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1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

2. 1940
   Publication, speech or performance · Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Louis Graves starts a newspaper campaign to give Franklin Street a Williamsburg look

   Feeling the business district looked shabby beside the new campus, Chapel Hill Weekly editor Louis Graves began praising Colonial Williamsburg's shops in editorials. Joseph Hyde Pratt, John M. Booker, W. D. Carmichael Jr., Collier Cobb and George Watts Hill backed the plan, and architect Archie Davis gave the planning commission watercolors showing owners how to remodel.

3. about 1940
   Construction or physical change · 106 Laurel Hill Circle, Chapel Hill University controller William D. Carmichael Jr. builds a large brick house in Laurel Hill

   William Carmichael and his wife had one of the biggest Colonial Revival houses in town built at 106 Laurel Hill Circle, a red brick house with a classical entrance and flanking wings.

4. 1940
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill William D. Carmichael Jr. returns to Chapel Hill as the university's finance officer

   Carmichael left a New York Stock Exchange partnership and came back in 1940 to serve the consolidated University of North Carolina as finance officer. As finance officer, comptroller and then vice-president he raised money from the legislature, foundations, corporations and individuals.

5. April 14, 1941
   Founding or opening · Chapel Hill Chapel Hill appoints its first town planning commission

   After more than a year of urging by the Chapel Hill Weekly, the town named a five-member planning commission to review the design of new and remodeled buildings. It set the Colonial Revival look of downtown for the next decade.

6. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

7. 1949–1950
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Carmichael serves as acting president of the consolidated university

   Carmichael was acting president in 1949 and 1950, after Frank Porter Graham resigned to take a seat in the United States Senate.

8. About 1953 to January 1955
   Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill Kay Kyser helps raise the money to put WUNC-TV on the air

   Kay Kyser toured the state with William C. Friday and Billy Carmichael Jr. to raise money for UNC's educational television station, which went on the air from Chapel Hill in January 1955.

9. 1965
   Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill UNC names its Chapel Hill gymnasium for William D. Carmichael Jr.

   Four years after his death the university named the gymnasium at Chapel Hill for Carmichael. NCpedia lists buildings named for him on three campuses, the television building at Greensboro, the gymnasium at Raleigh and the auditorium at Chapel Hill.

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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 October 2, 2026.