Chronology

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1. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865

2. 1803
   Property or economic transaction · Colonial Inn site, 153 West King Street, Hillsborough Hatter Henry Shutt buys the West King Street lot where the Colonial Inn now stands

   In 1803 Henry Shutt bought the vacant lot and built a house there, living in it and running a hatter's shop. The lot was offered at public sale in 1820, and Isaiah Spencer built his inn on it in 1838.

3. 1838
   Construction or physical change · Colonial Inn, Hillsborough Isaiah Spencer builds the Hillsborough inn later called the Colonial Inn

   Isaiah Spencer built the two-story inn on West King Street in 1838. Known locally as Spencer's Tavern and advertised as the Orange Hotel, a name it kept for fifty years, it was later the Occoneechee Hotel, the Corbinton Inn and, from 1946, the Colonial Inn. Local lore and a 1953 plate caption put it in the eighteenth century.

4. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899

5. about 1888
   Property or economic transaction · Colonial Inn (then the Occoneechee Hotel), 153 West King Street, Hillsborough Richison Nichols buys the old Orange Hotel and builds its piazza over the West King Street sidewalk

   Richison Nichols bought Isaiah Spencer's inn, apparently in 1888, and built the two-story piazza that reaches the street. The 1888 Sanborn map shows it as the Occoneechee Hotel, the name it kept until 1908.

6. October 16, 1889
   Property or economic transaction · 175 West King Street and the Colonial Inn, Hillsborough David C. Parks buys the Parks-Richmond lot and joins it to the Colonial Inn lot as one hotel

   D. C. Parks bought Town Lot 18 on West King Street and combined it with Lot 15, the site of the present Colonial Inn, to run them as one hotel. The house on Lot 18 held the office, reception rooms and dining room, and the inn building held the sleeping rooms.

7. 1890s
   Construction or physical change · Colonial Inn, Parks-Richmond House and Twin Chimneys, 153, 175 and 168 West King Street, Hillsborough D. C. Parks has designer Jules Körner remodel his hotel buildings and Twin Chimneys

   While he owned the Occoneechee Hotel, David C. Parks hired Jules Körner of Kernersville to update the hotel, the Parks-Richmond House next door and Twin Chimneys across West King Street, giving them new window and door frames with pointed-arch surrounds.

8. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

9. 1908
   Founding or opening · West King Street, Hillsborough Thomas A. Corbin reopens the old Occoneechee Hotel as the Corbinton Inn

   After D. C. Parks sold the Occoneechee Hotel early in 1908, Thomas A. Corbin reopened it on West King Street as the Corbinton Inn. The inn kept that name until 1946, when it became the Colonial Inn.

10. February 1908
    Property or economic transaction · Occoneechee Hotel (Colonial Inn), West King Street, Hillsborough D. C. Parks sells the Occoneechee Hotel and it closes

    David C. Parks sold the Occoneechee Hotel in Hillsborough to Thomas A. Corbin of Winston-Salem, and the hotel was closed to the public while the new owner was ill.

11. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

12. May 1947
    Construction or physical change · Colonial Inn, West King Street, Hillsborough 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.

13. January 1959
    Publication, speech or performance · Orange Speedway and the Colonial Inn, Hillsborough 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.

14. 1960s
    Property or economic transaction · Colonial Inn, West King Street, Hillsborough James J. Freeland remodels and sells the Colonial Inn

    Freeland, who also restored and moved old buildings, owned the Colonial Inn on West King Street for a time and remodeled it before selling it in the 1960s.

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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 1, 2026.