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Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–12.Back to highlights
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Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
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Presbyterians begin worshipping together in Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill's Presbyterians began meeting about 1829 in homes and university buildings, with university faculty serving as ministers, according to the church's own history. The congregation's surviving session records begin in 1845, the year Lefler and Wager give for its formal organization, on June 8. Its first sanctuary on Franklin Street was dedicated September 23, 1849, and the congregation took the name University Presbyterian Church in the 1960s.
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Chapel Hill's Presbyterians and Methodists circulate subscription papers for church buildings
Swain's letter of November 1843 reported that the village Presbyterians and Methodists each had subscription papers going round to pay for churches, while the Episcopalians already had the brick walls of theirs standing. The Presbyterian church was finished in 1848 and the Methodist in 1853.
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David L. Swain and Charles Phillips transfer from New Hope to the Chapel Hill church
University president David L. Swain, who first joined a church at New Hope, and Charles Phillips were released by letter to the Presbyterian church at Chapel Hill.
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James Phillips buys the Village Chapel lot for the Presbyterian church
Professor James Phillips, as trustee, bought for $200 the lot where the Union or Village Chapel stood, as a site for the Presbyterian church, on condition that no burials be made there. The old chapel was moved a few hundred yards north, enlarged, and long served as the village public school.
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Dabney Cosby builds the Presbyterian church on Franklin Street
After the university work Cosby built a small Tuscan style church designed by Alexander Jackson Davis for the Chapel Hill Presbyterian congregation, whose members included university president David L. Swain. In March 1848 the congregation member Charles Phillips wrote to Davis that the mason could not match the lilac gray color specified for the outside. The building no longer stands.
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Charles Phillips serves as stated supply for the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church
Phillips was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Orange in December 1857 and served as stated supply for the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church from 1857 to 1868. He taught and superintended the church Sunday school and with his wife started a Sunday school for Black residents.
Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
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The Presbyterian church buys the Phillips house on East Franklin Street for a manse
After Charles Phillips left Chapel Hill and died in 1889, the Chapel Hill Presbyterian church bought his former home at 513 East Franklin Street and made it the minister's residence. Bryant dates the purchase to 1891.
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James E. Fogartie is installed as pastor of New Hope and Chapel Hill
Fogartie was called to New Hope jointly with the Chapel Hill church. About the same time the synod's evangelists W. D. Morton and a Mr. Maxwell held a meeting at New Hope that added a number of members.
Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
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William D. Moss becomes pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Chapel Hill
Coming from pastorates in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, William Dygnum Moss arrived in North Carolina in 1903 to lead the Presbyterian Church of Chapel Hill. Apart from six years in Washington, he served the congregation until his death in 1932.
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The rebuilt Presbyterian church on Franklin Street is dedicated as Sprunt Memorial
The Presbyterian church at 209 East Franklin Street, remodeled in 1919-1920 mostly at the expense of James Sprunt as a memorial to his wife, Luola Murchison Sprunt, was dedicated as the Sprunt Memorial Presbyterian Church. William D. Moss was its pastor.
Civil rights era · 1945–1975
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Fire destroys the Presbyterian church on East Franklin Street
The University Presbyterian Church burned in 1958. The congregation built a larger church on the same site three years later.
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The Presbyterians build a larger church where the burned one stood
Three years after the 1958 fire, a new and bigger Presbyterian church went up on the old site on East Franklin Street.
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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.
