in office

Hooker was chief administrative officer at Chapel Hill from July 1, 1995 until his death on June 29, 1999. He was found to have lymphoma in January 1999 and took medical leave from April, when William O. McCoy served as acting chancellor.

Reviewers turn down the Blyden and Roberta Jackson House as too recent

Staff recommended against the Chapel Hill house, built about 1960, because the case for it rested on people still living and it did not meet the National Register test for properties less than fifty years old. The committee followed staff on July 8, 1999.

People: Roberta Bowles Hodges Jackson

Commission of Indian Affairs rejects the judge's recommendation and denies Occaneechi recognition

At a June 11, 1999 hearing the Commission of Indian Affairs voted against the administrative law judge's recommendation, and on July 11 it issued a Final Agency Decision denying the petition. The band appealed to Orange County Superior Court on August 16, 1999, which affirmed the denial.

Hilliard Caldwell announces he will not seek another term as a Carrboro alderman

Caldwell said he would not run again and named controlled growth as the board's major achievement. The Daily Tar Heel counted 16 years of service under four Carrboro mayors.

People: Mike Nelson · Diana McDuffee

UNC President Molly Broad names William McCoy to lead Chapel Hill after Chancellor Hooker's death

After Chancellor Michael Hooker died of cancer in June 1999, UNC system president Molly Broad appointed William O. McCoy, who had served as acting chancellor during Hooker's medical leave, to lead UNC-Chapel Hill until a permanent chancellor was chosen.

People: Michael Hooker

The Carolina Inn is listed in the National Register

On August 6, 1999 the National Park Service listed the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill in the National Register of Historic Places.

Subject: The Carolina Inn

Carrboro aldermen vote 4-3 against renaming themselves the Board of Councillors

After months of debate over gender-neutral language, the board rejected a resolution, authorized by a charter change from the General Assembly, to become the Carrboro Board of Councillors. Diana McDuffee, Joal Broun and Alex Zaffron voted for the change.

A county survey proposes a St. Mary's Road rural historic district

With a state Certified Local Government grant won in late 1998, Orange County hired GAI Consultants to survey six miles of St. Mary's Road from US 70 to the Durham line. Its August 1999 report recorded 20 historic places and recommended a rural historic district along the old Trading Path route.

Chapel Hill lets Orange County commissioners pick the next construction and demolition landfill site

With the existing construction and demolition landfill expected to fill by summer 2000, the council voted 9 to 0 to let the Board of Commissioners select an in-county replacement site on its behalf, citing time pressure and the expected transfer of solid waste authority to the county.

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall receives the National Humanities Medal

President Clinton presented Hall with a National Humanities Medal as founder and director of UNC-Chapel Hill's Southern Oral History Program and a scholar of the New South.

People: Bill Clinton

Montrose joins the Study List

The National Register Advisory Committee placed Montrose, William A. Graham's home in Hillsborough from 1842 to 1874, on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.

Subject: Montrose

The David Faucette House is listed in the National Register

On November 22, 1999 the National Park Service listed the David Faucette House near Efland in the National Register of Historic Places.

Subject: David Faucette House (The Elms)

2000 census counts the Hispanic or Latino population of Orange County, Carrboro and Chapel Hill

The 2000 census counted 5,273 Hispanic or Latino residents in Orange County (4.5% of 118,227), 2,062 in Carrboro (12.3% of 16,782) and 1,506 in the Orange County part of Chapel Hill (3.2% of 46,798). Census Bureau report PHC-1-35, Table 3.

Census counts Orange County residents working in Durham County in

Of 60,860 employed Orange County residents in Census 2000, 16,470 (about 27 percent) worked in Durham County, 35,053 worked in Orange County and 4,212 worked in Wake County.

Census counts Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro in

Census 2000 counted 118,227 people in Orange County, 46,798 in the Orange County part of Chapel Hill and 16,782 in Carrboro, according to the county's published table.

Central Elementary School gets a second large addition

Around 2000 another large addition was built across the center of Central Elementary School's front on Hayes Street in Hillsborough, following the 1975 addition by John James Croft.

Subject: Central High and Central Elementary, Hillsborough

Doherty's first Carolina team shares the ACC regular-season title

In Matt Doherty's first season the Tar Heels won 26 games, were ranked No. 1 late in the regular season and shared the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title with a 13-3 league record. The Associated Press named him national coach of the year.

Flynt Fabrics and Finishing closes the former Bellevue mill

The shutdown of the Flynt Fabrics and Finishing Company, successor to the Bellevue Manufacturing Company, in 2000 followed the Eno mill's 1984 closing and dealt Hillsborough a second economic blow. The mill buildings still stand between the town and West Hillsborough.

Subject: Bellevue Mill

Jeffery Beam receives a Provost's Public Service Award

The UNC-Chapel Hill Center for Public Service gave Beam, assistant to the biology librarian in the Botany Library, a 2000 Office of the Provost Public Service Award.

Jim Webb dies and his Briar Bridge Lane house passes to an estate supporting UNC's planning school

Webb had bought the Ruth Price House at 4 Briar Bridge Lane, which he designed in 1953, in 1979 and lived there until his death in 2000. The house was deeded to his estate, a philanthropy set up to support the UNC planning school.

Stella Nickerson serves as interim principal of Frank Porter Graham Elementary

After eighteen or nineteen years as a classroom teacher at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School and ten years as an assistant principal, Stella Nickerson served as interim principal in the 2000-2001 school year.

Fire guts the Jade Palace restaurant on East Main Street in Carrboro

A midday fire ripped through the building at 103 East Main Street that housed Jenny and Francis Chan's Jade Palace, leaving the restaurant's future in doubt. The Chans reopened, and the restaurant was still at that address in 2007.

The Thomas Jefferson Hogan House joins the Study List

The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Thomas Jefferson Hogan House near Calvander on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.

Subject: Thomas and Mary Hogan House

The Board of Governors elects James Moeser chancellor at the Carolina Inn

At a Board of Governors meeting in the Carolina Inn ballroom, UNC system president Molly Broad introduced University of Nebraska-Lincoln chancellor James Moeser, and the board unanimously elected him the ninth chancellor at Chapel Hill, ending an eight-month search.

People: James Moeser

Subject: The Carolina Inn

County Library Services Task Force recommends expanding library service across Orange County

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

Subject: Orange County Public Library

The land trust sells its first home, in Carrboro

The first land trust home was sold in June 2000 in Carrboro. By then the organization had helped create nearly 100 affordable housing opportunities in Chapel Hill.

Matt Doherty is named head coach of UNC men's basketball

Doherty, who had played at Carolina under Dean Smith from 1980 to 1984, was named the school's 17th head basketball coach after one season as head coach at Notre Dame. He succeeded Bill Guthridge.

Jesse Jackson receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom

President Bill Clinton presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jesse Jackson at a White House ceremony.

People: Bill Clinton

James Moeser serves as ninth chancellor at Chapel Hill

Moeser, a music scholar who had led the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, became chancellor on August 15, 2000. His years included the Carolina First campaign, which raised 2.38 billion dollars; he announced in September 2007 that he would step down on June 30, 2008.

Orange County and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools put the McDougle branch library under contract

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

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools · McDougle School · Orange County Public Library

Jones Grove pays off its mortgage and adds a steeple built by a deacon

The congregation marked the end of its mortgage along with the year's improvements: new carpet, lights and pew cushions, and a steeple that deacon Gotha C. Watkins built and gave.

Subject: Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church

John Bunting becomes Carolina's head football coach

John Bunting, a former Tar Heel linebacker and 1972 UNC graduate, was named head football coach at the University of North Carolina after assistant jobs in the NFL.

Carolina's men's basketball team goes 8-20 in Doherty's second season

In Matt Doherty's second season the Tar Heels finished 8-20.

Doug Marlette teaches at UNC as a Distinguished Visiting Professor of journalism

Hillsborough cartoonist Doug Marlette served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor in UNC's School of Journalism and Mass Communication, teaching courses on the editorial cartoon and on humor writing.

Doug Marlette's novel The Bridge, set in a fictional Hillsborough, stirs the town's writers

Marlette's first novel, The Bridge, is set in the fictional town of Eno, modeled on Hillsborough, where he lived and worked. Some of Hillsborough's writers took offense at characters based on them, and the manager of the Bull's Head Bookshop in Chapel Hill cancelled a reading.

People: Allan Gurganus

Emma Torian Jones gives her home lot beside Ridge Road School to Jones Grove Church

Emma Torian Jones donated the lot west of the school, where she and her husband had lived since the 1960s, to Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church; the house was later torn down, returning the ground to woods. The Torian heirs had also deeded the school parcel to the church.

Subject: Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church · Ridge Road School

Land trust and housing corporation merge as the Orange Community Housing and Land Trust

The Community Land Trust in Orange County merged with the Orange Community Housing Corporation under the name Orange Community Housing and Land Trust. It reached 100 homes in 2005 and 230 by 2014.

Mark Kleinschmidt serves on the Chapel Hill Town Council

Kleinschmidt was elected to the Chapel Hill Town Council in 2001 and served until 2009. He was executive director of the Fair Trial Initiative and a former board president of the state ACLU affiliate.