Chronology

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1. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899

2. about 1896
   Founding or opening · Chapel Hill John W. Canada starts the Canada School in Chapel Hill

   Soon after graduating from the university in 1896, John W. Canada organized a private school in Chapel Hill that prepared students for college. He ran it with his brother Charles, Sallie Wilson and a Miss Hendon until he left for Texas soon after 1900.

3. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

4. 1920
   Statistic or record · Orange County Louis Graves reports that Orange County has the state's biggest illicit distilling

   Writing in the New Republic, Graves said North Carolina led the country in illicit still capacity and that Orange County, home of the University, had the largest distilling operations in the state, ahead of Wilkes.

5. 1921
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Louis Graves becomes the university's first journalism professor

   Louis Graves came back to Chapel Hill in 1921 as the University of North Carolina's first professor of journalism. He resigned in 1924 to give his time to his newspaper.

6. 1923
   Founding or opening · Chapel Hill Louis Graves founds the Orange Printshop in Chapel Hill

   Graves set up the Orange Printshop in 1923 alongside his Chapel Hill Weekly and leased it to W. M. Pugh in 1940. It printed books and magazines and set a record for delivering the state Session Laws.

7. March 2, 1923
   Founding or opening · Chapel Hill The Chapel Hill Weekly publishes its first issue

   Louis Graves published the first issue of his newspaper, the Chapel Hill Weekly, on March 2, 1923. He owned and edited it until 1954.

8. 1924–1926
   Chapel Hill Gerald W. Johnson heads the university's newly independent journalism department

   After Louis Graves left in 1924, the university expanded journalism into an independent department with Johnson, an editorial writer, at its head. He left for the Baltimore Evening Sun in 1926.

9. September 1924
   Construction or physical change · Rosemary Street, behind the Bank of Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill The Orange Printshop moves into a new brick building off Rosemary Street

   The Orange Printshop, which printed Louis Graves's Chapel Hill Weekly, moved into a new brick building made for it on the lot behind Patterson Brothers drug store. It added new presses and machinery with the move.

10. July 1, 1938
    Protest or organizing · Franklin Street, Chapel Hill John M. Booker offers to buy a Franklin Street lot for the new town hall

    In a letter to the Chapel Hill Weekly, professor John M. Booker objected to the hurried choice of the old site and offered to buy and give a lot on Franklin Street, hoping it would start a civic center. Editor Louis Graves backed the idea and called for town planning.

11. September 8, 1939
    Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill Citizens buy land for a Negro Community Center

    Ten Chapel Hill men, among them Louis Graves, R. B. House and Paul Wager, signed a $1,500 note at the Bank of Chapel Hill to buy about five acres of the old Craig place at the west end of Rosemary Lane for a Black community center. The project grew out of concerns raised by the Negro Civic Club.

12. December 5, 1939
    Life event · Chapel Hill Ralph H. Graves is buried in Chapel Hill

    Ralph H. Graves, a New York editor and newspaper syndicate agent born in Chapel Hill, died at his home in Garden City, Long Island, on December 1, 1939. After a funeral there, a burial service was held at the Chapel Hill cemetery on the afternoon of Tuesday, December 5.

13. 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.

14. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

15. 1954
    Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill Louis Graves sells the Chapel Hill Weekly

    After 31 years as its editor and owner, Louis Graves sold the Chapel Hill Weekly in 1954 to the Chapel Hill Publishing Company. He stayed on as contributing editor through 1960.

16. 1965
    Life event · Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, South Road (NC 54) and Country Club Road, Chapel Hill Chapel Hill Weekly founder Louis Graves is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

    Louis Graves (1883-1965), founder, publisher and editor of the Chapel Hill Weekly, was buried in the cemetery.

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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.