Chronology

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1. Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799

2. 1790s
3. about 1791 (tradition)
   Construction or physical change · Tenney Farmhouse, 381 Tenney Circle, Chapel Hill John B. Tenney is said to build a farmhouse northeast of the village

   Local tradition credits John B. Tenney with building the one-story frame farmhouse now at 381 Tenney Circle around 1791, and says it stayed in the family into the mid-twentieth century and took in boarders early in the 1800s.

4. 1798
   Founding or opening · Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, Raleigh Road and Country Club Road, Chapel Hill George Clarke is buried in the ground that becomes the Chapel Hill town cemetery

   The oldest dated stone in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, at Raleigh and Country Club roads, marks the 1798 grave of George Clarke, a member of the university's Philanthropic Society. It shows the burial ground in use by that year.

5. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865

6. 1820s
7. 1820
   Property or economic transaction · 501 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Professor Denison Olmsted buys the Widow Puckett house on East Franklin Street

   In 1820 Denison Olmsted bought the two-story Federal house and lot at 501 East Franklin Street from the Puckett family. From 1826 it was home to the family of mathematics professor James Phillips.

8. as early as 1820 (tradition)
   Construction or physical change · 208 Pritchard Avenue, Northside, Chapel Hill The core of the Saunders-Pritchard House is built on land that later became Northside

   The two-story I-house at 208 Pritchard Avenue stands at right angles to the street because it is older than the street. Local tradition carries its core back as far as 1820; an early owner was the Civil War veteran, preacher and farmer Joseph Hubbard Saunders, and merchant and landowner William N. Pritchard owned it later.

9. 1830s
10. 1830s
    Construction or physical change · 215 East Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill The core of the Huskey House is built on East Rosemary Street

    The heavily altered house at 215 East Rosemary Street probably dates from the 1830s; only its Greek Revival doorway still shows its age. It is named for a later resident, village blacksmith John Huskey.

11. 1840s
12. 1843 to 1848
    Construction or physical change · Chapel of the Cross, 302 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Episcopal parish begins building the Chapel of the Cross on East Franklin Street

    A year after organizing, Chapel Hill's Episcopal parish started work in 1843 on its Gothic Revival chapel at 302 East Franklin Street, designed by the architect Thomas U. Walter. The building took until 1848 to finish.

13. about 1845
    Construction or physical change · 215 West Cameron Avenue, Chapel Hill The Mallette-Wilson-Maurice House is built on West Cameron Avenue

    A story-and-a-half Greek Revival house with a low gable roof and short upper windows went up about 1845 at 215 West Cameron Avenue, one of the oldest houses on the street. A small guest house stands beside it facing Wilson Street.

14. 1847
    Founding or opening · Phillips Law Office, 401 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill A boys' preparatory school meets in Samuel Phillips's law office

    Samuel Phillips's small stuccoed law office on East Franklin Street reportedly housed a preparatory school for boys in 1847. Later in the century William Horn Battle taught law classes in the same building.

15. 1847
    Construction or physical change · 513 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Rev. William Mercer Green buys an East Franklin Street lot and builds a house

    Episcopal minister William Mercer Green bought the lot at 513 East Franklin Street in 1847 and had a two-story frame house built there before he sold it, two years later, to Charles Phillips, professor of engineering and mathematics.

16. 1850s
17. between 1853 and 1858
    Construction or physical change · 315 East Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill Isaac Collier builds an I-house on East Rosemary Street

    Isaac Collier is thought to have built the two-story I-house at 315 East Rosemary Street between 1853 and 1858. The novelist Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, later lived there.

18. 1854
    Life event · Mason family land, south of NC 54, Chapel Hill Baptist minister James Pleasant Mason marries Mary Elizabeth Morgan

    Mary Elizabeth Morgan (1825-1894) had inherited a tract south of Chapel Hill that came down from early settler Mark Morgan through his son John and grandson Solomon P. Morgan. The couple had four daughters, two of whom died as infants.

19. 1860s
20. about 1860
    Construction or physical change · 400 West Cameron Avenue, Chapel Hill Merchant Calvin Scott builds a Greek Revival house on West Cameron Avenue

    Calvin Scott, a Chapel Hill merchant, is thought to have built the two-story I-house at 400 West Cameron Avenue about 1860. It later belonged to Samuel Mallette Gattis, a UNC alumnus of 1884 and a university trustee from 1909 to 1911.

21. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899

22. 1870s
23. about 1870
    Construction or physical change · 403 West Cameron Avenue, Chapel Hill A two-story frame house, later known as the Pool-Patterson House, goes up on West Cameron Avenue

    The survey dates the L-plan frame house at 403 West Cameron Avenue to about 1870. Its bracketed roofline and wraparound porch reflect the later Victorian remodeling.

24. 1873
    Property or economic transaction · 51 Davie Circle, Chapel Hill William Strowd of Chatham County buys land at the edge of Chapel Hill

    The tract, where 51 Davie Circle now stands, stayed in his hands until he passed it to his son Robert L. Strowd in 1886.

25. between 1875 and 1885
    Construction or physical change · 401 East Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill Joseph B. Martin builds an I-house on East Rosemary Street

    The two-story I-house at 401 East Rosemary Street, with end chimneys and a three-bay front, is credited to Joseph B. Martin, who probably put it up sometime from 1875 to 1885. W. M. Dey, who owned it later, gave the house its name.

26. about 1875
    Property or economic transaction · 206 West Cameron Avenue, Chapel Hill Solomon Pool sells his West Cameron Avenue house to Dr. Thomas W. Harris

    Solomon Pool owned the Greek Revival I-house at 206 West Cameron Avenue, built about 1870, until about 1875, when physician Thomas W. Harris bought it. Harris went on to found and lead the university's medical school.

27. 1880s
28. 1880
    Construction or physical change · 604 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill F. K. Ball builds a shingled house on East Franklin Street

    F. K. Ball built the house at 604 East Franklin Street in 1880, with a steep roof, a large dormer and shingled walls and porch piers. It is named for a later owner, Dr. R. B. Lawson.

29. about 1880
    Construction or physical change · 129 Mallette Street, Chapel Hill The Davis-Eubanks House is built on Mallette Street

    The one-story frame house at 129 Mallette Street, with a center front gable, rear ell and turned-post porch, dates from about 1880.

30. 1881
    Life event · Mason Family Cemetery, south of NC 54, Chapel Hill Typhoid kills the two surviving Mason daughters, and their father sets aside a family burial ground

    Martha James Mason and Carolina Varina Mason both died of typhoid fever in 1881; their father caught it as well but recovered. James P. Mason marked off a small plot on the family land where all four daughters and later both parents were buried inside an iron fence, beside the graves of Solomon and Ann Morgan.

31. 1885
    Property or economic transaction · 315 East Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill Professor Adolphus Mangum buys the Collier house on East Rosemary Street

    Professor Adolphus W. Mangum bought the house at 315 East Rosemary Street in 1885 and owned it for five years.

32. 1886
    Construction or physical change · Strowd House, 51 Davie Circle, Chapel Hill Robert L. Strowd marries and likely builds a two-story L-plan house on land from his father

    Strowd, a farmer who also kept a store on Franklin Street, received the tract from his father in 1886 and married Frances (Fannie) Headen that year; the house at 51 Davie Circle probably went up then. It stood alone at the edge of town until the area filled in during the 1910s and 1920s.

33. 1889 or soon after
    Property or economic transaction · 513 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Presbyterian church buys the Phillips house on East Franklin Street for a manse

    After Charles Phillips left Chapel Hill and died in 1889, the Chapel Hill Presbyterian church bought his former home at 513 East Franklin Street and made it the minister's residence. Bryant dates the purchase to 1891.

34. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

35. 1900s
36. about 1900
    Construction or physical change · 138-142 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Lloyd-Webb Building goes up on the south side of East Franklin Street

    This row of two-story brick shops at 138-142 East Franklin Street, with stepped brick cornices and two-over-two windows upstairs, dates from about 1900. The store at 144 next door was built to the same pattern.

37. about 1900
    Construction or physical change · 118 Mallette Street, Chapel Hill The Morrow-Neville House is built on Mallette Street

    The two-story hip-roofed house at 118 Mallette Street, with a small rear ell and a square-columned porch that are probably original, dates from about 1900.

38. about 1900
    Construction or physical change · 113 Mallette Street, Chapel Hill The Warriole-Tilley House is built on Mallette Street

    The one-story frame house at 113 Mallette Street, with a center front gable, a tall hip-roofed rear ell and a bracketed porch that looks original, dates from about 1900.

39. about 1903
    Construction or physical change · 223 McCauley Street, Chapel Hill The Martha Patterson House is built on McCauley Street

    A two-story Triple-A house with a center front gable went up about 1903 at 223 McCauley Street. It takes its name from a former owner, Martha Patterson.

40. 1905
    Property or economic transaction · 620 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill George Howe buys an East Franklin Street lot from the university and builds a house

    In 1905 the university sold George Howe the lot at 620 East Franklin Street, and the two-story hip-roofed house on it probably went up within a year or so.

41. about 1905
    Construction or physical change · 108 Old Oxford Road, Chapel Hill Merchant John Edward Clark builds a two-room schoolhouse on Old Oxford Road

    Clark, a Chapel Hill storekeeper, replaced a one-room school he had also built on the site at 108 Old Oxford Road. In 1992 it was the only schoolhouse known in Chapel Hill from before school consolidation.

42. 1905
    Construction or physical change · 219 McCauley Street, Chapel Hill Roy Thayer builds a Queen Anne house on McCauley Street for William H. Haward

    Builder Roy Thayer put up the two-story Queen Anne house at 219 McCauley Street for William H. Haward in 1905. Haward rented it out, and it later passed to his granddaughter, Margaret Webb Callihan.

43. about 1907
    Property or economic transaction · 214 West Cameron Avenue, Chapel Hill Education professor M. C. S. Noble takes a Queen Anne house on West Cameron Avenue

    The two-story frame Queen Anne house at 214 West Cameron Avenue, with a front gable and wraparound porch, is believed to have belonged about 1907 to Marcus Cicero Stephens Noble, later dean of the School of Education.

44. 1910s
45. about 1910
    Construction or physical change · 224 McCauley Street, Chapel Hill Braxton Craig and partners build a small Queen Anne house on McCauley Street

    Braxton Craig, W. L. Robertson and L. Lloyd are thought to have built the two-story Queen Anne house at 224 McCauley Street around 1910, apparently as a venture to sell.

46. about 1913
    Construction or physical change · 214 McCauley Street, Chapel Hill Bank cashier C. B. Griffin builds a house on McCauley Street

    C. B. Griffin, a bank cashier, built the two-story frame I-house at 214 McCauley Street in or about 1913. It has a two-story rear ell and a full-width front porch.

47. 1913
    Property or economic transaction · 224 McCauley Street, Chapel Hill The Braxton Craig House on McCauley Street is sold to E. G. Norwood

    In 1913 the builders of the house at 224 McCauley Street sold it to E. G. Norwood.

48. 1914
    Construction or physical change · 517 North Street, Chapel Hill Historian J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton commissions a house on North Street from N. C. Curtis

    In 1914 J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, head of the UNC history department and later founder of the Southern Historical Collection, had N. C. Curtis design a one-story house with a pyramid roof at 517 North Street. Two rooms were added in 1924.

49. 1915
    Property or economic transaction · Gimghoul neighborhood, Chapel Hill The Order of Gimghouls buys a 95-acre tract east of campus

    The land took in the Prospect Point overlook prized by 1880s member Edward Wray Martin, who had dreamed of a stone castle there. The order traded about a third of it to the university, sold 35 acres, kept a wooded site for the castle and developed the rest as the Glandon subdivision, now the Gimghoul neighborhood.

50. about 1915
    Construction or physical change · 408-412 North Street, Chapel Hill The old Episcopal rectory is said to be cut into sections and moved to North Street

    Local tradition holds that around 1915 the Episcopal rectory, a two-room house of about 1850 later enlarged into an H shape, was sawn into pieces and moved to North Street, where the parts became the small houses at 408, 410 and 412.

51. about 1917
    Construction or physical change · Johnson-Williams House, 930 Shadylawn Road Extension, Chapel Hill Lewis J. Johnson builds a two-story house on Shadylawn Road

    Johnson built the I-house at 930 Shadylawn Road Extension, with rubble-stone chimneys and a Craftsman porch and dormer, and raised a garden and a handful of hogs, cows and chickens without farming for a living. Lilly B. Williams later owned it until her death, and it was remodeled in 1985.

52. 1920s
53. about 1920
    Construction or physical change · Martindale House, 1518 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Contractor Charlie Lee Martindale builds his own bungalow on East Franklin Street

    Martindale, credited with many of the brick stores on Franklin Street and with the Gimghoul Castle, built the house at 1518 East Franklin Street on about two acres then outside town and did its interior woodwork himself. The Durham road first ran behind the house.

54. 1920s
    Construction or physical change · Senlac, 203 Battle Lane, Chapel Hill Dr. John Booker remodels Senlac on Battle Lane

    In the 1920s Dr. John Booker, whose wife was Kemp Battle's granddaughter, reworked Senlac: he added matching one-story side wings, removed the Italianate trim and gave the house a full-width porch with Doric columns.

55. about 1920
    Closing or ending · 108 Old Oxford Road, Chapel Hill The Old Oxford Road schoolhouse closes as children are bused to town

    Around 1920 pupils from the area began riding buses to the elementary school in Chapel Hill, and the two-room school John Edward Clark had built was made into a house.

56. 1922
    Construction or physical change · 619 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Graduate dean James Finch Royster builds a house on East Franklin Street

    James Finch Royster, dean of the UNC graduate school in the later 1920s, built the two-story house at 619 East Franklin Street in 1922.

57. about 1923
    Construction or physical change · Pollard-Lacock House, 738 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill A Durham man named Pollard builds a brick duplex at 738 East Franklin Street

    The buff-brick, two-story duplex with a two-level front porch and sleeping-porch ells may have housed the Pollards for a time but served mostly as rental housing. It changed owners several times before the Lacock family bought it in the 1940s.

58. 1923
    Construction or physical change · 173-175 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill A two-story brick store block is built at 173-175 East Franklin Street

    The two-bay, brick-veneered commercial building with corbelled brickwork is reported to date from 1923. It had been altered by 1992.

59. 1925 to 1926
    Construction or physical change · Gimghoul Castle, 746 Gimghoul Road, Chapel Hill The Order of Gimghouls begins building its castle

    Work on the Gimghouls' castle off the end of Gimghoul Road began in 1925: some 1,300 tons of stone were hauled to the site, stonemasons came from the Waldensian settlement at Valdese, and Chapel Hill builder Charlie Lee Martindale was general contractor. The order held its first gathering there in May 1926.

60. 1926
    Construction or physical change · Jones Log House, 108 Windhover Place, Chapel Hill Durham resident Southgate Jones builds a two-story log summer house on Windhover Place

    Jones patterned the 25-by-30-foot house at 108 Windhover Place on log houses owned by his relatives. An amateur geologist, he gathered the ironstone and petrified wood for its fireplace surround on the site; a stone pumphouse was added in the mid-1930s.

61. 1927
    Construction or physical change · 121-125 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill A two-story brick building goes up at 121-125 East Franklin Street

    The building, called the Strowd Building in the survey text, was put up in 1927. After later damage it was rebuilt in its present form in the 1960s, with a balustraded roofline and hooded windows, and in 1992 it housed the Varsity Theatre.

62. 1928
    Construction or physical change · Maddry House, 1500 Airport Road, Chapel Hill John Maddry builds a bungalow on his Airport Road dairy farm

    Maddry put up the story-and-a-half bungalow at 1500 Airport Road in place of an older house and milked 25 cows by hand. Eleven log and frame outbuildings, some older than the house, still stood in 1992.

63. 1930s
64. 1933
    Property or economic transaction · 619 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill State senator John Umstead buys the Royster house on East Franklin Street

    In 1933 state senator John Umstead bought the house at 619 East Franklin Street, and it has carried his name since.

65. about 1939
    Construction or physical change · 698 Gimghoul Road, Gimghoul, Chapel Hill A Cape Cod house is built at 698 Gimghoul Road

    The story-and-a-half house with gabled dormers and a stone end chimney, dated to about 1939, sits at the head of the south side of Gimghoul Road.

66. 1939
    Construction or physical change · 230 South Columbia Street, Chapel Hill The Bryan Building goes up on South Columbia Street as an apartment house

    The two-and-a-half-story brick Colonial Revival building at 230 South Columbia Street, known as the Bryan Building, was built in 1939 as apartments.

67. 1940s
68. 1940
    Construction or physical change · 609 West Cameron Avenue, Chapel Hill The University Laundry is built on West Cameron Avenue

    The university laundry at 609 West Cameron Avenue was built in 1940 of brick over a steel frame, with an Art Moderne front block and a long industrial rear wing. An addition came after 1960.

69. 1940
    Construction or physical change · 503 West Cameron Avenue, Chapel Hill The university builds a heating and power plant on West Cameron Avenue

    In 1940 the university put up a large steel-frame heating and power plant with brick walls at 503 West Cameron Avenue, two to four stories high. Its stepped facade and rounded corners are in the Art Moderne manner.

70. 1942
    Closing or ending · Bennett-McFarling House, 101 Erwin Road, Chapel Hill James C. McFarling gives up dairying on the Bennett-McFarling farm on Erwin Road

    McFarling, given the farm by an uncle, raised cotton on 170 acres and ran an 80-cow dairy with his wife Alice at the Triple-A farmhouse at 101 Erwin Road until he quit the dairy business in 1942. A milk house and cotton house were still standing in 1992.

71. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

72. 1950s
73. 1953
    Property or economic transaction · 100 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Bruce Strowd sells his car business to Crowell Little and Grady Pritchard

    After thirty years at 100 West Franklin Street, Strowd sold the dealership in 1953. The new owners kept it in the same building for two more years.

74. 1955
    Founding or opening · 1710 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Crowell Little and Grady Pritchard move the former Strowd dealership to 1710 East Franklin Street

    The partners left the downtown building at 100 West Franklin Street in 1955 for a new site on East Franklin Street toward Durham. The old building was later remodeled for several businesses.

75. 1956
    Closing or ending · 110 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Poe and Mangum move their DeSoto-Plymouth dealership out of a West Franklin Street filling station

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

76. 1959
    Construction or physical change · University United Methodist Church, 150 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill University Methodist Church adds a Sunday school wing

    The congregation built an education wing on the east side of its brick church at 150 East Franklin Street in 1959.

77. Recent decades · 1976–2026

78. 1990s
79. February 1992
    Construction or physical change · 113 Stephens Street at Airport Road, Chapel Hill The Herndon House bungalow at Airport Road and Stephens Street is torn down

    The story-and-a-half bungalow at 113 Stephens Street, sided in brown wood shingles with a porch on tapered columns over stone piers, stood until February 1992. A low stone wall and steps were left at the property line.

80. August 1992
    Construction or physical change · 100 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill The Colonial Revival gas station at 100 East Franklin Street is torn down

    The one-story, gabled brick filling station, built between 1949 and 1960 at the west end of the 100 block of East Franklin Street, was demolished in August 1992.

81. September 1992
    Disaster or outbreak · 119 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Fire damages the store building at 119 East Franklin Street

    A two-story brick commercial building of 1915-25, with crenellated brickwork and grouped upper windows, was damaged by fire in September 1992, the month the survey was finished.

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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.