Chronology

Job is sold with 25 other enslaved people to Hillsborough merchant Stephen Moore

To pay a debt to the Bank of Cape Fear for land bought in Tennessee, Francis Nash Waddell sold Job, later Rev. Job Berry, and 25 other enslaved people to the Hillsborough merchant Stephen Moore. Job probably kept painting for builder John Berry, his wages going to Moore.

Part of Slavery in Orange County · 189 events

People: John Berry

Hugh Waddell buys Job at auction as Stephen Moore's business fails

As the merchant Stephen Moore's business failed, Job was sold to the highest bidder and bought for $800 by the Hillsborough attorney Hugh Waddell, who made him his personal servant at Twin Chimneys on West King Street. When Waddell was away at court, Job was hired out, painting for John Berry, and his wages went to the Waddells.

People: Hugh Waddell · John Berry

Job Berry and Billy Payne begin the congregation that became Dickerson Chapel

Dickerson Chapel AME Church dates its founding to 1851, when Job Berry, an enslaved painter and its first pastor, began gathering the congregation with Rev. Billy (William) Payne, enslaved by Dr. Edmund Strudwick. With state law barring Black preachers, they met in homes; the congregation moved into the old courthouse on Queen Street in 1866.

People: Job Berry

Subject: Dickerson Chapel AME Church · Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

Anderson's Confederate cavalry sign their paroles at Paul Cameron's house Highlands

At the end of the Civil War, Confederate troops used Highlands, Paul C. Cameron's house south of the Eno, and the paroles of Anderson's cavalry were signed in the old part of the house.

Part of Orange County during the Civil War, 1861–1865 · 150 events

People: Paul C. Cameron

Subject: Highlands (Paul Cameron house)

Bricks at the Coachman's Quarters carry the date Dec 5, '65

Two bricks in a small outbuilding near the Burnside stable in Hillsborough carry the hand-cut inscription 'Dec 5, '65', found during the building's restoration after 2003. The owners and descendants connect it to Jesse Ruffin, a coachman once enslaved by Thomas Ruffin. According to family tradition he cut the date to mark the day after the General Assembly ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which formally ended slavery.

People: Thomas Ruffin · Jesse Ruffin

Subject: Burnside

Rev. Job Berry and the Philadelphia Friends open Hillsborough's first school for Black children and adults

Job Berry, who had advertised a fair in September 1865 to raise money for a school, worked with the Friends of Philadelphia to buy the former Orange County courthouse on Queen Street for twelve hundred dollars and open a freedmen's school in it on June 5, 1866. More than three hundred children and adults learned to read and cipher there. The Freedmen's Bureau's state superintendent of education wrote on June 2, 1866 that a freedmen's school had then been running in Hillsborough for more than four months, with 107 pupils in April, and would reopen under its former principal.

People: Job Berry

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

Rev. Job Berry officiates at more than forty weddings of freed people

Between 1867 and 1877 Job Berry officiated at more than forty weddings of Black couples in and around Hillsborough, among them one held at the Freedmen's School House on September 17, 1868. Orange County marriage books record him as minister, later as AME minister of Bethel.

The Hillsboro Building and Loan Association is organized in the back of the West End Drug Store

Six incorporators put up $5,500 to start the Hillsboro Building and Loan Association, with Charles H. Robertson as president and druggist C. M. Andrews as secretary-treasurer. Andrews took members' payments at his drug counter until 1926.

People: Charles H. Robertson · Charles M. Andrews · N. W. Brown

Subject: Hillsboro Building and Loan (Savings and Loan)

R. H. Claytor serves as an elder of the Hillsboro Presbyterian Church

The school superintendent R. H. Claytor was an elder of the Hillsboro Presbyterian Church for twenty-nine years until his death in February 1949. The session's memorial resolution, read to the congregation on March 6, 1949, praised his respect for others "without concern for color, class, or creed."

Subject: Hillsborough Presbyterian Church

Houston J. Walker and Allen H. Walker Sr. open Walker's Funeral Home in Hillsborough

Houston J. Walker and his son Allen H. Walker Sr. opened Walker's Funeral Home in Hillsborough, buying a Model T Ford and a Reo hearse. The family added branches in Chapel Hill in 1937 and Mebane in 1945.

People: Houston J. Walker

Subject: Walker’s Funeral Home

Brodie S. Carr opens a grocery in a small filling-station building north of Hillsboro

Out of work after losing his timekeeper job at Eno Cotton Mills, Brodie S. Carr opened a grocery in a small frame service-station building on the northern edge of Hillsboro. It grew into Carr's Super Market.

People: Brodie S. Carr

Subject: Carr’s Super Market

Richmond Motor Company opens as Hillsboro's Ford dealer

Richmond Motor Company began selling Ford cars in Hillsboro in 1932. It marked its 15th anniversary in July 1947 with a three-day open house, having sold 1,848 new and used cars.

The state builds a prison camp for road crews near Hillsborough

The state prison camp near Hillsborough, whose inmates worked on road crews, was built in 1932. By 1960 it held about ninety felons and kept a vegetable farm behind its fence.

John Parker becomes the first Black Orange County farmer to get a Farm Security Administration purchase loan

Under the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act, John Parker borrowed $3,915 through the Farm Security Administration to buy a 145-acre farm, the first such loan to a Black farmer in Orange County. He paid it off in about six years on a 40-year note.

Fire destroys Orange Grove School

Fire destroyed Orange Grove School in December 1942. On December 6, 1943 the county board sought a $16,000 insurance settlement, and at the Orange Grove committee's request classes went on in the old Orange Grove building rather than moving to Hillsboro.

Orange County FSA honors 15 Black farm ownership borrowers

The county Farm Security Administration office awarded certificates of merit to 15 Black farm ownership borrowers, former tenants it had helped to buy farms. By March 1944 the county had 22 approved tenant-purchase loans.

People: Robert Hughes

Rev. Joe Brooks is a Ridge Road leader in the Black farm families' wartime food drive

Black neighborhood, 4-H and home demonstration club leaders across Orange County pooled efforts to produce and conserve more food for their families and the war effort in 1944. Rev. Joe Brooks was one of the leaders named for the Ridge Road neighborhood.

Subject: Home demonstration clubs

Hillsborough well-baby clinics are held separately for Black and white babies

The Junior Service League and the district health department held two well-baby clinics each month in Hillsborough, one for Black babies and one for white babies, focused on preventive care.

Part of Public health in rural Orange County · 32 events

District health officer reports the season's typhoid cases

Dr. William P. Richardson, district health officer, reported two confirmed cases of typhoid fever in the district in the past two months, one in Chatham County and one in Person County, with a suspected case in Person County and indirect reports of two cases in Orange County that health officials had not been able to confirm.

Orange County schools stay closed until after September 18 during the polio epidemic

On the recommendation of the State Health Officer and Governor Broughton, the State Board of Education kept all North Carolina public schools closed until after September 18 because of the infantile paralysis epidemic. Orange County schools, which Superintendent R. H. Claytor had planned to open September 14, were held back with the rest, though teachers still reported on September 14.

People: R. H. Claytor

Orange County's Black home demonstration clubs hold their first dress contest in Hillsboro

Women from every Black home demonstration club in the county modeled thirty-six dresses, suits and accessories they had made at the Hillsboro high school auditorium. By 1946 the clubs met monthly in rural communities including White Oak Grove, Jordan Grove, Cool Springs, Cedar Grove, Harmony, Ridge Road, St. Mary's, Sartin and Carr.

Subject: Home demonstration clubs

O. David Garvin becomes health officer of the district covering Orange County

Garvin came to the district in 1944 on assignment from the North Carolina State Board of Health and the Public Health Service during the war emergency, after a year and a half in Scotland and Richmond counties. A later account of his resignation gave his starting date as September 4, 1944.

Part of Public health in rural Orange County · 32 events

Smith Furniture Company opens on West King Street in Hillsborough

Smith Furniture Company opened in the building formerly occupied by the Scott store, selling furniture, stoves and rugs. R. J. Smith ran it as proprietor, and it was still selling G-E appliances and heaters on West King Street in the 1960s.

A granite monument is dedicated at Governor Thomas Burke's grave

The Sons of the American Revolution and the Lloyd Memorial Association dedicated a memorial monolith at Burke's grave on the Latta plantation northeast of Hillsborough and presented it to the state. Governor J. Melville Broughton and Archibald Henderson were among the speakers.

People: J. Melville Broughton · Archibald Henderson

Subject: Thomas Burke’s grave (Tyaquin)

James Freeland opens the Fairview Bowling Alley in Hillsborough

James Freeland opened the Fairview Bowling Alley in a building he put up himself, casting the cinder blocks and laying the concrete floor. It opened with three duckpin alleys and room for a tenpin lane.

People: James J. Freeland

Subject: Fairview Bowling Alley

Home demonstration clubs report the year's work at Achievement Day in Hillsboro

At the county home demonstration clubs' Achievement Day at the courthouse, the home agent reported that women had canned an average of 350 quarts and that 94 percent made their own clothes, and that the women's curb market in Chapel Hill had taken in $30,280.68 over the past year. Clubs from Caldwell, Carr, Cedar Grove, Efland, New Hope, Orange Grove, St. Mary's, Schley and Murphy had made 699 garments and 744 other articles for the Red Cross.

Subject: Home demonstration clubs · Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

The county school board sells the closed Harvey's Chapel schoolhouse

The Orange County Board of Education approved the sale of the Harvey's Chapel schoolhouse, a school for Black children about three miles from Hillsboro. It had closed several years before, its pupils sent to the Hillsboro school, and Mary E. Breeze bought the building.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

A Negro library committee was already running library service for Black readers in Orange County

The committee met in September 1945 under chairman Mrs. M. D. McPherson, reported over a hundred new books received and 800 books circulated during the summer, and was assembling book kits for rural areas. Miss Annie Cameron was named as one of the people who started the library for Black residents of the county.

People: Marinda D. McPherson

Subject: Orange County Public Library

Newspaper describes the work of Orange County's public health nurses

A News of Orange County piece described the county public health nurses' duties: school inspections, immunization against diphtheria and smallpox, well-baby clinics twice a month, a monthly maternity clinic, tuberculosis and venereal disease clinics, orthopedic referrals, and the wartime maternity and infant care program for servicemen's wives.

Black rural school districts more than double their Red Cross gifts

A Red Cross drive among the county's rural Black residents, run through the rural schools by A. L. Stanback and county agent M. C. Burt, closed with $472.55 from 428 people, against $224 the year before. Ridge Road district, with Mrs. A. A. Burt as principal, gave $36.32.

People: A. L. Stanback · Joe Bethel Brooks

Bowling alley owner James Freeland knocks out a Black man who asked to bowl

Lorenzo Thompson, a Black man, came into the Fairview Bowling Alley late at night, said he had bowled up north and would not leave when told he could not bowl. Owner James Freeland knocked him unconscious and dragged him outside, and Thompson needed stitches.

People: James J. Freeland

Subject: Fairview Bowling Alley

James Freeland opens a barbecue pit behind his Fairview Bowling Alley

James Freeland opened a barbecue pit behind the Fairview Bowling Alley and began serving barbecue every day. As with the alley, he built most of it himself.

People: James J. Freeland

Subject: Fairview Bowling Alley

The Health Club of Hillsboro, led by Roosevelt Warner, turns the old Community Hall into a community center

The News of Orange County reported that the old Community Hall in Hillsboro was being made into a community center under the sponsorship of the Health Club of Hillsboro, whose president was Roosevelt Warner. The Youth Club held a Valentine dance in the hall on February 14.

District health department X-ray unit offers free chest X-rays in Chapel Hill

The Orange-Chatham-Person Health Department's X-ray unit operated at the Chapel Hill health department from March 13 to 20, 1946, offering free chest X-rays for tuberculosis to any Orange County resident. Health officer Dr. O. David Garvin urged residents to use it.

People: O. David Garvin

Marinda McPherson sings a joint recital at the Orange County school auditorium

Mrs. M. D. McPherson and Galvin Lampley gave a joint recital in the Orange County school auditorium in Hillsboro. She sang The Star by James H. Rogers and Because by Guy d'Hardelot, and Lampley played De Falla and Chopin.

C. S. Cates opens a new movie theater in the old Hollywood Theatre building in West Hillsborough

Cates, a World War II veteran, remodeled the building the Hollywood Theatre had used, with new sound and projection equipment and seats, and advertised the opening for Wednesday, May 1, with a contest to name the house.

County commissioners refuse to relicense beer sales at the Log Cabin filling station

The Orange County commissioners voted unanimously to keep refusing J. A. Thompson a license to sell beer at his filling station, the Log Cabin, on the Mebane road. Thompson and his wife called it a "Dirty Deal" and their lawyer pleaded for another chance without success.

Fire destroys the barbecue pit at Dud's Tavern near Hillsborough

A Monday afternoon fire destroyed the barbecue pit building and its contents at Dud's Tavern, with damage put at $1,800. The fire had gained too much headway by the time the Hillsborough fire department reached it.

Subject: Dud’s Tavern

Cates's Esso station in Hillsborough is named the cleanest Esso station in North Carolina

A statewide survey by the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey picked C. H. Cates's Esso station in Hillsborough as the cleanest Esso station in North Carolina, ahead of stations in Elizabeth City and Durham. The company arranged to name him on its Esso Reporter broadcast over WPTF.

The Hickory House restaurant opens in downtown Hillsborough

E. W. Godfrey's Hickory House opened to the public at noon on a Saturday after an informal inspection the night before, and became a regular meeting place for town merchants and clubs. In May 1948 it installed air conditioning, which the paper called a first for a Hillsboro business.

Orange County polio chapter reports buying an infant-size iron lung

In its annual report, the Orange County chapter of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis said it had spent $500 in direct aid to polio patients and bought a $550 infant-size iron lung, kept for the time being at Watts Hospital.

Hillsboro's Black baseball team opens its season at McPherson's Baseball Park before a record crowd

The News of Orange County's column for the Black community reported that the baseball season opened at McPherson's Baseball Park on Sunday, April 6, before a record crowd; the home team lost to the Roxboro Stars and on Easter Monday to the Graham Stars.

Paul Henderson reopens the restored Colonial Inn in Hillsborough

Col. Paul Henderson bought the run-down inn on West King Street in 1946 and restored it as a hotel and dining room, managed by Martin Henderson. About 100 people came to the formal opening of the dining hall, a Hillsboro Merchants Association dinner addressed by R. B. House.

Subject: Colonial Inn

Morris Telephone Company switches Hillsborough to dial telephones in a new exchange building

The Morris Telephone Company of Roxboro replaced Hillsborough's hand-crank telephones with a dial system housed in a new brick exchange on East King Street, begun in March 1947 at an estimated cost of $40,000 with equipment. The cutover was set for 4 p.m. on Monday, September 1.

Fire destroys the Farmers Exchange livestock market near Hillsborough

A fire of unknown origin leveled the Farmers Exchange livestock pens and office on the old Durham road near Hillsborough. The loss was put at $15,000; the workers escaped, but 13 to 20 cattle and 18 hogs died.

Subject: Farmers Mutual Exchange

Charlie McAdams and George Crawford Amick open the A & M Grill in Mebane

Charlie McAdams Sr., who had sold barbecue from a service station kitchen since 1947, opened the A & M Grill with building owner George Crawford Amick. The name joined their two initials.

Fire guts Pete McPherson's cafe and pool hall in West Hillsborough

A fire that started in a defective flue gutted the frame and brick building near the Black school in West Hillsboro where Pete McPherson ran a cafe with a pool and beer hall. Most of the stock was saved, but all the pool tables were lost.

An Orange County Superior Court jury convicts Felmet and the other three Chapel Hill bus defendants

A jury found Andrew S. Johnson, Bayard Rustin, Igal Roodenko and Joseph Felmet guilty of breaking the bus seating law, and Judge Chester Morris sentenced each to 30 days. The men, defended by C. J. Gates, Herman L. Taylor and E. R. Avent, appealed to the North Carolina Supreme Court and posted bond.

People: Bayard Rustin · Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation) · Igal Roodenko

The Farmers Mutual livestock market near Hillsborough reopens in a new auction building

A new auction building with a sale ring, loading ramps, automatic scales and offices replaced the one lost to fire in December, and regular Monday sales were set to resume on March 15.

Subject: Farmers Mutual Exchange

Health officer urges typhoid shots after a case in Hillsboro

District Health Officer O. David Garvin urged Orange County residents to take the health department's typhoid vaccinations after a case of typhoid fever occurred in Hillsboro. Clinics were held at the Chapel Hill and Hillsboro health departments on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings, and he advised sound privies and tested water.

Part of Public health in rural Orange County · 32 events

Piney Mountain School closes and its pupils go to Morris Grove School

The county consolidated Piney Mountain School, one of its Black schools, with Morris Grove School. A new gravel road into the area let a bus carry the children out; the school had been kept open only because no bus could reach it.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

People: Glenn T. Proffit

Subject: Piney Mountain School

Farmers Mutual opens its new farm supply warehouse on Margaret Lane

The farmers' cooperative Farmers Mutual, Inc. opened its new Hillsborough warehouse with a ribbon-cutting by manager J. H. McAdams before a large crowd of county farmers. The building replaced a machinery shed the co-op had used for eight years to buy supplies and market grain, poultry and eggs.

Subject: Farmers Mutual Exchange

Polio postpones the opening of Orange County schools twice

With 12 polio cases counted in the county by early August, Superintendent Glenn T. Proffitt, on the advice of health director O. David Garvin, moved the school opening from September 1 to September 7. After a second postponement the county schools opened on Monday, September 13, 1948, for about 4,000 pupils.

People: O. David Garvin

Hillsboro's Black All-Stars beat the town's white All-Stars at McPherson's Park

In a Sunday game at McPherson's Park billed as the Stars against the Stars, Hillsboro's Black All-Stars defeated the town's white All-Stars 13 to 10.

The Whitfield and Oakley department store moves into a new building on Carrboro's Main Street as White Oaks

The Whitfield and Oakley department store moved from across the street from the Carrboro post office into a new building facing the Carrboro bank, under a new neon sign reading "White Oaks." The White Oaks Department Store advertised in local papers into the mid-1960s.

Writer Peter Taylor buys the old Laws house on East King Street

Short story writer Peter Taylor, then teaching English at the Woman's College in Greensboro, bought the Ed Laws house on East King Street. The paper reported the purchase when he won a Guggenheim Fellowship in April 1950.

Subject: Seven Hearths (William Reed’s Ordinary)

The Pilgrim Holiness Church in West Hillsborough holds its first service in a new building

The Pilgrim Holiness congregation met for the first time in its new church, under construction since August 1948 near the site of its old building. District superintendent William S. Deal preached, and the Rev. J. F. Kernodle was pastor.

Marinda McPherson sponsors the annual kite contest at the Hillsboro school

The annual kite contest sponsored by Mrs. M. D. McPherson was held on the school playground in Hillsboro, with prizes for the fastest getaway, the longest distance, dash and altitude, and the most original kite.

Subject: Hillsborough High School

The old flour mill at Efland burns and is rebuilt

The Efland Milling Company's flour mill, owned by John L. Efland Sr. and in use for more than 150 years, burned on the night of May 13, 1949, with losses put above $50,000, and was rebuilt almost at once. It may stand near the old Hart's mill on the Thomas Hart place.

The Orange County Negro Public Library held its grand opening at the community center in Hillsboro

The library opened on a Sunday afternoon from 3 to 5 p.m. with Mrs. M. D. McPherson as directress and Miss Victoria Craig as librarian. Mrs. Douglas Davis, the tri-county regional librarian, sponsored the event and spoke, and Mrs. Eliza Webb attended for the Confederate Memorial Library.

People: Marinda D. McPherson

Subject: Orange County Public Library

Arthur Wells is listed for the advisory committee of the Sartin school

The News of Orange County printed the county's new school committees, including the suggested advisory committee members for the Black schools. Oscar Beasley, Euddie Villines and Arthur Wells were listed for the Sartin school, on two-year terms.

People: Oscar Carver Beasley

Owner W. M. Chance puts a neon marquee on the Osbunn Theater

W. M. Chance, owner of the Osbunn Theater on West King Street, had a steel marquee 32 feet long and 8 feet wide built across its front, lit by 300 feet of neon tubing. New aluminum display cases went in across the front as well.

Subject: Osbunn Theater

Dr. D. Efland Forrest opens the Forrest Clinic, Hillsborough's first private hospital

The Forrest Clinic, a colonial-style brick hospital on North Churton Street, held a public open house on a Sunday afternoon and began taking patients the next morning. Dr. Forrest served as his own contractor, with Hillsborough native William S. Arrasmith as architectural adviser.

Schley Grange dedicates the hall it won in a national contest

National Grange master Albert S. Goss and Governor W. Kerr Scott were set to take part in the dedication of the new $50,000 Schley Grange Hall. Sears-Roebuck Foundation built and furnished the hall after the Grange won the 1948 national community service contest.

People: W. Kerr Scott

Subject: Schley Grange Hall

B. S. Carr Grocery reopens as Carr's Super Market, Hillsboro's first supermarket

After a full renovation, the B. S. Carr Grocery reopened as a self-service supermarket with an open meat counter, refrigerated produce cases and parking for 50 cars. The paper called Carr the owner of the first supermarket in the Hillsboro area.

People: Brodie S. Carr

Subject: Carr’s Super Market

Black residents opened a fund drive to build the Orange County Negro Public Library a building of its own

The library then held 2,254 books in a single room with shelves full and volumes stacked on the floor, and had circulated 2,015 books in the year. A committee including Mrs. Marinda D. McPherson, A. L. Stanback and Mrs. M. C. Burt asked for donations, naming $100 for outside sheeting and $70 for a roof.

People: Marinda D. McPherson · A. L. Stanback

Subject: Orange County Public Library

The Hillsboro Building and Loan Association opens its first office building on Calvin Street

After 37 years of meeting in stores and a depot office, the association held an open house for its own one-story Colonial-style brick office on Calvin Street in West Hillsboro, built with a fireproof vault.

Subject: Hillsboro Building and Loan (Savings and Loan)

Visiting Japanese educator-librarians tour the Efland school library

A group of Japanese educator-librarians hosted by the UNC School of Education visited the Orange County schools under the lead of helping teacher Cora Paul Bomar. They asked to see the Efland school library, built the year before by community volunteers, after reading her article on it in North Carolina Education.

Subject: Efland schools

Efland businessman Stephen Carl Forrest dies

S. C. Forrest, 68, a leading Efland businessman whose 1920s house on US 70 is on the state Study List, died at Duke Hospital after a heart attack and was buried at Fairfield cemetery. His sons T. J. and S. C. Forrest Jr. stayed in Efland.

Orange County's seventeen home demonstration clubs count 443 members

During National Home Demonstration Week the county reported 443 women in 17 home demonstration clubs, served by two white agents and one Black agent, with 80 volunteer leaders who had held 62 meetings attended by 1,459 people the year before. Clubs made 38 United Nations flags for schools, churches and Grange halls as part of a citizenship study.

Subject: Home demonstration clubs

Lochiel, the Fagan family home outside Hillsborough, burns to the ground

Fire destroyed the Fagan home, the three-story frame house known as Lochiel, on a Saturday afternoon while no one was home. Only a few pieces of furniture were saved, and onlookers following the fire truck blocked it on the way back from refilling.

Subject: Lochiel

Bill Chance opens the Hillsboro Lunch on West King Street

Bill Chance opened the Hillsboro Lunch, a sandwich bar and short-order eatery next to Wynne's Beauty Salon, serving Cotton Nichols' barbecue, Brunswick stew and milkshakes from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Margaret Riley, formerly of the Hickory House, ran the service.

Subject: Hillsboro Lunch

Morris Telephone Company opens an exchange at Efland with lines to Cedar Grove

The Morris Telephone Company put a new 30-line switchboard into service in its new building next to the Baptist church in Efland, along with about 14 miles of rural lines running to the Cedar Grove community.

Tim Flock wins the 100-mile Grand National at Occoneechee

Tim Flock, driving a 1951 Hudson Hornet, took the lead on the 45th lap and won the 100-mile NASCAR Grand National race at Occoneechee Speedway before 5,000 spectators, with his brother Fonty second.

People: Fonty Flock

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Farmers Home Administration pushes livestock to raise tenant incomes near Cedar Grove

The News of Orange County reported a Farmers Home Administration effort to raise tenant income by adding livestock to tobacco farming. Tenants on the Banks Wilson farm near Cedar Grove added hogs and other animals, and 42 county farm families had FHA operating loans.

The county school board advertises the White Oak Grove school lot for sale

The Orange County Board of Education gave notice that it would sell at the courthouse on January 10, 1953, a lot on the Cedar Grove-Carr road beside White Oak Grove Church, with its frame, tin-roofed building. The sale followed the opening of the new Cedar Grove school for Black children, which replaced the small rural schools.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Subject: White Oak Grove School

Collier Cobb Jr. leaves the Orange County Board of Commissioners after fourteen years

Elected in 1938 and chairman since December 1942, Cobb left the county board after seven terms, having missed only three meetings. The new board passed a resolution thanking him, and he pointed to the school improvement program and the start of the new courthouse.

People: Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs

The county board gives up the High Rock School land

The county board waived its rights to the two acres of the abandoned High Rock School near Efland in favor of the landowner, John A. Thompson. High Rock had been merged into the Efland-Cheeks school in 1952.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

Fire damages the Hillsboro Lunch on West King Street

A Sunday night fire, blamed on spontaneous combustion, broke a front plate glass window and damaged the partition between the kitchen and the lunch room. Owner Bill Chance said he was fully insured and would reopen once repairs were made.

Subject: Hillsboro Lunch

Matthew Strum takes over Dud's Tavern

Dud's Tavern advertised that it was under the new ownership and management of Matthew Strum, offering home-cooked food along with gas, oil and auto service.

Subject: Dud’s Tavern

Masons lay the cornerstone of the new Orange County courthouse at the county bicentennial

On the opening day of the county's bicentennial week, Grand Master Edwin T. Howard and Eagle Lodge No. 19 laid the cornerstone in the half-finished courthouse. Chief Justice William A. Devin gave the address.

Subject: Eagle Lodge

First Baptist Church of Hillsborough completes its educational building

First Baptist Church finished a brick educational building at the rear of its sanctuary at West King and South Wake streets, about a year after work began, in time for the church's centennial in November 1953.

Chapel Hill American Legion post gives an iron lung to N.C. Memorial Hospital

The Chapel Hill post of the American Legion presented an iron lung, bought for about $1,600, to North Carolina Memorial Hospital, with Congressman Carl T. Durham making the presentation. Hospital director Robert R. Cadmus said the hospital had treated 90 polio patients, two from Orange County, in its first 18 months; it was the hospital's second iron lung.

Part of North Carolina Memorial Hospital and the medical center, from 1952 · 34 events

People: Carl T. Durham

Subject: UNC Medical Center (N.C. Memorial Hospital)

Chapel Hill-Carrboro churches name a committee to help schools desegregate peacefully

Two weeks after the Brown decision, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Ministerial Association set up a steering committee to study how the churches could help bring a peaceful transition to non-segregated schools. Its members were the Rev. Charles Jones, Mrs. Harold Walters, George Esser Jr., the Rev. T. P. Duhart and Mrs. J. Snipes.

Part of School desegregation in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, 1959–1967 · 24 events

People: Charles M. Jones

The Pride of Orange Elks lodge clears ground for its hall on South Merritt Mill Road

The Black Elks lodge, Pride of Orange No. 276, cleared the lot and planned to start its $15,000 two-story hall in June, with members doing most of the work. The lodge hall was to be upstairs and the youth group's rooms below; until then the thirty-member lodge rented rooms over the West Franklin Street Grocery.

Dr. Robert Murphy and his wife move into the Peter Taylor house on King Street

Dr. and Mrs. Robert Murphy moved from Chapel Hill into the Peter Taylor house on King Street in Hillsborough, and Mrs. M. B. Roberts gave a tea to welcome them. The Murphys went on to restore the house, later known as Seven Hearths.

Subject: Seven Hearths (William Reed’s Ordinary)

Dud's Tavern reopens after a July fire

Mr. and Mrs. Dud Walters thanked the Hillsborough and Mebane fire departments for helping save Dud's Tavern from a July fire and announced that business would resume on Sunday, August 1.

Subject: Dud’s Tavern

Hillsboro leases the Exchange Club twelve acres for a community park

The town board gave the Hillsboro Exchange Club a fifteen-year lease at $1 a year on a twelve-acre tract bought for cemetery use, north of the town cemetery on Highway 70, so the club could develop a community park.

Orange County formally opens its new courthouse in Hillsborough

About 500 people came to the opening ceremonies and open house, held on the first day of the first court term in the new building. County offices had finished moving in from the old courthouse the week before.

The county school superintendent's office moves into the old courthouse

Superintendent G. P. Carr and his staff finished moving into the first floor of the 1845 courthouse, which had been renovated after the other county offices left for the new building in October.

People: G. Paul Carr

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

First Salk polio vaccinations given to Orange County first and second graders

Local physicians working under the county health department gave the first round of Salk polio vaccine to more than 1,150 Orange County first and second graders. The work began on Monday, April 18, 1955 with about 500 Chapel Hill area children and finished on April 21 with the Hillsboro, Efland and Aycock schools.

People: O. David Garvin

Arthur Wells is named to the Cedar Grove school advisory committee

The Orange County Board of Education named Wayne Compton, Oscar Beasley, Carter White, Lonnie Thompson and Arthur Wells to two-year terms as the advisory committee of the Cedar Grove school.

People: Oscar Carver Beasley · Carter White

Subject: Cedar Grove schools

Roosevelt Warner is named to the advisory committee of Hillsboro's Central school

The Orange County Board of Education named Roosevelt Warner, Luther DeLon, Charlie Rainey, Sam English and Shepherd Burnett to two-year terms as the advisory committee for Central, Hillsboro's school for Black students.

A quarter-mile track opens inside Orange Speedway

A new quarter-mile track built inside the Orange Speedway mile opened with a seven-event NASCAR sportsman and amateur racing program under the direction of Bill France and Enoch Staley.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 35 events

People: Bill France Sr.

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Health officer calls tuberculosis Orange County's number one health problem

Asked about tuberculosis, County Health Officer David Garvin said it was the county's number one public health problem. He said drugs, surgery and better treatment had cut the death rate sharply over ten years, but that as many cases were being found as when deaths were four times as great, and that finding unknown cases was the department's biggest problem.

Curtis Turner wins both NASCAR convertible races at Orange Speedway

Curtis Turner of Roanoke won both NASCAR convertible circuit races held at Orange Speedway in 1956 and set the convertible qualifying record there.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 35 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Fire guts Dr. Marion B. Roberts's house at King and Hassell streets

An early-morning fire gutted the two-story house of Dr. and Mrs. Marion B. Roberts on the corner lot at West King and Hassell streets. The News of Orange County called it the worst fire in the Hillsboro Fire Department's history; firemen fought it for more than four hours in sub-freezing weather.

Patriots of North Carolina hold a mass meeting in Hillsborough and form an Orange County unit

An overflow crowd of about 300, observers said all white, filled the courtroom in Hillsborough for a Patriots of North Carolina meeting where I. Beverly Lake urged abandoning the public schools for a private system rather than integrate. W. C. George, the Patriots' state president, presided as members named an Orange County executive committee.

Part of Consolidation and desegregation in the Orange County Schools · 120 events

People: I. Beverly (Isaac Beverly) Lake

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

Orange County pastors form a ministerial association

Pastors of 18 churches in northern and central Orange County met at the Hillsboro Presbyterian Church and formed an Orange County Ministerial Association, electing the Rev. C. H. Reckard president and the Rev. Lawton Pettit of St. Matthew's Episcopal secretary.

Subject: Hillsborough Presbyterian Church · St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church

The Hillsboro Building and Loan Association becomes Hillsboro Savings and Loan Association

On a vote of its stockholders, the association changed its name to Hillsboro Savings and Loan Association, announced alongside the largest dividend in its history.

People: Ira Ward

Subject: Hillsboro Building and Loan (Savings and Loan)

Fireball Roberts wins the fall race at Orange Speedway

Fireball Roberts, driving a 1956 Ford, won the 110-lap fall race at Orange Speedway, setting the track record for that distance, with Buck Baker second.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 35 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Workers at the Reverie Lingerie plant in Hillsborough go on strike for a union

Employees of Reverie Lingerie, a New York-owned undergarment plant opened in Hillsborough in 1955, walked out and set up a picket line to win recognition for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. The company asked for a labor board election, which the union opposed, and the strike lasted about six months.

Subject: Reverie Lingerie plant

Fire destroys the old West Hillsboro School, then a mill-owned apartment house

About 11:30 on a Monday night the three-story frame building that had been the West Hillsboro School, later made into 13 apartments, burned to the ground. A taxi driver saw the flames and woke the five people inside, who escaped.

Subject: West End Graded School (West Hillsborough School)

Work begins on a two-story gymnasium building for Hillsboro High School

T. W. Poe and Sons of Durham won the contract on June 10, 1957 and began a $180,000 physical education building with classrooms and locker rooms below and a gymnasium above, due for completion in December.

Subject: Hillsborough High School

Roosevelt Warner coaches the Hillsboro Junior All-Stars

Warner coached the newly organized Hillsboro Junior All-Stars, boys aged 13 to 15 who played teams of Durham's Bull City Pony League and Chapel Hill under Little League rules. The paper called the team a civic project for summer recreation, and local firms gave money for uniforms and equipment.

The county takes bids for a gymtorium and twelve classrooms at Central High School

H. F. Mitchell Construction Company was low bidder for two buildings at Central High, a twelve-classroom addition and a gymtorium seating about 1,200, designed by Archie Royal Davis. The whole project came to $266,094, and the gymtorium was nearly finished in February 1958.

People: Archie Royal Davis

Subject: Central High and Central Elementary, Hillsborough

An explosion and fire destroy the strikebound Reverie Lingerie plant

On a Friday night an explosion and fire wrecked the Reverie Lingerie plant, ending the six-month strike and the jobs of about eighty workers. The paper counted a lost local payroll of about $173,000 a year.

Subject: Reverie Lingerie plant

Bozo and Lillian Taylor open a second dining room at the Hillsboro Lunch

R. T. (Bozo) Taylor Jr. and Lillian Taylor, then running the Hillsboro Lunch, opened a newly renovated dining room next to their old quarters, giving them two dining rooms for daily meals and catering. The Hillsboro Merchants Association soon began holding its luncheon meetings there.

Subject: Hillsboro Lunch

The school board orders a new main building for Central High on the day of the fire

The night the old Central High building burned, the county board set aside $214,892 for a new 18-classroom building designed by Archie Royal Davis's firm. Construction went on through 1958.

People: Archie Royal Davis

Subject: Central High and Central Elementary, Hillsborough

The Hillsboro post office moves into Fred Cates's new building on South Churton Street

The post office moved to a new air-conditioned building by the Eno at the south edge of town, which Fred Cates built for about $25,000 and leased to the government over the objections of the mayor and town board. It was dedicated on August 9 before about 200 people.

The Osbunn Theater reopens under a new operator after W. M. Chance's death

The Osbunn Theater, closed for several months after the death of its owner W. M. Chance, reopened under Sam R. Owens of Durham, who leased it from the Chance family. Owens had run drive-in theaters in Durham, Burlington and Fayetteville.

Subject: Osbunn Theater

Bill France leases Orange Speedway to the Orange County Board of Education

Bill France signed a ten-year lease letting Hillsboro High School use the Orange Speedway grounds as its athletic field, for $100 a year, while races continued.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 35 events

People: Enoch Staley

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway · Hillsborough High School

Duke Power dismantles its Eno steam plant

Duke Power sold most of the equipment of its standby steam plant in Eno Township to the Sid Rancer Company, a junk dealer, for $30,500 before January 1, 1960, and tore down six of the twelve company houses. The county lost several hundred thousand dollars in tax valuation.

Subject: University Station

A Hollywood crew films a racing drama at Orange Speedway and the Colonial Inn

A film company shot scenes for a television drama starring James Whitmore at Orange Speedway and the Colonial Inn in Hillsborough. Speedway co-owner Enoch Staley brought in several well-known drivers, among them Buck Baker, for close-up scenes.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 35 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway · Colonial Inn

Orange County's first ABC liquor store opens north of Hillsboro

Two months after voters approved county liquor stores on February 3, the first ABC store opened in a new building that also held the county ABC warehouse, near where Highways 70 and 86 meet. It was the county's first legal whiskey sale in the modern era.

O. David Garvin resigns as health director of the five county district

Garvin, health director for Orange, Person, Chatham, Lee and Caswell counties since 1944, resigned effective June 15, 1959 to rejoin the U.S. Public Health Service in its Chronic Disease Branch. The paper described him as a native of Wagner, South Carolina.

Duke Power opens its remodeled Hillsboro office on King Street

Duke Power Company held an open house at its newly remodeled Hillsboro office, then numbered 110 King Street, showing new facilities and electric appliances. Manager C. B. Parris had served the town's customers since 1936.

Health officer asks county commissioners for money to buy polio vaccine

District health director O. David Garvin asked the Board of County Commissioners for a special appropriation to buy Salk vaccine for schoolchildren and pregnant women who could not pay, after federal vaccine allotments were cut and shots became required for school entry. The board agreed to provide funds if needed but told him to seek March of Dimes money from the county polio chapter first.

People: O. David Garvin

Arthur Wells is named to the county's new agricultural extension advisory board

A 16-member Orange County Agricultural Extension Advisory Board, proposed by the extension service to advise on the county's farm program, was approved with Arthur Wells of Cedar Grove among its farmer representatives.

Orange County builds its third ABC store near the Alamance line at Carr

The county ABC board put up a concrete-block liquor store on Mutt Byrd's land about 200 yards from the Alamance County line on the Roxboro-Burlington highway, with opening expected in mid-September. By early 1960 nearly all of its sales went to Alamance County customers.

The county school board sells the old Carrboro School to the Town of Carrboro

After the new Carrboro elementary school opened, the Orange County Board of Education accepted the town's $30,000 bid, the only one at an August auction, for the empty 14-classroom building and auditorium on West Main Street. The town planned to make it a municipal building, and voters approved a $95,000 bond issue for the purchase and renovation on March 19, 1960.

Subject: Carrboro Elementary School

James Freeland builds the General Joseph E. Johnston Motel at US 70 and Interstate 85

Builder James Freeland put up the General Joseph E. Johnston Motel on US 70 near the new Interstate 85, part of a roadside group with his ice rink and, across the highway, the General Sherman Restaurant.

People: James J. Freeland

Subject: General Johnston Motel and General Sherman Restaurant

James Freeland buys the South Churton Street land that becomes Daniel Boone Village

James Freeland bought the land on South Churton Street in 1960. He developed it from the 1960s as Daniel Boone Village, a motel, restaurant and amusement complex, and his family kept it after his death.

Subject: Daniel Boone Village

The Gormleys take over Dud's Tavern as Gormley's Truck Stop and Restaurant

Mr. and Mrs. L. H. Gormley, who had run the Castle Steak House in Durham, took over Dud's Tavern on Highway 70 and advertised it as Gormley's Truck Stop and Restaurant.

Subject: Dud’s Tavern

W. C. George and Lucius Cheshire are named Orange County managers of I. Beverly Lake's campaign

I. Beverly Lake named W. C. George of Chapel Hill and Lucius M. Cheshire of Hillsborough, both directors of the pro-segregation North Carolina Defenders of States Rights, co-managers of his campaign for governor in Orange County.

People: I. Beverly (Isaac Beverly) Lake

The Hillsboro Savings and Loan Association lays the cornerstone of its North Churton Street office

Cornerstone ceremonies were set for the association's new office on the east side of North Churton Street, half a block north of the court square, under construction since early June. Charles C. Hartmann of Greensboro designed the one-story Colonial Revival building with a drive-in window.

Subject: Hillsboro Building and Loan (Savings and Loan)

An Orange County jury convicts four men of arson and conspiracy in the Reverie plant fire

After a three-day trial in Orange County Superior Court, a jury found four men, among them an ILGWU representative from Atlanta, guilty of burning the Reverie Lingerie plant. Judge Raymond Mallard sentenced them the next day to five to twelve years, and all appealed.

Subject: Reverie Lingerie plant

The Dickson house near Hillsborough is left empty when its last tenant moves out

The last tenant left the Dickson house, General Johnston's headquarters in 1865, and the house owned by Mary R. Few stood vacant beside the new Interstate 85 interchange. In March 1961 the News of Orange reported it crumbling while a motel site next door was offered for sale.

Subject: Alexander Dickson House (Johnston’s headquarters)

James Freeland opens his rebuilt Holiday Ice Rink beside the General Johnston Motel

James Freeland opened a new 65 by 180 foot Holiday Ice Rink on US 70 three miles west of Durham, replacing a rink whose roof had caved in under snow the winter before. It stood next to his new General Johnston Motel.

People: James J. Freeland

Subject: General Johnston Motel and General Sherman Restaurant

James Freeland's General Sherman Restaurant opens at US 70 and Interstate 85

The General Sherman Restaurant, built by James Freeland across the highway from his General Johnston Motel, opened around the clock and was billed as Orange County's newest. It became a common place for Democratic Party dinners and club luncheons in the early 1960s.

People: James J. Freeland

Subject: General Johnston Motel and General Sherman Restaurant

L. J. Phipps and Stanley Peele form a law partnership in Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill attorney L. J. Phipps took Stanley Peele, associated with him since he was admitted to the bar in 1959, into partnership.

People: Luther James Phipps

Orange County's fourth ABC store opens at US 70 and Interstate 85

Orange County's fourth and largest ABC liquor store opened beside the General Sherman Restaurant, half a mile from the Durham County line. James Freeland built the colonial-style building and leased it to the county board; it was said to be the only ABC store in North Carolina on an interstate highway.

People: James J. Freeland

Subject: General Johnston Motel and General Sherman Restaurant

Kenan Oil Company buys A. J. Snipes Jr.'s oil business and brings Phillips 66 to Hillsboro

Kenan Oil Company of Durham, the Phillips 66 franchise holder, bought A. J. Snipes Jr.'s Esso distributorship on Highway 70, its first foothold in Hillsboro, and kept Snipes on as its local agent.

Carr's Super Market opens its new store across the street in Hillsboro

Carr's Super Market began a six-week grand opening of its new $250,000 store, five times the size of its old one across the street, with a terrazzo floor. Building began in April 1960, and Brodie Carr's son saw it through after his father had a stroke.

People: Brodie S. Carr

Subject: Carr’s Super Market

The Hillsboro Savings and Loan Association opens its new downtown office

The association held a public open house with prize drawings at its new office on North Churton Street, the building later known as the Hillsborough Savings Bank. Its 1950 office stayed open as a second location.

People: Ira Ward

Subject: Hillsboro Building and Loan (Savings and Loan)

Roosevelt Warner runs as the first Black candidate for Hillsboro's town board

Warner filed for one of the five seats on the Hillsboro Board of Commissioners, the first Black candidate to seek election in the town. In the May 2 election he finished last of the eight candidates with 180 votes; he won a seat on his second try in 1963.

Chapel Hill church women ask the county for a welfare office in Chapel Hill

A group from the Chapel Hill Council of United Church Women, including Mildred Ringwalt, asked the Orange County commissioners for a branch welfare office in the Chapel Hill area with a caseworker at least two days a week, and offered volunteers. The acting welfare superintendent replied that lay volunteers could not do casework.

Joe Weatherly wins the first 150-miler at Orange Speedway

Joe Weatherly won the 150-mile race that closed the 1961 Grand National season at Orange Speedway, the first race of that length at the track, setting a lap record of 95.15 miles per hour and a race average of 86.11.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 35 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Dud Walters reopens his old tavern as Dud's Fish House

J. Dud Walters and his wife reopened the former Dud's Tavern and Truck Stop after renovations as Dud's Fish House and Restaurant, serving fish and seafood with curb service and take-home orders.

Subject: Dud’s Tavern

Kenan Oil opens its new bulk plant and warehouse north of Hillsborough

Work began in September on a bulk plant and warehouse on the north side of Highway 70 behind the Phillips 66 station, and the company invited the public to inspect the finished plant and offices on Saturday, November 11.

Godfrey's Home Supply Store moves into a new building on Highway 70

E. W. "Booster" Godfrey opened a new, larger building for his hardware, clothing and household goods store next door to his old location on Highway 70 north of Hillsboro, with Esso gas out front.

Hyconeechee Regional Library director David Flick writes a books column for the News of Orange County

By January 1962 the News of Orange County was running "Between the Covers," a column of news and comment on books in the public library by the director of the Hyconeechee Regional Library. The North Carolina Library Association's 1962 directory lists David Flick as the region's director, at Yanceyville.

Subject: Orange County Public Library · The News of Orange County

James Riley opens the Hillsboro Fish Market in the old Godfrey's store on Highway 70

James Riley opened the Hillsboro Fish Market on Highway 70 West, in front of Kenan Oil Company in the former Godfrey's Home Supply store, selling fresh fish cleaned free. By August 1962 it had moved to his old market next to Eno Methodist Church.

Portrait of the late Sheriff Oddie Clayton is hung in the sheriff's office

A portrait of the late Orange County sheriff Oddie Clayton, painted by Hillsborough artist Edmund Strudwick and paid for by public subscription in a drive led by ABC Police Chief Burch Compton, was hung in the county sheriff's office before members of his family.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

Orange County was still running a separate library for Black readers

The county bookmobile schedule printed in March 1962 listed a Thursday stop from 1:30 to 2:00 at the Orange Co. Negro Public Library. The previous year's vacation reading club invited children to register either at the Confederate Memorial Public Library or at the Orange County Negro Public Library in Hillsboro.

Subject: Orange County Public Library

The Orange Printshop closes after 39 years

The Orange Printshop, founded by Louis Graves in 1923 with the Chapel Hill Weekly, stopped work at the close of business on August 15, 1962. W. M. Pugh had run it as lessee since the 1940s, and the building had just been sold to the Bank of Chapel Hill.

Subject: The Orange Printshop

Edmund Strudwick speaks against a new federal access road and bridge into Hillsborough

At a public hearing in Hillsborough on a proposed $338,000 federal project for a new access road and bridge into the town, artist Edmund Strudwick opposed it, saying he did not want more cars coming up Churton Street. The News of Orange County called the opposition thin.

James J. Freeland's Dixie Motor Inn opens at Interstate 85 and NC 86

The Dixie Motor Inn, owned by James J. and James Rae Freeland, opened two miles south of Hillsborough where Interstate 85 meets NC 86. It had 16 air-conditioned units and was the sixth motel the elder Freeland had built in Orange, Durham and Wake counties.

People: James J. Freeland

Neal's Restaurant opens beside the Dixie Motor Inn south of Hillsborough

Neal Humphries, a Durham restaurant man for 15 years, opened Neal's Restaurant next to the new Dixie Motor Inn at I-85 and NC 86. It seated 75, stayed open around the clock and served steaks, seafood and fried chicken.

Jayne Mansfield rides in the pace car at Orange Speedway

Film star Jayne Mansfield, in North Carolina for a nightclub date in Greensboro, rode in the pace car to start the 150-mile race at Orange Speedway. Orange County sheriff's deputies Will Gilmore and Avery Maddry acted as her bodyguards, and she watched from the judges' stand, signing autographs.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 35 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Junior Johnson wins the spring 150-miler at Orange Speedway

Junior Johnson won the spring 150-mile Grand National race at Orange Speedway in March 1963.

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Gerard Tempest opens Villa Tempesta, an arts center and café, on East Franklin Street

More than 2,000 people toured artist Gerard Tempest's Villa Tempesta, an Italian-style villa built from pieces of the old Duke and Watts mansions in Durham, at its open house; its studios and espresso café opened for regular business the following Thursday.

Roosevelt Warner is elected the first Black member of the Hillsboro Board of Commissioners

Roosevelt Warner, a masonry contractor and business owner, led the field of eleven candidates with 281 votes for the five-member Board of Town Commissioners on his second try, unseating incumbent Herman H. Strayhorn. Two years earlier he had been the town's first Black candidate, finishing last with 180 votes.

People: Roosevelt Warner

A planning study projects Chapel Hill school growth to

John Scott of the Research Triangle Planning Commission told the Chapel Hill School Board that district enrollment could reach 8,000 pupils by 1980, more than double the current number, and cited a 1960 township population of 25,000. The study, made for the Chapel Hill Planning Board and the Chapel Hill City Board of Education jointly, was issued as Schools, 1970-1980 (June 1963), and the School Board examined the finished projection on July 24, 1963.

Subject: Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

Charles M. Walker Jr. announces that Walker Milling Co. will close

Walker said he would close the milling business in the three-story landmark on Court Square, which his father and uncle had run for decades before he bought it after World War II, and take a job in Battleboro. He pointed to changes in the farm economy.

O. E. Bivins builds the cabin at Hillsboro's new Girl Scout camp

The new camp for Hillsboro's Girl Scout troops, at Occoneechee Farm behind the Harold Culbreth home south of town, had a cabin built for the girls and their leaders by O. E. Bivins. An open house and picnic supper were planned for the following Wednesday.

Subject: Occoneechee Farm

Warner's Motel and Warner's Wash-eteria invite the public to see their facilities

An advertisement invited everyone to visit Warner's Motel and Warner's Wash-eteria on Highway 70-A in Hillsboro on Friday, August 2, and inspect their modern facilities.

People: Roosevelt Warner

The new Historic Hillsborough Commission holds its first meeting at the courthouse

The members of the newly appointed Historic Hillsborough Commission met for the first time at the Orange County Courthouse under chairman Dr. R. J. Murphy. Elizabeth Henderson Cotten of Chapel Hill was among the members.

People: Mary Claire Engstrom · William S. Powell

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

Joe Weatherly wins his last race at Orange Speedway

Joe Weatherly won the fall 150-mile race at Orange Speedway, the last victory of his career; he was killed in a crash at Riverside, California, in January 1964.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 35 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

The A&P opens its first Hillsborough supermarket at US 70 and Churton Street

The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company opened a supermarket of about 10,000 square feet in a red-brick "Early American" building with a cupola and parking for 165 cars. It was the chain's first store in Hillsborough and the first major unit of the North Hills Shopping Center.

Walker's Funeral Home dedicates its chapel at 204 North Churton Street

On its 41st anniversary Walker's Funeral Home held an open house and dedicated the chapel in its brick building on North Churton Street, finished late in 1962, honoring founder Houston J. Walker and his late wife Minnie Montgomery Walker.

People: Houston J. Walker

Subject: Walker’s Funeral Home

Allen A. and Pauline O. Lloyd publish a history of the town of Hillsborough

Pharmacist Allen A. Lloyd published a 200-page, illustrated History of the Town of Hillsborough, with his wife Pauline O. Lloyd named as co-author, after working on it since 1945. He paid about $2,500 to print it and sold copies at James Pharmacy, which he ran.

Morris Telephone Company builds a larger exchange on East King Street

As part of a half-million-dollar improvement program around Hillsborough, the Morris Telephone Company put up a new telephone building on East King Street about twice the size of the old exchange. Subscribers got new numbers on May 17, and in November the company moved its business office into the new building.

Gloria Williams asks the school board to readmit boycotting Lincoln High students

At the Chapel Hill school board meeting, Mrs. Gloria Williams, speaking for parents of students who had joined the Chapel Hill Freedom Committee's boycott of Lincoln High School, asked that all of them be readmitted. The board upheld the expulsion of two senior leaders, Henry Sanford and James Brittain, after Superintendent Howard Thompson said he would resign if they returned.

Part of Segregated schooling and the rise of Lincoln and Central High Schools · 52 events

Subject: Orange County Training School / Lincoln High School · Chapel Hill and Carrboro city schools

The Efland brothers form Efland Tractor and Equipment Company

John L. Efland Jr. and Wilson Efland took the International Harvester franchise for Orange County and formed Efland Tractor and Equipment Company, with parts and service in the front of the Efland Knitting Company building.

Villines Rest Home opens on Occoneechee Street in Hillsborough

A notice in February 1964 announced that the Villines Rest Home on Occoneechee Street was open to anyone who could no longer care for themselves.

The last Southern Railway passenger trains run through Hillsborough

Trains 13 and 16, the daily Greensboro-Goldsboro round trip, made their final runs, ending more than a century of passenger service in Orange County. Hillsborough had been a flag stop without ticket sales for two years.

Subject: North Carolina Railroad

More than 25,000 Orange County residents take Sabin oral polio vaccine on one Sunday

The Durham-Orange County Medical Foundation ran a Sunday oral polio vaccine campaign at eight public school feeding stations in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, Cedar Grove and Efland. A total of 25,679 people took the vaccine on a sugar cube, about 56 percent of the county, with Glenwood School alone serving 5,063; a second dose was set for May 17.

Edmund Strudwick finishes a portrait of retired farm agent Don S. Matheson

Hillsborough artist Edmund Strudwick finished a portrait of Don S. Matheson, who retired in 1963 after 34 years as Orange County farm agent. Paid for by public gifts, it was hung in the county agricultural building, and further gifts founded a 4-H fund.

People: Don S. Matheson

Orange Speedway names its spring race the Joe Weatherly Memorial

Orange Speedway scheduled its spring 1964 150-mile Grand National race as the inaugural Joe Weatherly Memorial, honoring the late national champion who held both track speed records and had won his last race there.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 35 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Kenan Oil Company opens the Colonial Phillips 66 service station at Churton and Tryon

Kenan Oil Company held a grand opening for its new Colonial Phillips 66 station on Churton Street at Tryon, with Fred Albert as station manager and door prizes drawn Friday night. The station opened for business the next day; Odis Johnson of Mebane was the builder.

The new high bridge over the Eno opens on South Churton Street

The 375-foot bridge, 55 feet above the river and built for about $450,000 with state and federal money, opened with the new access road from Interstate 85 into Hillsborough in the summer of 1964, taking traffic off the 1922 bridge.

Subject: Eno River road bridge, Hillsborough

The old Walker Milling Co. building on courthouse square is torn down

Orange County, which bought the mill property in August 1963 for $25,000, had a Wilmington contractor raze the building to clear the lot for parking. Historical groups asked the commissioners to save it, but they would only agree, by a split vote, to buy the old handmade bricks for resale.

People: Mary Claire Engstrom · Harvey Bennett

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

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.

The A & M Grill in Mebane closes after 63 years

The A & M Grill, run by three generations of the McAdams family, served its last meals at 401 East Center Street. Co-founder George Crawford Amick died three weeks later.

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.

State highway marker honoring Carl T. Durham is dedicated at N.C. 54 and Carl Durham Road

Durham's daughters Anne Novak and Peggy Wall, other relatives and county officials gathered for the dedication of the marker. The ceremony recalled his 22 years in Congress and the 1951 amendments, written with Senator Hubert Humphrey, that created the prescription and over-the-counter drug classes.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

New Hope Elementary starts a Spanish dual-language program in Orange County Schools

After a year and a half of planning, New Hope Elementary opened a 50-50 Spanish-English dual-language program for 48 kindergarten students at the start of the 2018-19 school year, taught on alternating days in English and Spanish. The principal described it as a way for Latino students to take pride in their heritage and keep the Spanish they use with their families.

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.

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.

The Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition collects soil at the site of Manly McCauley's lynching

On a Saturday morning on Carl Drive, McCauley family members, clergy and coalition members gathered at the spot where he is believed to have been hanged; elders of Hickory Grove Missionary Baptist Church blessed soil that was jarred for the family. A program with the Equal Justice Initiative followed at the church.

Part of Racial-terror lynchings in Orange County · 36 events

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.