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1. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899

2. March 17, 1894
   Life event · Harnett County; later Chapel Hill connection Paul Green, playwright of The Lost Colony and an outspoken opponent of segregation, was born

   Paul Green was born in Harnett County and entered UNC in 1916.

3. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

4. 1927
   Award or honor · Chapel Hill Paul Green wins the Pulitzer Prize for In Abraham’s Bosom

   Paul Green received the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for In Abraham’s Bosom.

5. May 1927
   Publication, speech or performance · University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill Press governors object to Paul Green's introduction to Congaree Sketches

   Called before Chase and the press's board, assistant editor William T. Couch heard Royster and the others condemn Green's introduction, which said neither race could leave the ditch until whites gave Blacks a hand. Couch pointed out that some 150 advance copies were already out, and the book went out as printed. Six months later, at Chase's order, unsold copies went to a commercial publisher, which reprinted it without Green's introduction.

6. May 1930
   Life event · Chapel Hill Howard Mumford Jones leaves Chapel Hill for the University of Michigan

   Howard Mumford Jones, a member of the university's English faculty since coming from the University of Texas in 1925, left for the University of Michigan in 1930 and handed his syndicated book-review column, The Literary Lantern, to Paul Green and his wife.

7. April 1935
   Construction or physical change · Paul Green tract between the Durham and Raleigh roads, later Greenwood Road, Chapel Hill Paul Green finishes a small writing retreat on his land east of Chapel Hill

   Playwright Paul Green finishes a small building for study and writing on the tract he had bought about two years earlier beyond the Strowd farm, between the Durham and Raleigh roads. He meant to build a family house near it later.

8. May 1936
   Construction or physical change · Paul Green tract between the Durham and Raleigh roads, later 610 Greenwood Road, Chapel Hill Paul and Elizabeth Green sell their village home and lay out a new house east of town

   Paul and Elizabeth Green sell their home in the Glen to Mr. and Mrs. J. Manson Valentine and, with advice from a landscape architect, site a family house, gardens and outbuildings on their tract east of the village, hoping to move in by September.

9. July 4, 1937
   Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill The Lost Colony premieres

   Paul Green's pageant-drama The Lost Colony opened on Roanoke Island on Sunday evening, July 4, 1937, and the Chapel Hill Weekly reported that it scored a hit. The production had Chapel Hill roots: Frederick Koch's Carolina Playmakers were involved, and at least one actor came to Chapel Hill in June to rehearse.

10. Recent decades · 1976–2026

11. 1981
    Life event · Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, South Road (NC 54) and Country Club Road, Chapel Hill Playwright Paul Green is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

    Paul Green (1894-1981), the dramatist who wrote the outdoor drama The Lost Colony, was buried in the cemetery.

12. 1991
    Construction or physical change · North Carolina Botanical Garden, Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill Paul Green's writing cabin is moved to the North Carolina Botanical Garden

    The 16-by-18-foot log cabin where the playwright wrote was moved to the Botanical Garden and restored when its old lot was to be sold. A Paul Green Cabin Task Force pressed for the move, citing Green's study of native plants.

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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.