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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,531 dated events and 63 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis.

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7 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,531 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–7.Back to highlights

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7 dated events
1952Civil rights era
  1. Civil rights era · 1945–1975
  2. Architect George Matsumoto draws plans for Dr. Isaac Taylor's house on Morgan Creek Road

    Construction or physical change · 618 Morgan Creek Road, Chapel Hill

    George Matsumoto of the State College School of Design drew the plans for the house of Dr. Isaac M. Taylor, new to the medical school faculty, in Morgan Creek Hills. The Taylors raised their children there, among them the singer James Taylor.

    People: Isaac Montrose Taylor · George Matsumoto

  3. Milton Julian wins the right to build his modernist house on Ledge Lane

    Law, policy or court · Ledge Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill

    When W. C. Coker's chosen architect, Walter D. Toy, refused to approve the plans for clothier Milton Julian's house on Ledge Lane, designed by George Matsumoto of the State College School of Design, Milton and Virginia Julian sued on September 30, 1953; Coker's executors, his widow and neighbors Cornelius and Beulah Cathey opposed them. The North Carolina Supreme Court held on June 4, 1954 that the approval clause was personal to Coker and ended at his death in June 1953, and the International Style house was finished by November 1956.

    People: George Matsumoto

  4. Milton Julian's Matsumoto-designed house on Ledge Lane is finished

    Construction or physical change · 101 Ledge Lane, Chapel Hill

    The modernist house George Matsumoto designed for clothier Milton Julian and his family, which neighbors had gone to court to stop, stood finished by November 1956, when it was one of ten homes on the School Art Guild's tour of Chapel Hill homes.

    People: George Matsumoto

  5. George Matsumoto draws plans for a Chapel Hill house for Cecile and Bryce DeWitt

    Chapel Hill

    Matsumoto's papers hold sketches, preliminary drawings and fourteen sheets of working drawings for a residence in Chapel Hill for Cecile and Bryce DeWitt.

  6. Architect Arthur Cogswell designs his own house on Marilyn Lane

    Construction or physical change · 5 Marilyn Lane, Chapel Hill

    Cogswell's 1960 house at 5 Marilyn Lane sits on two levels in a slope, planned on George Matsumoto's four-foot grid and sided in vertical pine, with a short bridge from the drive to the door and a living room under a row of small glass-ended gables. It won an award from the North Carolina chapter of the AIA.

    People: Arthur Cogswell · George Matsumoto

  7. Arthur Cogswell opens his own architecture firm in Chapel Hill

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill

    Arthur Cogswell, a UNC graduate of 1952 who trained in architecture at State College and spent the late 1950s in Don Stewart's office, opened his own Chapel Hill practice in 1962, designing flat-roofed, cantilevered houses in the spare manner he learned from George Matsumoto.

    People: Arthur Cogswell · George Matsumoto

  8. Cogswell/Hausler design a new sanctuary for the Community Church on Purefoy Road

    Construction or physical change · 106 Purefoy Road, Chapel Hill

    In 1970 the firm added a two-story International Style sanctuary with stained siding and large south windows to the Community Church at 106 Purefoy Road, tied to the congregation's plain brick building of 1957 by George Matsumoto through a glass link. The integrated, nondenominational church had been founded in 1953 by the Rev. Charlie Jones and members who left Chapel Hill Presbyterian with him.

    People: Arthur Cogswell · Werner Hausler · George Matsumoto

    Subject: Community Church of Chapel Hill

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A dated event is a fact, filed on the page of the subject it belongs to: a person, a place, a theme, or a named event or history. Pages are subjects, with their own works and sources; the Place, community, or institution filter also gathers the institutions that recur in the entries without a page of their own. The page opens on the highlights; a search or any filter looks through every dated event and storyline, and each filter’s counts say how many entries choosing it would show alongside the others. A storyline is a longer history that gathers related dated events, and each storyline’s page lists its own. Counts give dated events and storylines separately. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. The correction link under the entries opens the contact form; name the entry and its date and the Friends will check the source. Suggest an event →

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.

Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026