Chronology

Marine Samuel Maris Wilkerson of Cedar Grove dies of wounds in France

Samuel Maris Wilkerson of Cedar Grove enlisted in the Marine Corps on December 8, 1917, and served with the 5th Marines in France. Reported wounded on June 15, 1918, he died of his wounds on June 17.

Orange County pledges three-quarters of its War Savings quota in a June drive

The county's War Savings Stamps quota was $331,400, about $20 a person. A drive June 23-28, 1918, pledged 75 percent of it, and a second drive September 9-14 sought the rest; the county finished with $272,956 pledged and $264,370 sold.

People: Shepperd Strudwick (1868-1961)

The university gets an ROTC unit under Lt. Col. Gustave W. S. Stevens

With the university's ROTC application finally approved, the army called Lieutenant Colonel Gustave W. S. Stevens out of retirement in New Orleans and sent him to Chapel Hill in June 1918 to run the program. He stayed on to command the campus when the SATC replaced it.

Orange County holds a Fourth of July war rally on the UNC campus

At the Governor's request the UNC Summer School invited the county to its July 4, 1918 celebration, and at least 3,000 people came for a parade, a flag raising and S. M. Gattis's address in Memorial Hall. The county Council of Defense met in Gerrard Hall, and Adolph Vermont's pageant on French-American friendship played in Battle's Park.

People: M. C. S. Noble · Adolph Vermont · J. Cheshire Webb · Samuel Mallett Gattis

Subject: Gerrard Hall · Memorial Hall · University Summer School · Battle Park

The Orange County Red Cross sends $120 for canteen work among troops passing through Raleigh

Answering James H. Pou's appeal, the executive committee voted on John W. Graham's motion on July 19, 1918 to send $120 from chapter funds to Mrs. William Grimes of the Raleigh chapter for troops passing through Raleigh. The same meeting reported War Fund receipts of $4,294.38.

People: James H. Pou · John W. Graham

A four-church committee raises $504 for Jewish war relief

About the middle of August 1918 a campaign for the Jewish Relief Fund, run by men from the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Episcopal churches, raised $504.

People: Shepperd Strudwick (1868-1961)

The Hillsborough Community Chorus formally organizes

Already singing at patriotic gatherings, the chorus organized at the Hillsborough Library on September 2, 1918, with Mrs. W. D. Benton as director, and gave the Red Cross $73 from an August concert. It later planned four concerts a year to help the Daughters of the Confederacy build a public library as a memorial to the county's Confederate soldiers.

People: Shepperd Strudwick (1868-1961)

The Orange County Red Cross forms a canteen committee to give packages to men leaving for camp

On September 2, 1918 the chapter appointed a canteen committee of five women, each to add another, with authority to buy supplies for packages worth up to a dollar for men leaving Hillsborough for camp. In October the Chapel Hill chapter offered to share the cost, since the men came from all parts of the county.

People: Henrietta P. Collins · George Howe

A War Savings rally in Hillsborough welcomes home wounded volunteer Jim Cheshire

On the night of Registration Day, September 12, 1918, a crowd packed the court house for a War Savings rally to hear two of Pershing's soldiers. One was Jim Cheshire, the first man to volunteer from the town and the first to come home, sent back wounded to train troops. That day 1,727 county men registered for the draft.

People: J. Cheshire Webb · Samuel Mallett Gattis

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

Orange County organizes for the United War Work drive

A court house meeting on September 19, 1918, elected N. W. Brown county chairman for the United War Work drive. The county raised $7,485; Carrboro gave $1,240 on a $500 quota, and Hillsborough Township, under Elizabeth Cornelius, gave $2,300.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

The Students' Army Training Corps takes over the campus

Registration, put off to September 24 and 25, opened a year run by the army: dormitories became Barracks 1 through 8, Swain Hall the Mess Hall, and the year was cut into twelve-week quarters with classes grouped by age. About seven hundred enrolled, nearly all of them required to take a course on the issues of the war, and the commander worked from the Sigma Chi house.

People: Edward Kidder Graham · Charles T. Woollen

750 University students are inducted into the Students' Army Training Corps

At noon on October 1, 1918, about 750 University students took the oath at the campus flag pole from Lt. Col. Stevens, the commandant, and became members of the Students' Army Training Corps, at the same moment as students at about 500 colleges across the country. President Edward Kidder Graham gave the address, and the corps was reviewed from the steps of the Alumni Building.

People: Edward Kidder Graham

Chapel Hill Red Cross membership grows to 687

The Chapel Hill chapter, which had enrolled 71 members at its first meeting in 1917, counted 687 members on October 1, 1918.

Lt. Joseph Henry Johnston of Chapel Hill is killed in France

Joseph Henry Johnston of Chapel Hill Route 2 volunteered in May 1917, trained at Fort Oglethorpe and became a first lieutenant in the 322nd Infantry, 81st Division. He was killed in France on October 15, 1918.

The Tar Heel counts some 300 student cases and three deaths as the three-week campus quarantine eases

Confined to the campus for three weeks, the Student Army Training Corps men had their first leave on Saturday, October 19, under orders not to leave town. The paper counted about 300 cases among the students, three deaths and 35 still in the college infirmary, credited the second-year medical students with keeping the toll low, and noted that both of the university's physicians, Dr. Mangum and Dr. MacNider, had fallen ill.

People: Charles S. (Charles Staples) Mangum · William de Berniere MacNider

Subject: The Daily Tar Heel

President Edward Kidder Graham dies of influenza and pneumonia at his home in Chapel Hill

Graham, 42, president since 1914 and regional director of the Student Army Training Corps for the South Atlantic states, died on Saturday night after five days' illness. The SATC battalion escorted the funeral, conducted at the grave by W. D. Moss of the Presbyterian church; Josephus Daniels and Newton D. Baker sent tributes.

People: Edward Kidder Graham · William Dygnum Moss

The Orange County Red Cross organizes volunteer nursing for the epidemic

Meeting on October 26, 1918, with the county influenza relief committee, the chapter named T. N. Webb and Nellie Russell to take requests for nurses in the West Hill and Hillsborough school districts and canvassed the town for volunteers. Chester Turner and Ross Turner, a Black man, served as volunteer nurses wherever needed.

People: John W. Graham

Carrboro opens an influenza diet kitchen in the mill club rooms

When influenza spread from the university to Carrboro, a volunteer nursing committee worked night and day, and J. S. Carr gave the club rooms for a diet kitchen and paid its costs. For two weeks Mrs. R. B. Lawson and Mrs. Arthur Blackwood served at least seven gallons of soup a day, and orderlies checked homes each morning.

People: Julian S. Carr

Members of the Woman's Association make 120 gauze masks for the campus Hospital Corps

Meeting in small groups during the epidemic, women of the university's Woman's Association sewed 120 gauze masks and sent them to the infirmary for the Hospital Corps. The county's 1919 war record, summing up the association's work that fall, counts 150 influenza masks.

Orange County subscribes $331,700 to the Fourth Liberty Loan despite the influenza ban

The county meeting planned for Liberty Day, October 12, 1918, was called off when the epidemic closed public gatherings, but Orange subscribed $331,700 against a $300,000 allotment. Hillsborough Township gave about $175,000 on a $55,000 allotment, and the women's committees raised $227,300.

People: Harriet Morehead Berry

The Orange County Red Cross ships 2,682 pounds of clothing for Belgian relief

In October 1918 the chapter shipped eleven boxes holding 2,682 pounds of clothing for Belgian relief and sent 706 linen articles, valued at $234.90, for soldiers in French hospitals. The Oaks branch, unable to send clothing, gave $40 for Belgian relief.

Chandler J. Cates of Hillsborough dies of wounds after the armistice

Chandler J. Cates of Company F, 120th Infantry, 30th Division, was severely wounded on October 17, 1918, after distinguished service, and taken to hospitals in France and England. He died of his wounds on November 20, 1918.

The Chapel Hill Red Cross elects A. H. Patterson chairman at its annual meeting

At its annual meeting on Thursday, November 21, 1918, the chapter elected Dr. A. H. Patterson chairman, with Alice Noble vice-chairman, Nellie Roberson secretary and Dudley Carroll treasurer. Earlier that fall George Howe had resigned for his duties on the University's Student Army Training Corps committee, and J. M. Bell had taken his place.

People: George Howe · Alice Noble

About 2,240 university men are in uniform when the war ends

At the armistice about 2,240 university men, counting alumni and faculty, were in service. The Alumni Review's October to December issues listed 33 dead, and the only faculty member killed was Lt. Joseph Henry Johnston of the School of Education.

The Chapel Hill Red Cross moves its workroom to the University Inn

After the armistice of November 11, 1918, the chapter left the Zeta Psi fraternity hall for roomy quarters in the University Inn that the University provided.

Subject: Eagle Hotel (Chapel Hill)

The Orange County Red Cross mails 111 Christmas boxes to men overseas

In November 1918 a chapter committee inspected, packed and mailed 111 Christmas boxes for men in the American Expeditionary Forces. A hundred comfort kits that Mrs. C. H. Robertson's workers had made for a Capt. Davies, which could not be shipped to him, went instead to fill a headquarters order for Italian comfort kits.

The SATC is demobilized and half its men leave Chapel Hill

Demobilization of the Students' Army Training Corps was completed on December 10, 1918, ending military control of the campus, and half of the SATC men left on the next train. Faculty judged the arrangement a failure because the university had answered to two masters.

People: Louis Round Wilson · Marvin Hendrix Stacy

Sgt. Charles Battle Wills of Chapel Hill dies of pneumonia overseas

Charles Battle Wills of Chapel Hill enlisted June 19, 1917, and served as a sergeant in Battery C, 113th Field Artillery, 30th Division. He died of pneumonia overseas on Christmas Day 1918, and L. P. McLendon paid him tribute at the Chapel Hill homecoming.

The Chapel Hill Red Cross signs 550 members in its 1918 Christmas Roll Call

J. S. Holmes chaired the chapter's Christmas Roll Call of 1918, which secured 550 members. The school's Junior Red Cross auxiliary enrolled 310 in the same roll call, with every grade of the graded school at full membership.

Alice Noble writes the history of the Chapel Hill Red Cross chapter

As chapter historian, Alice Noble signed the Chapel Hill chapter's account of its war work, from the 1917 first aid class through the 1919 welcome home for soldiers and sailors in Memorial Hall.

The Bacon farm on St. Mary's Road takes up dairying

After the First World War the owners of the Bacon Farm switched to dairying, building a large gambrel-roofed dairy barn and two frame milking parlors behind the house, which was remodeled as a bungalow in the same years.

The county war record lists 23 Orange County servicemen who died in the war

Annie Sutton Cameron's record for the Council of Defense lists 23 Orange County soldiers killed in action or dead of wounds or disease, four of them Black. The list includes men from Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, Blackwood and Rougemont.

Gerrard Hall memorial service for Marvin H. Stacy

Students, faculty and friends met in Gerrard Hall to remember Stacy, who had died of influenza on January 21. Former president Francis P. Venable, a childhood friend, and Albert Coates for the students spoke.

People: Francis Preston Venable · Albert Coates

Subject: Gerrard Hall

The county board commits $20,000 to a new Hillsboro school as a memorial to the county's war dead

The board first offered Hillsboro $5,000 for a new school plant if the town raised $2,500, then settled on $20,000, and asked that the building honor the men of the county killed in the First World War. It offered Carrboro $2,500 on condition that voters there pass a $20,000 bond issue.

Subject: Hillsborough High School

Chapel Hill welcomes home its World War soldiers alongside Confederate veterans

On Saturday, May 10, 1919, a parade of Confederate veterans, returned soldiers and sailors, former student soldiers and town groups filled Franklin and Columbia Streets. Over 2,000 people crowded Memorial Hall to hear Archibald Henderson, L. P. McLendon and Joseph Hyde Pratt, with William Cain presiding.

People: Archibald Henderson · Joseph Hyde Pratt · Andrew Henry Patterson

Subject: Memorial Hall

Orange County raises $800 for the Salvation Army

In a Salvation Army campaign May 16-26, 1919, South Orange under W. S. Roberson raised $300 and North Orange under R. H. Claytor raised $500.01 on a $500 quota.

People: W. S. Roberson

Orange County subscribes $137,050 to the Victory Liberty Loan

In the fifth, or Victory, Liberty Loan the county subscribed $137,050 against a $112,500 allotment, from 202 men, 70 women and 4 corporations. The women's committee reported $67,300 obtained by direct solicitation.

People: Harriet Morehead Berry · W. S. Roberson

Orange County towns and townships win honor flags in the Victory Loan

For meeting their Victory Loan quotas, Cedar Grove, Chapel Hill, Cheeks, Eno and Hillsborough townships and the towns of Chapel Hill and Hillsborough were awarded honor flags, the Chapel Hill News reported on May 29, 1919, crediting Mayor W. S. Roberson as Victory Loan chairman. The paper said county residents had put more than a million dollars into government securities since the first Liberty Loan.

People: W. S. Roberson

Black women of Hillsborough serve the homecoming dinner for Black soldiers and sailors

For the July 16, 1919 homecoming, a committee of Black residents planned a separate welcome, with Minnie Berry Martin chairing the dinner and Annie Berry the serving. Black soldiers and sailors marched in the parade with Black Red Cross workers and were served dinner at the Black school house.

Hillsborough holds the county homecoming celebration for returned soldiers

On July 16, 1919, about 15,000 people came to Hillsborough to welcome home Orange County's soldiers and sailors, with a parade, Gov. Bickett's address at the court house and a dinner for about a thousand guests in Cameron Park. J. Cheshire Webb chaired the celebration, and the county Red Cross voted $300 toward its cost, money the celebration fund turned out not to need.

People: Frank Nash · Julian S. Carr · John W. Graham · J. Cheshire Webb · Samuel Mallett Gattis · Thomas W. Bickett

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

A fenced playground is built beside Mill No. 7

Around 1920 a fenced playground with swings and horseshoe pits went up on the north side of Mill No. 7, one of the projects of the mills' Industrial Democracy plan. It was taken apart in World War II so its metal could go to the war effort.

The university drops its postwar ROTC unit for lack of students

An ROTC program organized at the university after World War I was ended in 1921 because too few students took part. It was 1924 before a visiting general's call for a new unit drew applause in Memorial Hall.

Lueco Lloyd builds the brick store that houses Hearn's grocery

After the December 1924 fire that began in the Pendergraph boarding house, Lueco Lloyd put up a one-story brick building at 102 East Main Street as rental property, with T. C. Thompson as contractor. His only tenant was John Hearn, who had moved his grocery from Chapel Hill after World War I and ran what by 1983 was Carrboro's oldest business.

The trustees name a Lower Quad dormitory Graham Residence Hall for John W. Graham

Meeting shortly after his death, the university trustees named the dormitory finished in 1924 on the Lower Quad for John Washington Graham, class of 1857 and a trustee since 1876. They praised his service at the 1864 Battle of Plymouth, where Confederate troops massacred Black soldiers and people who had fled slavery.

Dr. Eric A. Abernethy resigns as university physician

Abernethy, appointed university physician in charge of the infirmary after he came home wounded from the First World War, resigned because of poor health and went into private practice in Chapel Hill with his son. Dr. Foy Roberson of Durham took temporary charge of the infirmary.

Subject: University infirmary (Abernethy Hall)

Guion Griffis Johnson serves as president of the Chapel Hill PTA

Guion Griffis Johnson was president of the Chapel Hill PTA in 1937–1938 and a district PTA officer the following year.

The county begins small yearly grants to Hillsborough's Confederate Memorial Library

Even before state library grants were available, and at least as early as 1938, Orange County made small annual appropriations to the Confederate Memorial Library in Hillsborough.

Subject: Orange County Public Library

William S. Hogan is appointed Chapel Hill postmaster

President Roosevelt appointed Hogan, assistant postmaster, to succeed Robert A. Eubanks on the nomination of Congressman Carl Durham, and the Senate confirmed him. Durham waived an examination because Hogan had served in the office about twenty years.

Subject: Chapel Hill Post Office and Peace and Justice Plaza

A Chapel Hill chapter of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies is organized

Frank Graham and Durham banker George Watts Hill were among the first North Carolinians to sign on with the national committee formed in 1940, and chapters were organized in Chapel Hill and Asheville. Covington describes Chapel Hill as a center of support for the Allies while both of the state's senators opposed involvement.

People: Frank Porter Graham

The William Whitted House becomes Hillsborough's American Legion post

In the 1940s the William Whitted House at 306 North Churton Street becomes the home of the local American Legion post. It has since become a private residence again.

Subject: William Whitted House

UNC offers its faculty and laboratories to the national defense

Twenty months before Pearl Harbor, the university president telegraphed Washington putting UNC faculty, laboratories and equipment at the government's service; the trustees confirmed the step at their August meeting.

People: Frank Porter Graham

A Naval ROTC unit is established at the university

On September 11, 1940 the Navy named the university one of eight new Naval ROTC sites, and on September 25 about 100 freshmen began naval science classes under Captain Robert S. Haggart. During World War II the Navy's V-12 program there was built around the unit. An Air ROTC unit followed in 1947.

UNC makes physical training compulsory for every student

As part of its defense program the university began requiring physical training of students in all classes from September 1940.

Chapel Hill's British war relief committee raises money for a mobile canteen in London

The local committee raised $1,160 to buy a mobile tea kitchen and a large stock of food for Londoners under German bombing.

UNC forms the Carolina Volunteer Training Corps and opens a War Information Center

In the month of Pearl Harbor the university organized a volunteer military training corps for students and set up a War Information Center.

A memorial to local Revolutionary War soldiers is placed at New Hope

In 1942 a monument honoring Revolutionary War soldiers from the neighborhood was set in the grounds of New Hope Presbyterian Church, beside its cemetery.

Subject: New Hope Presbyterian Church

Beta Theta Pi and other fraternity houses quarter Navy trainees

While the university served as a naval training center, many fraternity houses, the Beta house among them, were used to lodge midshipmen, which held back chapter growth until the war ended.

Subject: Beta Theta Pi Fraternity House

Coates trains as a civil defense instructor and Popular Government issues a defense number

Called to a War Department school in Texas in the summer of 1942, Coates returned to run civil defense training through the Institute, and that fall Popular Government published a 'Defense Issue' on espionage, water system protection, gas attacks and air raid warnings. In 1945 an Army Service Forces colonel credited the Institute with the plan for joining local and state forces with federal ones to defend the state.

Subject: Institute of Government

Guion Griffis Johnson leads home-front work in Chapel Hill and Orange County

During World War II Johnson chaired the Community Service Committee of the Chapel Hill War Price and Rationing Board, was public relations officer for the Orange County Office of Civil Defense, and collected war records for Orange County.

UNC starts a pre-induction curriculum for students bound for the service

The university set up a course of study for all students entering military service; it later grew into the College for War Training.

Eleanor Roosevelt speaks at Memorial Hall to close a post-war planning conference

Eleanor Roosevelt spoke in Memorial Hall at UNC to a capacity audience of about 2,000 people, closing a two-day conference on post-war planning sponsored by the Carolina Political Union and the International Student Service. She warned the audience that there was no going back to normalcy.

People: Frank Porter Graham

Subject: Memorial Hall

Governor Broughton welcomes guests at the commissioning of the Navy Pre-Flight School

The dinner program for the commissioning of the Naval Aviation Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill on May 23, 1942 has Governor J. Melville Broughton offering the welcome, and Josephus Daniels giving greetings to the Navy Department representatives and to Commander O. O. Kessing. The school trained 18,700 pre-flight cadets before it was decommissioned on October 15, 1945.

Part of The Navy Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill, 1942–1945 · 10 events

People: Josephus Daniels · Oliver Owen Kessing

Subject: Navy Pre-Flight School

The Naval ROTC moves out of Woollen Gym and Lenoir Hall into Swain Hall

By university decision the Naval ROTC left its quarters in Woollen Gymnasium and the basement of Lenoir Hall during June 1 to 9, 1942, and moved into Swain Hall, which its commander thought below the Navy's minimum standard.

Subject: Swain Hall · Woollen Gymnasium

Archie Royal Davis's plans for the Naval Armory are settled and building begins

After weeks of argument with consulting architect Arthur C. Nash, Durham architect Archie Royal Davis had his design for a Georgian Revival armory approved in mid-September 1942; R. K. Stewart and Son began building it late that year for about $41,000, meant as a temporary building to be replaced after the war.

People: Arthur Cleveland Nash · Archie Royal Davis

The Navy Pre-Flight School's armory is completed near the campus tennis courts

A semi-prefabricated armory and rifle range designed by Archie Royal Davis for the Pre-Flight School was finished near the tennis courts, a short walk from Navy Hall. It was a separate building from the NROTC Armory.

People: Archie Royal Davis

Subject: Navy Pre-Flight School

Kenneth Tanner lends West House to the Carolina Volunteer Training Corps

Tanner gave the student officer-training corps the use of West House as its headquarters for the rest of the war. The corps then had 125 students in eight companies under Lt. Col. W. A. Raborg.

Guion Griffis Johnson lectures in the Navy V-12 program at the University

Johnson taught as a lecturer in the Naval V-12 program at the University of North Carolina in 1943–1944.

Pre-meteorology and aviation training units arrive at UNC

In the first half of 1943 the university took in pre-meteorology and aviation training units, adding to the Navy programs already on campus.

William Meade Prince becomes head of the university's art department

William Meade Prince took charge of the University of North Carolina's art department during World War II, while also making posters and drawings for wartime causes.

The Naval ROTC moves into its new armory on South Columbia Street

The NROTC took over its new armory in January 1943, with classrooms in use by January 7 and a drill hall whose mezzanine served as a ship's bridge for drills. It is the first NROTC unit's building in North Carolina and has housed ROTC training ever since.

The NROTC holds its annual dance to open the new armory

The Naval ROTC dedicated its armory with its annual Navy dance on the drill deck, with the Navy B-1 Band, the Black enlisted musicians stationed with the Pre-Flight School, named as the band. The drill deck stayed a favorite dance floor through the war.

Navy Hall opens as the Pre-Flight School's visitors' entrance and cadet lounge

Designed by Archie Royal Davis and first drawn as a temporary office and hostess building, Navy Hall opened in March 1943 with offices for the Pre-Flight School and recreation rooms for cadets; the public was invited in on March 21.

People: Archie Royal Davis

Subject: Navy Pre-Flight School

Governor Broughton speaks at a Pre-Flight School graduation in Kenan Stadium

Broughton and UNC president Frank Porter Graham both spoke at Navy Pre-Flight School graduation exercises in Kenan Stadium on June 2, 1943.

Part of The Navy Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill, 1942–1945 · 10 events

People: Frank Porter Graham

Subject: Kenan Stadium · Navy Pre-Flight School

The Navy V-12 program opens at UNC with about 1,300 men

The Navy's V-12 college program, which paid for future officers to finish degrees, began at UNC with an entering class of about 1,300, straining dormitory and dining space already taken up by the Pre-Flight School. It absorbed the Naval ROTC until 1945.

Governor Broughton asks the Institute of Government to help towns plan for after the war

As Allied armies advanced across Europe, Broughton called on the short-staffed Institute to help plan for life in North Carolina's towns and cities once the war ended. State payments for this work and for civil defense training steadied the Institute's budget.

People: Albert Coates

Subject: Institute of Government

The Scuttlebutt, a Navy canteen, opens on the UNC campus

The Scuttlebutt, a canteen built as an extension of the Book Exchange for the Navy and Marine trainees on campus, opened on the morning of January 11, 1944, after months of delay over a sugar contract. Pete Pulley managed it, and at first only trainees with Swain Hall meal tickets could buy there.

Subject: The Scuttlebutt

The Navy B-1 Band leaves Chapel Hill for service in Hawaii

The B-1 Band, the first Black Navy unit whose members held a rating above messman, cook or steward, was sent from Chapel Hill to Hawaii after nearly two years of playing across the campus and town.

Chapel Hill celebrates the end of the war with Japan on Franklin Street

As the news spread that evening, townspeople, students and Pre-Flight School cadets filled Franklin Street while the campus bells rang and the fire siren sounded. Revelers draped the trees with toilet paper and lit a bonfire in the central block, and a policeman who tried to put it out was pushed aside.

Subject: Navy Pre-Flight School

The National Munitions plant in Mill No. 7 closes

The shell-loading plant that National Munitions Corporation had run in Mill No. 7 since 1942 closed in August 1945. At its peak it employed 1,600 people, many of them former mill hands assembling anti-aircraft rounds, and it won the Army-Navy E award for production three times.

UNC holds a farewell assembly for the Navy Pre-Flight School

As the war ended the university held a formal assembly to say goodbye to the Pre-Flight School; Chancellor R. B. House had told the Navy that any peacetime Navy program should fold into the NROTC and the regular degree.

People: R. B. House

Subject: Navy Pre-Flight School

Navy officers move into the NROTC Armory as the V-12 program ends

With the Pre-Flight and V-12 programs closed and remaining V-12 men absorbed into an enlarged NROTC, the Navy officers who had worked in Navy Hall moved their offices to the NROTC Armory.

Terry Sanford serves as assistant director of UNC's Institute of Government

After the Second World War Sanford returned to Chapel Hill, completed a law degree in 1946 and served two years as assistant director of the Institute of Government before opening a law practice in Fayetteville.

Subject: Institute of Government

The Campbells build a stone bungalow for carpenter Vance Thompson on Broad Street

Next door to the Neville House, John Wesley Campbell and his sons designed and built a fieldstone Craftsman bungalow at 201 Broad Street for carpenter Vance Thompson and his family just after World War II. Land records show it finished by 1947; a Thompson son recalls moving in in 1946, and the family kept it until 2013.

Victory Village is built to house married veterans at UNC

As returning veterans pushed enrollment to about 6,800, the federal government put up the prefabricated metal houses of Victory Village on 65 acres of UNC's south campus in 1946. About 350 student families lived there, and the last units were torn down in the early 1970s for the expansion of UNC Hospitals.

Part of UNC expansion and neighborhood change · 25 events

People: Terry Sanford · William C. Friday

Subject: UNC Medical Center (N.C. Memorial Hospital) · Victory Village and Odum Village

C. S. Cates opens a new movie theater in the old Hollywood Theatre building in West Hillsborough

Cates, a World War II veteran, remodeled the building the Hollywood Theatre had used, with new sound and projection equipment and seats, and advertised the opening for Wednesday, May 1, with a contest to name the house.

The old Pre-Flight Armory reopens as a Scuttlebutt snack bar and bookstore

Instead of razing it for a dormitory, the university turned the Pre-Flight School's armory into a second Scuttlebutt, a soda fountain, bookstore and student hangout in the lower quadrangle.

Subject: Navy Pre-Flight School

A wartime Army garage from Camp Butner is moved to North Churton Street

A one-story garage of concrete block and weatherboard, built at Camp Butner in 1942, was moved to 132 North Churton Street in Hillsborough in 1947. It still has five of its original wooden overhead doors.

A bronze plaque honoring Lt. George Howard Jr. is placed at the Naval Armory

A plaque to naval officer Lt. George Howard Jr. was put up under the armory's portico, where it still hangs.

The Monogram Club opens the former Navy Hall to all students

After the war Navy Hall went to the Monogram Club of letter athletes; when it sat underused the university paid to renovate it, and on September 18, 1948 it reopened to every student with a basement dining room and the Circus Room lounge.

The university tears down the old Pre-Flight Armory on the day it was to meet student defenders

University officials bulldozed the former Pre-Flight Armory, then the Emerson Scuttlebutt, on the same day they were due to meet students petitioning to keep it, and did not come to the meeting. The administration said refreshments would move to the Monogram Club.

Subject: Navy Pre-Flight School

Guion Griffis Johnson is president of the Chapel Hill Council of Churches

After returning to Chapel Hill from Atlanta in 1947, Johnson served on the boards of the Chapel Hill Community Council and Community Club, and in 1950 she was president of the Chapel Hill Council of Churches.

The Navy installs an "Attack Teacher" submarine-hunting trainer in the armory basement

A mock warship interior with sonar room, bridge and plotting room was built into the armory basement to train midshipmen in antisubmarine work; it was still in use around 1970.

The pre-Civil War Hume house is moved across the Chapel Hill High School grounds

To clear ground for a new high school building, the pre-Civil War house known in turn as the Hume, Hogan and Cone house was put on rollers and moved to the west edge of the school lot, still facing Franklin Street, for use as offices and classrooms.

People: Thomas Hume

Subject: Chapel Hill High School

John Ehle teaches in UNC's radio, television and motion pictures department

Ehle, an Asheville native who came to Chapel Hill after infantry service in World War II and graduated from UNC in 1949, taught in the university's Communications Center, later the Department of Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures, from 1951 to 1963. He published his first books while teaching there.

Manly Wade Wellman settles in Chapel Hill

The writer Manly Wade Wellman, who had moved to Pinebluff, North Carolina, after the Second World War, relocated to Chapel Hill, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Millard Lee Bess joins the Cedar Grove School staff

The county board hired Millard Lee Bess, a Gaston County native, Winston-Salem State graduate and World War II veteran, for Cedar Grove School in September 1952.

Subject: Cedar Grove schools

The Chapel Hill Memorial Fund has a bronze tablet made for the town's World War II dead

Trustees of the Chapel Hill Memorial Fund had a bronze tablet cast with the names of 26 men of the Chapel Hill community who died in the armed services in World War II, to stand on a stone base in front of Chapel Hill High School. The fund, raised by public gifts in 1946, also endowed a memorial book collection in the school library.

People: Collier Cobb, Jr

Poe and Mangum move their DeSoto-Plymouth dealership out of a West Franklin Street filling station

After World War II A. H. Poe and Marvin Mangum sold DeSotos and Plymouths from a 1930s Pure Oil station at 110 West Franklin Street, built in the company's half-timbered cottage design. They added service bays and a showroom before vacating it in 1956.

Moses Burt retires after 23 years as Orange County's agent for Black farmers

Moses Cimuel Burt, a World War I veteran trained at NC A&T, Hampton and Cornell, retired as the county's African American extension agent in September 1958. Since 1935 he had backed farm programs in the county's Black schools and helped start 4-H clubs.

The former Navy Hall becomes the Faculty Club

Because the Monogram Club building was again underused, the university turned it over to a Faculty Club in 1961.

Student Peace Union symbols are painted on UNC's military buildings and the armory gun

In one of the first antiwar acts on campus, someone painted the Student Peace Union insignia on several military buildings and on the antiaircraft gun in front of the Naval Armory.

Failing roof trusses at the Naval Armory are replaced with steel

In 1962 three of the armory's wooden roof trusses failed from a design flaw and poor 1942 lumber, and scaffolding held up the drill hall roof; Clancy and Theys Construction swapped in steel trusses one at a time, finishing in 1963 at a cost of about $25,500.

Charles M. Walker Jr. announces that Walker Milling Co. will close

Walker said he would close the milling business in the three-story landmark on Court Square, which his father and uncle had run for decades before he bought it after World War II, and take a job in Battleboro. He pointed to changes in the farm economy.

"Get out of Vietnam" is painted on the gun outside the Naval Armory

Overnight, someone lettered an antiwar slogan on the antiaircraft gun on the armory lawn; NROTC officers called it a childish prank.

Wednesday vigils against the Vietnam War at the Chapel Hill post office

Every Wednesday from 1967 through 1973, Charlotte Adams and fellow protesters of the Chapel Hill branch of WILPF stood in silent vigil in front of the Chapel Hill post office against U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.

Subject: Chapel Hill Post Office and Peace and Justice Plaza

UNC faculty publicly debate dropping ROTC, and a Faculty Council committee is named

An open faculty discussion of removing ROTC led to a Faculty Council committee under historian George V. Taylor, which proposed a Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense to take in naval and aerospace science while keeping ROTC as an option.

People: George Vanderbeck Taylor

Antiwar marchers lower the Naval Armory flag for the Kent State dead

During a 2,000-student march against the Cambodia invasion, protesters took down the flag at the armory to half staff for the students killed at Kent State; NROTC students pushed back and raised it again before the march moved on to South Building.

Students march on the Naval Armory and serve an eviction notice on the NROTC

Led by two 1969 West Point graduates, student protesters marched to the armory and served a mock eviction notice, arguing the revised ROTC curriculum only made military training easier to accept.

Daphne Athas publishes Entering Ephesus, a novel set in Carrboro and Chapel Hill

Her coming-of-age novel, set in Carrboro and Chapel Hill during World War II among intellectuals, poor southerners and Greek immigrants, was named one of the ten best novels of the year by Time magazine.

The former Navy Hall becomes UNC's admissions office

The university moved its admissions office into the old Navy Hall, then the Faculty Club, in 1971; it was renamed Jackson Hall in 1992.

N.C. State students join UNC's Naval ROTC in a joint program

NC State University joined UNC's NROTC unit in a shared program in 1979, before starting its own unit in 1988.

Army Corps of Engineers issues the federal permit for the Cane Creek dam

The Corps' district engineer issued OWASA a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit to place fill for the dam on the same day the Court of Appeals voided the state certificate. The permit was set to expire on August 31, 1982 unless construction had begun.

UNC renovates the Naval Armory to house all three ROTC branches

After a 1993 push from the Army and Air Force units, the university chose to keep the aging armory and spent more than $400,000 refitting it for Navy, Army and Air Force ROTC, closing the rifle range, cleaning up lead found there, and enclosing much of the drill deck for offices.

UNC tears down the Scuttlebutt, the wartime Navy canteen

The Scuttlebutt snack bar at Cameron Avenue and South Columbia Street, built as a Pre-Flight School canteen, was razed after more than fifty years of feeding students.

Subject: The Scuttlebutt

UNC's Naval Armory joins the Study List

The committee placed the Naval Armory on the UNC campus on the Study List on October 10, 2002, as one of the central and southeastern public requests it approved with staff recommendations.

Hillsborough votes to remove "Confederate Memorial" lettering from the former library

The 1934 public library building on North Churton Street, home of the Orange County Historical Museum since 1983, still carried part of its "Confederate Memorial Library 1934" sign. After museum leaders asked in June 2015 to take the words down, saying some Black residents felt unwelcome, the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners voted that year to remove the sign from the pediment.

Subject: Orange County Public Library · Orange County Historical Museum

The UNC System gives Silent Sam to the Sons of Confederate Veterans with a $2.5 million trust in a same-day consent judgment

The North Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans sued the UNC System and Board of Governors over the monument and a consent judgment was entered the same day in Orange County Superior Court. The System handed over the statue, to be kept outside the fourteen counties with a System campus, and endowed a $2.5 million charitable trust from non-state funds for its care and display. Board chair Randy Ramsey said the deal let the University 'move forward'.

Part of Silent Sam · 15 events

Subject: Silent Sam (UNC Confederate monument)

The Navy ROTC Naval Armory at UNC-Chapel Hill is listed in the National Register

On February 7, 2024 the National Park Service listed the Navy ROTC Naval Armory at UNC-Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill in the National Register of Historic Places.