Chronology

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1. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865

2. about 1843
   Construction or physical change · East Franklin Street, beside 407 East Franklin, Chapel Hill Samuel Phillips builds a law office with a Tudor entrance porch on East Franklin Street

   About 1843 Samuel Phillips, a lawyer who taught at the university, put up a small law office on East Franklin Street; by 1847 a boys' preparatory school was meeting in it. Its stepped-gable Tudor porch matches the Eagle Hotel annex built for Polk's 1847 visit. Dabney Cosby probably built it, and the design may be his or A. J. Davis's.

3. 1844–1848
   Property or economic transaction · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Dabney Cosby takes the masonry subcontract for the lengthening of Old East and Old West

   Chapel Hill contractors Isaac J. Collier and Kendall B. Waitt subcontracted the masonry of the university additions to Cosby, who put enslaved workmen including the brothers Osborne and Albert on the job. Cosby and the architect Alexander Jackson Davis quarrelled over the drawings, and president David L. Swain asked the Hillsborough builder John Berry to look at the brickwork, which Berry reported was defective.

4. 1845 to 1846
   Slavery and freedom · Old East, UNC Brothers Albert and Osborne, enslaved by Dabney Cosby, plaster the lengthened Old East

   The additions to Old East and Old West, contracted in December 1844 and finished in 1848, used the labor of Albert and Osborne, brothers enslaved by Dabney Cosby, who plastered the lengthened Old East in 1845 and 1846. Cosby praised Albert's plastering as first-rate work.

5. February 1845
   Slavery and freedom · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Osborne begins the masonry on the additions to Old East and Old West

   Dabney Cosby, who held the masonry subcontract for the university additions, sent Osborne to Chapel Hill carrying a letter to the main contractors saying that Osborne would have his mortar made up. Cosby ordered meal and bacon for him and wrote that what Osborne said could be relied on.

6. May 11, 1846
   Slavery and freedom · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Albert joins his brother Osborne to plaster the halls at the university

   Cosby sent Albert from Smithfield in Virginia to Chapel Hill, where Osborne was already at work on the additions to Old East and Old West. Albert carried a letter to university president David L. Swain saying he came to help his brother plaster the halls and would judge the sand to be used together with Osborne.

7. 1847–1849
   Construction or physical change · Chapel Hill Dabney Cosby builds the Presbyterian church on Franklin Street

   After the university work Cosby built a small Tuscan style church designed by Alexander Jackson Davis for the Chapel Hill Presbyterian congregation, whose members included university president David L. Swain. In March 1848 the congregation member Charles Phillips wrote to Davis that the mason could not match the lilac gray color specified for the outside. The building no longer stands.

8. 1847
   Construction or physical change · Eagle Hotel, present site of Graham Memorial, Chapel Hill Nancy Hilliard adds a castellated annex to the Eagle Hotel for President Polk's visit

   For President James K. Polk's visit to the 1847 commencement, Nancy Hilliard, who kept the Eagle Hotel, added a stuccoed two-story wing with a battlemented porch in a medieval manner. The annex stood on the site of today's Graham Memorial; Dabney Cosby likely built it, perhaps to his own design or one by A. J. Davis.

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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.