Chronology

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1. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

2. 1950s
   Construction or physical change · Carr Mill, Carrboro Pacific Mills bricks up the Carrboro mill's windows to air-condition it

   When Pacific Mills put air conditioning into the Carrboro mill in the 1950s it filled in nearly every window, more than 100 openings in all, leaving only the north and office wings unchanged.

3. 1967
   Property or economic transaction · Carr Mill, Carrboro The EDY Corporation of Chapel Hill buys the empty Carrboro mill

   The former Alberta and Durham Hosiery mill, last used by the BVD Company for sorting and shipping underwear, was sold in 1967 to the EDY Corporation of Chapel Hill. It stood mostly empty for the next decade apart from occasional warehouse use.

4. 1971
   Publication, speech or performance · Carr Mill, Carrboro A feasibility study proposes turning the Carrboro mill into a shopping bazaar

   With town officials and the owners looking for a use for the empty mill, a 1971 feasibility study recommended reopening it as a shopping bazaar. Nothing came of it for lack of money.

5. about 1975
   Property or economic transaction · Carr Mill, Carrboro Southern Real Estate and the EDY Corporation form the Carr Mill partnership

   After an Atlanta buyer dropped its option, the Charlotte firm Southern Real Estate proposed reusing the mill as a shopping center with a new grocery and drug store building beside it. The EDY Corporation put in the property, valued at $300,000, as general partner, and three Southern Real Estate principals joined as limited partners.

6. November 4, 1975
   Appointment, election or service · Carrboro Ruth West, a former mill worker, wins Carrboro's mayoral race on saving the mill

   The proposed demolition of the old mill became an issue in Carrboro's 1975 mayoral race. Ruth West, who had once worked in the mill, made saving it a main plank and beat Fred Chamblee 777 to 549.

7. Recent decades · 1976–2026

8. early 1976
   Law, policy or court · Carr Mill, Carrboro Carrboro grants its first unified business development permit, for Carr Mill

   After about three months of hearings and negotiation from December 1975, Carrboro issued a conditional use permit for the mill project, the town's first for several businesses in more than one building on one lot. The developers agreed to keep the southwestern lawn as public open space, save trees, get Appearance Commission approval for the new building, give land for street widening, build sidewalks and put utilities underground.

9. August 1976
   Construction or physical change · Carr Mill, Carrboro Work begins on the shopping mall in Carr Mill and its new grocery and drug store building

   The first phase of the mill's redevelopment, the ground-floor shopping mall, the new grocery and drug store building and site work, began in August 1976. It was paid for with a $1.2 million construction loan from Mutual Savings and Loan of Charlotte, and Wooten-Brawley and Company of Statesville was the contractor.

10. December 1976
    Law, policy or court · Carr Mill, Carrboro Carrboro amends the Carr Mill permit to allow offices on the second floor

    The town amended the mill's conditional use permit in December 1976 so the developers could rent the second floor as offices. In return they paid to widen the access road and build sidewalks to the new parking lot.

11. 1978
    Statistic or record · Carr Mill, Carrboro Carr Mill's property tax bill rises from about $4,900 to nearly $30,000 after rehabilitation

    Assessed at $304,700 before the work, the mill property paid $4,875 in taxes in 1975. Revalued at $1,538,500 after rehabilitation, it paid $29,847 in 1978. Sales in the complex that year came to about $10.5 million.

12. early 1978
    Law, policy or court · Carr Mill, Carrboro The Interior Department certifies the Carr Mill rehabilitation for federal tax benefits

    Federal preservation officials reviewed the first two phases of the Carr Mill work and, after receiving more photographs in February 1978, certified them as a historic rehabilitation under the Tax Reform Act of 1976. The partners could then write off qualifying rehabilitation costs over five years, about $1.9 million for the whole project once the third phase was also certified in 1979. Federal officials later held up the window repairs and replica sash as a model for industrial buildings.

13. February 1978
    Construction or physical change · Carr Mill, Carrboro Carr Mill's second-floor offices are finished, with Memorial Hospital's dialysis unit among the tenants

    The second phase, offices on the mill's upper floor, was completed in February 1978. Tenants who had asked for space included North Carolina Memorial Hospital, which moved its kidney dialysis laboratory there and proposed moving three administrative divisions out of the crowded hospital, a state Vocational Rehabilitation area office and a Southern Bell regional office.

14. February 1978
    Law, policy or court · Carr Mill, Carrboro Carrboro amends the Carr Mill permit to allow a weekend farmers' market in its parking lot

    At the town's request and with the developers' consent, Carrboro amended the permit to let a farmers' market use the mill's second parking lot on weekends. A permanent open-air shelter was built with a $25,000 state matching grant, with the town supplying the site.

15. 1979
    Statistic or record · Carr Mill, Carrboro The Carr Mill complex employs 239 people

    By 1979 the stores in the mill and the new grocery and drug store building employed about 155 people and the offices upstairs another 84. Most of the store jobs were new to Carrboro, while most of the office jobs had moved from elsewhere in town.

16. mid-1979
    Construction or physical change · Carr Mill, Carrboro The last phase of Carr Mill, a restaurant and offices in the north, east and office wings, is finished

    With permanent financing in hand, the partners redeveloped the rest of the mill, its north, east and office wings, as a restaurant and offices, with 80 percent leased before work began. A second $500,000 loan from Connecticut Mutual paid for it, and the work was finished in mid-1979.

17. September 1979
    Publication, speech or performance · Carr Mill, Carrboro The Interior Department publishes a case study of the Carr Mill rehabilitation

    The Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service issued a preservation case study by architectural historian Margaret A. Thomas on Carr Mill, using it to show how the 1976 tax incentives for historic buildings worked in practice.

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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 4, 2026.