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1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

2. July 29, 1940
   Property or economic transaction · Chapel Hill Community Center land is deeded to Chapel Hill

   The trustees holding the five-acre community-center site deeded it to the Town of Chapel Hill, whose aldermen had voted in May to accept the title and sponsor the project, since the WPA required government ownership. The deed limited the land to a community center and recreation for Black residents.

3. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

4. February 1951
   Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Lucille Caldwell becomes the Negro Community Center's first paid director

   Lucille Caldwell was hired in February 1951 as the first paid director of Chapel Hill's Negro Community Center on Roberson Street, now the Hargraves Center. A town history calls her North Carolina's first Black professional recreation administrator. She led the center for twelve years and resigned in 1963.

5. 1973
   Naming or commemoration · Chapel Hill The Community Center is renamed for William M. Hargraves

   Chapel Hill's Roberson Street Center, built in the 1940s as the town's segregated Negro Community Center, was renamed in 1973 the William M. Hargraves Recreation Center. Hargraves, a Black resident who had served on the Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation Commission, had died in an automobile accident.

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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.