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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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5 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–5.Back to highlights

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5 dated events
1840Antebellum and Civil War
  1. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
  2. A one-room log school is built beside St. Mary's Chapel

    Founding or opening · St. Mary's School site, Schley Road at St. Mary's Road, east of Hillsborough

    In the 1840s a one-room log schoolhouse went up next to St. Mary's Chapel. The brick St. Mary's School of 1931 was later built on the same site.

    Subject: St. Mary's School

  3. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
  4. St. Mary's School burns and the county builds a new one

    Disaster or outbreak · St. Mary's community

    Fire destroyed St. Mary's School on November 3, 1930. With $2,500 from the county commissioners on top of $1,800 already set aside, the board let J. H. Liner of Cedar Grove build a new school for 84 children for $4,638.30 and received it on January 5, 1931.

    Subject: St. Mary's School

  5. St. Mary's School gets a WPA brick auditorium

    Construction or physical change · St. Mary's School, east side of SR 1548 north of SR 1002, Orange County

    St. Mary's School, a Colonial Revival brick school built in 1931 near Murphey School to replace a log schoolhouse, received a Neoclassical brick auditorium in 1936 through the same WPA program, plainer than the one at Murphey.

    Subject: St. Mary's School

  6. St. Mary's School closes as its pupils are merged into the Hillsborough schools

    Closing or ending · St. Mary's School, east side of SR 1548 north of SR 1002, Orange County

    Consolidation with the Hillsborough schools closed St. Mary's School in 1943.

    Subject: St. Mary's School

  7. Civil rights era · 1945–1975
  8. The old St. Mary's School reopens as a private college preparatory school

    Founding or opening · St. Mary's School, east side of SR 1548 north of SR 1002, Orange County

    The St. Mary's School building, closed since 1943, reopened in 1970 as a private college preparatory school.

    Subject: St. Mary's School

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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