Chronology

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1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

2. February 10, 1919
   Property or economic transaction · Gerrard Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill Students open the Graham Memorial fund drive in Gerrard Hall

   At a student rally led by Albert Coates, with William H. Bobbitt and Luther Hodges also speaking, students and faculty pledged $20,000 toward a building now budgeted at $150,000. The drive reached about $70,000 by its June deadline and $120,000 by the end of 1919.

3. Early spring 1922
   Law, policy or court · Graham Memorial site, UNC, Chapel Hill Trustees put Graham Memorial on the site of the burned University Inn

   After other sites were floated, the trustees settled on the University Inn lot, set back from Franklin Street. Alumni pledges then stood near $120,000, only half of it paid.

4. 1924
   Construction or physical change · Graham Memorial, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill Work begins on Graham Memorial on the site of the burned University Inn

   Construction of Graham Memorial started where the University Inn had stood until the 1921 fire. By 1928 only its social room was in use.

5. February 1924
   Protest or organizing · Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill Chase and Coates rally students to revive the Graham Memorial drive

   President Chase, Albert Coates and student body president Julian Allsbrook held a special chapel meeting in Memorial Hall to restart the stalled fund drive, with plans cut back to a smaller building whose exterior was under way. In March Coates set out a University Life Unification Plan centered on the building.

6. June 1928
   Law, policy or court · Graham Memorial, UNC, Chapel Hill Meeting in the unfinished Graham Memorial, trustees add courses in religion

   Chase seated the trustees on folding chairs in the empty lounge of Graham Memorial to shame alumni over the unfinished building. There they adopted the faculty's proposal for courses in the history and literature of religion with one dissenting vote, ending nearly ten years of debate.

7. 1931
   Construction or physical change · Chapel Hill Graham Memorial is completed as the university's student union

   The building named for Edward Kidder Graham was completed in 1931 and served as the student union, holding the Horace Williams Library, a barber shop, a bowling alley, a game room and offices for student publications.

8. January 1932
   Naming or commemoration · Graham Memorial, UNC, Chapel Hill Graham Memorial is dedicated as the student union

   After more than a decade of unmet alumni pledges, L. Ames Brown guaranteed the money to finish and furnish the building, which opened in the fall of 1931. At the January dedication Charles Tillett Jr. quoted a reader's entry in Nell Battle Lewis's News and Observer contest that counted Ed Graham's living spirit among the state's most beautiful things.

9. May 6-7, 1932
   Founding or opening · Graham Memorial, UNC, Chapel Hill About two hundred officials organize and name the Institute of Government

   Mayors, legislators, judges and county commissioners met at the new Graham Memorial, endorsed Coates's plan for an association of government officials and formally adopted the name Institute of Government. Junius G. Adams chaired, with Coates as secretary, and a larger meeting was set for September.

10. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

11. between 1964 and 1968
    Construction or physical change · Graham Memorial, East Franklin Street, UNC campus, Chapel Hill Graham Memorial passes from student union to the Department of Dramatic Arts

    Graham Memorial, the student union for 27 years, was turned over to the drama department after the new Frank Porter Graham Student Union opened elsewhere on campus.

12. Recent decades · 1976–2026

13. September 30, 2004
    Publication, speech or performance · Graham Memorial, Chapel Hill John Dee Holeman plays a free blues concert at Graham Memorial

    John Dee Holeman, accompanied by Billy Stevens, played a free noon concert at Graham Memorial on September 30, 2004, in the Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence's Thursdays on the Terrace series. Many of that semester's concerts tied in with William Ferris's course on Southern music.

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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.