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- Civil rights era · 1945–1975
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Richard E. Whitted becomes Orange County's first Black county commissioner
Richard E. Whitted, born in Hillsborough, became the first Black member of the Orange County Board of Commissioners in 1972.
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The Town of Hillsborough buys the Ruffin-Roulhac House for its town hall
The Ruffin-Roulhac House and its outbuildings, empty since the 1920s, were sold to the Town of Hillsborough in 1972. The town rehabilitated them as its town hall complex by 1975.
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Moorefields is listed in the National Register
Moorefields was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It was the earliest listing among the six rural Orange County properties the 1993 county survey found on the Register.
Subject: Moorefields
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The Commandant's House is listed in the National Register
The castellated brick house built for the Hillsborough Military Academy's commandant, the academy's only major surviving building, was entered in the National Register of Historic Places.
Subject: Hillsborough Military Academy
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Hillsborough designates its local historic district
In the same year the Hillsborough Historic District was nominated to the National Register, the town designated a local historic district.
Subject: Hillsborough Historic District
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The Woods family takes over the King Street hardware store that becomes Dual Supply
Wesley Woods, who had worked in the West King Street store when it was a Western Auto, bought the business and renamed it Dual Supply. His family ran it from 1973.
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Heartsease is listed in the National Register
On April 11, 1973 the National Park Service listed Heartsease in Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places.
Subject: Heartsease
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The Hillsborough Historic District is listed in the National Register
The original one-square-mile town laid out in 1754 around Churton and King streets entered the National Register in 1973 as the Hillsborough Historic District. Its survey and nomination were brought up to date in 2014.
Subject: Hillsborough Historic District
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The county board buys land on Orange Grove Road for the new Grady Brown School
The board decided to buy up to twenty acres on Orange Grove Road for a new elementary school, the Grady Brown School. Its 1974 budget request put $1,900,270 toward the building.
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The county board names Orange High's new football stadium for coach Glenn Auman
The board named the new football stadium for Glenn Auman, who had coached for many years and taught high school classes.
Subject: Orange High School
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Orange County builds Grady A. Brown Elementary School
The county put up Grady A. Brown Elementary, a centrally heated and air-conditioned K-5 building of about 67,800 square feet on a 20-acre site near Hillsborough, designed by Croft Inc. under Superintendent George F. Williams.
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A gasoline truck fire and explosion damage the Orange County jail
A fuel truck caught fire and exploded while at the county jail on Court Street, causing heavy damage to the building.
Subject: Orange County jail, Hillsborough
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A. L. Stanback School becomes a middle school
The former Central High School, used as A. L. Stanback elementary school since 1968, became a middle school in 1975 and served until the late 1980s, when it closed for several years.
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Central Elementary School in Hillsborough gets a large addition
Ten years after the first building went up, the county added about 18,700 square feet to Central Elementary under Superintendent George F. Williams, bringing the school to roughly 44,600 square feet.
People: Archie Royal Davis
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Jones Grove adds a rear wing to its church
In the mid-1970s the congregation built a rear addition holding the pastor's office, restrooms and a baptismal pool, and covered the sanctuary walls with wood-look paneling.
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The Daniel Boone amusement park closes and Boone Square replaces its north end
By the end of the 1970s the rides were gone, leaving only the campground, ice rink and amphitheater, and the northern part of the property was rebuilt as the Boone Square shopping center; a big-box supermarket stood on the ride site by 1983. Daniel Boone Village became a center for antique shops and restaurants, with the Big Barn Convention Center for community events.
People: James John Freeland
Subject: Daniel Boone Village
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The Ruffin-Roulhac House and its outbuildings are fitted up as Hillsborough's town hall
After the Town of Hillsborough buys the Ruffin-Roulhac House at 101 East Orange Street in 1972, it rehabilitates the house and its outbuildings, empty since the 1920s, as a town hall complex by 1975.
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Rev. Theodore C. Nicholson begins a 41-year pastorate at Jones Grove
Rev. Theodore C. Nicholson of Durham led Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church from 1975 to May 30, 2016. During his tenure he ordained six associate pastors, among them his wife Bessie M. Nicholson.
- Recent decades · 1976–2026
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Hillsborough annexes West Hillsborough
West Hillsborough, which in 1950 had 1,456 residents and so outnumbered the town itself, came inside the town limits in 1976. Together with the next year's annexation it probably accounts for the town's population more than doubling between 1970 and 1980, from 1,444 to 3,019.
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Richard E. Whitted becomes the first Black chair of the Orange County commissioners
Four years after joining the board, Richard E. Whitted became the first Black chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners.
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St. Mary's Chapel near Hillsborough joins the Study List
The National Register Advisory Committee placed St. Mary's Chapel, the 1859 brick Episcopal chapel northeast of Hillsborough, on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register. It was one of 84 properties across the state approved that day.
Subject: St. Mary’s Chapel
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Hillsborough votes to buy the old Ray Motor Company building for a fire station
The town agreed to pay $60,000 for the former Ford dealership on Churton Street as a home for the fire department, and Orange Rural Fire bought the lot next door. The Hillsborough and Orange Rural departments moved there later in 1976.
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A new United States Post Office is completed on East King Street in Hillsborough
The post office at 144 East King Street, a one-story Colonial Revival building, was finished in 1977. It was the first of the new government buildings that went up on the blocks south and east of the courthouse in the late twentieth century.
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Hillsborough annexes Hillsborough Heights
The African American neighborhood of Hillsborough Heights, north of West Hillsborough, was annexed in 1977, one year after West Hillsborough.
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Stanford Junior High School gets a small addition
A 4,300-square-foot addition was made to Stanford Junior High in 1977 under Superintendent George F. Williams.
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The Burwell School opens to visitors
The restored house has been open to visitors every year since 1977.
Part of Orange County’s nineteenth-century academies · 102 events
Subject: Burwell School
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Cameron Park School is enlarged again under Superintendent Michael Simmons
A further addition to Cameron Park Elementary in Hillsborough went up in 1978, the third stage of the building, which by the early 1980s housed kindergarten through fifth grade.
Subject: Cameron Park School
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Clements Funeral Service moves into the old Presbyterian manse on North Churton Street
Clements Funeral Service took over the house at 148 North Churton Street, which had served as a Presbyterian manse and a doctor's office, and built a chapel beside it in 1980.
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James J. Freeland moves the Gatewood House from Yanceyville to Daniel Boone Village
Continuing his habit of relocating old buildings to his South Churton Street development, Freeland brought the Gatewood House from Yanceyville in Caswell County to Daniel Boone Village in 1978.
People: James John Freeland
Subject: Daniel Boone Village
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The Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce holds its first Candlelight Tour
The Chamber of Commerce organized the first Candlelight Tour of Hillsborough's historic houses as heritage tourism grew in importance to the town.
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St. Mary's Chapel is listed in the National Register
St. Mary's Chapel, the brick Gothic Revival Episcopal chapel on St. Mary's Road northeast of Hillsborough, built in 1859 for a congregation dating to the late 1750s, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on July 12, 1978.
Subject: St. Mary’s Chapel
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Mount Bright Baptist Church builds its present brick church
The congregation replaced its earlier church on West Union Street with a one-story brick church with a steeple, and added an education building at the rear in 1990.
Subject: Mount Bright Baptist Church
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Orange High School's Cultural Arts Building is fitted with a heat pump system
A note to the Orange High plant table records a heat pump system in 1979 for the school's Cultural Arts Building, work that falls in Michael Simmons's term as superintendent.
Subject: Orange High School
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A mill-style house is moved from Churton Street to North Hassell Street
A one-story frame house of about 1910, built like the town's early twentieth-century mill housing, was moved in the 1980s from a lot facing Churton Street just south of the New Orange County Courthouse parking lot to 310 North Hassell Street.
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An antebellum office from the Henderson Jones house is moved to Montrose
A small frame office of about 1840, built for the Henderson Jones house north of Hillsborough, was moved to the Montrose grounds around 1980.
Subject: Montrose
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An office building for the Orange County Board of Education goes up on East King Street
A one-story brick Colonial Revival building with recessed side wings was built around 1980 at 200 East King Street as the Orange County Board of Education office.
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Archaeological sites are added to the Hillsborough Historic District record
Additional National Register documentation submitted in 1980 identified archaeological resources within the Hillsborough Historic District; more followed in 1984.
Subject: Hillsborough Historic District
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Houses of African American families on the Eno flood plain off South Churton Street are removed
A row of small houses occupied by African Americans on the north bank of the Eno, east of South Churton Street and just south of the new Orange County Courthouse, is torn down or moved in the 1980s. One is moved within the district to 310 North Hassell Street.
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Orange County replaces houses on East Margaret Lane and South Cameron Street with a government complex
A group of houses on East Margaret Lane and South Cameron Street is cleared for county buildings put up between 1980 and 1988: the Department of Education at 200 East King Street, the Government Services Building at 200 South Cameron, its annex at 208 South Cameron and the Orange Family Medical Group at 210 South Cameron.
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The 1922 Hillsborough Township School building closes as a school
After Orange High School took the upper grades, the old school on West Tryon Street ran as an elementary school until 1980. It later housed the public library and then the Richard E. Whitted Human Services Center.
Subject: Hillsborough High School
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The Parks-Richmond House opens as the Inn at Teardrops
As visitors returned to downtown Hillsborough, the Parks-Richmond House on West King Street was opened as a bed-and-breakfast, the Inn at Teardrops.
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The Phillips-Hill-Webb House opens as the Hillsborough House Inn
BelleVue, the Phillips-Hill-Webb House on East Tryon Street, began operating as a bed-and-breakfast called the Hillsborough House Inn.
Subject: BelleVue (Phillips-Hill-Webb House)
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James J. Freeland moves Poplar Hill across the Eno to South Cameron Street
Freeland, who had moved the Gatewood House in 1978, had the Poplar Hill house hauled over the Eno River from Tuscarora Drive to a new lot at 203 South Cameron Street, just south of Burnside, on the north side of the river.
People: James John Freeland
Subject: Occoneechee Farm
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Friends of the Orange County Public Library is founded
Residents organized the Friends of the Orange County Public Library on November 5, 1981, to raise money and advocate for a county library preparing to move into larger quarters in Hillsborough. The group incorporated on May 3, 1982, and the IRS recognized it as a 501(c)(3) charity in June 1983.
Subject: Orange County Public Library
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Orange County Public Library moves to larger quarters in Hillsborough
Volunteers were sought to move the Orange County Public Library's 30,000 books from the 1934 library building on Churton Street to new quarters in the Human Services Complex in Hillsborough, the former Hillsborough High School on West Tryon Street, with the move planned for the end of December 1981. The old building became the Orange County Historical Museum.
Subject: Orange County Public Library · Orange County Historical Museum · Hillsborough High School
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Orange County Public Library refers overdue cases to the Dispute Settlement Center
County librarian Kathleen Moeller-Peiffer reported in 1983 that the library's first attempt to settle overdue cases through the local Dispute Settlement Center had worked: of five patrons sent mediation notices, three returned or paid for their books. The library planned to use the process every three months for its most delinquent materials.
Subject: Orange County Public Library
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Shanklin's Press prints Irene Oliver Pender's History of Orange County Schools
Shanklin's Press of Hillsborough, the Black-owned print shop run by the family of Thomas Shanklin, published Irene Oliver Pender's A History of Orange County Schools: 1752-1983. The shop began in the family home in the 1960s and later moved to Cornelius Street.
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The Alexander Dickson House is moved into Hillsborough to East King Street
The late-Georgian house that Alexander Dickson owned from about 1839 was moved from its farm site near Interstate 85 and NC 86 to a lot at East King and South Cameron streets. Restored, it became the Chamber of Commerce and visitors center.
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The Fredricks site is found and excavated and Occaneechi Town is located
UNC archaeologists trying to relocate the Wall site in the spring of 1983 found European trade goods among Indian pottery in a garden about a hundred yards away, and dug there for four seasons. They uncovered a palisaded village of about a quarter of an acre with ten to twelve houses set around a plaza, a sweat lodge and a cemetery outside the stockade, and identified it as the Occaneechi town Lawson visited in 1701.
People: Roy S. Dickens
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Eno Mill closes
Textile production ended at the Hillsborough plant.
Subject: Eno Mill
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The Saratoga Grill opens at 108 South Churton Street
The Saratoga Grill, among the first businesses to come back downtown as interest in the town's history grew, opened in the commercial building at 108 South Churton Street.
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The Cabe-Pratt-Harris House joins the Study List
The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Cabe-Pratt-Harris House on the Eno near Hillsborough on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.
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State reviewers approve adding the Frederick archaeological site to the Hillsborough Historic District
The Office of State Archaeology brought site 31Or231, listed on the agenda as the Frederick Site, to the State Professional Review Committee as an amendment to the Hillsborough Historic District. On April 12, 1984 the committee approved it with the day's other National Register nominations, without separate discussion.
Subject: Hillsborough Historic District
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Orange Speedway, Inc. is dissolved
The three shareholders of Orange Speedway, Inc., Ann and Bill France and Enoch Staley, voluntarily dissolved the corporation sixteen years after the last race. France Staley, LLC, which held title to the track, sold it to Preservation North Carolina in 1997.
Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events
People: Enoch Staley
Subject: Occoneechee Speedway
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Hillsborough's preservation groups form the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough
By the late 1980s Hillsborough had so many preservation organizations that the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough was created to coordinate them.
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Houses begin going up on Winnawa Walk and Saponi Drive south of the Eno
After Poplar Hill is moved off its old site south of the Eno in 1981, the land is divided into lots along two new streets, Winnawa Walk and Saponi Drive, and houses are built there from 1985.
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Richard Jenrette buys Ayr Mount
Richard H. Jenrette bought Ayr Mount, the 1815 Kirkland house outside Hillsborough, from the Kirkland family and paid for its restoration, hiring specialists to find its original paint colors and decor. It was the only house he bought in North Carolina.
Subject: Ayr Mount
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Shingled pent roofs and Colonial Revival storefronts are added along West King Street
Around 1985 several stores on the first block of West King Street, at 103-105, 107, 109, 115 and 117, were given asphalt-shingled pent roofs, and some got replacement Colonial Revival storefronts. The 2014 survey counts these changes against most of them.
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First Community Baptist Church is organized in Hillsborough
First Community Baptist Church, which worships at 509 Eno Street in Hillsborough, dates its founding to 1986. It marked its twentieth anniversary in November 2006 and its twenty-fifth in November 2011.
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I-40 through Orange County is named the Harriet Morehead Berry Freeway
The Board of Transportation named a section of Interstate 40 through Orange County for Berry, the Hillsborough-born Good Roads campaigner. A state highway marker to her was cast the same year for NC 86 at I-40 north of Chapel Hill.
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Nancy and Craufurd Goodwin acquire Montrose
Nancy and Craufurd Goodwin have owned and lived at Montrose since 1986. A greenhouse, lath house and pineapple-topped entrance gate on St. Mary's Road date from about 1987, and the gardens behind the house are theirs.
Subject: Montrose
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Rigsbee's Rock House joins the Study List
The National Register Advisory Committee placed Mack and Julie Rigsbee's quartz-faced Rock House east of Hillsborough on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.
Subject: Rigsbee’s Rock House
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James and Judy Singleton restore Rigsbee's Rock House
New owners who bought the neglected house in June 1986 carried out its one major refurbishing in 1986-87, keeping the original fabric while reworking the kitchen and upstairs baths. The rock garage became a guest apartment in 1986.
Subject: Rigsbee’s Rock House
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The Berry Gordon House is moved to 410 West Margaret Lane
The Berry Gordon House, built about 1899 at the northwest corner of South Wake Street and West Margaret Lane, is moved down the street to 410 West Margaret Lane in 1987. The nomination still counts it as contributing.
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The East Orange Street house built around Edmund Strudwick's old office is raised to two stories
The house at 110 East Orange Street grew out of Dr. Edmund Strudwick's one-story office, moved there in 1889. Enlarged by 1943, it was remodeled again in 1987 with a second story, and no trace of the office remains visible.
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Orange County Public Library receives a $50,000 bequest from Rebecca B. Wall
The library received $50,000 from the estate of Rebecca B. Wall, a retired Veterans Administration hospital librarian and former Orange County Board of Education member who died on April 2, 1986. The fund had grown to more than $100,000 by 2010, when the library dedicated its Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection at the new Main Library.
Subject: Orange County Public Library
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Town of Hillsborough restores Margaret Lane Cemetery and dedicates a memorial plaque
After a restoration by the Town of Hillsborough, a bronze plaque on a large stone was dedicated at the center of the cemetery listing people known to have been buried there from before 1852 to 1931. It notes that the exact location of most of their graves is not known.
Subject: Margaret Lane Cemetery
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Gold family acquires Eno Mill
The property became a business center with varied tenants.
Subject: Eno Mill
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Interstate 40 is completed south of Hillsborough
I-40 was finished in 1988 about a mile and a half south of Daniel Boone Village, and commercial and residential building south of I-85 picked up sharply afterward.
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Orange Federal Savings and Loan builds an office on the old service station lot at 137 North Churton Street
Orange Federal Savings and Loan Association acquired the former gas station property at 137 North Churton Street and put up a one-story brick office building with a cupola. The building later became county offices.
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The Faucette mill and coach house join the Study List
The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Faucette mill and coach house on the Eno on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.
Subject: Faucett Mill (Chatwood)
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Hillsborough annexes "Northern Fairview"
The June 1988 annexation took in nearly 150 acres, including much of the town's mid-century African American housing north of US 70. It brought town services but also higher taxes, which angered some residents.
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Rigsbee's Rock House is listed in the National Register
Rigsbee's Rock House was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Subject: Rigsbee’s Rock House
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A state highway marker for Hamilton is cast for Churton Street in Hillsborough
The North Carolina highway historical marker G-103, which marks Hamilton's birthplace half a block west as historian, professor and founder of the Southern Historical Collection, was first cast in 1989 for US 70 Business (Churton Street) in Hillsborough.
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A state highway marker for James Hogg is cast for Churton Street in Hillsborough
The North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program cast marker G-108 for James Hogg, the Scottish-born merchant and university trustee. It stands on South Churton Street and points to his home half a mile east and his grave two blocks north.
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Additional documentation extends the Hillsborough Historic District's period of significance into the 1920s and
A 1989 amendment to the 1973 Hillsborough Historic District nomination records changes to the commercial buildings, extends the period of significance to take in the town's growth in the 1920s and 1930s, and counts forty more commercial buildings as contributing.
Subject: Hillsborough Historic District
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Cameron Park School is enlarged again in the late
Following its 1978 addition, Cameron Park School on St. Mary's Road in Hillsborough received further additions on its north and south sides in the late 1980s.
Subject: Cameron Park School
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James J. Freeland dies
The Hillsborough builder, motel owner and developer of Daniel Boone Village died in 1989 at the Highway 70 house he had built in 1964. His children kept Daniel Boone Village and Boone Square.
People: James John Freeland
Subject: Daniel Boone Village
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The Holman-Gates House is moved from Person County to South Cameron Street
The Holman-Gates House, a Quaker-plan farmhouse built about 1785 in Person County just north of the Orange line, is moved to 207 South Cameron Street, beside the relocated Poplar Hill. It was enlarged in 1998.
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Jones Grove builds a fellowship hall on land given by the Brooks family
Luther A. Brooks, son of the founding pastor, and his wife Catherine gave a tenth of an acre east of the church for a fellowship hall, begun in spring 1990 and finished in January 1991.
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The early twentieth-century building at 110 South Churton Street is torn down
The building that had stood at 110 South Churton Street since the early 1900s is demolished in 1990, and a two-story brick building replaces it in 1991.
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Walter Faribault Jr. opens Faribault's Pit Cooked Bar-B-Q in Hillsborough
Dr. Walter Faribault Jr., a Chapel Hill physician, had opened Faribault's Pit Cooked Bar-B-Q in Hillsborough using a recipe that had been in his family for more than a hundred years. The family had cooked pork barbecue on Faribault Lane for generations, and by 1993 the business was running as a catering service.
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Forest Hazel publishes his study of the Occaneechi-Saponi Texas community
Southern Indian Studies printed Forest Hazel's account of the Occaneechi from Occaneechi Town on the Eno in 1701 to the Texas community of his own day, tying the excavated village near Hillsborough to living Indian families. Hazel had begun the research in 1984 from land, court, marriage, census and military records and from family oral histories.
Part of Occaneechi Town and the Great Trading Path · 48 events
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A tornado strikes Fairview, killing two people and destroying 29 houses
The 1992 tornado was probably the largest physical change to the neighborhood after its streets were paved. Rebuilding the lost houses renewed residents' sense of community and drew town attention and new infrastructure.
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The state adds the Elms, Little Ayr Mount and Maple Hill near Hillsborough to the Study List
Public requests for three houses outside Hillsborough came before the committee on April 9, 1992: the Faucette House, known as the Elms; Little Ayr Mount; and Maple Hill. Staff raised no questions about them, and the committee approved them with the other central and southeastern applications.
Subject: Jacob Jackson Farm (Maple Hill) · David Faucette House (The Elms) · Rev. Ira Ellis House (Little Ayr Mount)
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Jody Carter and Todd Peck survey rural Orange County buildings
From October 1992 to July 1993 Jody Carter and Todd Peck drove every passable road in Orange County outside Chapel Hill Township and the Hillsborough town limits, recording 507 buildings and complexes at least fifty years old and taking down oral history where they could.
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Jenrette founds the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust with Ayr Mount
Richard Jenrette founded the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust with his gift of Ayr Mount, which became the first of his houses opened to the public. The trust, later renamed the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation, came to own land around Ayr Mount including Poet's Walk and the Occoneechee Speedway site.
Subject: Ayr Mount · Occoneechee Speedway
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The Hamlett House at 423 West King Street burns
Fire destroys the Hamlett House at 423 West King Street in 1993, and a new house is later built on the lot.
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The Long House at 112 North Nash Street is torn down
The deteriorated Long House at 112 North Nash Street is demolished in 1993, and a new house is built on the lot in 1998.
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Sunnyside, the John Berry farm, joins the Study List
The National Register Advisory Committee placed Sunnyside, the farm of the builder John Berry east of Hillsborough (later the Baldwin farm), on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register. It came to the committee as a public request.
Subject: Sunnyside (John Berry farm)
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The Hughes Academy schoolhouse is moved from near Lake Orange to Hillsborough
The small two-room frame schoolhouse of the Hughes Academy, built around 1862 near Lake Orange in northern Orange County, was moved in 1994 to the grounds at 200 East King Street in Hillsborough and restored.
Subject: Hughes Academy (Cedar Grove Academy)
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Jacob Jackson Farm is listed in the National Register
The National Park Service listed the Jacob Jackson Farm, also called Maple Hill, in the National Register of Historic Places on March 17, 1994, for its architecture and agriculture. The 63-acre district on St. Mary's Road northeast of Hillsborough includes a c. 1810 log cabin, a c. 1820 Federal farmhouse and a barn built about 1855 to 1910.
Subject: Jacob Jackson Farm (Maple Hill)
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The Few's Ford site near Hillsborough joins the Study List
The state archaeology branch presented Few's Ford, outside Hillsborough, with two sites in Cabarrus and Davidson counties, and on April 14, 1994 the committee approved all three for the Study List. The minutes record no discussion of Few's Ford itself.
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A new A. L. Stanback Middle School opens south of Hillsborough
Orange County opened a new A. L. Stanback Middle School just south of town, carrying the name of the old Central High principal to a new building.
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An old frame store on South Hillsborough Avenue is torn down
An earlier frame store building at 219 South Hillsborough Avenue was demolished in 1995, and a one-and-a-half-story house was built on the site the next year.
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First annual Occaneechi powwow on the Eno planned for downtown Hillsborough
John Jeffries planned the first annual powwow on the Eno River in downtown Hillsborough. The band now holds its annual powwow and fall festival on its tribal land in Alamance County.
People: John Blackfeather Jeffries
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Gold family donates future park land
The donation supplied land later developed as Gold Park.
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Hillsborough builds a new police station on North Churton Street
The Hillsborough Police Department moves into a new two-story brick building at 127 North Churton Street in 1995; it was going up during the 1994 survey.
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Hillsborough Elementary School opens in the old Central High buildings as the county's first year-round school
After standing closed for several years, the former Central High campus on North Nash Street reopened in 1996 as Hillsborough Elementary School, the first year-round school in Orange County.
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Maple View Farm builds a creamery and begins bottling its own milk
Maple View Farm, which had begun dairying near Hillsborough in 1963 when Orange County had about 100 dairy farms, built a creamery in 1996 and began bottling milk on the farm in glass bottles in place of selling to a co-op. It opened an ice cream shop in 2000; by 2019 only two dairy farms remained in the county.
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RTPnet puts a public Internet computer in the Orange County Public Library
The community network RTPnet bought a Pentium PC for $1,746.88 in May 1996 as a public access terminal for the Orange County Public Library in Hillsborough, and by July it was installed running Windows 95 in kiosk mode. In October RTPnet reported the library computer on the Internet through a local provider, with classes being taught.
Subject: Orange County Public Library
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The 1920s Orange County Jail on Court Street is greatly enlarged
The Neoclassical Orange County Jail at 125-131 Court Street, built in 1926 facing the courthouse with the deputy's apartment upstairs, is enlarged in 1996 with a series of flat-roofed wings reaching back to East Margaret Lane.
Subject: Orange County jail, Hillsborough
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Hurricane Fran strikes Orange County
Hurricane Fran came ashore on the night of September 5, 1996 and crossed to the Triangle overnight. In Chapel Hill winds topped 70 mph, falling trees caused about 29,000 power outages and UNC cancelled classes, and the Eno at Hillsborough hit a record flow. No one in Orange County was killed.
Part of Hurricane Fran, September 1996 · 12 events
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The Eno River at Hillsborough reaches its highest recorded flow during Hurricane Fran
The USGS gauge on the Eno River at Hillsborough recorded a peak of 10,800 cubic feet per second at a gauge height of 21.13 feet, the largest peak in its record until Tropical Storm Chantal in July 2025.
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Jones Grove names its fellowship hall for the Brooks family
The congregation named its 1991 fellowship hall in honor of the Brooks family, who had founded, led and given land to the church.
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Occaneechi Band members build a replica village on the Eno in Hillsborough
Tribal members led by John "Blackfeather" Jeffries built a replica of the palisaded Occaneechi village beside the Eno River in Hillsborough, modelled on the site excavated by UNC archaeologists. The village fell into disrepair and was dismantled in 2003.
People: John Blackfeather Jeffries
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Occoneechee Mountain becomes a State Natural Area
At the urging of the Eno River Association and The Nature Conservancy, the state began buying land on Occoneechee Mountain just south of Hillsborough, with the Conservancy purchasing 96 acres for the state. The 124-acre Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area was dedicated on July 20, 1999, with a blessing from an Occaneechi tribal member.
Part of Saving the Eno · 6 events
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Orange County Public Library offers English as a second language classes
By December 1997 the library held a Saturday English as a second language class in Hillsborough and English conversation and beginning English classes at the Carrboro Branch Library, run by an ESL coordinator. A 1999 statewide article said the library had started ESL tutoring and a conversation group several years before and that demand led the county to fund a full-time coordinator.
Subject: Orange County Public Library
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Mary Claire Engstrom dies
Mary Claire Engstrom, born in Kansas City in 1906, died on May 20, 1997. She had lived in Hillsborough and continued her historical research there until her death.
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The Carr family cabin near Hillsborough joins the Study List
The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Carr family cabin near Hillsborough on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.
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Jenrette's preservation trust buys the Occoneechee Speedway site
Preservation North Carolina, which had bought the old speedway from France Staley, LLC in June 1997, sold it to the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust under protective deed restrictions.
Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events
Subject: Occoneechee Speedway
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Hillsborough annexes Daniel Boone Village and Boone Square
About 76 acres of Freeland's South Churton Street complex came into the town limits in 1998, by which time many of its buildings stood empty and the land was seen as ready for redevelopment.
Subject: Daniel Boone Village
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Fairview residents build a baseball field on a former dump
Residents built a ball field on the site of an old dump in 1999 and started a league to use it. For a decade it and a set of swings were about all Fairview Park had.
Subject: Fairview Park
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A county survey proposes a St. Mary's Road rural historic district
With a state Certified Local Government grant won in late 1998, Orange County hired GAI Consultants to survey six miles of St. Mary's Road from US 70 to the Durham line. Its August 1999 report recorded 20 historic places and recommended a rural historic district along the old Trading Path route.
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Montrose joins the Study List
The National Register Advisory Committee placed Montrose, William A. Graham's home in Hillsborough from 1842 to 1874, on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.
Subject: Montrose
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Central Elementary School gets a second large addition
Around 2000 another large addition was built across the center of Central Elementary School's front on Hayes Street in Hillsborough, following the 1975 addition by John James Croft.
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Flynt Fabrics and Finishing closes the former Bellevue mill
The shutdown of the Flynt Fabrics and Finishing Company, successor to the Bellevue Manufacturing Company, in 2000 followed the Eno mill's 1984 closing and dealt Hillsborough a second economic blow. The mill buildings still stand between the town and West Hillsborough.
Subject: Bellevue Mill
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Jones Grove pays off its mortgage and adds a steeple built by a deacon
The congregation marked the end of its mortgage along with the year's improvements: new carpet, lights and pew cushions, and a steeple that deacon Gotha C. Watkins built and gave.
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Doug Marlette's novel The Bridge, set in a fictional Hillsborough, stirs the town's writers
Marlette's first novel, The Bridge, is set in the fictional town of Eno, modeled on Hillsborough, where he lived and worked. Some of Hillsborough's writers took offense at characters based on them, and the manager of the Bull's Head Bookshop in Chapel Hill cancelled a reading.
People: Allan Gurganus
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Emma Torian Jones gives her home lot beside Ridge Road School to Jones Grove Church
Emma Torian Jones donated the lot west of the school, where she and her husband had lived since the 1960s, to Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church; the house was later torn down, returning the ground to woods. The Torian heirs had also deeded the school parcel to the church.
Subject: Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church · Ridge Road School
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The St. Mary's Road area and the Occoneechee Speedway join the Study List
The National Register Advisory Committee placed the farm landscape along St. Mary's Road studied in the 1999 survey, and the Occoneechee Speedway near Hillsborough, on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register. The meeting's minutes are lost; the placements rest on the annotated agenda.
Subject: Occoneechee Speedway
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Hyconeechee Regional Library receives a Gates Foundation grant for public computers
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation committed $58,581 to Hyconeechee Regional Library in Hillsborough to expand public access to computers and the Internet.
Subject: Orange County Public Library
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Montrose is listed in the National Register
On October 18, 2001 the National Park Service listed Montrose in Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places.
Subject: Montrose
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A police substation with community services opens in Fairview
In 2002 a police substation, shared with other community programs, opened on Rainey Street.
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A state highway marker for Elizabeth Keckly goes up on North Churton Street in Hillsborough
North Carolina highway marker G-115, cast in 2002, stands on North Churton Street at Union Street in Hillsborough. It records Keckly as a Burwell family slave who lived there in the 1830s, bought her freedom in 1855, dressed Mary Todd Lincoln and published her memoir in 1868.
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State reviewers approve the Occoneechee Speedway nomination despite Hillsborough's objection
Hillsborough's historic preservation commission approved the nomination, but the mayor objected after a vote of the town commissioners, because the old track lay in the path of a possible north-south bypass. Commissioner Ken Chavious asked the committee on February 14, 2002 to weigh the town's traffic needs. Members replied that only eligibility was before them and approved the nomination unanimously, with one member leaving the room because he consulted on the bypass.
Subject: Occoneechee Speedway
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Holden-Roberts Farm is listed in the National Register
The National Park Service listed the Holden-Roberts Farm near Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places on May 2, 2002, for architecture and agriculture. The district centers on a Reconstruction-era farmhouse of about 1873, and in 2020 a conservation easement protected 57 acres of the farm on St. Mary's Road.
Subject: Holden–Roberts Farm
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Occoneechee Speedway is listed in the National Register
The 44-acre Occoneechee Speedway site near Hillsborough, acquired by preservationists from the France and Staley families in 1997, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on May 2, 2002. It is the only surviving dirt track from NASCAR's inaugural 1949 season.
Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events
Subject: Occoneechee Speedway
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UNC public health students complete a community study of Fairview
After interviewing residents in 2001 and 2002, students in the UNC Department of Health Behavior and Health Education issued an action-oriented community diagnosis of Fairview. It is one of the few written histories of Hillsborough's northern Black neighborhoods.
Subject: UNC School of Public Health
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The Bellevue mill joins the Study List
The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Belle-Vue Manufacturing Company mill in West Hillsborough on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.
Subject: Bellevue Mill
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Historic Occoneechee Speedway trail opens to the public
A public walking trail opened in 2003 on the Occoneechee Speedway site near Hillsborough, crossing the surviving clay oval of the old NASCAR track. The landowner, the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust (later the Jenrette Foundation), built it with the volunteer Historic Speedway Group.
Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events
Subject: Occoneechee Speedway
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Holy Family Catholic Church in Hillsborough holds its first Spanish Mass
Holy Family parish in Hillsborough, which had grown from about 107 families in 1986 to about 250 in 1999, celebrated its first Spanish Mass in 2003 as Latino members joined the congregation. By 2012 the parish counted about 680 families and held a Sunday Spanish Mass alongside its three other services.
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The Watson-Whisnant House is moved from Burnsville to South Occoneechee Street
The Queen Anne house built about 1898 in Burnsville by banker and lawyer Frank Watson was moved across the state and set on a new brick foundation at 209 South Occoneechee Street, replacing a mobile home.
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The Bellevue Manufacturing Company is listed in the National Register
On August 28, 2003 the National Park Service listed the Bellevue Manufacturing Company in Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places.
Subject: Bellevue Mill
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Second library task force calls for a new main library of 30,000 to 65,000 square feet
A second Library Services Task Force, appointed in January 2004, recommended building a centrally located main library of 30,000 to 65,000 square feet sized for 2025 population estimates, a southwest branch in Carrboro combining the McDougle branch and the Cybrary, and an Orange County heritage center.
Subject: Orange County Public Library · McDougle School
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A house already moved once from Occoneechee Mountain is moved to 116 North Nash Street
The house at 116 North Nash Street, built about 1910 on Occoneechee Mountain and moved to Collins Avenue in the 1950s, is moved again in 2005 to its present lot in the district.
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The storefront at 109 West King Street is restored and its pent roof removed
In 2005 the storefront of 109 West King Street was restored, with a recessed entrance between copper-framed plate-glass windows, and the shingled pent roof added in the 1980s was taken off.
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Turnip Patch Park is made on a deep lot between West King Street and West Margaret Lane
A small park with a playground and a footbridge over a ravine was made around 2005 on the lot at 333 West King Street, which runs through to West Margaret Lane along South Occoneechee Street. A small building stood there on the 1924 and 1943 Sanborn maps.
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Chef Aaron Vandemark opens Panciuto on South Churton Street
Aaron Vandemark opened Panciuto, a restaurant cooking Italian-style food from ingredients grown on nearby farms. Within ten years he had six James Beard nominations for Best Chef: Southeast.
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The 1953 Orange County Courthouse in Hillsborough joins the Study List
The committee's list of properties approved for the Study List on October 12, 2006 includes the Orange County Courthouse in Hillsborough. The survey layer identifies it as the 1953 Colonial Revival courthouse on Margaret Lane, not the older courthouse listed in the National Register in 1971.
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A state highway marker for Billy Strayhorn goes up in Hillsborough
The North Carolina Office of Archives and History put up marker G-125 on South Churton Street. It calls Strayhorn a jazz composer and pianist who wrote Take the A Train for the Duke Ellington Orchestra and points a quarter mile west to his boyhood home site.
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Gold Park opens on Dimmocks Mill Road
The twenty-acre Gold Park, with walking paths, footbridges, a dog park, a soccer field and three picnic shelters, opens on Dimmocks Mill Road in 2007. It takes in the baseball field long tied to the Eno Mill.
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Beverly Scarlett is sworn in as a district court judge for Orange and Chatham counties
Appointed by Governor Mike Easley on January 19, 2007, Scarlett was sworn in to a new District 15B seat added for the growing caseload. She was Orange County's first African American district court judge.
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Lightnin' Wells and John Dee Holeman play the Hillsborough Arts Council's Traditional Music Series
The Hillsborough Arts Council's 2007 Traditional Music Series presented Lightnin' Wells and John Dee Holeman at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 24, 2007, at the Masonic Lodge, 142 West King Street, in downtown Hillsborough.
Subject: Eagle Lodge
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Orange County's Museum and Historical Society Merge
In May 2007 the Orange County Historical Museum, founded by the Hillsborough Garden Club in 1957, merged with the Hillsborough Historical Society to form the Historical Foundation of Hillsborough and Orange County, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The News of Orange reported the merger in its June 20, 2007 issue.
Subject: Orange County Historical Museum
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Lee Smith, Randall Kenan and Allan Gurganus gather with other authors at Brick Alley Books
Kenan, Lee Smith and Allan Gurganus shared stories at a gathering of authors at Brick Alley Books in Hillsborough. The Daily Tar Heel used the evening to report on the town as a home for writers, quoting Smith, Gurganus, Kenan, poet laureate Mike Troy and photographer Elizabeth Matheson.
People: Lee Smith · Allan Gurganus
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A four-story brick parking deck is built at Nash and Kollock streets
A four-story parking deck with a brick veneer and a corner stair and elevator tower was built in 2008 at 104-106 Nash and Kollock streets, with pilasters copying those on the Gateway Center on South Churton Street.
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The Gateway Center replaces the old post office building at 228 South Churton Street
The commercial building put up at 228 South Churton Street to house the post office is torn down around 2007, and the three-story Gateway Center, with shops on the ground floor and government offices above, is built on the site in 2008.
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Jay Miller buys the empty Murphey School and begins restoring it
Jay Miller bought the school, vacant since 1986, in March 2008 and began restoring it with the State Historic Preservation Office for use as a retreat center for nonprofit groups and a rental site for events.
Subject: Murphey School
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Orange County builds a three-story office building on West Margaret Lane
The three-story brick Orange County Government Offices building at 131 West Margaret Lane, fifteen bays wide, went up behind the site of the new main library; it was under construction in 2008 aerial photographs and is dated 2009.
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Work begins on improvements to Fairview Park
Construction started in 2009 on parking, playgrounds, picnic shelters and basketball courts at the park, which had until then been little more than the residents' ball field.
Subject: Fairview Park
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Lucinda Munger becomes Orange County library services director
Lucinda Munger became library services director for Orange County, heading the main library in Hillsborough and three branches.
Subject: Orange County Public Library
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Sheriff Pendergrass defends Orange County's enrollment in Secure Communities
At a county commissioners' meeting, Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass explained his decision to enroll the Orange County jail in the federal Secure Communities pilot, which checks the fingerprints of people booked into jail against federal databases including immigration records. Commissioners, who had resolved in 2007 not to join the 287(g) program, raised concerns but took no action.
Subject: Orange County jail, Hillsborough
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Murphey School is listed in the National Register
On August 20, 2009 the National Park Service listed Murphey School near Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places.
Subject: Murphey School
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The Cameron coachman's quarters on South Cameron Street are restored
The one-room brick coachman's quarters built about 1830 for Paul Cameron's Burnside estate, which had lost its roof and chimney, is carefully restored around 2010 at 209 South Cameron Street.
Subject: Burnside
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Orange County Main Library opens on Margaret Lane
The county's new 23,500-square-foot Main Library at 137 West Margaret Lane in Hillsborough held its grand opening on January 8, 2010, after planning that began with a task force in 2000 and a groundbreaking in April 2008. It added a teen center, a 90-person meeting room and a local history area.
Subject: Orange County Public Library
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The Eno Cotton Mill joins the Study List
The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Eno Cotton Mill in West Hillsborough on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.
Subject: Eno Mill
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Orange County Public Library forms a Teen Advisory Board
The library completed its first year of teen programming in the 2010-11 budget year and established a Teen Advisory Board.
Subject: Orange County Public Library
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Brick memorial holding three recovered gravestones is dedicated at Margaret Lane Cemetery
A brick monument designed and built by town employee Sam Dunevant was unveiled at the cemetery entrance, holding three gravestones recovered during earlier restoration, for Daniel Whitted, W. O. Parker and Nancy Wheatting. About fifty people attended, including descendants, and Mayor Tom Stevens spoke.
Subject: Margaret Lane Cemetery
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Commissioners drop a proposed bookmobile and fund year-round Sunday hours at the main library
The manager's recommended 2011-12 budget included $317,315 for a new bookmobile, $252,500 of it to finance the vehicle. Commissioners did not approve it and instead allocated $128,500 to expand service, including 60 hours a week with year-round Sundays at the main library from September 1, more Kindles, and more money for books, databases and programs.
Subject: Orange County Public Library
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The Eno Cotton Mill is listed in the National Register
On September 1, 2011 the National Park Service listed the Eno Cotton Mill in Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places.
Subject: Eno Mill
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Orange County Main Library introduces RFID self-checkout
During the 2012–13 fiscal year the Main Library in Hillsborough put radio frequency identification tags and self-checkout stations into service. Patrons used self-checkout for 63 percent of transactions, above the library's 50 percent goal, and the next year's objective was 70 percent.
Subject: Orange County Public Library
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Radius Pizzeria opens in the old savings and loan building on North Churton Street
Mick and Kate Carroll opened Radius Pizzeria, later Radius Pizzeria & Pub, at 112 North Churton Street in downtown Hillsborough.
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Additional documentation for the Hillsborough Historic District is accepted by the National Register
On January 22, 2014 the National Park Service accepted a new survey and history of the Hillsborough Historic District, the first full update of the 1973 listing, documenting the town's buildings from the colonial period to the 1960s.
Subject: Hillsborough Historic District
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Same-sex couples begin receiving marriage licenses in Orange County
A federal judge struck down North Carolina's ban on same-sex marriage late on Friday, October 10, 2014, by which time the Orange County Register of Deeds office in Hillsborough had closed for the day. The office issued its first licences to same-sex couples when it reopened on Monday, October 13, with Carrboro mayor Lydia Lavelle and Alicia Stemper first in line; the two married at the Carrboro Town Commons on October 25, 2014.
Part of LGBTQ political firsts in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, 1980s–1990s · 21 events
People: Lydia Lavelle
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Cannie Bacon Lloyd and Bob Lloyd open Bacon's Meat Market on North Churton Street
Bacon's Meat Market, a family-run meat market, deli and sandwich shop, opened at the corner of North Churton and Corbin streets. Cannie Bacon Lloyd said her father had told her Hillsborough needed one.
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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
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Hillsborough's Old Town Cemetery joins the Study List
The National Register Advisory Committee placed Hillsborough's Old Town Cemetery behind the Presbyterian church on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.
Subject: Old Town Cemetery, Hillsborough
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Patrick Dougherty builds A Sight to Behold on the Hillsborough Riverwalk
The Hillsborough Arts Council commissioned the stickwork sculpture, which Dougherty built along the Riverwalk with about 190 volunteers from saplings gathered at Ayr Mount and in the Waterstone development.
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Cup-A-Joe moves down West King Street to a larger shop at number 112
Owners Brooke Erceg and Ryan Creery moved their coffee shop from 600 square feet at 120 West King Street to 1,600 square feet at 112 West King, former real estate offices, with room to bake on site.
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Hillsborough hires hmwPreservation to survey buildings outside its historic district
With a Historic Preservation Fund grant from the state preservation office, the town contracted in 2016 for a survey of older buildings inside the town limits but outside the National Register district, where only eleven had been recorded. Heather Slane and Megan Privett did the fieldwork in February and March 2017, fully recording about fifty properties and five mid-century neighborhoods.
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Bona Fide Sandwich Co. opens at 104 North Churton Street
The owners of the Wooden Nickel Pub, LaPlace and Hillsborough BBQ Company opened a sandwich shop at 104 North Churton Street.
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Rebuilding of the Occaneechi replica village in Hillsborough begins
Tribal members, community volunteers, Orange County and the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough began rebuilding a smaller replica village in River Park, funded by a $20,000 budget set aside in 2015. The new village has a palisade and four huts.
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Tremaine Royster becomes the fourth pastor of Jones Grove
Tremaine Royster became Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church's fourth pastor; the church, which owns Ridge Road School, also runs a food bank.
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The Hillsborough survey proposes the Ja-Max Motor Lodge for the state Study List
The survey report recommended the 1952 motel on US 70 for North Carolina's National Register Study List as one of the town's few surviving mid-century motels. It cited the eleven rooms, each with its own bath and parking at the door, the lamp-lined drive, and Ranch-house features rarely used on a commercial building, and proposed a 2.87-acre boundary. The National Register Advisory Committee added the motel to the Study List on October 12, 2017.
People: James John Freeland
Subject: Ja-Max Motor Lodge
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The survey proposes adding the Military Academy dining hall and grounds to the Commandant's House listing
The report recommended the academy's surviving frame dining hall on Barracks Road, left out of the Commandant's House nomination, for the Study List as an expansion of that listing, with about 21.5 acres over three parcels. The land keeps the barracks foundation, old tree lines and a daffodil-lined path, and the Office of State Archaeology judged it likely to hold remains of the school. The National Register Advisory Committee added the dining hall and site to the Study List on October 12, 2017.
Subject: Hillsborough Military Academy
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The Rocks in Chapel Hill and Cedar Grove School join the Study List
Among nine central and southeastern public requests approved on October 12, 2017 were William C. Coker's house, The Rocks, in Chapel Hill and the Cedar Grove School north of Hillsborough. The same meeting placed the Hillsborough survey's Ja-Max Motor Lodge and Military Academy dining hall site on the list.
People: William Chambers Coker
Subject: Cedar Grove schools · The Rocks (William C. Coker House) · Ja-Max Motor Lodge
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Bona Fide Sandwich Co. closes on North Churton Street
The owners announced on October 3, 2017 that that week's lunches would be the shop's last, about a year and a half after it opened. They began serving lunch at the Wooden Nickel Pub instead.
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Burwell School Historic Site marks the bicentennial of Elizabeth Keckly
Through 2018 the Burwell School Historic Site in Hillsborough marked the 200th anniversary of Keckly's birth with an exhibition that included an original copy of her memoir and a replica of a purple velvet dress she made, sewn by local seamstress Karen DeSombre.
Subject: Burwell School
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Mark Kleinschmidt is elected Orange County clerk of superior court
Kleinschmidt was first elected clerk of superior court in 2018 and has held the office since. The state judicial branch says that in the post he has worked to strengthen court services and the administration of guardianship matters.
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Bacon's Meat Market passes to new owners and becomes Steve's Garden Market
Justin and Meagan Long of Steve's Garden Market in Graham took over Bacon's Meat Market, planning to take in the laundromat next door and add produce, seafood, beer and wine while keeping the sandwich counter. The store was to reopen under the new name on May 7.
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The Wooden Nickel pub reopens two doors up in the former bank at 113 North Churton Street
After closing its 975-square-foot home at 105 North Churton Street on July 1, the Wooden Nickel opened in the former Bank of America space at 113 North Churton, more than twice the size.
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Snow collapses the dome of the Riverwalk stickwork sculpture
Winter Storm Diego brought down the dome of A Sight to Behold after about three years on the Riverwalk, and the Hillsborough Arts Council planned a send-off during its Solstice Lantern Walk on December 21.
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Hillsborough holds a celebration of Billy Strayhorn
A day of events called A Celebration of Billy Strayhorn began at the historical marker on South Churton Street and ran on at the Orange County Main Library and the Burwell School Historic Site. Mayor Tom Stevens, the musician Yahyah Corbett, the choreographer David Rousseve, the Duke professor Thomas DeFrantz and the puppeteer Jeghetto took part.
Subject: Burwell School · Orange County Public Library
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Fire collapses the roof of the old ABC building at 122 US 70 in Hillsborough
A fire found about 12:30 a.m. brought down the roof of Triangle Environmental Services at 122 US 70 and damaged the meat market next door. The building was empty and one minor injury was reported.
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A mural for Billy Strayhorn is painted on South Churton Street
Max Dowdle painted an eleven by thirty five foot mural called Take the A Train on the side of 226 South Churton Street, the building that houses the record store and bar Volume. Volume's owner Tony Lopez proposed it, the Tourism Development Authority paid for it, and the Arts Council and the Historic District Commission approved it.
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Judge Allen Baddour voids the Silent Sam settlement in Hillsborough for lack of standing
At a hearing in Hillsborough, Orange County Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour ruled that the Sons of Confederate Veterans had no standing to bring the suit and set aside the consent judgment and the $2.5 million trust. Five UNC students and a faculty member represented by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law had sought to intervene; their motion was denied but the judge took up the standing question they raised.
Part of Silent Sam · 15 events
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Orange County Public Library closes its buildings and sets out a free book shelf
With its buildings closed, the library kept the Hillsborough and Carrboro book drops and phone reference running, stopped charging late fees, and from March 18 set out a free book and DVD shelf outside the Main Library in Hillsborough.
Subject: Orange County Public Library
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Orange County and its three towns issue a joint stay-at-home order
Orange County, with Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough, ordered residents to stay home except for essential needs from 6 p.m. on March 27, 2020, three days before the statewide order took effect. Set to run until April 30, it was extended to May 8 to match the state order.
People: Penny Rich · Quintana Stewart
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Orange County and the towns launch a Housing Helpline for emergency rental aid
Orange County and the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough opened a Housing Helpline in April 2020 to connect residents with emergency rent, utility and deposit assistance. The county's Emergency Housing Assistance program paid out $2.5 million to 1,005 residents in 2020, and an Eviction Diversion Program followed in July 2020.
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A car crash sets fire to the Farm & Garden Center on NC 86
Early on June 17, 2020, a speeding car hit the gas pumps at the Farm & Garden Center, a gas station, country store and produce stand on NC 86 near Walnut Grove Church Road. The car and the store caught fire and the canopy collapsed; the two young people in the car were hurt.
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Health department vaccinates its first recipients at drive-through clinics
By early January 2021 the Orange County Health Department had vaccinated about 1,000 Phase 1a personnel at drive-through clinics in Hillsborough and Chapel Hill and opened sign-ups for residents 75 and older, more than 4,200 of whom registered.
People: Quintana Stewart
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Hillsborough proclaims Dr. Kizzmekia "Kizzy" Corbett Day
At an online meeting, Mayor Jenn Weaver read the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners' proclamation naming January 12, 2021 for Corbett, a Hillsborough native who helped develop the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine; Corbett thanked the board and urged residents to get vaccinated.
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Hillsborough renames Thomas Ruffin Street as Lydia Lane
The Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to rename the street for Lydia, the enslaved woman shot by John Mann in the case Thomas Ruffin decided. All twelve households on the street had petitioned for a new name and had first proposed Hope Lane; Commissioner Mark Bell suggested using Lydia's name, and Commissioner Kathleen Ferguson made the motion to approve.
People: Thomas Ruffin
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Panciuto reopens after its pandemic closure, now sharing space with the Hillsborough Bakeshop
Panciuto reopened with a pared-down service model and no tipping, paying staff at least $15.40 an hour. The Hillsborough Bakeshop, begun as a stopgap during the shutdown, now runs in the same space.
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Orange County Public Library reopens its Main Library building
After more than a year of closure and appointment-only curbside pickup, the Main Library reopened with distancing measures under the county's plan to reopen facilities through July 2021. In Carrboro the branch at McDougle School closed on June 13 and the Cybrary opened for browsing on August 6.
Subject: Orange County Public Library · McDougle School
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Orange County reinstates an indoor mask mandate
As the delta variant spread, Orange County and the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough required masks inside buildings and businesses from 5 p.m. on August 11, 2021.
People: Lydia Lavelle · Quintana Stewart
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Reconstructed Occaneechi Village is rededicated
The Occaneechi replica village in River Park was rededicated after about five years of work by tribal members, volunteers, town and county staff and the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough. It includes a palisade, four huts, a work arbor, fire pit, lean-to and cooking table.
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John Blackfeather Jeffries dies, and state flags are lowered in his honor
Jeffries, a Hillsborough resident and Occaneechi tribal elder, died on January 24, 2023. Governor Roy Cooper ordered state flags lowered to half-staff on February 1, 2023 in his honor.
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Hillsborough tribute remembers John Blackfeather Jeffries
The Occaneechi Band, the arts group Spirit Freedom and the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau held a tribute to Jeffries at the Passmore Center in Hillsborough. Speakers included former mayor Tom Stevens and tribal chair Tony Hayes.
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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.
