Chronology

Friends of the Orange County Public Library is founded

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

Subject: Orange County Public Library

The Upper Deck tavern opens above the Porthole restaurant

Barry Huff opened the Upper Deck, a tavern in the Porthole restaurant's old second-floor storage space, in November 1981. John Hartley left the Carolina Theatre to manage it.

Aziz Sancar joins the UNC faculty

Sancar joined Carolina's faculty in 1982; he became the Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the School of Medicine, where his lab mapped how cells repair damaged DNA.

Subject: UNC School of Medicine

Gloria Williams leads Joint Orange Chatham Community Action

As director of Joint Orange Chatham Community Action (JOCCA), the county anti-poverty agency, Gloria Williams gave poor families emergency food, spoke for tenants at the 1984 Orange County hearings on a minimum housing code and ran a summer youth work program.

Louis Rubin and Shannon Ravenel start the press that became Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Rubin, then a UNC English professor, and editor Shannon Ravenel formed Bright Leaf Press, Inc., working from a garage at Rubin's home with money for a first printing of 1,500 copies. As Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill it went on to publish Clyde Edgerton, Dori Sanders and Jill McCorkle.

People: Shannon Ravenel · Clyde Edgerton · Jill McCorkle

Orange County begins discussing the first expansion of the Eubanks Road landfill

Ten years after the landfill opened, the county began discussing an expansion even though it had estimated the site would be full by 1985. Residents had been told the landfill would close after about ten years.

The Hill House is moved to Oak Avenue and joined to the Half House

Velma Hill sold her Weaver Street corner in 1981 to Orange Savings and Loan for a branch office. A contractor split her mill house, built by Brodie Lloyd early in the century for Alberta workers, moved it to 209-A Oak Avenue, rejoined it and attached it to the Half House to meet a one-house-per-lot zoning rule.

The Love Trust is established for the Chapel Hill Public Library

A $350,000 estate gift from Cornelia Spencer Love created the Love Trust in 1982. The library foundation has managed it since 1999 and it has given the library more than $2.3 million.

Subject: Chapel Hill Public Library

The university drops a plan to take over the cemetery and extend it into the east grove

In 1982 the university proposed taking control of the cemetery from the town and extending it into the wooded grove on its east side for about 185 new graves, citing poor upkeep. Opposition in the neighborhoods east of the campus led it to abandon the plan.

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

William E. Leuchtenburg joins the UNC history faculty

Leuchtenburg came to UNC-Chapel Hill in 1982 and taught for two decades, retiring in 2002 as William Rand Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor.

Yonni Chapman and Fred Battle found the Orange County Rainbow Coalition of Conscience

Chapman and Fred Battle co-founded the Orange County Rainbow Coalition of Conscience, which worked on local school politics and on Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns.

People: Fred Battle · Jesse Jackson

Opponents sue in federal court, arguing the dam permit has lapsed

The Cane Creek Conservation Authority filed suit in U.S. District Court claiming OWASA's Corps permit expired on August 31, 1982 because no fill had actually been placed at the site. OWASA said its preliminary work before the deadline kept the permit valid.

People: Sam Crawford

Friends of Old Carrboro holds its first annual house tour

In October 1982 Friends of Old Carrboro held its first yearly tour of the town's old houses, collecting oral history about their builders and owners that the 1983 inventory later used.

Francis Chan opens the Jade Palace Chinese and Seafood Restaurant on East Main Street in Carrboro

Francis Chan, a biomedical engineer who ran the restaurant on the side, opened Jade Palace at 103 East Main Street in November 1982; he and his wife Jenny marked its 25th year in 2007. In 1985 it was the only Chinese restaurant in the area that delivered.

Herbert Chu opens the Four Five Six Chinese restaurant at 118 East Franklin Street

Herbert Chu, who had opened the House of Chu in 1970 and was a partner in the Hunam restaurant, opened Four Five Six, a cafeteria-style Chinese restaurant, in the space Blimpie's had left.

Carrboro aldermen appoint a subcommittee to study historic district zoning

In 1983 the Board of Aldermen named a Subcommittee on Historic Districts, under its Blue Ribbon Downtown Revitalization Task Force, to look into local historic district zoning.

Maude Faucette dies at 97 and leaves part of her estate to Fairfield Presbyterian Church

The last descendant of builder David Faucette died in the family house in 1983. Her will gave a quarter of her property, with family portraits, to Fairfield Presbyterian Church near Efland, where she had been a lifelong member; silver spoons by Lemuel Lynch found in her papers went to the Hillsborough Historical Museum.

Subject: Fairfield Presbyterian Church · David Faucette House (The Elms)

Orange County gets a grant to build a park behind the old Cedar Grove School

A $30,000 grant let the county develop recreation land behind the school, where it built a baseball field and a children's play area.

Subject: Cedar Grove schools

Shanklin's Press prints Irene Oliver Pender's History of Orange County Schools

Shanklin's Press of Hillsborough, the Black-owned print shop run by the family of Thomas Shanklin, published Irene Oliver Pender's A History of Orange County Schools: 1752-1983. The shop began in the family home in the 1960s and later moved to Cornelius Street.

The Alexander Dickson House is moved into Hillsborough to East King Street

The late-Georgian house that Alexander Dickson owned from about 1839 was moved from its farm site near Interstate 85 and NC 86 to a lot at East King and South Cameron streets. Restored, it became the Chamber of Commerce and visitors center.

Subject: Alexander Dickson House (Johnston’s headquarters)

The Brinkhous-Bullitt Building is named for two pathology chairs

The University named its 1973 pathology building for Kenneth M. Brinkhous and his predecessor James B. Bullitt, who between them chaired the Department of Pathology from 1913 to 1973.

People: James Bell Bullitt

The Fredricks site is found and excavated and Occaneechi Town is located

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

People: Roy S. Dickens

The Nash house is renovated, with picture windows in Mary Nash's old studio and a third-floor bathroom

Three large picture windows went into the north wall of the former studio, the rear French doors were replaced, and a bathroom was added on the third floor.

Annie Dillard reads at UNC during a two-week campus visit

Dillard spent two weeks in Chapel Hill in March 1983 as a preliminary event of the student-run Fine Arts Festival, giving a poetry reading on March 16 and leading afternoon seminars. The festival's organizer later said she was shocked by the size of the audiences for Dillard and Robert Bly.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro coalition organizes for the 20th anniversary March on Washington

Fred Battle chaired the Chapel Hill-Carrboro 20th Anniversary Coalition, which first met on May 29, 1983, and raised money to send buses from Chapel Hill to the August 27 march for jobs, peace and freedom in Washington. A UNC campus group worked as part of the local coalition.

Law professors Joseph and Monica Kalo buy the Nash house from the McClamroch estate

The sale ended the McClamroch family's long ownership, which began when the Nashes sold them the house. The Kalos renovated it soon after.

Dannie G. Lunsford becomes superintendent of the Orange County schools

Dr. Dannie G. Lunsford, who had come to the county in 1971 as principal at Efland and risen through the instruction office to associate superintendent, succeeded Michael Simmons as superintendent in July 1983.

The Carrboro Appearance Commission publishes the town's architectural and historical inventory

Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory, by Claudia Roberts Brown, Burgess McSwain and John Florin with photographs by Jane Hamborsky, came out in 1983. It grew from the 1980 survey of more than 150 pre-1930 buildings and covers 75 of them; the aldermen funded printing in 1981 and local businesses covered rising costs.

OWASA agrees to buy the Stanford dairy farm at the dam site

The same day the commission ruled, OWASA agreed to buy 267 acres of the dam site from dairy farmers William and Joyce Stanford for about $1.28 million, bringing it to 60 percent of the 728 acres it needed. Between 20 and 25 of the 48 affected landowners had sold by then.

State commission grants OWASA condemnation power for the third time

After a second hearing in late 1982, the Environmental Management Commission reissued OWASA's certificate in March 1983, a Wake County Superior Court judge sent it back, and on October 13 the commission reinstated OWASA's power of eminent domain. Mike Teer, by then president of the Cane Creek Conservation Authority, said the group would appeal.

OWASA buys out most of the Cane Creek landowners

By April 1986 OWASA owned 48 of the 50 parcels needed for the reservoir, almost all bought through negotiated sales. Sam Crawford recalled an opening offer of $500 an acre that rose to about $3,500 to $3,600, and that his family lost 50 acres, including their biggest field.

People: Sam Crawford

Gregory and Dale Georgiade buy the Cabe-Pratt-Harris House and rework the 1940s wing

The Georgiades bought the house and 27.3 acres from Robert Hill and remodeled the rear addition on its old footprint, replacing its metal casements with copies of the original sash and leaving the old rooms unpainted on the advice of the state preservation office.

Chapel Hill makes Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a town holiday

On Council member Bill Thorpe's initiative, Chapel Hill made the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. an official town holiday, the first town in North Carolina and one of the first municipalities in the nation to do so.

Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County bought the Greene Tract as a possible landfill site

The three governments purchased the roughly 164-acre Greene Tract, just north of Rogers Road inside Chapel Hill's extraterritorial jurisdiction, for a future landfill. The county's landfill site search committee did not choose it, and its future use was argued over through the 1990s.

Davis Library opens

The university's new library building, named the Walter Royal Davis Library for the trustee and benefactor, opened in Chapel Hill.

Subject: UNC Libraries

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.

Eno Mill closes

Textile production ended at the Hillsborough plant.

Subject: Eno Mill

The Saratoga Grill opens at 108 South Churton Street

The Saratoga Grill, among the first businesses to come back downtown as interest in the town's history grew, opened in the commercial building at 108 South Churton Street.

The UNC-Chapel Hill trustees give Albert Coates the William R. Davie Award

The trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill gave Coates their William R. Davie Award in 1984.

UNC gives John Ehle its Distinguished Alumnus Award

The university's 1984 citation honored Ehle as a writer and for his work, beginning as special assistant to Governor Terry Sanford in 1963 and 1964, on the School of the Arts, the School of Science and Mathematics and the Governor's School.

People: Terry Sanford

The Cabe-Pratt-Harris House joins the Study List

The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Cabe-Pratt-Harris House on the Eno near Hillsborough on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.

State reviewers approve adding the Frederick archaeological site to the Hillsborough Historic District

The Office of State Archaeology brought site 31Or231, listed on the agenda as the Frederick Site, to the State Professional Review Committee as an amendment to the Hillsborough Historic District. On April 12, 1984 the committee approved it with the day's other National Register nominations, without separate discussion.

Subject: Hillsborough Historic District

Vermont Royster wins the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary

Vermont Royster, Kenan professor emeritus in the UNC School of Journalism, won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary for his weekly Wall Street Journal column "Thinking Things Over." It was his second Pulitzer, thirty years after the first.

Habitat for Humanity of Orange County is incorporated

An ecumenical housing effort that began at Binkley Baptist Church in late 1982 became Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, incorporated in April 1984. Its first house was a donated building moved to what became the Chestnut Oaks neighborhood in Chapel Hill.

Orange Speedway, Inc. is dissolved

The three shareholders of Orange Speedway, Inc., Ann and Bill France and Enoch Staley, voluntarily dissolved the corporation sixteen years after the last race. France Staley, LLC, which held title to the track, sold it to Preservation North Carolina in 1997.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

People: Enoch Staley

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

The Upper Deck closes after the Porthole building owner ends its lease

The Upper Deck tavern above the Porthole closed on July 31, 1984, after building owner Willard Marley declined to renew its month-to-month lease. Owner Barry Huff said Marley thought the bar was hurting the Porthole's business.

Federal court dismisses the opponents' permit suits for lack of standing

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina dismissed the two suits brought by the Cane Creek Conservation Authority and Teer Farms, finding they alleged only a general fear of environmental loss rather than a direct injury. The court noted that OWASA had so far acquired all its land through voluntary purchases.

Jim Heavner urges limits on sales at the UNC Student Stores

In a Village Advocate column, Heavner, president of the Village Companies, asked the university to take a hard look at the Student Stores under the Umstead Act, calling them Orange County's largest retail store. Student body president Paul Parker and university officials defended the stores, which funded financial aid.

Albert and Gladys Coates publish The Story of Student Government in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The book rested on research Gladys Coates had begun in the 1930s in the University archives, literary society records and student publications, with chapters by Albert on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and chapters by student leaders on recent decades.

People: Gladys Hall Coates

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

Carolyn Kizer wins the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Kizer won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her collection Yin: New Poems, more than a decade after she left her UNC post.

Charles Kuralt gives the UNC spring commencement address

Kuralt, who had edited the Daily Tar Heel as a student, returned to Chapel Hill to deliver the University's spring commencement address in 1985. He told the graduates that the influence of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill moves outward to the farthest corners of the state.

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.

Elfreda A. Chatman joins the faculty of UNC's School of Information and Library Science

After a year at Louisiana State University, Chatman taught at UNC's School of Information and Library Science for more than a decade before moving to Florida State University.

Fred Battle serves on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board

Fred Battle served on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board of education from 1985 to 1989.

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

Frederick P. Brooks Jr. receives the National Medal of Technology

Brooks, Bob Evans and Erich Bloch received the National Medal of Technology for the hardware, architecture and systems engineering of the IBM System/360. Brooks was then Kenan Professor and chairman of UNC's computer science department.

Hillsborough's preservation groups form the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough

By the late 1980s Hillsborough had so many preservation organizations that the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough was created to coordinate them.

Houses begin going up on Winnawa Walk and Saponi Drive south of the Eno

After Poplar Hill is moved off its old site south of the Eno in 1981, the land is divided into lots along two new streets, Winnawa Walk and Saponi Drive, and houses are built there from 1985.

Jeff MacNelly wins a third Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning

Jeff MacNelly, by then the editorial cartoonist of the Chicago Tribune, won his third Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning.

Richard Jenrette buys Ayr Mount

Richard H. Jenrette bought Ayr Mount, the 1815 Kirkland house outside Hillsborough, from the Kirkland family and paid for its restoration, hiring specialists to find its original paint colors and decor. It was the only house he bought in North Carolina.

Subject: Ayr Mount

Shingled pent roofs and Colonial Revival storefronts are added along West King Street

Around 1985 several stores on the first block of West King Street, at 103-105, 107, 109, 115 and 117, were given asphalt-shingled pent roofs, and some got replacement Colonial Revival storefronts. The 2014 survey counts these changes against most of them.

Jeff MacNelly is inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame

UNC's School of Journalism inducted Jeff MacNelly, then a two-time Pulitzer winner, and five other journalists into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame at a banquet at the Carolina Inn.

Subject: The Carolina Inn

Rebecca Clark shows the Town Council the neglect of the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Rebecca Clark of Chapel Hill's Black community gave the Town Council a slide show of sunken graves, broken walls, trash and overturned markers on April 22, 1985. The council named a task force, which called for a phased master plan.

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

The Carrboro Commercial Historic District is listed in the National Register

On June 20, 1985 the National Park Service listed the Carrboro Commercial Historic District in Carrboro in the National Register of Historic Places.

Cane Creek Conservation Authority members go to the General Assembly to oppose an OWASA bill

Fifteen members of the Cane Creek Conservation Authority traveled to the legislature to oppose a bill OWASA sought to settle its outstanding court cases and widen its authority.

Part of Water for the towns: University Lake, the 1976–77 drought, and OWASA · 31 events

OWASA builds a temporary impoundment on Cane Creek

During a water shortage OWASA built a temporary impoundment at the Cane Creek site as an emergency water source, while the permanent dam was still being designed.

The Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association holds its first annual August powwow

A year after it formed, the Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association held its first annual powwow in August 1985, bringing Indian people from many tribes to visit the community. The fifth, at Mebane on August 11 and 12, 1989, had a printed program.

Part of Occaneechi Town and the Great Trading Path · 48 events

C. D. Spangler Jr. serves as president of the UNC System

Spangler, a Charlotte businessman and 1954 graduate of the university, succeeded William Friday in 1986 and led the sixteen-campus system for eleven years from its offices in Chapel Hill, fighting to keep tuition low and reforming intercollegiate athletics.

People: William C. Friday

Elizabeth Spencer teaches in UNC's creative writing program

Spencer and her husband John Rusher moved from Montreal to Chapel Hill in 1986, and she joined UNC's Creative Writing Program as a visiting writer that fall, teaching until 1992. She lived in Chapel Hill for the rest of her life.

First Community Baptist Church is organized in Hillsborough

First Community Baptist Church, which worships at 509 Eno Street in Hillsborough, dates its founding to 1986. It marked its twentieth anniversary in November 2006 and its twenty-fifth in November 2011.

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

I-40 through Orange County is named the Harriet Morehead Berry Freeway

The Board of Transportation named a section of Interstate 40 through Orange County for Berry, the Hillsborough-born Good Roads campaigner. A state highway marker to her was cast the same year for NC 86 at I-40 north of Chapel Hill.

Michael Jordan returns to UNC and earns his geography degree

Jordan left Carolina with a year of eligibility left to enter the 1984 NBA draft, then returned to the university and earned a bachelor of arts degree in geography in 1986.

Nancy and Craufurd Goodwin acquire Montrose

Nancy and Craufurd Goodwin have owned and lived at Montrose since 1986. A greenhouse, lath house and pineapple-topped entrance gate on St. Mary's Road date from about 1987, and the gardens behind the house are theirs.

Subject: Montrose

Vermont Royster receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Vermont Royster, who had returned to UNC as a professor after retiring from The Wall Street Journal, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1986.

Rigsbee's Rock House joins the Study List

The National Register Advisory Committee placed Mack and Julie Rigsbee's quartz-faced Rock House east of Hillsborough on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.

Subject: Rigsbee’s Rock House

Estes Drive and Burlage Circle residents reach an agreement with Hakan-Corley over the Siena Hotel

Attorney Grainger Barrett announced an agreement between residents of the Burlage Circle and Estes Drive neighborhood and developer Hakan-Corley and Associates over the hotel planned for the former Brady's restaurant site.

Court of Appeals upholds OWASA's right to condemn the Teer land

The N.C. Court of Appeals affirmed the commission's 1983 certificate against an appeal by the Cane Creek Conservation Authority and Teer Farms, ruling among other points that water quality was a proper factor. The Daily Tar Heel reported that the case turned on two parcels owned by dairy farmer Thomas Teer, the last two of the 50 parcels OWASA needed.

The Emily Dickinson Centennial Conference holds sessions at Bolin Brook Farm

Sessions of the Emily Dickinson Centennial Conference met at Bolin Brook Farm, the Andrews home near Calvander, in April 1986. The Andrewses often opened the property to meetings and house tours.

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

James and Judy Singleton restore Rigsbee's Rock House

New owners who bought the neglected house in June 1986 carried out its one major refurbishing in 1986-87, keeping the original fabric while reworking the kitchen and upstairs baths. The rock garage became a guest apartment in 1986.

Subject: Rigsbee’s Rock House

The state holds the Weaver House nomination until Orange County is surveyed

Staff doubted the integrity of the Carrboro log house, which had been covered in weatherboards and remodeled several times, and noted that Orange County had no architectural survey against which to judge its log buildings. On July 10, 1986 the committee postponed the nomination until such a survey was done and asked staff to suggest that the owners urge their legislators to pay for one. In January it had already withheld approval pending a staff visit.

Subject: Weaver House

Six writers read at the Hardback Cafe to raise money against the Shearon Harris nuclear plant

Joe Ashby Porter, Jill McCorkle, Clyde Edgerton, Lee Smith, Garrett Epps and Elizabeth Spencer read from their work at a $50-a-plate benefit dinner at the Hardback Cafe, raising over $2,000 for the Coalition for Alternatives to Shearon Harris. Organizers turned away 30 ticket requests because of the room's fire-code limit.

People: Lee Smith · Clyde Edgerton · Jill McCorkle

The Thomas F. Lloyd Historic District is listed in the National Register

On August 14, 1986 the National Park Service listed the Thomas F. Lloyd Historic District in Carrboro in the National Register of Historic Places.

UNC gives Jeff MacNelly its Distinguished Alumnus Award

At the University Day convocation in Memorial Hall, UNC presented Distinguished Alumnus Awards to cartoonist Jeff MacNelly, Justice Henry E. Frye, Rolfe Neill, Banks C. Talley Jr. and John A. Montgomery.

Subject: Memorial Hall

Carmichael Residence Hall is dedicated

The university dedicated a new six-storey residence hall for 486 students, named for Katherine Kennedy Carmichael.

A master plan for the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery is completed

The master plan, finished in 1987 and revised by landscape architect David Swanson, set goals, service levels and management for the cemetery and first called for settling its ownership. A new gazebo and lawn followed.

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

The Berry Gordon House is moved to 410 West Margaret Lane

The Berry Gordon House, built about 1899 at the northwest corner of South Wake Street and West Margaret Lane, is moved down the street to 410 West Margaret Lane in 1987. The nomination still counts it as contributing.

The East Orange Street house built around Edmund Strudwick's old office is raised to two stories

The house at 110 East Orange Street grew out of Dr. Edmund Strudwick's one-story office, moved there in 1889. Enlarged by 1943, it was remodeled again in 1987 with a second story, and no trace of the office remains visible.

The Trimble house, one of the first in the Gimghoul subdivision, is torn down

The 1924 house built for Ralph and Hazel Trimble on Glandon Drive, one of the first in the Gimghoul subdivision, is demolished, leaving a vacant lot.

Subject: Gimghoul Castle and neighborhood

UNC men's soccer wins the ACC title and reaches the NCAA Final Four

Under Dorrance the Tar Heel men won the Atlantic Coast Conference title in 1987 and reached the NCAA Final Four.

Valerie Foushee works as an administrative officer for the Chapel Hill Police Department

Foushee spent 21 years as an administrative officer with the Chapel Hill Police Department, from 1987 to 2008.

OWASA breaks ground for the Cane Creek dam

OWASA held a groundbreaking for the Cane Creek Reservoir, designed by Hazen and Sawyer: a 72-foot-high, 1,350-foot earthen dam on a 760-acre site, with a 480-acre lake holding 3 billion gallons. Completion was scheduled for June 1989.

Orange County Public Library receives a $50,000 bequest from Rebecca B. Wall

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

Subject: Orange County Public Library

R. B. House dies in Chapel Hill

House died at his home in Chapel Hill and was buried in the local cemetery. He had retired as chancellor in 1957 and taught in the university's English department until 1962.

Frank Wilkinson returns to speak in Manning Hall

Wilkinson, then 74, spoke in Manning Hall on FBI surveillance and U.S. policy in Central America at an event sponsored by the Carolina Committee on Central America.

Part of Speaker Ban controversy, 1963–1968 · 29 events

People: Frank Wilkinson

Sitterson Hall, the new computer science building, is dedicated on University Day

The Department of Computer Science moved into its new building over the summer of 1987, and the formal dedication of Sitterson Hall, named for former chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson, was held on University Day with Sitterson present and former governor Hunt giving the main address.

The Siena Hotel prepares to open on East Franklin Street

The 80-room Siena Hotel, built by the Siena Partnership of Joe Hakan and Sam Longiotti as part of a nine-acre development with the Chapel Hill Center, was scheduled to open in late October 1987.

Jonathan Howes is elected mayor of Chapel Hill

Jonathan Howes, director of UNC's Center for Urban and Regional Studies, won the mayoral race with 53 percent of the vote over Julie Andresen and David Lineberger, carrying the student precincts at Greenwood and Country Club. Outgoing mayor James Wallace said the office would be in very good hands.

Hilliard Caldwell tells a Chapel Hill forum that local schools still fail Black students

Speaking as home school coordinator for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools at a Human Rights Week forum, Caldwell said the community spent millions on education without adequate results and that few Black students reached the honor rolls. His cousin Ed Caldwell, a school board member, spoke as well.

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

Town of Hillsborough restores Margaret Lane Cemetery and dedicates a memorial plaque

After a restoration by the Town of Hillsborough, a bronze plaque on a large stone was dedicated at the center of the cemetery listing people known to have been buried there from before 1852 to 1931. It notes that the exact location of most of their graves is not known.

Subject: Margaret Lane Cemetery

Eleanor Kinnaird is sworn in as mayor of Carrboro

Elizabeth R. Holland administered the oath of office to Mayor-elect Eleanor Kinnaird at the Board of Aldermen meeting of December 1, 1987. The board had approved the abstract of votes cast at the November 3, 1987 election earlier in the meeting, and outgoing mayor James V. Porto Jr. and departing aldermen Zona Norwood and John Boone made their parting remarks.

Albert Coates publishes his last book, on Edward Kidder Graham, Harry Chase and Frank Porter Graham

Coates's final book, published in 1988, paid tribute to the three University presidents he credited with shaping his life.

Barry Keith opens Surplus Sids on Main Street in Carrboro

Barry Keith, known as Sid, had worked for a surplus dealer called Poor Richard. When Richard retired, Keith bought his warehouse, kept the best stock and started his own military surplus store in 1988.

Carrboro residents begin campaigning for a public library

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

Subject: McDougle School · Orange County Public Library

Gold family acquires Eno Mill

The property became a business center with varied tenants.

Subject: Eno Mill

Interstate 40 is completed south of Hillsborough

I-40 was finished in 1988 about a mile and a half south of Daniel Boone Village, and commercial and residential building south of I-85 picked up sharply afterward.

John Shelton Reed becomes director of UNC's Institute for Research in Social Science

Sociologist John Shelton Reed directed the Institute for Research in Social Science, later the Odum Institute, from 1988 until he retired in 2000.

Oliver Smithies and Nobuyo Maeda join the UNC faculty

Smithies and Nobuyo Maeda came to UNC's School of Medicine in 1988; Smithies later described himself as the trailing spouse, UNC having recruited Maeda.

People: Aziz Sancar

Subject: UNC School of Medicine

Orange Federal Savings and Loan builds an office on the old service station lot at 137 North Churton Street

Orange Federal Savings and Loan Association acquired the former gas station property at 137 North Churton Street and put up a one-story brick office building with a cupola. The building later became county offices.

UNC names its biotechnology building Fordham Hall

In 1988 the university named its biotechnology building Christopher C. Fordham Hall.

Judge Peele rules in the Hanes Hall CIA protest cases

Judge Stanley Peele found anti-CIA protesters Dale McKinley and Graham Entwistle guilty of disorderly conduct for chaining themselves at Hanes Hall during CIA recruiting interviews and entered a prayer for judgment continued; later in 1988 he jailed McKinley for 21 days and gave Entwistle a suspended sentence for violating its terms.

The Faucette mill and coach house join the Study List

The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Faucette mill and coach house on the Eno on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.

Subject: Faucett Mill (Chatwood)

Doug Marlette wins the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning

Doug Marlette won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning for work he did at The Charlotte Observer and The Atlanta Constitution. By then he was working for the Constitution in Atlanta.

The state adds Rocky Ridge Farm and Chapel Hill Town Hall to the Study List

Acting on requests from owners and sponsors, the State Professional Review Committee on April 14, 1988 placed the Rocky Ridge Farm Development Historic District, the Laurel Hill neighborhood, and Chapel Hill Town Hall on the Study List. Robert Stipe abstained on the two Chapel Hill votes.

Subject: Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District (Laurel Hill) · Chapel Hill Town Hall (1938)

Hillsborough annexes "Northern Fairview"

The June 1988 annexation took in nearly 150 acres, including much of the town's mid-century African American housing north of US 70. It brought town services but also higher taxes, which angered some residents.

Paul Hardin serves as chancellor of UNC at Chapel Hill

Hardin, who had led Wofford College, Southern Methodist University and Drew University, was chancellor at Chapel Hill from July 1, 1988 to June 30, 1995. His administration covered the university's bicentennial and its fundraising campaign, the argument over a freestanding black cultural center and the housekeepers' class action suit.

Faucett Mill and House, also called Chatwood, is listed in the National Register

The Faucett Mill and House, known as Chatwood, joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Subject: Faucett Mill (Chatwood)

Rigsbee's Rock House is listed in the National Register

Rigsbee's Rock House was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Subject: Rigsbee’s Rock House

A state highway marker for Hamilton is cast for Churton Street in Hillsborough

The North Carolina highway historical marker G-103, which marks Hamilton's birthplace half a block west as historian, professor and founder of the Southern Historical Collection, was first cast in 1989 for US 70 Business (Churton Street) in Hillsborough.

A state highway marker for James Hogg is cast for Churton Street in Hillsborough

The North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program cast marker G-108 for James Hogg, the Scottish-born merchant and university trustee. It stands on South Churton Street and points to his home half a mile east and his grave two blocks north.

Additional documentation extends the Hillsborough Historic District's period of significance into the 1920s and

A 1989 amendment to the 1973 Hillsborough Historic District nomination records changes to the commercial buildings, extends the period of significance to take in the town's growth in the 1920s and 1930s, and counts forty more commercial buildings as contributing.

Subject: Hillsborough Historic District

Albert Coates, founder of the Institute of Government, is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Albert Coates (1896-1989), who founded the Institute of Government at the university, was buried in the cemetery.

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Cameron Park School is enlarged again in the late

Following its 1978 addition, Cameron Park School on St. Mary's Road in Hillsborough received further additions on its north and south sides in the late 1980s.

Subject: Cameron Park School

David Zucchino wins the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing

David Zucchino, a 1973 UNC graduate, won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for "Being Black in South Africa," his coverage of apartheid for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Fowler's Food Store closes and gives way to the 306 Shopping Center

The West Franklin grocery shut, and its site became a strip of shops set sideways to the street that opened with seven stores.

Huggins Hardware closes and Miami Subs takes its East Franklin store

The hardware store that had carried Vic Huggins's name since the 1940s was replaced by a Miami Subs sandwich shop.

James J. Freeland dies

The Hillsborough builder, motel owner and developer of Daniel Boone Village died in 1989 at the Highway 70 house he had built in 1964. His children kept Daniel Boone Village and Boone Square.

People: James John Freeland

Subject: Daniel Boone Village

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

Mike Nelson loses his first race for the Carrboro Board of Aldermen by 32 votes

Nelson first ran for elected office in 1989 and lost his bid for a seat on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen by 32 votes.

Southern Oral History Program records histories of UNC people for the bicentennial

For UNC's bicentennial the Southern Oral History Program, then directed by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, added more than 300 interviews with the university's students, chancellors and service workers.

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)

The Holman-Gates House is moved from Person County to South Cameron Street

The Holman-Gates House, a Quaker-plan farmhouse built about 1785 in Person County just north of the Orange line, is moved to 207 South Cameron Street, beside the relocated Poplar Hill. It was enlarged in 1998.

The Interfaith Council begins turning the old town hall into a homeless shelter

In 1989 the building was leased to the Interfaith Council, which was rehabilitating it as a shelter for homeless people with donations and a town grant.

Subject: Inter-Faith Council for Social Service · Chapel Hill Town Hall (1938)

The North Carolina Collection Gallery opens in Wilson Library

A gallery conceived by North Carolina Collection curator H. G. Jones opened in the east wing of Wilson Library, with R. Neil Fulghum as its first keeper, to exhibit items the library had collected.

Subject: UNC Libraries

Downtown Commission asks for a special tax district for downtown Chapel Hill and Carrboro

Downtown Commission president Joe Hakan asked the Chapel Hill Town Council for a special service district taxing downtown property 7 cents per $100 to help fund the commission and a free downtown trolley. The council later voted the district down.

The university and the state quitclaim the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery to the town

A quitclaim deed dated February 22, 1989 released the university's and the state's rights in the cemetery to the Town of Chapel Hill, settling a question of ownership open since the 1920s.

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

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

General Assembly renames North Carolina Memorial Hospital as UNC Hospitals at Chapel Hill

Session Law 1989-141, ratified May 25, 1989, replaced the name University of North Carolina Memorial Hospital with University of North Carolina Hospitals at Chapel Hill throughout the General Statutes and changed the terms of its board members.

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

Reviewers keep St. Paul's A.M.E. Church off the Study List over its brick veneer

Staff told the State Professional Review Committee that St. Paul's was an important institution with long ties to its community, but that major alterations, among them a brick veneer, had cost it integrity. On July 13, 1989 the committee approved the day's other public requests and left the church off, and Robert Stipe asked staff to present standards for judging setting and integrity at the next meeting.

Subject: St. Paul AME Church

The Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District is listed in the National Register

On August 8, 1989 the National Park Service listed the Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District in Chapel Hill in the National Register of Historic Places.

Subject: Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District (Laurel Hill)

The Gimghoul neighborhood joins the Study List

The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Gimghoul neighborhood in Chapel Hill as a historic district on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.

Subject: Gimghoul Castle and neighborhood

Eleanor Kinnaird is sworn in for a second term as mayor of Carrboro

Town clerk Sarah C. Williamson administered the oath to Mayor-elect Kinnaird and to aldermen-elect Hilliard Caldwell and Tom Gurganus after the board approved the abstract of votes from the November 7, 1989 election. Jacquelyn Gist was sworn in as an alderman at the same meeting.

People: Hilliard Caldwell · Jacquelyn Gist

Jacquelyn Gist is sworn in as a Carrboro alderman

Robin Lackey administered the oath of office to alderman-elect Jacquelyn Gist at the Board of Aldermen meeting of December 5, 1989. The board had approved the abstract of votes cast at the November 7, 1989 election earlier in the same meeting, at which Eleanor Kinnaird was also sworn in as mayor.

People: Ellie Kinnaird

1990 census counts the Hispanic-origin population of Orange County, Carrboro and Chapel Hill

The 1990 census counted 1,279 persons of Hispanic origin in Orange County (1.4% of 93,851), 199 in Carrboro (1.7% of 11,553) and 607 in Chapel Hill (1.6% of 38,719). Census Bureau report 1990 CP-1-35, Table 5 (counties) and Table 6 (places).

Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Orange County begin a countywide search for a new landfill site

The three governing boards started a countywide search for the next sanitary landfill, carried out with a citizens' Landfill Search Committee and an engineering consultant. The Greene Tract, bought in 1984 for landfill use, was screened but not made a finalist.

Census counts Orange County residents working in Durham County in

Of 49,915 employed Orange County residents in the 1990 census, 12,185 (about 24 percent) worked in Durham County, 31,591 worked in Orange County and 2,085 worked in Wake County.

Census counts Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro in

The 1990 census counted 93,851 people in Orange County, 38,719 in Chapel Hill (37,604 in Orange County and 1,115 in Durham County) and 11,553 in Carrboro.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools form a Blue Ribbon Task Force after Black parents press on the achievement gap

Black parents demanded more resources for disadvantaged students, and the district responded with a Blue Ribbon Task Force. The article judges that it changed little: the gap between Black and White test scores, tracked since the 1980s, narrowed only slightly.

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

Cornelia Spencer Love's Laurel Hill cottage is remodeled and enlarged with a modern two-story wing

The work replaced the shingles with wood siding and added a large glassy wing with a metal balcony. So little original fabric survives that the 2008 documentation reclassified the house as noncontributing.

Jones Grove builds a fellowship hall on land given by the Brooks family

Luther A. Brooks, son of the founding pastor, and his wife Catherine gave a tenth of an acre east of the church for a fellowship hall, begun in spring 1990 and finished in January 1991.

Subject: Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church

Louis Rubin hands Algonquin Books to Shannon Ravenel and Robert Rubin

A year after Workman Publishing of New York bought Algonquin, Rubin turned control over to his son Robert and to Shannon Ravenel, who moved the St. Louis office to Chapel Hill.

People: Shannon Ravenel

Randee Haven-O'Donnell is named Soil and Water Conservation Teacher of the Year

Haven-O'Donnell, who taught in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, was named Orange County and North Carolina Soil and Water Conservation Teacher of the Year.

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

The Lester Asheim Scholarship Fund is endowed at UNC's library school

The School of Information and Library Science endowed a scholarship fund in Asheim's name with $30,000; the school later listed it as a doctoral scholarship.

The early twentieth-century building at 110 South Churton Street is torn down

The building that had stood at 110 South Churton Street since the early 1900s is demolished in 1990, and a two-story brick building replaces it in 1991.

UNC dedicates the Herman G. Baity Environmental Laboratory

The School of Public Health dedicated McGavran-Greenberg Hall and the Herman G. Baity Environmental Laboratory, with Chancellor Paul Hardin giving the dedication.

People: Michel A. Ibrahim

Subject: UNC School of Public Health

Willie Scroggs leaves coaching for athletics administration at UNC

Scroggs retired from coaching at the end of the 1990 season to become associate athletic director for game operations and outdoor facilities, a job that grew into responsibility for athletics construction and operations on campus.

The state puts Merritt's Store, a 1920s Chapel Hill gas station, on the Study List

Members questioned whether a 1920s gas station belonged on the Study List until Robert Stipe and H. G. Jones spoke to the store's place in local social history. The committee then approved Merritt's Store with the day's other central and eastern requests on January 11, 1990.

Subject: Merritt's Store and Grill

Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association petitions the NC Commission of Indian Affairs for state recognition

After years of genealogical and historical research, the Eno-Occaneechi Indian Association filed a petition for state recognition with the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs.

Chapel Hill Town Hall is listed in the National Register

On March 20, 1990 the National Park Service listed Chapel Hill Town Hall in Chapel Hill in the National Register of Historic Places.

Subject: Chapel Hill Town Hall (1938)

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

The McDade House on West Franklin Street joins the Study List

The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Hudson-Merritt-McDade House at 113 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, 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.

Carrboro adds sexual orientation to its equal employment opportunity policy

The Board of Aldermen unanimously amended the town's personnel ordinance to add sexual orientation to the characteristics protected in its merit principle and equal employment opportunity policy. On November 13, 1990 the Board had written a sexual orientation nondiscrimination clause into a planning grant agreement with the City of Durham and asked for the code amendment to be scheduled.

People: Jacquelyn Gist

James Brittian leads the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP

Brittian was president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro branch of the NAACP from December 1990 until his death at his Carrboro home in November 1993. Fred Battle served as interim president until Gene Hatley took over in February 1994.

People: Fred Battle

A downtown visitors center opens in the McDade House

A welcome center for downtown visitors, run with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Downtown Commission, opened in the McDade House on West Franklin Street in the spring of 1991. The commission also had its office in the house during the 1990s.

Chuck Stone joins the UNC journalism faculty

Stone came to UNC-Chapel Hill in 1991 and taught journalism there until he retired in 2005, holding the Walter Spearman professorship.

Mark Chilton is elected to the Chapel Hill Town Council at 21

Chilton, then a UNC undergraduate, won a seat on the Chapel Hill Town Council in 1991 at the age of 21 and served until 1997. He took a geography degree from UNC in 1993 and a law degree from North Carolina Central University in 1997.

Orange County Affordable Housing Task Force creates the Orange Community Housing Corporation

The county's Affordable Housing Task Force created the Orange Community Housing Corporation, the organization that later became the Community Home Trust.

Paul Green's writing cabin is moved to the North Carolina Botanical Garden

The 16-by-18-foot log cabin where the playwright wrote was moved to the Botanical Garden and restored when its old lot was to be sold. A Paul Green Cabin Task Force pressed for the move, citing Green's study of native plants.

Subject: North Carolina Botanical Garden

Robin and Bob Britt buy Merritt's store from the Merritt family

Robin and Bob Britt bought the South Columbia Street store from the Merritts in 1991. Robin Britt's BLT for her husband's lunch grew into the sandwich trade that made Merritt's Store and Grill a Chapel Hill landmark.

Subject: Merritt's Store and Grill

UNC's basketball team takes the court in Alexander Julian's argyle uniforms

At Dean Smith's request, the Chapel Hill native Alexander Julian redesigned the Tar Heel men's basketball uniforms, adding an argyle side panel that debuted in the 1991-92 season and became a symbol of the university.

People: Dean Smith

Walter Faribault Jr. opens Faribault's Pit Cooked Bar-B-Q in Hillsborough

Dr. Walter Faribault Jr., a Chapel Hill physician, had opened Faribault's Pit Cooked Bar-B-Q in Hillsborough using a recipe that had been in his family for more than a hundred years. The family had cooked pork barbecue on Faribault Lane for generations, and by 1993 the business was running as a catering service.