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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis.

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8 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–8.Back to highlights

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8 dated events
1952Civil rights era
  1. Civil rights era · 1945–1975
  2. UNC trustees set aside Mason Farm land for a botanical garden

    Founding or opening · Mason Farm, Chapel Hill

    The university's Board of Trustees allocated about 72 acres of its Mason Farm property for the North Carolina Botanical Garden, officially establishing it. Botanist H. R. Totten's efforts helped procure the site.

    Subject: North Carolina Botanical Garden

  3. The Pinetum at Rocky Ridge Farm is deeded to the university's botanical garden

    Property or economic transaction · The Pinetum, Meeting of the Waters Creek, Rocky Ridge Farm, Chapel Hill

    A protected stand of Coker's remaining forest along Meeting of the Waters Creek on the west edge of the development, known as the Pinetum, was deeded in 1954 to the UNC botanical garden for its care.

    Subject: North Carolina Botanical Garden · Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District (Laurel Hill)

  4. William Lanier Hunt gives 103 acres of the Morgan Creek gorge to UNC

    Property or economic transaction · Morgan Creek, Chapel Hill

    Hunt gave UNC and the state about 103 acres of creek gorge and Catawba rhododendron bluffs along Morgan Creek, which became the William Lanier Hunt Arboretum, part of the North Carolina Botanical Garden lands.

    Subject: North Carolina Botanical Garden

  5. The Botanical Garden Foundation is incorporated, with William Lanier Hunt as its founder

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill

    Hunt, a member of the garden's advisory board, led the effort to form a private foundation to raise money, hold land and speak for the North Carolina Botanical Garden. At its first annual meeting in 1967 he was elected its first president, and 291 people and 18 organizations joined as charter members.

    Subject: North Carolina Botanical Garden

  6. Azalea Hill, designed by William Lanier Hunt, is planted at the Botanical Garden

    Construction or physical change · North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill

    The garden's first specific planting project, sponsored by the Men's Garden Club of Chapel Hill and designed by Hunt, neared completion as work-study students under Ken Moore set native azaleas along a new trail.

    Subject: North Carolina Botanical Garden

  7. Recent decades · 1976–2026
  8. The Totten Center opens at the North Carolina Botanical Garden

    Founding or opening · North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill

    The garden's administrative and interpretive building, its first permanent building, opened in 1976. A bequest from the estate of Henry Roland and Adelaide Totten made it possible, and it was named for them.

    People: Addie Williams Totten

    Subject: North Carolina Botanical Garden

  9. Paul Green's writing cabin is moved to the North Carolina Botanical Garden

    Construction or physical change · North Carolina Botanical Garden, Old Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill

    The 16-by-18-foot log cabin where the playwright wrote was moved to the Botanical Garden and restored when its old lot was to be sold. A Paul Green Cabin Task Force pressed for the move, citing Green's study of native plants.

    Subject: North Carolina Botanical Garden

  10. The Botanical Garden gives William Lanier Hunt its Flora Caroliniana Award

    Award or honor · North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill

    The North Carolina Botanical Garden presented Hunt with its Flora Caroliniana Award as founder of the Botanical Garden Foundation, land donor and supporter of the garden, the day before he died.

    Subject: North Carolina Botanical Garden

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A dated event is a fact, filed on the page of the subject it belongs to: a person, a place, a theme, or a named event or history. Pages are subjects, with their own works and sources; the Place, community, or institution filter also gathers the institutions that recur in the entries without a page of their own. The page opens on the highlights; a search or any filter looks through every dated event and storyline, and each filter’s counts say how many entries choosing it would show alongside the others. A storyline is a longer history that gathers related dated events, and each storyline’s page lists its own. Counts give dated events and storylines separately. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. The correction link under the entries opens the contact form; name the entry and its date and the Friends will check the source. Suggest an event →

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 2, 2026.

Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026