Orange County Indexed · Worked research guide
The Colonial Inn construction date
When two accounts give different dates, keep both claims long enough to investigate them. The useful question is what evidence supports each account and whether the accounts describe the same building or event.
Features used in this guide: The chronology · Places
For the Colonial Inn, the index's chronology entry on its construction gives 1838 and notes that local lore and a 1953 plate caption put the inn in the eighteenth century. A postcard among the site page's indexed works is captioned "Built in 1759." Record each date with its author, publication date, page or caption, and the precise claim. Do not combine them into an unexplained date range.
Separate the history of the lot, an earlier house on it, the surviving inn, later additions, and the business name. A property may have been occupied before the current building existed. A hotel's first advertisement may also postdate construction. These distinctions can explain an apparent disagreement. Here the 2014 survey notes that several inns stood around the lot, which may explain the confusion.
The 2014 Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation (section 7, page 78) dates the inn to about 1838, credits that date to evidence gathered by Mrs. Engstrom "despite local lore that it was built in 1759," and traces the lot back to Henry Shutt's purchase in 1803. The index also cites Spencer's advertisement dated October 17, printed in the Hillsborough Recorder of October 25, 1838, page 3. Follow those references. For the older date, find the actual passage or caption, such as the 1953 plate in Lefler and Wager's Orange County, 1752-1952, and look for its source rather than relying on a quotation repeated online.
A contemporary advertisement may be strong evidence that a building was being offered at a particular time, but it may not say when construction began. A later architectural survey can add evidence about the structure. Check who created each source, what they could know, and whether an assertion rests on a cited record or on local tradition.
Do not settle a disagreement by counting websites. Several pages may repeat one account. State why you prefer a particular date, keep qualifications such as "about" or "by," and identify the evidence that could change your conclusion. If you cannot resolve the difference, say so plainly.
A supported conclusion is that 1838 is the best-supported date, among the sources the index currently cites, for the inn later called the Colonial Inn. That does not mean no earlier building stood on the lot, nor does it establish an exact construction day.
Keep a short note showing the competing claims, the sources examined, and your reason for preferring one. To send a correction to the index, use the "Suggest a correction to an entry" link under the chronology entries and include the supporting passage and citation so the decision can be checked.
