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Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
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James J. Freeland moves to Hillsborough
Born in Durham in 1918, Freeland came to Hillsborough in 1934. In his early years there he operated the Sunny Side Inn, a barbecue restaurant, worked part time at a sawmill and helped run a dry cleaning plant in West Hillsborough.
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James J. Freeland builds his first house at US 70 and Faucette Mill Road
Three years after marrying Maxine Hayes, Freeland built the family's first home where Highway 70 crosses Faucette Mill Road, next to land that became the Fairview subdivision the following year.
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Fairview is platted as a neighborhood for Black families north of US 70
The first of Hillsborough's mid-century African American subdivisions was laid out in 1943 along roads that were already there, with twenty-five-foot lots meant to be bought in combination. Local builder James J. Freeland, who owned land in Fairview, built many of its houses.
Civil rights era · 1945–1975
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James J. Freeland develops Mountain View and Colonial Hills east of Hillsborough
Freeland laid out two small subdivisions of Minimal Traditional and Ranch houses on curving streets: Mountain View, beside the Eno on its north side at Highway 70 Business, where the family built its second house, and Colonial Hills, off Lawrence Road close to Highway 70A.
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James J. Freeland develops a small group of houses on Daye Street
Moving beyond single houses, Freeland laid out a small development along Daye Street northwest of Fairview, where tax records show he owned the land. He was known for selling homes to families who could not otherwise buy, with no down payment and a second mortgage instead.
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James and Maxine Freeland open the Ja-Max Motor Lodge on US 70
Named for its owners, the long one-story motel northwest of town on the main Greensboro-Durham road let guests park at their own doors, and its hipped roof, stone veneer and horizontal-pane windows borrow from the Ranch house. It was probably the first of Freeland's motels, a string that later ran to Durham, Mebane and Roxboro and included Chapel Hill's Tar Heel Motel.
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Fairview Baptist Church is organized in Hillsborough
Fairview Baptist Church was organized in Hillsborough in October 1952 under pastor James Clegg and put up a 250-seat building that year.
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Hillsborough Heights is laid out, with a street named for James J. Freeland
The African American neighborhood on Terrell, Central, Forrest, Coley and Freeland streets, below US 70 on the west side of North Nash Street, was laid out in the 1950s. Its Freeland Street was named for the builder, who probably put up houses there.
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James Freeland builds the General Joseph E. Johnston Motel at US 70 and Interstate 85
Builder James Freeland put up the General Joseph E. Johnston Motel on US 70 near the new Interstate 85, part of a roadside group with his ice rink and, across the highway, the General Sherman Restaurant.
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James J. Freeland develops Holiday Park with a swimming pool
In the 1960s Freeland built Holiday Park northwest of town, a development with its own pool and other amenities; some of its houses were former Eno Mill village houses moved to the site.
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James J. Freeland remodels and sells the Colonial Inn
Freeland, who also restored and moved old buildings, owned the Colonial Inn on West King Street for a time and remodeled it before selling it in the 1960s.
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James Freeland opens his rebuilt Holiday Ice Rink beside the General Johnston Motel
James Freeland opened a new 65 by 180 foot Holiday Ice Rink on US 70 three miles west of Durham, replacing a rink whose roof had caved in under snow the winter before. It stood next to his new General Johnston Motel.
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James Freeland's General Sherman Restaurant opens at US 70 and Interstate 85
The General Sherman Restaurant, built by James Freeland across the highway from his General Johnston Motel, opened around the clock and was billed as Orange County's newest. It became a common place for Democratic Party dinners and club luncheons in the early 1960s.
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Orange County's fourth ABC store opens at US 70 and Interstate 85
Orange County's fourth and largest ABC liquor store opened beside the General Sherman Restaurant, half a mile from the Durham County line. James Freeland built the colonial-style building and leased it to the county board; it was said to be the only ABC store in North Carolina on an interstate highway.
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James J. Freeland's Dixie Motor Inn opens at Interstate 85 and NC 86
The Dixie Motor Inn, owned by James J. and James Rae Freeland, opened two miles south of Hillsborough where Interstate 85 meets NC 86. It had 16 air-conditioned units and was the sixth motel the elder Freeland had built in Orange, Durham and Wake counties.
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James J. Freeland builds his third family house on Highway 70
After homes near Fairview and in his Mountain View development, Freeland built the family's third house in 1964 on Highway 70 a little northwest of that subdivision, and lived there the rest of his life.
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James J. Freeland opens the Daniel Boone Inn and restaurant at South Churton Street and I-85
A 1966 plat of the "Daniel Boone Inn and Restaurant Tract", eleven acres lying behind the Shell station on the northeast side of the interchange, shows a pond, a general store, a restaurant later known as the D. B. Cafeteria and a long two-story motel. It was the start of Daniel Boone Village.
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James J. Freeland remodels the William Whitted House on East Queen Street
In the 1970s Freeland remodeled the William Whitted House, one of several historic Hillsborough buildings he restored or moved.
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Daniel Boone Village grows into an amusement park
By 1972 the Daniel Boone Recreation Park had a roller rink, an ice rink, a ski lift, a refrigerated toboggan slide, an antique car and wax museum, a fort, an amphitheater and a campground, circled by a small railroad on which costumed performers staged holdups. With relocated log cabins and false-front shops it looked like a frontier town, and Freeland was dubbed the "Walt Disney of Hillsborough."
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The Daniel Boone amusement park closes and Boone Square replaces its north end
By the end of the 1970s the rides were gone, leaving only the campground, ice rink and amphitheater, and the northern part of the property was rebuilt as the Boone Square shopping center; a big-box supermarket stood on the ride site by 1983. Daniel Boone Village became a center for antique shops and restaurants, with the Big Barn Convention Center for community events.
Recent decades · 1976–2026
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James J. Freeland moves the Gatewood House from Yanceyville to Daniel Boone Village
Continuing his habit of relocating old buildings to his South Churton Street development, Freeland brought the Gatewood House from Yanceyville in Caswell County to Daniel Boone Village in 1978.
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James J. Freeland moves Poplar Hill across the Eno to South Cameron Street
Freeland, who had moved the Gatewood House in 1978, had the Poplar Hill house hauled over the Eno River from Tuscarora Drive to a new lot at 203 South Cameron Street, just south of Burnside, on the north side of the river.
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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.
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The Hillsborough survey proposes the Ja-Max Motor Lodge for the state Study List
The survey report recommended the 1952 motel on US 70 for North Carolina's National Register Study List as one of the town's few surviving mid-century motels. It cited the eleven rooms, each with its own bath and parking at the door, the lamp-lined drive, and Ranch-house features rarely used on a commercial building, and proposed a 2.87-acre boundary. The National Register Advisory Committee added the motel to the Study List on October 12, 2017.
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