Chronology

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

Sylvia Hatchell becomes head coach of UNC women's basketball

Hatchell came to Chapel Hill in 1986 from Francis Marion to coach the Tar Heel women. She held the job for 33 seasons and won 751 games there.

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.

People: Roberta C. Andrews

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.

Jill McCorkle reads To Kill a Mockingbird at a Banned Books Week protest in the Pit

For National Banned Books Week, UNC students and faculty read from challenged books in the Pit, in a program sponsored by the Bull's Head Bookstore with national bookseller and library associations. Jill McCorkle, then a creative writing lecturer, read from To Kill a Mockingbird with a student, Greg Meyjes; Elizabeth Spencer and Thadious M. Davis also read.

People: Elizabeth Spencer

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)

Joe and Odell Thompson give a free concert in Gerrard Hall

The Mebane fiddle and banjo duo played a free folk concert at 7:30 p.m. in Gerrard Hall during Graduate and Professional Student Federation Week. The federation and the UNC Curriculum in Folklore sponsored it.

Subject: Gerrard Hall

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 J. 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 its lease ran out on September 1, 1988, at 320 West Franklin Street, the small room known as the shoebox, the club held its grand reopening in February 1989 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

Jill McCorkle speaks in the Carolina Union's Southern Writers Series at Gerrard Hall

Jill McCorkle, author of The Cheerleader, July 7th and Tending to Virginia, gave the third talk in the Carolina Union Forum Committee's Southern Writers Series in Gerrard Hall, after Clyde Edgerton and John Ehle.

People: Clyde Edgerton · John Ehle

Subject: Gerrard Hall

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).

Cal Horton becomes Chapel Hill's town manager

Cal Horton, Chapel Hill's public safety director, took over as town manager in 1990 after Sonna Loewenthal's months as interim manager. He held the post until 2006.

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 · Edward G. McGavran

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.

Herbert Aptheker returns to speak at UNC in Greenlaw Hall

Twenty-five years after he was kept off campus, Aptheker spoke to students and faculty in Greenlaw Hall in a visit arranged by anthropology professor Don Nonini.

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

People: Herbert Aptheker

The William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education is dedicated

UNC dedicated its continuing education center, named for William and Ida Friday, on April 12, 1991. Friday described it as "the citizens' classroom."

The Ray-Kenion farms and the Charles Davis Farm join the Study List

The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Ray-Kenion rural historic district and the Charles Davis Farm on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register. Both came to the committee as public requests, two years before the county survey was finished.

Subject: Charles Davis Farm

Joe Hakan becomes chairman of the chamber of commerce

Joe Hakan became chairman of the chamber's board of directors and led it out of a budget deficit, cutting salaries and staff and hiring a lower-paid director.

William F. Little serves as acting provost

Little served as acting provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs between the departure of J. Dennis O'Connor and the arrival of a new provost.

Nirvana plays Cat's Cradle

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

Subject: Cat’s Cradle

Forest Hazel publishes his study of the Occaneechi-Saponi Texas community

Southern Indian Studies printed Forest Hazel's account of the Occaneechi from Occaneechi Town on the Eno in 1701 to the Texas community of his own day, tying the excavated village near Hillsborough to living Indian families. Hazel had begun the research in 1984 from land, court, marriage, census and military records and from family oral histories.

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

Kelly Lally and Ruth Little survey the historic buildings of Chapel Hill Township

From December 1991 to April 1992 architectural historians Kelly Lally and Ruth Little drove every road in Chapel Hill Township outside the Chapel Hill and Carrboro limits and recorded 160 historic properties in detail, the first phase of a county-wide survey of Orange County buildings.

A tornado strikes Fairview, killing two people and destroying 29 houses

The 1992 tornado was probably the largest physical change to the neighborhood after its streets were paved. Rebuilding the lost houses renewed residents' sense of community and drew town attention and new infrastructure.

Baptist conventions disassociate from Binkley

State and Southern conventions acted after the church licensed an openly gay ministerial candidate.

Carvings of Prince's circus parade move to the Alumni Center

Carvings made from the circus parade illustrations in The Southern Part of Heaven, long displayed at the Carolina Inn, were moved in 1992 to the George Watts Hill Alumni Center.

People: Carl Boettcher

Subject: The Carolina Inn

Daniel Pollitt retires from the UNC law faculty

Pollitt, by then a Kenan professor of law, retired from teaching in 1992 after more than 35 years at UNC. The Daily Tar Heel credited him with founding the North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, opposing the Speaker Ban and helping to integrate the university.

Subject: UNC School of Law

Local 506 opens on West Franklin Street

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

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

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

People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance

Michael R. Smith becomes director of the Institute of Government

Smith, who had found the Institute by chance as a law student in 1978, was named director in 1992, the third after Coates to lead it, following John Sanders and Henry Lewis. He later headed it with the title of dean once it became the UNC School of Government.

People: John L. Sanders

Subject: Institute of Government

Orange, Person and Caswell make their Hyconeechee libraries county departments

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

Subject: Orange County Public Library

Paul Jones helps create SunSITE at UNC

Paul Jones of UNC's Office of Information Technology was instrumental in creating SunSITE, an Internet server and digital library at the university, in 1992.

Polvo releases its debut album Cor-Crane secret on Merge

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

Shelby Foote receives the Charles Frankel Prize

The National Endowment for the Humanities gave Shelby Foote the Charles Frankel Prize, the award now called the National Humanities Medal, as novelist, historian and principal commentator of the PBS documentary The Civil War.

Smithies lab develops the first cystic fibrosis animal model

Smithies's laboratory at UNC used his gene-targeting method to produce the first animal model of cystic fibrosis.

UNC awards Shelby Foote an honorary Doctor of Letters

UNC-Chapel Hill conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters on Shelby Foote, a UNC student from 1935 to 1937, for his fiction and his three-volume narrative history of the Civil War.

UNC renames its admissions building Jackson Hall for Blyden and Roberta Jackson

The university renamed the former Navy Hall and Monogram Club building on Country Club Road, home of the admissions office since 1972, as Blyden and Roberta Jackson Hall. The Jacksons had retired from teaching in 1981.

People: Roberta Bowles Hodges Jackson

Jeff MacNelly pledges $25,000 toward a UNC journalism professorship honoring Jim Shumaker

Jeff MacNelly pledged $25,000 to the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication toward the James H. Shumaker Term Professorship. Shumaker had edited the Chapel Hill Weekly when MacNelly drew for it as a student.

Subject: The Chapel Hill Weekly

The Herndon House bungalow at Airport Road and Stephens Street is torn down

The story-and-a-half bungalow at 113 Stephens Street, sided in brown wood shingles with a porch on tapered columns over stone piers, stood until February 1992. A low stone wall and steps were left at the property line.

The state adds the Elms, Little Ayr Mount and Maple Hill near Hillsborough to the Study List

Public requests for three houses outside Hillsborough came before the committee on April 9, 1992: the Faucette House, known as the Elms; Little Ayr Mount; and Maple Hill. Staff raised no questions about them, and the committee approved them with the other central and southeastern applications.

Subject: Jacob Jackson Farm (Maple Hill) · David Faucette House (The Elms) · Rev. Ira Ellis House (Little Ayr Mount)

The Black Cultural Center holds a reception for alumnus Randall Kenan

UNC's Black Cultural Center held a reception for Kenan, a 1985 graduate, on the publication of his story collection Let the Dead Bury Their Dead; the Bull's Head Bookshop held an autograph party for the book the same day.

Subject: Sonja Haynes Stone Center (Black Cultural Center)

Goetha C. Whitmore, one of the oldest Occaneechi elders, dies at 97

Goetha C. Whitmore of Alamance County died at 97. He remembered his grandfather Andrew Whitmore speaking a language other than English, which his father translated for him, and his memory underlay much of Forest Hazel's history of the Texas community, which Hazel dedicated to him.

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

Jill McCorkle leaves her UNC creative writing lecturership to teach at Harvard

The Daily Tar Heel reported that Jill McCorkle, a lecturer in the English department's creative writing program who taught honors writing courses for first-year students and seniors, would leave the university that fall to teach at Harvard.

The state adds ten Chapel Hill Township farms and buildings to the Study List

Ruth Little, co-principal investigator for the first phase of the Orange County survey, presented ten properties from Chapel Hill Township on July 8, 1992, and the National Register Advisory Committee approved all of them. They ran from the Smith-Cole House and the two Couch farms to Bethel Baptist Church and Murphy School.

Subject: Murphey School · Bethel Baptist Church

Orange County jury finds three former UNC officials discriminated against police officer Keith Edwards

A jury ruled that former UNC officials John DeVitto, Charles Mauer and Robert Sherman had discriminated by race and gender against Keith Edwards, an 18-year veteran of the UNC police, and ordered them to pay $116,000 in damages. Alan McSurely, her lawyer, won his first jury trial with the case.

Lizzie Mae Collins opens Lizzie Mae's Southern Kitchen

Lizzie Mae Collins opened a restaurant serving Southern cooking and gave jobs to people she knew who were trying to leave crime and drug use behind. By late 1993 she told the Daily Tar Heel the business was struggling and she was running the kitchen alone.

The Colonial Revival gas station at 100 East Franklin Street is torn down

The one-story, gabled brick filling station, built between 1949 and 1960 at the west end of the 100 block of East Franklin Street, was demolished in August 1992.

Fire damages the store building at 119 East Franklin Street

A two-story brick commercial building of 1915-25, with crenellated brickwork and grouped upper windows, was damaged by fire in September 1992, the month the survey was finished.

Maggie's Muffins moves to West Main Street and becomes Maggie's Cafe and Espresso

Jane Hamborsky's bakery, open on Weaver Street since 1989, moved to "the corner of Main and Main" in Carrboro in September 1992 and renamed itself Maggie's Cafe and Espresso. The larger space let it add lunch.

Reviewers turn down Tinnin Plantation near Efland for the Study List

Staff recommended rejecting the plantation because alterations had cost it much of its historic fabric, and on October 8, 1992 the committee accepted the recommendation. The applicant was to be told that the investigators of the countywide Orange County survey, then about to start, would look at the property again when their work was done.

Jody Carter and Todd Peck survey rural Orange County buildings

From October 1992 to July 1993 Jody Carter and Todd Peck drove every passable road in Orange County outside Chapel Hill Township and the Hillsborough town limits, recording 507 buildings and complexes at least fifty years old and taking down oral history where they could.

Richard Petty receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom

President George H. W. Bush presented Petty the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his stock car racing career, citing his rise from humble beginnings in Level Cross, North Carolina.

People: George Bush

Ben Folds Five forms in Chapel Hill

Ben Folds and bassist Robert Sledge, who had met at UNC Greensboro, moved to Chapel Hill and formed the piano trio Ben Folds Five with drummer Darren Jessee.

Brenda Stephens becomes director of the Orange County library system

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

People: Brenda Stephens

Subject: Orange County Public Library

Chinese School at Chapel Hill is founded

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

Entertainment Weekly asks whether Chapel Hill is the next Seattle

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

People: Mac McCaughan

Grant supports new farmers’ market shelters

Funding enabled preparation of the Town Commons location.

Subject: Carrboro Farmers’ Market

Hank Anderson serves on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen

Anderson was elected to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen in 1993 and re-elected in 1997, and the board chose him as mayor pro tem in 1994 and again in 1997. He served until his death in October 1998.

People: Mike Nelson · Jacquelyn Gist

Jenrette founds the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust with Ayr Mount

Richard Jenrette founded the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust with his gift of Ayr Mount, which became the first of his houses opened to the public. The trust, later renamed the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation, came to own land around Ayr Mount including Poet's Walk and the Occoneechee Speedway site.

Subject: Ayr Mount · Occoneechee Speedway

Mike Nelson is elected to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen

Nelson won a seat on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen in 1993, and as an alderman he championed the domestic partners ordinance the town adopted in 1994.

Part of Carrboro’s LGBTQ municipal firsts · 15 events

Orange County commissioners decline to fund a Carrboro library

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

Subject: Orange County Public Library

Shelby Foote becomes UNC's first Morgan Family Writer-in-Residence

Shelby Foote spent the fall 1993 semester at UNC as the university's first Morgan Family Writer-in-Residence.

Southern Cultures publishes its first issue from UNC's new Center for the Study of the American South

John Shelton Reed and Harry L. Watson opened the first issue of the quarterly Southern Cultures, which they called the front porch of UNC's new Center for the Study of the American South.

Squirrel Nut Zippers form near Chapel Hill

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

The George Watts Hill Alumni Center opens on Stadium Drive

The General Alumni Association dedicated its new Alumni Center on Stadium Drive in 1993, and the university named it for George Watts Hill, who had pledged a $3.5 million challenge grant when the building campaign began.

The Hamlett House at 423 West King Street burns

Fire destroys the Hamlett House at 423 West King Street in 1993, and a new house is later built on the lot.

The Long House at 112 North Nash Street is torn down

The deteriorated Long House at 112 North Nash Street is demolished in 1993, and a new house is built on the lot in 1998.

NAACP task force begins a study of UNC's employee grievance procedure

A task force chaired by Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP president James Brittian held its first meeting to evaluate UNC's grievance and appeals procedure and employee relations counseling, aiming to change state law for workers across the UNC system. Former UNC personnel director Jack Gunnells was its operations director.

The state puts the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery on the Study List

A committee member asked how the cemetery differed from other town burial grounds that held a community's leading people. Staff answered that cemeteries had to be judged one at a time and that the cemetery's clearly bounded older sections and the importance of those buried there met the test for cemeteries. The committee approved it on January 14, 1993.

Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Community Church joins the Unitarian Universalist Association

Members approved affiliation after years of discussion.

Subject: Community Church of Chapel Hill

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

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

Jesse Jackson comes to Chapel Hill during the Black Cultural Center sit-in

Jesse Jackson came to Chapel Hill while students occupied South Building for a free-standing Black Cultural Center, met first with Chancellor Hardin and urged him to call a special trustees' meeting, which Hardin refused. Sixteen students and a Chapel Hill resident were arrested that day.

Subject: Sonja Haynes Stone Center (Black Cultural Center) · South Building

Cat's Cradle closes its last Franklin Street location

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

People: Frank Heath

Subject: Cat’s Cradle

The state places rural Orange County houses, churches, schools and districts on the Study List

On July 8, 1993, after the survey of the rural county, the National Register Advisory Committee placed 23 rural Orange County properties on the state Study List: eighteen farmhouses and log houses, the Carr Methodist and Harmony churches, White Cross School, and the Cedar Grove and Oaks Rural historic districts.

The Gimghoul Neighborhood Historic District is listed in the National Register

On August 5, 1993 the National Park Service listed the Gimghoul Neighborhood Historic District in Chapel Hill in the National Register of Historic Places.

Subject: Gimghoul Castle and neighborhood

Archers of Loaf release their debut album Icky Mettle

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

Chancellor Paul Hardin confers an honorary doctor of laws on President Bill Clinton

After his speech at UNC's Bicentennial Convocation in Kenan Stadium, President Clinton received an honorary doctorate of law from Chancellor Paul Hardin.

Subject: Kenan Stadium

UNC and Chapel Hill celebrate their bicentennial

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

Part of The founding of the University and Chapel Hill, 1789–1795 · 37 events

People: Bill Clinton

Subject: Old East · Kenan Stadium

Sunnyside, the John Berry farm, joins the Study List

The National Register Advisory Committee placed Sunnyside, the farm of the builder John Berry east of Hillsborough (later the Baldwin farm), 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.

Subject: Sunnyside (John Berry farm)

Joe and Lucy Straley receive the first Charles M. Jones award of the local ACLU

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union gave Joe and Lucy Straley, both 79, its Charles M. Jones award for their work for peace, social justice and racial integration. The award, begun that year, recognizes contributions to civil liberties and civil rights in Orange and Chatham counties.

People: Joe Straley · Charles M. Jones

A new building fills the long-vacant corner of East Franklin and Columbia streets

The southeast corner, empty since its Texaco station was razed, gained a large building with Top of the Hill restaurant and a new Carolina Theatre among its tenants. Bryant says soil contamination had apparently kept the lot vacant.

C. D. Spangler Jr. buys the old Green-Phillips house at 513 East Franklin

After stepping down as president of the University, Spangler bought the house Walter and Anne Dellinger had owned since before 1973 and began restoring it. The house, built for William Mercer Green in the 1840s, later belonged to Charles Phillips and then served the Presbyterians as their manse.

Douglass Hunt receives a C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award

The university gave Hunt its Massey Award for service, citing him as a lawyer, historian and civil servant. He had worked with C. Knox Massey for several years to set up the Massey Awards and the Carolina Seminars program.

The Hughes Academy schoolhouse is moved from near Lake Orange to Hillsborough

The small two-room frame schoolhouse of the Hughes Academy, built around 1862 near Lake Orange in northern Orange County, was moved in 1994 to the grounds at 200 East King Street in Hillsborough and restored.

Subject: Hughes Academy (Cedar Grove Academy)