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Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis.

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Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–59.Back to highlights

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  1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

  2. 1920s
  3. Property or economic transaction · Laurel Hill area, south of the UNC campus, Chapel Hill William C. Coker gives the Chapel Hill Country Club land for a clubhouse and golf course

    By early 1923 Coker had given the new Chapel Hill Country Club its grounds south of the campus. The clubhouse went up that spring and the golf course over the next two years. The land later passed to the university and is used for tennis courts and a greenway park; the Laurel Hill subdivision was laid out along the course.

  4. Property or economic transaction · Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill William C. Coker plats the Laurel Hill subdivision

    On his land southeast of the campus, Coker had T. Felix Hickerson lay out Laurel Hill Road along a ridge beside the golf course, with short cul-de-sacs and large lots. Coker approved every house plan and seems to have sent builders to Atwood and Nash; seven houses were built before the 1929 crash.

  5. Law, policy or court · Rocky Ridge Farm (Laurel Hill), Chapel Hill William C. Coker's Rocky Ridge lot deeds restrict the race of residents

    In selling the lots of his Rocky Ridge Farm development, Coker wrote covenants into the deeds that set the number of buildings, the cost of houses and, in the early deeds, the race of the residents. These private restrictions governed the neighborhood before Chapel Hill had residential zoning.

  6. Construction or physical change · Rocky Ridge Farm (Laurel Hill), Chapel Hill, Country Club Road, Laurel Hill Road and Laurel Hill Circle Black stonemasons build the stone walls of Rocky Ridge Farm

    The curving walls of random-coursed stone that line Country Club Road, Laurel Hill Road and Laurel Hill Circle were built alongside the houses by local Black masons, among them James Blackwell and Jesse Jones.

  7. Construction or physical change · 110 Laurel Hill Road, Chapel Hill Botanist Henry Roland Totten builds a Tudor Revival house on Laurel Hill Road

    Botanist Henry Roland Totten, a protege of W. C. Coker, and his wife built a stuccoed Tudor Revival house at 110 Laurel Hill Road, with one wing in stone. Plans were drawn in June 1928, the excavation was finished by early August, and the house was finished about 1929.

  8. Construction or physical change · 5 Ridge Road, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Botanist John Couch builds an Elizabethan Revival house on Ridge Road

    Botanist John Couch, a colleague of Coker, built a dormered two-story frame house at 5 Ridge Road in Laurel Hill, its front wing lit by a broad bay window. The 1989 nomination credits the design to the Durham architect George Watts Carr.

  9. Construction or physical change · 2 Buttons Road, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill English professor George Howe builds a Tudor Revival house on Buttons Road

    George Howe's stuccoed house at 2 Buttons Road in Laurel Hill takes its medieval character from a steep hipped roof, dormers, front wings and casement windows.

  10. Construction or physical change · Gustav Harrer House, 601 Laurel Hill Road, Chapel Hill Gustav Harrer builds a shingled house on Laurel Hill Road

    The Harrer house, a two-story, L-shaped Colonial Revival dwelling with shingle siding, is one of the first houses of Rocky Ridge Farm's opening building period, 1928-30.

  11. Construction or physical change · Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Cornelia Spencer Love designs and builds her own house in Laurel Hill

    Cornelia Spencer Love, granddaughter of Cornelia Phillips Spencer, planned her own one-story frame house in Laurel Hill; the architect Arthur Nash contributed the flared roof ends and a little porch.

  12. Construction or physical change · Preston Farrar House, 114 Laurel Hill Road, Chapel Hill Drama professor Preston Farrar builds a house with an outdoor stage on Laurel Hill Road

    UNC drama professor Preston Farrar built a two-story stucco house in the manner of an English cottage. It had indoor and outdoor stages for rehearsals and small productions, including a stone terrace used as a theatre, and a specimen garden.

  13. 1930s
  14. Construction or physical change · Russell Gruman House, 103 Laurel Hill Circle, Chapel Hill Russell Gruman builds a Dutch Colonial house on Laurel Hill Circle

    A gambrel-roofed Dutch Colonial Revival house of rough brick and shingle, with a matching garage, went up for Russell Gruman at the close of the district's first building period.

  15. Construction or physical change · Voitle House, 307 Country Club Road (313 in the 1989 nomination), Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill A Colonial Revival cottage with an attached garage is built on Country Club Road for Robert B. Voitle

    The story-and-a-half weatherboarded cottage has an original garage on one side. The 2008 documentation redates it to about 1935 and makes it contributing; the 1989 district nomination had dated it 1955.

  16. Construction or physical change · Daniel Huston Buchanan House, 106 Laurel Hill Road, Chapel Hill Daniel Huston Buchanan builds a two-story house with a gallery on Laurel Hill Road

    The Buchanan house, of stone and weatherboard with a two-story pedimented gallery, is one of the Colonial Revival houses of Rocky Ridge Farm's second building period, 1936-40.

  17. Construction or physical change · Dudley Carroll House, 306 Country Club Road, Chapel Hill Dudley Carroll builds a red brick house on Country Club Road

    A red brick Colonial Revival house with an asymmetrical front and a fanlighted entry went up for Dudley Carroll in Rocky Ridge Farm's second building period.

  18. Construction or physical change · Bond House, 101 Pine Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill William Van Sprinkle designs a brick Colonial Revival house on Pine Lane for Richmond and Marjorie Bond

    Contractors Ellington & Sparrow built the five-part brick house, a story-and-a-half main block with lower wings joined by hyphens. It is the oldest house in the Laurel Hill boundary increase, and the nomination ranks it the best of the neighborhood's later Colonial Revival houses.

  19. Construction or physical change · Carl Pegg House, 403 Laurel Hill Road, Chapel Hill Durham architects Hackney and Knott design Carl Pegg's house on Laurel Hill Road

    A three-bay brick Colonial Revival house for Carl Pegg was designed by the Durham firm of Hackney and Knott in the district's second building period.

  20. Construction or physical change · Holmes House, 102 Pine Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Professor Urban T. Holmes builds a painted-brick Colonial Revival house on Pine Lane

    The deck-on-hip house, with a basement garage set into the slope, was one of two Pine Lane houses built before the war. The nomination takes the two late-1930s houses as proof that Pine Lane was part of Coker's original plat.

  21. Construction or physical change · James Clarence Andrews House, 5 Buttons Road, Chapel Hill Architect Bradford Eddy designs James Clarence Andrews's house on Buttons Road

    A two-story shingled Colonial Revival house for James Clarence Andrews was designed by Bradford Eddy, an architect who practiced outside North Carolina.

  22. Construction or physical change · Glen Haydon House, 303 Laurel Hill Road, Chapel Hill Music department chair Glen Haydon builds a brick house on Laurel Hill Road

    Glen Haydon, chair of the UNC music department, built a two-story brick and weatherboard Colonial Revival house with a stone retaining wall.

  23. Construction or physical change · Earl Brown House, 401 Laurel Hill Road, Chapel Hill Public health dean Earl Brown builds a red brick house on Laurel Hill Road

    The house of Earl Brown, described as dean of the UNC School of Public Health, is a two-story red brick house that mixes Colonial Revival and Cotswold features.

  24. Construction or physical change · William Couch House, 603 Laurel Hill Road, Chapel Hill UNC Press editor William Couch builds a brick and stone house on Laurel Hill Road

    William Couch, editor of the University of North Carolina Press and brother of botanist John N. Couch, built a two-story brick and stone Colonial Revival house with a two-story gallery, designed by William Sprinkle.

  25. 1940s
  26. Construction or physical change · John J. Wright House, 105 Laurel Hill Circle, Chapel Hill Architect Eugene Stroud designs physician John J. Wright's house on Laurel Hill Circle

    A two-story, three-bay shingled Colonial Revival house was built for physician John J. Wright to a design by Eugene Stroud.

  27. Construction or physical change · Dudley Cowden House, 304 Country Club Road, Chapel Hill Dudley Cowden builds a galleried house with a specimen garden on Country Club Road

    The Cowden house is a two-story frame Colonial Revival dwelling with a two-story stone west wing, a front gallery, a stone terrace, a stone garage and a formal specimen garden.

  28. Construction or physical change · 106 Laurel Hill Circle, Chapel Hill University controller William D. Carmichael Jr. builds a large brick house in Laurel Hill

    William Carmichael and his wife had one of the biggest Colonial Revival houses in town built at 106 Laurel Hill Circle, a red brick house with a classical entrance and flanking wings.

  29. Construction or physical change · Frances Gardham House, 309 Country Club Road, Chapel Hill William Sprinkle designs Frances Gardham's house on Country Club Road

    Frances Gardham's Colonial Revival house with vernacular details is one of three Rocky Ridge Farm houses the nomination credits to architect William Sprinkle.

  30. Construction or physical change · 305 Country Club Road, Chapel Hill William Van Sprinkle designs a Colonial Revival house for Horace Crockford on Country Club Road

    For professor Horace D. Crockford and his wife, William Van Sprinkle designed a modest two-story Colonial Revival house of brick and weatherboard at 305 Country Club Road, with a garage wing and a cupola, as building in Laurel Hill picked up again at the end of the 1930s.

  31. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

  32. Construction or physical change · Harland House, 608 Laurel Hill Road, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Classics professor J. P. Harland builds the first postwar house in Laurel Hill

    His shingled Colonial Revival cottage on Laurel Hill Road has an attached garage wing turned to face the street. Earlier Laurel Hill houses kept their garages at the far end of the driveway, so the nomination reads the wing as a sign of the car's new place in the suburb.

  33. Construction or physical change · Laurel Hill Road, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Laurel Hill Road is extended south beyond the 1927 plat

    On the 1927 plat the road stopped at the south edge of 603 Laurel Hill Road. The extension carried it south toward the line later taken by the 15-501 Bypass and opened lots for postwar houses.

  34. Construction or physical change · 102 Laurel Hill Road, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Commerce dean Dudley D. Carroll builds a small brick house on Laurel Hill Road for an in-law

    The one-story side-gabled house has a traditional form with a large transom and sidelights at the door. English professor Blyden Jackson later owned it.

  35. 1950s
  36. Construction or physical change · Cathy House, 302 Country Club Road, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill A brick Colonial Revival house is built at the entrance to Laurel Hill for Dean C. O. Cathy

    The story-and-a-half house on Country Club Road has end wings and a recessed columned porch. Historian H. G. Jones, later curator of the North Carolina Collection, owned it for many years.

  37. Construction or physical change · Cameron House, 404 Laurel Hill Road, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill William Van Sprinkle designs a shingled Colonial Ranch on Laurel Hill Road for math professor Ed Cameron

    T. D. Green built the four-bay house, which has a board-and-batten front wing and an original screen porch. The nomination cites it as Sprinkle dressing the new Ranch form in colonial details.

  38. Construction or physical change · Ellis-Thomas House, 103 Pine Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Gordon Ellis of the UNC education department builds a brick Cape Cod house on Pine Lane

    Chemistry professor Henry Thomas and his wife Mary, a librarian at the UNC medical school, bought the house soon after it was finished.

  39. Construction or physical change · Cadmus House, 7 Iris Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Dr. Robert T. Cadmus, first director of Memorial Hospital, builds a colonial Ranch on Iris Lane

    The five-bay brick Ranch has a large picture window and a sunporch at one end. Cadmus came to run the new North Carolina Memorial Hospital, part of the postwar wave of medical staff who needed houses near campus.

  40. Construction or physical change · Thurstone House, 400 Laurel Hill Road, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Jim Webb designs a Contemporary house on Laurel Hill Road for psychologists Louis and Thelma Thurstone

    The low L-shaped house has vertical wood siding, a hipped roof with wide eaves and a carport joined by a screen porch; Ellington & Sparrow built it. Webb counted it among his firm's best work.

  41. Law, policy or court · Ledge Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Milton Julian wins the right to build his modernist house on Ledge Lane

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

  42. Construction or physical change · Darden House, 124 Fern Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill A Modernist split-level with a butterfly roof is built on Fern Lane for Thomas H. Darden

    The post-and-beam house has clerestory windows, vertical wood siding and a flat-roofed carport. Oral tradition credits the design to Jim Webb.

  43. Construction or physical change · Rowe-Green House, 100 Fern Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill A weatherboarded Cape Cod house is built on the new Fern Lane for Eleanor R. Rowe and Philip P. Green Jr.

    The five-bay house has a center chimney and a side wing joined by a hyphen, possibly a converted garage. It was one of the first houses on the newly platted street.

  44. Construction or physical change · Boyd House, 313 Country Club Road, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill George Watts Carr designs a Cape Cod house on Country Club Road for religion professor Bernard Boyd

    The large story-and-a-half house for Bernard and Thelma Boyd has shake siding and three gabled dormers. Carr, a lifelong advocate of the Colonial Revival, had designed Laurel Hill houses since the late 1920s.

  45. Founding or opening · Iris Lane and Fern Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Iris Lane and Fern Lane are platted, extending Laurel Hill onto the Coker estate

    After William C. Coker died in 1953, Laurel Hill spread into adjoining land of his estate. The new plat laid out two streets at the south end of the neighborhood, and most of their houses went up before 1960.

  46. Property or economic transaction · The Pinetum, Meeting of the Waters Creek, Rocky Ridge Farm, Chapel Hill The Pinetum at Rocky Ridge Farm is deeded to the university's botanical garden

    A protected stand of Coker's remaining forest along Meeting of the Waters Creek on the west edge of the development, known as the Pinetum, was deeded in 1954 to the UNC botanical garden for its care.

  47. Construction or physical change · Taylor House, 106 Fern Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill James A. Taylor builds a shingled Colonial Ranch on Fern Lane from magazine blueprints

    The plans were American Home magazine's House No. 33, published in 1954, and the original blueprints still stay with the house. It has a small-paned bay window and an attached garage entered from the side.

  48. Construction or physical change · Galloway House, 105 Pine Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Joe and Peggy Galloway build a Contemporary brick Ranch on Pine Lane

    The house sits on a daylight basement with bands of casement windows. Joe Galloway ran placement for the UNC School of Business; Peggy Galloway taught in the public schools.

  49. Construction or physical change · 101 Ledge Lane, Chapel Hill Milton Julian's Matsumoto-designed house on Ledge Lane is finished

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

  50. Construction or physical change · Wood House, 110 Fern Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Dr. Ernest Wood, the first radiologist at UNC's hospital, builds a brick Ranch on Fern Lane

    The five-bay Ranch has a recessed garage wing and a front cross-gable.

  51. Construction or physical change · Tatum House, 308 Laurel Hill Road, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Football coach Jim Tatum and his wife Edna build a house on Laurel Hill Road

    The house pairs a two-story colonial block with a split-level stone living-room wing and a bowed window, probably from mail-order plans. Tatum had come back to coach UNC the year before.

  52. Construction or physical change · Weedon House, 100 Pine Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Jim Webb designs a Contemporary Ranch on Pine Lane as a retirement home for Fred and Josephine Weedon

    Ellington & Sparrow built the open-plan house on a slope with an exposed basement at the back. The Weedons' daughter Josie and her husband, preservationist Bob Stipe, later lived there for many years.

  53. Construction or physical change · Branch House, 503 Laurel Hill Road, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Waverly Branch and his wife build a Williamsburg-style house on Laurel Hill Road

    The story-and-a-half house has beaded siding, a slate roof, end chimneys and a pedimented entrance porch in imitation of colonial Williamsburg. Branch was active in UNC affairs, and his wife was for many years the chancellor's secretary.

  54. Construction or physical change · Holman House, 109 Pine Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill English professor Hugh Holman and his wife Verna build a Cape Cod house on Pine Lane

    The story-and-a-half side-gabled house has two dormers and a small side wing.

  55. 1960s
  56. Construction or physical change · Cleveland House, 107 Pine Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Political scientist Gordon Cleveland designs his own Colonial Revival house on Pine Lane

    Ellington & Sparrow built the side-hall house for Gordon and Martha Cleveland on a sloping lot with a full basement.

  57. Construction or physical change · Hickey House, 3 Iris Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill UNC football coach Jim Hickey builds a two-story Colonial Revival house on Iris Lane

    The weatherboarded house has a pedimented entrance porch and a garage wing topped by a small cupola. Hickey lived there until 1977.

  58. Construction or physical change · Bream House, 3 Buttons Road, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill William Van Sprinkle designs a long Contemporary Ranch on Buttons Road for Charles and Kay Bream

    The six-bay house for the radiology professor mixes vertical wood and brick, with sliding windows and a carport set on the diagonal. Sprinkle, known for Colonial Revival work, here turned to a modern design.

  59. Construction or physical change · Voitle House, 307 Country Club Road, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Architect Arthur Cogswell adds a flat-roofed art studio to the Voitle house on Country Club Road

    The low modern studio at the rear has vertical wood siding and large fixed windows, a sharp contrast to the 1930s cottage in front of it.

  60. Property or economic transaction · Wood House, 110 Fern Lane, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill UNC head football coach Bill Dooley buys the Wood house on Fern Lane

    Dooley bought the 1957 Ranch built for radiologist Ernest Wood and lived there until 1994.

  61. Recent decades · 1976–2026

  62. 1980s
  63. Naming or commemoration · Laurel Hill neighborhood and Chapel Hill Town Hall, Chapel Hill The state adds Rocky Ridge Farm and Chapel Hill Town Hall to the Study List

    Acting on requests from owners and sponsors, the State Professional Review Committee on April 14, 1988 placed the Rocky Ridge Farm Development Historic District, the Laurel Hill neighborhood, and Chapel Hill Town Hall on the Study List. Robert Stipe abstained on the two Chapel Hill votes.

  64. Naming or commemoration · Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District, Chapel Hill The Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District is listed in the National Register

    On August 8, 1989 the National Park Service listed the Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District in Chapel Hill in the National Register of Historic Places.

  65. 1990s
  66. Construction or physical change · Cornelia Spencer Love House, 116 Laurel Hill Road, Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill Cornelia Spencer Love's Laurel Hill cottage is remodeled and enlarged with a modern two-story wing

    The work replaced the shingles with wood siding and added a large glassy wing with a metal balcony. So little original fabric survives that the 2008 documentation reclassified the house as noncontributing.

  67. 2000s
  68. Naming or commemoration · Rocky Ridge Farm and Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill An expansion of the Rocky Ridge Farm district joins the Study List

    The National Register Advisory Committee placed an expansion of the Rocky Ridge Farm historic district in Chapel Hill on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.

  69. Law, policy or court · Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District, Chapel Hill Rocky Ridge Farm's district expansion prompts a debate over the fifty-year rule

    When staff presented the boundary increase and added documentation for the Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District on October 11, 2007, one member warned that stretching periods of significance into recent decades weakened the National Register, naming Rocky Ridge with two other nominations. Another member suggested the neighbors also claim significance for notable residents. The objecting member then moved approval of Rocky Ridge with the other routine nominations, and it passed.

  70. Naming or commemoration · Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District Boundary Increase and Additional Documentation, Chapel Hill The Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District is enlarged in the National Register

    On January 30, 2008 the National Park Service listed a boundary increase for the Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District, enlarging the district in the National Register of Historic Places.

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