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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 9,006 dated events and 77 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis. Browse all 77 storylines. Every entry names its source. See all 667 sources.

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Source: Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998)
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249 dated events match your filters.

Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998): A lot-by-lot record of Franklin Street drawn from deeds, directories and recollections.Open the sourceAll sources

Searched the full chronology of 9,006 dated events and 77 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 201–249 of 249, 200 to a page.Back to highlights

Entries

  1. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

  2. 1940s
  3. Founding or opening · Cafe Mouza, West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Miltos Tassos buys J. Edgar Merritt's West Franklin property and opens the Cafe Mouza

    Tassos renovated the building he bought from Merritt, next to 107 West Franklin, and opened it as The Cafe Mouza.

  4. 1950s
  5. Founding or opening · Colonial Drug, West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Colonial Drugstore moves into the West Franklin store left by Milton's Clothing Cupboard

    Colonial Drugstore took over the West Franklin building that Milton Julian's clothing store had vacated.

  6. Founding or opening · Colonial Stores, West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Colonial Stores opens on West Franklin Street in a building put up by Jack Hazzard

    The Colonial Stores chain opened in a new building Hazzard had built. After Colonial Stores left, the Chapel Hill Newspaper moved into the building in late 1973.

  7. Violence or armed conflict · Rachel Crook's Fish & Produce Market, West Franklin Street at Merritt Mill Road, Chapel Hill Produce seller Rachel Crook is abducted and murdered

    Rachel Crook, who ran a fish and produce stand at the corner of West Franklin and Merritt Mill Road, was kidnapped and killed. Her killer was never identified, and the restaurant that later opened on her corner took the name Crook's Corner.

  8. Founding or opening · Town & Campus, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Bob Cox and Monk Jennings open Town & Campus in place of Wilbur Kutz's Varsity Shop

    Cox and Jennings's clothing store, Town & Campus, took over the East Franklin store where Kutz had run the Varsity Shop. It was replaced by another clothier between 1989 and 1993.

  9. Founding or opening · Hospital Savings Association, 436-440 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Hospital Savings Association moves from East Franklin into a large new building on West Franklin

    The association left its two-bay store on East Franklin for big new quarters on West Franklin. By the late 1960s it had become Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

  10. Construction or physical change · Rock Baptist Church, West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Rock Baptist Church building on West Franklin Street is torn down

    The Black Baptist congregation's church on West Franklin, in use since 1908, was demolished late in 1953 once its new church on North Roberson Street was finished.

  11. Property or economic transaction · Hill Bakery (Thell's Bakery), East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Robert Rhinehart sells the Hill Bakery to Thell Jernigan, who renames it Thell's Bakery

    Rhinehart, who had bought the East Franklin bakery in 1943 from Mrs. William Brumfield Neal, sold it to Jernigan, and the new owner put his own name on it. Thell's Bakery stayed in business into the mid-1980s.

  12. Founding or opening · Belk-Leggett-Horton, 206 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Belk-Leggett-Horton department store opens on West Franklin Street

    The department store opened next to the Masonic Hall. A few years later the hall was razed for its parking lot, and the store had closed by the early 1980s, when Southern Bell moved into its space.

  13. Construction or physical change · Crystal Palace site, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The University tears down the Crystal Palace on East Franklin Street for planetarium parking

    The University had bought the old building known as the Crystal Palace in 1945. In 1954 it razed it and turned the lot into parking for Morehead Planetarium, with a large sundial in a rose garden at the center.

  14. Construction or physical change · Institute of Government building, 223 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Institute of Government's East Franklin building becomes Consolidated University offices

    After William Friday moved into the President's House in 1956, the University moved the Institute of Government out of its Franklin Street building and used it for the Consolidated University's offices. Those offices went back to campus between 1969 and 1973, and the building passed to other University programs.

  15. Property or economic transaction · Carolina Pharmacy, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Thomas Philip Lloyd sells the Carolina Pharmacy to Helen Duguid

    Duguid kept the East Franklin drugstore going only a short time before Campus Laundry and Cleaners replaced it.

  16. Disaster or outbreak · University Presbyterian Church, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Fire destroys the Presbyterian church on East Franklin Street

    The University Presbyterian Church burned in 1958. The congregation built a larger church on the same site three years later.

  17. Property or economic transaction · Ledbetter-Pickard Stationery, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Joe Page becomes sole owner of Ledbetter-Pickard Stationery

    Page, a clerk in the East Franklin stationery store before the war, bought Herbert Ledbetter's share in 1947 and the rest of the business when Pickard died in 1958.

  18. Founding or opening · Kemp's Phonograph Records, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Kemp Nye opens Kemp's Phonograph Records on East Franklin Street

    Nye, who had worked for Milton Abernethy, opened a record shop in the store the Smiths' bookshop had just left.

  19. Founding or opening · Intimate Bookshop, 119 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Intimate Bookshop moves into the old Berman Department Store on East Franklin Street

    After Sam Berman's death, Paul and Isabel Smith moved their bookshop into the store his department store had used, the 119 East Franklin building it kept for forty years.

  20. Founding or opening · The Hub, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Robert Rosenbacher opens The Hub, a men's clothing store, on East Franklin Street

    The Hub took the store Charles Shields had just closed after 36 years of running his Home Owned Grocery there. It stayed 37 years, closing in 1996.

  21. Construction or physical change · Masonic Hall, 200 West Franklin Street, at Church Street, Chapel Hill The Masonic Hall on West Franklin Street is torn down for a department store parking lot

    The Masonic Hall at Church Street was razed and its ground paved as a parking lot for the Belk-Leggett store next door.

  22. 1960s
  23. Founding or opening · Chapel Hill Weekly, 501 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Chapel Hill Weekly moves into the old Harris-Connors Chevrolet agency on West Franklin

    The town's weekly paper took over the space the Chevrolet dealer had left. Renamed the Chapel Hill Newspaper, it moved a few doors west in late 1973.

  24. Construction or physical change · Graham Memorial, East Franklin Street, UNC campus, Chapel Hill Graham Memorial passes from student union to the Department of Dramatic Arts

    Graham Memorial, the student union for 27 years, was turned over to the drama department after the new Frank Porter Graham Student Union opened elsewhere on campus.

  25. Construction or physical change · University Square East, West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The old school buildings and the Caesar Cone house on West Franklin are razed for a bank and University Square East

    Chapel Hill's old elementary and high school buildings on West Franklin came down, along with the house known as the Caesar Cone house. Central Carolina Bank & Trust and the University Square East shopping center went up in their place.

  26. Property or economic transaction · Eubanks Drugstore (Courts' Drugs), East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Clyde Eubanks sells his drugstore to Benjamin and Ellyn Courts, who rename it Courts' Drugs

    The Courts kept the East Franklin store where it was for about two years, then moved it to University Square East in 1967 when North Carolina National Bank began expanding.

  27. Property or economic transaction · Intimate Bookshop, 119 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Paul and Isabel Smith sell the Intimate Bookshop to Wallace Kuralt

    The Smiths sold the East Franklin bookshop to Kuralt but kept running a rare-book department inside the store until the end of 1968.

  28. Disaster or outbreak · Kemp's Records, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Fire destroys Kemp Nye's record store on East Franklin Street

    Kemp's record shop burned out in 1966. A Burger King later opened in a small store on the site.

  29. Property or economic transaction · 513 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Presbyterians sell their East Franklin manse to Gordon L. McAndrews

    After 77 years of ownership, the church sold its manse at 513 East Franklin, the house William Mercer Green built in the 1840s and Charles Phillips later owned, to McAndrews.

  30. Founding or opening · Chapel Hill Public Library, East Franklin and Boundary streets, Chapel Hill The new Chapel Hill Public Library opens at East Franklin and Boundary streets

    The library left its rooms in the Hill House for a new building on the northwest corner of East Franklin and Boundary. When the library moved again in the 1990s, the building became home to the town museum.

  31. Construction or physical change · Hill House, West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The old Hill House on West Franklin is condemned and boarded up after the library leaves

    With the public library gone to its new building on East Franklin, the run-down Hill House beside the Baptist church was condemned and closed up.

  32. Property or economic transaction · Huggins Hardware, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Vic Huggins sells his East Franklin hardware store but lets it keep his name

    Huggins sold the store he had owned since 1944, and Huggins Hardware ran on under new owners until Miami Subs replaced it between 1989 and 1993.

  33. Construction or physical change · Chi Omega, 311-313 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Chi Omega joins its two East Franklin houses with a new center section

    The sorority gained room by building a middle section linking the houses at 311 and 313 East Franklin.

  34. Construction or physical change · NCNB building, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill North Carolina National Bank builds a new office running from Franklin to Rosemary Street

    NCNB finished its expansion with a single building, three stories tall on Franklin Street and six on Rosemary. Its Franklin frontage took in the old Bank of Chapel Hill and the stores beside it.

  35. Founding or opening · Hector's, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Pete Galifianakis opens Hector's Restaurant on East Franklin Street

    Hector's opened in 1969 under the slogan 'Famous Since 1969'. After a fire left only its outer walls, it was rebuilt and reopened in the mid-1990s.

  36. Construction or physical change · 405 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The McCauley house, said to be part of the old Patterson inn and Nunn tavern, is razed for a Dunkin Donuts

    A two-story house on West Franklin, once William W. McCauley's home, was torn down to clear the lot for a Dunkin Donuts. Bryant identifies it as an original section of James Patterson's inn, later Nunn's tavern and the John Canada School, moved here in stages from Franklin and Columbia.

  37. 1970s
  38. Founding or opening · Spanky's, East Franklin Street at Columbia, Chapel Hill Spanky's Restaurant takes the place of Sloan's Drugstore on East Franklin Street

    Sloan's, open since 1948, gave way to Spanky's, one of eight restaurants that opened on East Franklin in these years.

  39. Construction or physical change · Carolina Theatre, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Carolina Theatre divides its auditorium and adds a second screen

    The East Franklin movie house split its viewing area in two to show two films at once.

  40. Closing or ending · West Franklin Street at Merritt Mill Road, Chapel Hill The produce stand Rachel Crook started at Merritt Mill Road gives way to a used-car lot

    After about 35 years, the stand at the corner of West Franklin and Merritt Mill Road closed, and Brooks & Tobin put a used-car lot there. Crook's Corner later opened on the same corner.

  41. Recent decades · 1976–2026

  42. Founding or opening · Four Corners Restaurant, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Four Corners Restaurant, named for Dean Smith's stalling offense, replaces the Rendezvous

    The new East Franklin restaurant took its name from the four-corners keep-away offense of UNC basketball coach Dean Smith.

  43. Closing or ending · Rose's 5-10 & 25c Store, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Rose's store leaves East Franklin Street, blaming high rent

    After many years in the same spot, Rose's moved out, saying inflated rent forced it to go, and Rite Aid Pharmacy took the space.

  44. Construction or physical change · The Courtyard, West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Long Meadow dairy property on West Franklin becomes the Courtyard shops

    The old dairy site was rebuilt as the Courtyard, a cluster of shops reached by a walkway off the street, joined to the Pyewacket Restaurant.

  45. Property or economic transaction · Coenen house, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Tri Delta sorority buys the Coenen house on East Franklin Street

    Delta Delta Delta bought the house Frederick and Susan Coenen had owned since 1947, when they bought it after Mrs. Adam A. Kluttz died.

  46. Construction or physical change · West Franklin Street at Merritt Mill Road, Chapel Hill The last two houses on West Franklin Street are torn down for a used-car lot

    Brooks & Tobin moved its car lot across Merritt Mill Road to the southeast corner, on ground cleared by razing the last two homes left on West Franklin.

  47. Construction or physical change · Samuel Phillips law office, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The old Samuel Phillips law office on East Franklin is enlarged as a home

    A new owner, Philip Bens, bought the former law office of Samuel Phillips and doubled its floor space with a rear addition to make a more comfortable house.

  48. Closing or ending · Wootten-Moulton Photography, Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Wootten-Moulton Photography closes

    The photography studio shut after many years at a series of locations on East and West Franklin Street.

  49. 1980s
  50. Closing or ending · 306 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Fowler's Food Store closes and gives way to the 306 Shopping Center

    The West Franklin grocery shut, and its site became a strip of shops set sideways to the street that opened with seven stores.

  51. Closing or ending · Huggins Hardware, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Huggins Hardware closes and Miami Subs takes its East Franklin store

    The hardware store that had carried Vic Huggins's name since the 1940s was replaced by a Miami Subs sandwich shop.

  52. Closing or ending · Carolina Theatre, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Gap takes over the old Carolina Theatre on East Franklin Street

    The Carolina Theatre gave way to a large Gap clothing store, one of several long-standing East Franklin businesses replaced in these years. A new Carolina Theatre opened in the corner building at Franklin and Columbia by 1994.

  53. 1990s
  54. Construction or physical change · 100 East Franklin Street, at Columbia Street, Chapel Hill A new building fills the long-vacant corner of East Franklin and Columbia streets

    The southeast corner, empty since its Texaco station was razed, gained a large building with Top of the Hill restaurant and a new Carolina Theatre among its tenants. Bryant says soil contamination had apparently kept the lot vacant.

  55. Property or economic transaction · 513 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill C. D. Spangler Jr. buys the old Green-Phillips house at 513 East Franklin

    After stepping down as president of the University, Spangler bought the house Walter and Anne Dellinger had owned since before 1973 and began restoring it. The house, built for William Mercer Green in the 1840s, later belonged to Charles Phillips and then served the Presbyterians as their manse.

  56. Closing or ending · The Hub, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Hub closes after 37 years on East Franklin Street

    Robert Rosenbacher's men's clothing store, open since 1959, shut in 1996 and a Starbucks coffee shop moved into its space.

  57. Closing or ending · Intimate Bookshop, 119 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Wallace Kuralt closes the Intimate Bookshop's East Franklin Street store

    Forced to cut back, Kuralt gave up all but one of his Intimate Bookshops, and the one he kept was not the long-time store at 119 East Franklin. The empty building was to be remodeled for a Sephora cosmetics shop.

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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 4, 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