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Kelly Lally and Ruth Little, Chapel Hill Township Survey Final Report (1992).Open the sourceAll sources
Searched the full chronology of 9,006 dated events and 77 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–58.Back to highlights
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Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
- 1800s
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The Patterson family builds a Federal-style house near Mount Moriah
A two-story center-passage house with Federal mantels was built for the Pattersons, who owned much land and the Patterson grist mill. Colonial Revival changes, probably in the 1920s or later, and 20th-century additions have hidden its early form.
- 1810s
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A log house said to date from 1811 is built for the Craig family near New Hope
Local tradition puts the building of this story-and-a-half log house on New Hope Church Road in 1811, for the Craigs; the Blackwoods owned it for many years and added to it around 1900. If the date holds it is the oldest log house in the survey.
- 1820s
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Burials begin in the Matthew and Martha McCauley family cemetery
The family burial ground of Matthew and Martha McCauley, who gave land for the university, lies on Old Fayetteville Road near University Lake. Its graves date from about 1825 to 1850.
- 1830s
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A log homestead is built on the later William Couch farm
About 1830 a log house was built on the Cornwallis Road land where William Couch later put up his two-story frame house. It still stands next to the frame house with four log outbuildings.
- 1840s
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A second stone chimney dated 1840 is added to the Strayhorn log house
The log house on the later Blackwood Farm has two stone chimneys side by side, a large one carved 1827 and a smaller one carved 1840, marking an enlargement of the house.
- 1850s
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John Kirkland builds a two-story frame farmhouse near Calvander
A two-story frame house apparently built for John Kirkland in the 1850s stands at Old NC 86 and Homestead Road. It was enlarged about 1900 and later; three early log outbuildings remain.
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The Lindsey-Wilson farmstead takes shape on Damascus Church Road
A log farmhouse and log kitchen, a smokehouse, a barn for hay and a two-story frame granary that still holds its grain bins went up around the middle of the nineteenth century. A stretch of the old roadbed with a stone wall survives in the yard.
- 1860s
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John Kirkland builds a log house on Kirkland Road
John Kirkland built a log house east of NC 86 that was widened with a frame section around 1900 and given a Triple-A roof. A kitchen joined by a breezeway, a smokehouse and a dairy on posts stand in the yard.
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Most white male household heads in Orange County own no land
Citing Robert Kenzer's study of the county, the report says that in 1860 some 59 percent of white men heading households held no land and 71.5 percent held no slaves. A third held between 1 and 250 acres, and 21.6 percent held from one to nine enslaved people.
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Thomas Kirkland starts a frame house and finishes it after the Civil War
Thomas Kirkland began a two-room frame house on University Station Road before he left for the war and completed it when he came back.
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William Shambley builds a log house before going to war
About 1860 William Shambley raised a one-room log house on Cornwallis Road, finishing it shortly before he left to fight in the Civil War. It remained well kept in 1992.
Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
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Andrew Green Ruffin Lloyd builds a log house on Old Hillsborough Road
Around 1867 Andrew Green Ruffin Lloyd raised the log core of a house that later generations of Lloyds enlarged several times. Frame outbuildings stand on the farm.
- 1870s
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Archibald Lynch builds a farmhouse on Mount Hermon Church Road
Around 1870 a rear wing was built for the farmer Archibald Lynch, and about 1890 a small frame I-house was added in front of it.
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James Tilley builds a small frame farmhouse on the NC 54 corridor
About 1870 James Tilley built a modest frame I-house with a separate frame kitchen, which remains in good shape. He lies in a family graveyard on the farm.
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Bill Crabtree's grandfather builds a log homestead on Damascus Church Road
A log house was raised around 1872 for the grandfather of Bill Crabtree, the later owner. About 1900 a frame I-house with fashionable trim was built in front, and the log house became its rear ell.
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Herbert McCauley builds an I-house off Old Greensboro Road
Around 1875 a two-story frame house mixing Greek Revival and Victorian trim was built for Herbert McCauley, with a log house and smokehouse on the place. Neighbors know it as the house where the singer James Taylor grew up.
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John Joseph Whitfield builds a farmhouse on Whitfield Road
About 1879 John Joseph Whitfield built an I-house with a rear ell; a tall Mount Vernon style porch was added later. Its well house and other domestic buildings survive.
- 1880s
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William Cole buys the Smith plantation seat on Smith Level Road
The Smith family held its large plantation south of Carrboro until the 1880s, when William Cole bought the 1845 house. No bigger pre-war house survives in the township, and in 1992 it stood almost unchanged on 130 acres.
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A farmstead with a center-hall house and five outbuildings is built on Mount Moriah Road
In 1885 a story-and-a-half center-hall frame house went up with five frame outbuildings, all of which survived in good condition in 1992.
- 1890s
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A Hogan family log house goes up on Homestead Road
In the 1890s a one-room log house was built for one of the Hogans, a family with homes all along the road. About 1935 it was built over and enlarged.
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A miller's house is built above Pritchard Mill
About 1890 a small frame I-house was set on a knoll over the Pritchard Mill site on Damascus Church Road. The survey found no other miller's dwelling in the township; an early log barn stands beside it.
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John Borland builds a two-story log house on his 100-acre farm
About 1890 John Borland put up a full two-story log house with half-dovetail corners. It is one of only two two-story log houses the survey found in the township.
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Chesley Foster Andrews builds a frame farmhouse near Union Grove
In 1898 Chesley Foster Andrews (1862-1944) built a frame farmhouse at 8306 Union Grove Church Road, beside a log house first owned by the Lloyds. It was redone as a bungalow in the 1920s; a tenant house and a frame and stone barn belong to the farm.
Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
- 1900s
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Arch Cates's I-house goes up on what became Arthur Minnis Road
The two-story frame I-house at the Cates-Dodson-Minnis Farm was first owned by Arch Cates. It later passed to Albert Dodson and then to Albert and Lois Dodson Minnis, and was remodeled in the 1940s.
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Blackwood Station grows into a small railroad settlement
In the early twentieth century a cluster formed where Mount Sinai Road meets NC 86, with a store, a building remembered as store and post office, and two bungalows. The Blackwoods are said to have kept a post office and store on their farm nearby once the railroad arrived.
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The Blackwood family settles the farm that becomes the Blackwood Brothers Dairy
From the early twentieth century the Blackwoods held a farm on Mount Carmel Church Road with a story-and-a-half house and a complete set of log and frame farm and dairy buildings.
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The Sparrow family builds a two-story farmhouse on Old Lystra Road
Around 1900 a frame I-house was built on the Sparrow farm, reportedly around a smaller house from before the Civil War. The family had held the place from the start.
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William Edgar Shambley builds a log house near his grandfather's
About 1900 William Edgar Shambley, grandson of William Shambley, built a one-room log house of the usual local type at Cornwallis and Mount Hermon Church roads, a sign that log building went on into the new century.
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Sidney W. Crabtree starts a farm on land from the Smith plantation
A 54-acre farm on Smith Level Road was formed in 1903 from part of the old Smith plantation. Its Triple-A farmhouse and six outbuildings survive, and a graveyard there is thought to hold people enslaved on the plantation.
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Patterson Mill miller George Brown buys a farm on Mount Moriah Road
In 1905 George Brown, the miller at Patterson Mill, acquired the 1885 farmstead; his children still owned it in 1992.
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Sam Nunn and neighbors raise the last recorded log house in the township
About 1905 Sam Nunn built a two-story log house for his family with help from Monroe Partin, Green Johnson and one more neighbor. His daughter Annabel Lloyd remembered the four builders, one at each corner, and the survey found no later log dwelling.
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William D. Hogan builds a frame I-house on Homestead Road
In 1908 a small two-story frame house was built for William D. Hogan near Calvander. It was still well kept in 1992, with two later outbuildings.
- 1910s
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Brothers John and Page Couch add a frame front to a log house on Cornwallis Road
Around 1910 a small frame house was built onto the front of a one-room log house for the brothers John and Page Couch. A log barn and a log building that may have housed tenants stand behind.
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Charlie and Sophie Minor, Black farm owners, build a pyramidal cottage on NC 54
About 1910 Charlie and Sophie Minor had a hip-roofed frame cottage with tall inside chimneys built on their farm west of Carrboro. The report uses it to show the better-off farmhouse types that appear around that year; four frame outbuildings of different dates remain.
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Jesse and Allie King build a two-story house on Old Greensboro Road
After living in the log house across Sesame Road, Jesse and Allie King built a frame I-house about 1910. It was remade in the Colonial Revival style in the 1940s; frame and log outbuildings remain.
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The Blackwood family builds a grist mill on Millhouse Road
Around 1910 the Blackwoods built a small frame grist mill on a stone basement near Eubanks. It was made into a house in the 1950s.
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The Smith Level School is built for white children south of Carrboro
A frame one-and-a-half-story rural school with a front gable went up on Smith Level Road about 1910. It became a dwelling in the 1930s, which cost it much of its original character.
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The Luther Craig farmhouse is built on Old Hillsborough Road
About 1911 an I-house was built in front of an older rear wing on the farm long known as Luther Craig's. In the 1930s a log house was brought over from a nearby farm to join its early barns.
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David K. Blackwood is moved from a family burying ground to New Hope churchyard
In 1912 the remains of David K. Blackwood, who had died in 1859, were taken from the family graveyard and reburied at New Hope Presbyterian Church. His marble headstone records the move.
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An I-house front is added to the Lloyd family's log house on Dairyland Road
About 1914 a two-story frame front was built onto an older log section on the Lloyd place. Lemuel and Ola Cheek owned it for most of the century and ran it as a dairy farm.
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Claude and Ola Neville build a foursquare farmhouse on their dairy farm
Claude Neville, a farmer who also kept a grocery in Carrboro, and his wife Ola built a two-story frame foursquare on Old Greensboro Road. A pegged frame kitchen from an earlier house on the land still stands behind it.
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Farmer and lumber dealer Brodie Lloyd builds a large bungalow at Calvander
Around 1918 Brodie Lloyd, who farmed and ran a lumber business in Carrboro, had a roomy bungalow built on Old NC 86. The report ranks it among the biggest and best kept in the township.
- 1920s
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Henry and Lora Trice, a Black couple, build a farmhouse on their 36 acres
About 1920 a story-and-a-half frame farmhouse was built for Henry and Lora Trice on the farm they owned off Mount Sinai Road. It stood empty and decaying in 1992.
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The Booker family opens a crossroads store on Old NC 86
Around 1920 the Bookers built a small frame pyramidal cottage and, beside it, a gable-front rural store with a shed canopy over the front, near the Arthur Minnis Road junction.
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The Sparrow family takes over a Blackwood farm near Mount Carmel Church Road
A farm first held by the Blackwood family passed to the Sparrows in the 1920s. It keeps a much-changed two-story house and a good group of log outbuildings.
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William Clarence Cole builds a Craftsman farmhouse on Smith Level Road
About 1920 William Clarence Cole put up a side-gabled Craftsman farmhouse with a front dormer on a tract split off from the Smith plantation. Four early outbuildings stand with it.
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Jesse Nevilles builds a cow barn and milking barn on the family farm
Bryant Nevilles's son Jesse turned the log homestead farm into a dairy, adding a gable-roofed cow barn in 1924 and a frame milking barn in 1925 that still held its machinery in 1992. His son Lacy added a concrete-block milk cooling house and two silos in the 1950s.
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Henry A. Bowden builds a bungalow farm on Bowden Road
Around 1928 the cotton and tobacco farmer Henry A. Bowden built a frame bungalow with three frame outbuildings of the same years off Jones Ferry Road.
- 1930s
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An owner of Durham's Erwin Cotton Mill builds a log retreat above New Hope Creek
In the 1930s a log house was built on a steep ridge over New Hope Creek, reportedly as a getaway for Mr. Erwin of the Erwin Cotton Mill in Durham. Older log outbuildings, among them a tobacco barn, mark an earlier house site.
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Clay Hogan builds a large dairy complex off Homestead Road
In the 1930s a notable group of frame dairy buildings went up for Clay Hogan on what is now Lake Hogan Farm Road. By 1992 the farmhouse had apparently been lost.
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The Dubose estate builds Colonial Revival tenant houses near the Durham County line
In the 1930s the Dubose estate put up several Colonial Revival tenant houses along NC 54 Business just inside Orange County, joining older tenant dwellings from about 1910 and the late 1800s.
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The McClenan family builds a big gambrel-roofed dairy barn on Old Greensboro Road
In 1930 a very large gambrel-roofed barn was added to the McClenan farm, where an older log house lies inside a two-story frame farmhouse. The report rates the barn among the best of its type and uses the farm as its example of a dairy barn.
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The Williams family buys a 38-acre farm on Mount Carmel Church Road
In 1935 the Williams family acquired a farm whose buildings were already old: an antebellum frame hall-and-parlor house, two log outbuildings of the same age and two log tenant houses.
- 1940s
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Walter Creech rebuilds a moved antebellum house as a Colonial Revival home on NC 54
In 1941 a two-story frame house from before the Civil War was hauled from Chatham County, turned with its gable end to the road and given one-story wings in the Colonial Revival manner.
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A memorial to local Revolutionary War soldiers is placed at New Hope
In 1942 a monument honoring Revolutionary War soldiers from the neighborhood was set in the grounds of New Hope Presbyterian Church, beside its cemetery.
Civil rights era · 1945–1975
- 1970s
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Mary Claire Engstrom surveys the family graveyards of Orange County
In the 1970s the Hillsborough historian Mary Claire Engstrom recorded cemeteries across the county, many of them private burial grounds on farms. Her index was kept at the Register of Deeds in Hillsborough.
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The James Tilley farmhouse is moved farther back from NC 54
In 1972 the Tilley I-house was shifted to a spot farther from NC 54, a move the report says damaged its historic character.
Recent decades · 1976–2026
- 1980s
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Carrboro's historic buildings are surveyed
The town of Carrboro had its architectural survey in 1980, more than a decade before the rural townships around it were recorded; the report mentions it as groundwork for the county survey.
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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.
