Chronology

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1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

2. 1920s
   Construction or physical change · Hargraves Street, Chapel Hill and Carrboro Luther R. Hargraves built the tin-roofed houses that gave Tin Top its name

   Luther R. Hargraves, a carpenter and Chapel Hill's first African American mortician, built a row of houses with tin roofs on Hargraves Street near the railroad tracks behind St. Paul AME, and the cluster became known as Tin Top or Tin Top Alley.

3. 1932–1938
   Construction or physical change · 510 West Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill St. Joseph CME built its first church on West Rosemary Street

   Henry Baldwin, Margaret Burnette and Kennon Cheek mortgaged their homes for the down payment on the Rosemary Street lot, which Black leaders had judged too small for a new high school. A frame church went up under Rev. Joseph S. Miller and was dedicated as St. Joseph Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.

4. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

5. 1970s
   Protest or organizing · Northside and Pine Knolls, Chapel Hill Northside and Pine Knolls residents resist federal urban renewal

   When Northside and Pine Knolls were targeted for urban renewal, residents confronted HUD and avoided the wholesale clearance seen in Durham's Hayti, winning home improvements and new construction instead.

6. Recent decades · 1976–2026

7. 1977–1979
   Property or economic transaction · Baldwin Park, Broad Street, Carrboro St. Joseph CME sold Henry W. Baldwin's Broad Street land to Carrboro for a park

   Henry W. Baldwin, a Black landowner in the Lloyd/Broad neighborhood, left his estate to St. Joseph CME Church. During the pastorate of Dr. L. Kenneth Bennett the church sold a tract on Broad Street to the Town of Carrboro for a park, which was named Baldwin Park in his honor.

8. 2007
   Founding or opening · Northside, Chapel Hill St. Joseph CME Church and UNC begin the Northside oral history partnership

   Rev. Troy Harrison and UNC professor Della Pollock began collecting oral histories in Northside, the project that grew into the Marian Cheek Jackson Center.

9. May 2, 2009
   Founding or opening · St. Joseph C.M.E. Church, Chapel Hill Marian Cheek Jackson Center opens at St. Joseph CME Church

   The Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History held its ribbon cutting on the second floor of the H.W. Baldwin Fellowship Hall at St. Joseph C.M.E. Church. It is named for Marian Cheek Jackson, the church historian and lifelong Pine Knolls resident.

10. 2014
    Publication, speech or performance · Rogers Road RENA and the Jackson Center produced the Historic and Vibrant Rogers Road report

    The Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association and the Marian Cheek Jackson Center put together survey analysis and community feedback on the neighborhood's future. Two years later the same partners ran the planning process behind Mapping our Community's Future.

11. 2017
    Naming or commemoration · West Rosemary and Roberson Streets, Chapel Hill A stone gateway honoring Northside's freedom fighters was opened at Rosemary and Roberson streets

    The gateway of Chatham stone carries eight black granite slabs with civil rights images and quotations from oral history interviews. It was opened with a ribbon cutting at the first Northside Festival, as the Jackson Center renamed its annual celebration.

12. 2022
    Statistic or record · Northside, Chapel Hill Northside land bank passes 41 properties

    By mid-2022 the initiative had bought more than 41 Northside properties with the UNC loan, and 51 families with 50 children had moved into the neighborhood through its housing work.

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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.