Chronology

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1. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865

2. 1819
   Hillsborough Samuel Hancock buys lots near the Eno for a brickyard

   With a $50 loan from Dr. James Webb, brickmason Samuel Hancock bought lots near the Eno River for a brickyard, which became known as the Webb-Hancock brickyard. Webb's 1842 bankruptcy papers say the two men ran it as partners.

3. November 17, 1821
   Hillsborough Brickmason Samuel Hancock joins the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church he helped build

   Samuel Hancock joined the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church on November 17, 1821, five years after his wife Susan. He rented a pew and gave toward the pastor's salary and a bell.

4. 1834
   Hillsborough Samuel Hancock goes bankrupt and Dr. James Webb buys his house and the enslaved man Abram

   In 1834 Samuel Hancock went bankrupt. Dr. James Webb bought the Hancocks' house and lot, their furniture and Abram, a man they enslaved, and rented all of them back to Hancock for $1 a year.

5. between 1836 and 1838
   Chapel Hill Isaac J. Collier and Kendall B. Waitt go into partnership in a Chapel Hill cabinet shop

   Isaac J. Collier went into partnership with Kendall B. Waitt, a Chapel Hill artisan from Massachusetts, in a cabinet shop in the later 1830s, after his partnership with Jones Watson. The two worked together for years, later as building contractors.

6. 1844–1848
   Property or economic transaction · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Dabney Cosby takes the masonry subcontract for the lengthening of Old East and Old West

   Chapel Hill contractors Isaac J. Collier and Kendall B. Waitt subcontracted the masonry of the university additions to Cosby, who put enslaved workmen including the brothers Osborne and Albert on the job. Cosby and the architect Alexander Jackson Davis quarrelled over the drawings, and president David L. Swain asked the Hillsborough builder John Berry to look at the brickwork, which Berry reported was defective.

7. 1844
   Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill Isaac J. Collier serves as contractor for the Chapel of the Cross

   Chapel Hill woodworker and builder Isaac J. Collier was the contractor for the Episcopal Chapel of the Cross on East Franklin Street, built to a design by the Philadelphia architect Thomas U. Walter.

8. 1844–1845
   Construction or physical change · Hillsborough John Berry builds the Orange County Courthouse

   County magistrates ordered a new Hillsborough courthouse in early 1844 and set aside $6,000, and its cornerstone was set to be laid with Masonic ceremonies on September 7, 1844. John Berry designed and built the Greek Revival temple-form building, which was standing by May 1845; the town clock went into its cupola in July 1846.

9. December 23, 1844
   University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill The university awards Isaac J. Collier and Kendall B. Waitt the contract for the Old East and Old West additions

   On December 23, 1844, Collier and Waitt won the contract to build A. J. Davis's three-story brick additions to Old East and Old West, at $9,360. They subcontracted the masonry to Dabney Cosby; the next day trustee secretary Charles Manly asked that they hire his enslaved carpenters.

10. February 1845
    Slavery and freedom · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Osborne begins the masonry on the additions to Old East and Old West

    Dabney Cosby, who held the masonry subcontract for the university additions, sent Osborne to Chapel Hill carrying a letter to the main contractors saying that Osborne would have his mortar made up. Cosby ordered meal and bacon for him and wrote that what Osborne said could be relied on.

11. 1847–1849
    Construction or physical change · Chapel Hill Dabney Cosby builds the Presbyterian church on Franklin Street

    After the university work Cosby built a small Tuscan style church designed by Alexander Jackson Davis for the Chapel Hill Presbyterian congregation, whose members included university president David L. Swain. In March 1848 the congregation member Charles Phillips wrote to Davis that the mason could not match the lilac gray color specified for the outside. The building no longer stands.

12. 1851
    Chapel Hill Isaac J. Collier finishes a house for Elizabeth Nunn

    In a letter of September 24, 1851, Lucy Battle told her husband that Isaac J. Collier was finishing a house for Elizabeth Nunn, widow of a Chapel Hill innkeeper. Collier probably built other modest frame houses in the village as well.

13. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

14. 1922
    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Arthur Cleveland Nash comes to Chapel Hill as the university's architect

    Nash moved to Chapel Hill in 1922 to serve as architect for the University of North Carolina during its major expansion, working with the builder Thomas C. Atwood and the consulting firm McKim, Mead and White of New York.

15. 1926–1927
    Construction or physical change · Chapel Hill, South Building Nash renovates South Building and adds its portico

    Nash carried out the renovation of South Building and added the portico in 1926 and 1927, part of his remodelling of older campus buildings that also took in Old East, Old West and Gerrard Hall.

16. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

17. 1949
    Chapel Hill Jim and John Webb design the Spearman house, the first of their Whitehead Circle houses

    The Webb firm designed a house at 418 Whitehead Circle for Walter Spearman of the UNC School of Journalism and his wife Mary, placed around a large rock that juts from the site. It was the first of five houses the brothers designed on the street.

18. 1950
    Chapel Hill Jim and John Webb design a house on Stagecoach Road for Earl Wynn

    The brothers designed a long house set at an angle to the road at 900 Stagecoach Road for Earl Wynn, head of UNC's radio, motion picture and television department, with low overhanging gables, a central clerestory, vertical pine siding and bands of windows.

19. about 1952 (1957 in another account)
    Chapel Hill The Webb brothers design a house on Whitehead Circle for Alex and Betty McMahon

    James M. Webb and John B. Webb Associates designed the house at 419 Whitehead Circle for J. Alex and Betty W. McMahon. Like many of the brothers' houses, it is long and low under flat roofs set at different heights, with a privacy wall and small windows on the street side and big windows looking into the woods at the back.

20. 1969
    Chapel Hill Jim Webb leaves City Planning and Architectural Associates and practices on his own

    Webb withdrew from City Planning and Architectural Associates, the name his firm had used since about 1960, and set up practice again as James M. Webb, AIA and AICP.

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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.