Skip to content

Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, expand to see all 1,473 dated entries and where they connect to the index.

Filters · 2 active
Entries may appear under more than one subject.
A town matches the place recorded for each entry.

Chapel Hill High School, Early twentieth century: 3 dated entries from the full dataset. Back to the highlights →

Earliest first. Scroll sideways, or use the arrows.

3 dated entries
1916Early twentieth century
  1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
  2. Chapel Hill's white graded school and high school move into a new West Franklin Street building

    Education milestone · Chapel Hill

    Paid for by a $35,000 bond, a new Chapel Hill Graded School building designed by Hook and Rogers was finished on West Franklin Street in spring 1916. It housed white elementary and high school students, and Chapel Hill High School counts 1916 as its founding year, though its classes predate the building.

    Subject: Chapel Hill High School

  3. A new Chapel Hill High School opens on Columbia Street

    Building opening · Chapel Hill

    Chapel Hill's new high school for white students, beside the Pittsboro road on what is now South Columbia Street, opened to classes on October 5, 1936, three weeks late. Built for $106,000 with Public Works Administration aid to plans by Atwood and Weeks, it came in the same federal program that built an addition at the Orange County Training School.

    Subject: Chapel Hill High School

  4. Chapel Hill High School burns

    Disaster or violence · Chapel Hill

    Fire destroyed the Chapel Hill high school building on South Columbia Street, then the Pittsboro highway, early on Saturday, August 8, 1942. The school board arranged to hold grades 10 to 12 in rooms at the Baptist church and the ninth grade at the elementary school, and wartime material shortages delayed a new building for years.

    Subject: Chapel Hill High School

The other dated entries wait behind a subject, a place, an era, a month, or the All dated entries switch, and each storyline’s page carries its own component entries. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. Each card’s “Correct this” link opens the contact form with the entry already named. Suggest an event →

Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated September 14, 2026.

Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026