Chronology

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1. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865

2. May 1842
   Founding or opening · Chapel Hill William Mercer Green organizes an Episcopal parish in Chapel Hill

   In May 1842 William Mercer Green presided over the organization of the Church of the Atonement, an Episcopal parish in Chapel Hill with fifteen communicants, which met in members' homes for five years while its church was built. A record of subscribers for building the church, dated 1843, survives in Green's papers.

3. October 19, 1848
   Construction or physical change · Chapel Hill The Chapel of the Cross is consecrated

   Bishop Levi Silliman Ives consecrated the Episcopal church at Chapel Hill as the Chapel of the Holy Cross. Designed by Thomas U. Walter for the parish William Mercer Green organized in 1842, it was built of bricks fired by enslaved people at kilns on Green's farm and included a wooden gallery for enslaved worshippers.

4. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

5. 1921
   Construction or physical change · Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill Under rector Alfred Lawrence, the Chapel of the Cross asks Hobart Upjohn to design a new church

   The vestry, led by its new rector Alfred Lawrence, asked church architect Hobart B. Upjohn to design a larger building linked to the old chapel by a cloister, after a 1920 diocesan resolution called for enlarging the church to serve the university.

6. May 12, 1925
   Construction or physical change · Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill The new Chapel of the Cross church is consecrated

   The Upjohn building, from then on called the Church, was consecrated during Alfred Lawrence's rectorship. The parish timeline notes that male students in the campus ministry resisted including women students.

7. 1926
   Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill Alfred Lawrence publicly opposes fundamentalist attacks on teaching evolution

   The Chapel of the Cross rector took a public stand against fundamentalist efforts to bar the teaching of evolution in public schools, introducing a diocesan resolution against limits on freedom of thought, teaching and research.

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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.