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Key local figure

William Chambers Coker

William Chambers Coker joined the UNC faculty in 1902 as a botanist and turned a boggy pasture into a five-acre teaching arboretum. As head of the university's buildings and grounds committee he oversaw the campus's growth around Polk Place, and his 1923 book on water molds was the first published by UNC Press.

Source: Carolina Story: Virtual Museum of University History: William Coker (1872-1953) and Coker Hall

1872–1953 · Dates from the Library of Congress · On the Friends’ Local Authors roster → · Library of Congress authority record ↗

8 works about William Chambers Coker are indexed here, as are 8 works by Coker.

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Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineThe Chapel Hill Country Club and its golf links, 1920–19291920–1929 · 6 events · Fire destroyed the Chapel Hill Country Club's first clubhouse on April 3, 1920, and the club rebuilt on land given by William C. Coker. After a time in the Gorgon's Head lodge, members opened a new clubhouse on Coker's grounds south of the campus on May 17, 1923. The club had broken ground for a golf course that March, and by August it had cleared the first fairway and graded four greens. In January 1929 the club gave up 6 acres and received 29 from Coker, enough to extend the course to nine holes, and in February Coker gave the six-acre hill back so the club could stay open. The land later passed to the university, and the Laurel Hill subdivision was laid out along the course. StorylineRebuilding Franklin Street’s business block, 1922–19271922–1927 · 14 events · In 1927 Chapel Hill's aldermen refused a petition from five owners to remove the trees on Franklin Street's business block, voted to keep them and plant new ones, and reaffirmed the policy after about fifty citizens crowded a hearing. Under E. M. Knox, the town's business manager from 1922, Chapel Hill laid sidewalks, extended its sewers and planted street trees. In 1927 the aldermen authorized street bonds without a vote, paved the planting strip down the middle of Franklin Street and moved the north curb toward the buildings. A flashing traffic beacon that Louis Graves called an eyesore stood at the Raleigh road by that August, and by late November lamps borrowed from the University lit the north side. StorylineAuctioning land into house lots, 1923–19251923–1925 · 7 events · From 1923 to 1925 farms and fields around Chapel Hill and Carrboro were cut into house lots. The Chapel Hill Insurance and Realty Company opened Forest Hills on the Pittsboro road and lots on North Street in 1923. In 1924 the Durham Auction Company sold the Lloyd field in Carrboro and part of the old Purefoy land at sales with bands and free dinners, and W. C. Coker's woods east of the campus were laid out in large lots. In 1925 the realty company bid in most of Robert L. Strowd's farm east of town at auction and began selling lots there as Davie Woods. StorylineLowering the Franklin Street sidewalk and the Texaco corner, 1930–19311930–1931 · 4 events · Lowering the sidewalk for a Texas Company service station on the southeast corner of Franklin and Columbia streets meant cutting the old elms along that stretch, nine on Franklin Street and four on Columbia by the Weekly's count. The aldermen agreed in July 1930 on condition that a planting strip be kept for new trees under W. C. Coker's direction, and the elms came down at the end of August. The sidewalk was regraded and paved at the abutting owners' expense. The Weekly called the station recently built by late January 1931, and by February 27 sixteen sugar maples had been set out on the south side of Franklin Street. StorylineHard-surfacing Chapel Hill’s streets with federal labor, 1934–19351934–1935 · 10 events · Federal work-relief labor hard-surfaced Chapel Hill's streets in 1934, adding about three and a quarter miles of paved streets. By April 20 relief officials had approved surfacing 76,500 square yards with tar and crushed stone. The government paid about three fourths of the cost; because the Local Government Commission would not let the town borrow for its share, the aldermen raised the tax rate from $1.04 to $1.32. In January 1935, after the Weekly wrote that Black residents had not been fairly treated in the care of streets, the town widened and graveled Church Street, the main street of the Black section. On February 13 an order from Raleigh stopped the relief work. StorylineThe University’s medical building, 1937–19391937–1939 · 6 events · Between 1937 and 1939 the University built a new building for its school of medicine and Division of Public Health, with state money and a Public Works Administration grant. William de Berniere MacNider became dean of the medical school in 1937, and that summer a site was chosen near the junction of the Pittsboro and Raleigh roads and Washington announced a grant of $185,000. The school of medicine moved in at the start of the fall quarter of 1939, and the Division of Public Health admitted fourteen graduate students to its master of public health course. The building, formally opened that December, cost $428,000 and was named for MacNider.
Show all 7 storylines
StorylineThe Knolls: a home colony for Black University janitors, 1940–19411940–1941 · 5 events · In 1940 the University's Black janitors set out to own homes with vegetable gardens instead of paying rent. About twenty University employees agreed to build one another's houses, trading labor hour for hour, and formed the Service Employees' Corporation to buy materials and arrange financing. The corporation took an option on the old Creel place, about 40 acres just outside the western town limits; W. C. Coker provided the money for the land at low interest, and a lender arranged through University officials agreed to advance most of the building costs. Thirty-eight janitors took lots in what was named The Knolls, and the FHA (the Federal Housing Administration) approved the plan. By August 1941 six houses were finished and occupied.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 64 dated events in the chronology →

During their lifetime

  1. William C. Coker begins turning a boggy pasture into the campus arboretum UNC's first professor of botany began developing a five-acre boggy pasture on the campus into an outdoor classroom for the study of trees, shrubs and vines native to North Carolina. From the 1920s through the 1940s he added many East Asian trees and shrubs. Place: Coker Arboretum, Chapel HillSearch the index · North Carolina Botanical Garden: Coker Arboretum
  2. Botanist William C. Coker builds his house at The Rocks At The Rocks, his estate north of the village (now 609 North Street), botanist William Coker built a stuccoed two-story house raised on a high stone base, with wide eaves and a fieldstone wainscot. Little finds it the nearest thing in Chapel Hill to Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie houses; its architect is unknown. People: William Chambers Coker Place: The Rocks, 609 North Street, Chapel HillSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 46
  3. UNC sets up a separate botany department with Coker as its chair By 1908 William C. Coker, who had come to the university as an associate professor in 1902, was a full professor and chair of the newly established Botany Department, housed in Davie Hall. Place: Davie Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · North Carolina Botanical Garden: William Chambers Coker
  4. The university publishes M. C. S. Noble's county geography bulletin built on Orange County The UNC Bureau of Extension issued The Teaching of County Geography as Extension Series No. 12, an outline for teachers that used Orange County as its worked example, from soils and crops to town histories and school statistics. Education dean M. C. S. Noble wrote it with help from botanist W. C. Coker, state forester J. S. Holmes and historian J. G. de R. Hamilton. People: M. C. S. Noble, William Chambers Coker, John Simcox Holmes, J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · M. C. S. Noble (University of North Carolina Bureau of Extension), The Teaching of County Geography (1915), scan p. 7
  5. President Edward K. Graham engages planner John Nolen to study the campus Urged by a faculty grounds committee of W. C. Coker, George Howe and Collier Cobb, formed in 1913, and after the trustees endorsed a full campus plan in spring 1916, Graham brought in the national planner John Nolen. Between 1917 and 1919 Nolen studied the campus and recommended building out the land south of South Building, the direction the 1920s expansion took. People: Edward Kidder Graham, Collier Cobb, William Chambers Coker, George Howe Place: UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also named: John NolenSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 50 · Also: The Tar Heel, March 24, 1917, p. 1
  6. William C. Coker directs a university bureau for school grounds Coker set up and ran the UNC Extension Division's Bureau of Design and Improvement of School Grounds, which sent plans and a field assistant to schools around the state; 33 towns were helped in 1920-21. In 1921 the bureau began advising on home and factory grounds as well. Place: UNC Extension Division, Chapel HillSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District, National Register nomination (OR0303), p. 17
  7. Louis R. Wilson and W. C. Coker are raised to Kenan professorships At the 1920 commencement meeting the trustees made librarian Louis Round Wilson and botanist William C. Coker Kenan professors, in the same action that recognized Horace Williams. People: Louis Round Wilson, William Chambers Coker Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Horace WilliamsSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 201-202
  8. John M. Booker outlines sixteen more buildings for the growing campus With enrollment rising past 1,600, English professor John M. Booker, a member of the faculty building committee, presented a plan with sites for sixteen buildings beyond the seven already funded, which he said would be needed within a few years to serve 3,000 students. He had also urged grouping buildings by purpose in the new campus plan. People: John M. Booker, Harry Woodburn Chase, William Chambers Coker Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 242, 244
  9. William C. Coker gives the Chapel Hill Country Club land for a clubhouse and golf course About a year before May 1923, the Weekly reported, Coker turned over to the new Chapel Hill Country Club its grounds off the Raleigh road beyond the cemetery. The clubhouse went up in the spring of 1923 and the golf course over the next two years. The land later passed to the university and is used for tennis courts and a greenway park; the Laurel Hill subdivision was laid out along the course. People: William Chambers Coker Place: Laurel Hill area, south of the UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Chapel Hill Country ClubSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 1, 1923, p. 1 · Also: NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975; Chapel Hill Weekly, May 24, 1923, p. 4
  10. William C. Coker's committee is put in charge of the care of the whole campus After Coker drew his 'Plan A' for siting dormitories on the campus's east side, the grounds and buildings committee in December 1922 gave him and a subcommittee charge of the care and improvement of the entire campus, with its own budget. The nomination calls him in effect the university's first resident planner. Place: University of North Carolina campus, Chapel HillSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District, National Register nomination (OR0303), p. 18
  11. The University of North Carolina Press publishes William C. Coker's book on water molds By mid-August 1923 the University of North Carolina Press had published William C. Coker's The Saprolegniaceae, a scientific study of water molds and the fish they kill. The News called it the first book the Press published and the first of nine volumes in its first catalog, with Coker's study of the Clavarias of the United States and Canada due in September. People: William Chambers Coker Place: University of North Carolina Press, Chapel HillThe News (Chapel Hill), August 16, 1923, p. 1
  12. Three donors start a Campus Fund to beautify the University grounds James Sprunt of Wilmington, John Sprunt Hill of Durham and W. C. Coker of Chapel Hill each gave $1,000 to start a Campus Fund for beautifying the University campus, announced in an alumni pamphlet titled 'The Campus Beautiful'. People: James Sprunt, John Sprunt Hill, William Chambers Coker Place: UNC campus, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 11, 1923, p. 2
Show all 62 dated events
  1. The trustees' building committee keeps the women's building on the lot next to the Episcopal church Meeting in Chapel Hill, the trustees' building committee voted, reportedly unanimously, to put the University's first building for women students on the lot beside the Episcopal church, as the trustees had decided a year earlier, rather than in the grove before the Booker home near the new men's dormitories. The first step was to remove the old house on the lot, home in turn to John de B. Hooper, Eben Alexander, H. V. Wilson, C. W. Bain, J. B. Bullitt and W. E. Caldwell. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, John Sprunt Hill, William Chambers Coker Place: Lot next to the Chapel of the Cross, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Eben Alexander, J. B. Bullitt, W. E. Caldwell, H. V. WilsonSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 10, 1924, p. 1
  2. W. C. Coker's woods east of the campus are laid out as a new home colony Engineer T. F. Hickerson laid out roads through W. C. Coker's land east of the campus beside the Country Club road, dividing it into 13 large lots facing a ridge road and the golf course, with water, sewer and electric lines to follow as in the Gimghoul section. People: William Chambers Coker, Thomas Felix Hickerson Place: East of the campus, Country Club road, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Country Club, GimghoulSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 27, 1924, p. 1
  3. University trustees vote $5,000 to landscape the campus around the gymnasium Meeting in Chapel Hill, the trustees' committee on buildings and grounds voted $5,000 for the faculty campus committee under W. C. Coker to grade, wall and plant the grounds around Bynum Gymnasium, the Playmakers Theatre, Carr, Steele and the medical building. Another $1,000 from the alumni Campus Beautiful Fund went to the spaces by Old East and by Swain Hall. People: William Chambers Coker Place: Bynum Gymnasium area, UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Playmakers Theatre, Swain HallSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 23, 1926, p. 1
  4. Watts Hill of Durham gives the University a greenhouse for the botany department By October 1926 a greenhouse given by Watts Hill of Durham stood ready at the south end of the botany department's nursery behind Peabody Hall. Eighty feet long and fifteen wide, with heat valves that held a set temperature, it was to raise plants for the Arboretum and the campus and to let botany students watch tender species grow through the winter. People: William Chambers Coker Place: Botany nursery behind Peabody Hall, University campus, Chapel Hill · Also named: Watts HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 1, 1926, p. 1
  5. W. C. Coker buys the Addison Duke farm on the Raleigh road William C. Coker bought the farm of Addison Duke, about 250 acres on the old Raleigh road beyond the Strowd farm, at the same time that the Chapel Hill Insurance and Realty Company sold eighteen tracts cut from the Strowd farm to D. D. Carroll, A. W. Hobbs, N. W. Walker, M. E. Hogan and others. Place: Old Raleigh road, Chapel Hill township · Also named: D. D. Carroll, A. W. Hobbs, M. E. Hogan, N. W. WalkerSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 15, 1926, p. 1
  6. William C. Coker plats the Laurel Hill subdivision On his land southeast of the campus, Coker had T. Felix Hickerson lay out Laurel Hill Road along a ridge beside the golf course, with short cul-de-sacs and large lots. Coker approved every house plan and seems to have sent builders to Atwood and Nash; seven houses were built before the 1929 crash. People: Thomas Felix Hickerson, William Chambers Coker Place: Laurel Hill, Chapel HillSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 64
  7. William C. Coker's Rocky Ridge lot deeds restrict the race of residents In selling the lots of his Rocky Ridge Farm development, Coker wrote covenants into the deeds that set the number of buildings, the cost of houses and, in the early deeds, the race of the residents. These private restrictions governed the neighborhood before Chapel Hill had residential zoning. People: William Chambers Coker Place: Rocky Ridge Farm (Laurel Hill), Chapel HillNC State Historic Preservation Office: Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District, National Register nomination (OR0303), p. 13
  8. Chapel Hill aldermen vote to protect Franklin Street's trees and plant new ones Refusing a petition from five property owners to remove trees along the business block, the aldermen voted on November 7, on R. D. W. Connor's motion and with W. C. Coker's advice, to keep the existing trees, replace those already cut and plant new ones in openings left in the new sidewalk. After about fifty citizens crowded a public hearing on November 14, where Moody Durham spoke for merchants who wanted the block bare, the board reaffirmed the policy and Coker recommended sweetgums and mimosas. People: R. D. W. Connor, William Chambers Coker, Zeb P. Council, Moody W. Durham Place: Franklin Street business block, Chapel Hill · Also named: Moody DurhamSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 11, 1927, p. 1
  9. The town plants Lombardy poplars along Franklin Street's business block Following the aldermen's decision to grow shade trees in the business section, the town planted Lombardy poplars on the north side of Franklin Street between the post office and the Carolina Theatre, chosen by W. C. Coker, and set green metal cages around them. People: William Chambers Coker, Edward M. Knox Place: North side of Franklin Street, post office to Columbia Street, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Carolina Theatre, Franklin StreetSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 27, 1928, p. 1
  10. W. C. Coker lays off the Buttons residence colony, named for Button Norwood W. C. Coker laid off eleven lots beyond the Country Club on the way to Laurel Hill for a colony to be called Button's, after Button Battle Norwood, an aged Black man who had lived on the tract for many years and had been enslaved by the Battle family. George Howe bought the lot where Norwood's home stood, and Norwood was to move to the Mason farm near his married daughter. People: William Chambers Coker, George Howe Place: Buttons, off the Country Club road toward Laurel Hill, Chapel Hill · Also named: Button Norwood · Also mentions: Country Club, Mason farmSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 2, 1928, p. 1
  11. Chi Psi buys Dr. Jones's Gothic cottage on Cameron Avenue for its fraternity house By early June 1928 Mrs. C. L. Lindsay, who had the place from her father David McCauley, sold the property at 321 West Cameron Avenue to the newly re-established Chi Psi fraternity for about $30,000, the Weekly reported, with faculty member W. C. Coker active in the negotiation (Little has Coker as the buyer). The 1850s Gothic cottage of Dr. Johnston Blakeley Jones became the Chi Psi fraternity's house. People: William Chambers Coker, Johnston Blakeley Jones Place: 321 West Cameron Avenue, Chapel Hill · Also named: Mrs. C. L. LindsaySearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 29 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 8, 1928, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, December 14, 1928, p. 1
  12. Town and University agree to widen the Country Club road with curbs and gutters By July 13, 1928, the town and the University decided to widen the Country Club road, from the east campus gate past Battle Park to the Gimghoul colony, to 36 feet between new concrete curbs and gutters. Contractor Jack Long was to start late in July after finishing curbs on W. C. Coker's road out to Buttons, with the job done by fall. People: William Chambers Coker Place: Country Club road east of the campus, Chapel Hill · Also named: Jack Long · Also mentions: Battle Park, Country Club, GimghoulSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 13, 1928, p. 1
  13. Chi Psi announces a Norman-style house for West Cameron Avenue Chi Psi announced plans for a $50,000 Norman-style stone house by the university architects Atwood and Nash on the old McCauley place on Cameron Avenue. The design broke with the campus's Colonial theme: steep slate roof, casement windows with stone trim, an arched entrance and a stone terrace. The old McCauley house, the chapter's home, burned on Christmas night 1929, and in November 1930 the chapter was still without a new house. People: William Chambers Coker, Arthur Cleveland Nash, Thomas C. Atwood Place: 321 West Cameron Avenue, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Cameron AvenueSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 62 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, November 16, 1930, p. 4; Chapel Hill Weekly, December 14, 1928, p. 1
  14. Country Club trades land with W. C. Coker to extend its golf course to nine holes The Chapel Hill Country Club's annual meeting on January 31, 1929, approved an exchange in which the club gave up 6 acres and received 29 from W. C. Coker, enough to extend its golf course to nine holes, and elected Colonel Joseph Hyde Pratt president. On February 9 Coker gave the six-acre hill back to the club so it could stay open. People: William Chambers Coker, Joseph Hyde Pratt, Sturgis E. Leavitt Place: Country Club golf links, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 8, 1929, p. 1
  15. UDC gift pays for crepe myrtles along Franklin Street W. C. Coker staked out a row of red and white crepe myrtles along Franklin Street running west from the Episcopal church, paid for by a $25 gift from the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It was part of the UDC's campaign to plant along the Jefferson Davis Highway through Durham, Chapel Hill and Pittsboro and to discourage roadside advertising signs. People: William Chambers Coker Place: Franklin Street west of the Episcopal church, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Franklin StreetSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 29, 1929, p. 1
  16. UNC trustees order the space between South Building and the new library graded and planted The trustees' building committee and then the executive committee decided to spend $50,000 of the legislature's $264,000 for permanent improvements on mains, grading, walks and planting between South Building and the new library and along the South road. By late May laborers were tearing out the railway spur laid eight years before for building materials and spreading topsoil for W. C. Coker's planting. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, William Chambers Coker Place: Space between South Building and the new library, UNC campus, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 19, 1929, p. 1
  17. An early ice storm coats Chapel Hill's trees Chapel Hill awoke on November 23 to trees and shrubs hung with ice, which bent limbs to the ground, broke branches and blocked paths and narrow roads. W. C. Coker said he had never seen iced trees there so early, the Black minister John Caldwell recalled only one other November freeze, and the town trimmed the damaged young poplars on the main street under Coker's direction. People: William Chambers Coker, John Caldwell Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 29, 1929, p. 1
  18. W. C. Coker, the University and the Country Club set apart 2,200 acres as a game reservation The University trustees formally accepted W. C. Coker's offer to devote his lands near the campus to a wildlife reservation, and the University and the Country Club added adjoining land for a tract of about 2,200 acres south and east of the campus on both sides of the Raleigh road, some of it in Durham County. A hundred placards were printed forbidding hunting on the land. Place: South and east of the UNC campus, both sides of the Raleigh road, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Country ClubSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 7, 1930, p. 1
  19. W. C. Coker plants willow oaks along the new Raleigh road Within a few weeks W. C. Coker had planted willow oaks along both sides of the new Raleigh road for about a mile out from the village on his own land, after setting sweet gums along the South Road and cedars on the banks of Kenan Stadium. Place: Raleigh road east of Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Kenan StadiumSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 21, 1930, p. 3
  20. Community Club judges tour filling stations to open a beautification contest The Community Club's citizenship committee, chaired by Mrs. J. M. Valentine, offered prizes for the greatest improvement in Chapel Hill township's filling stations over the next year, with free shrubs from W. C. Coker. Five judges visited and photographed 16 stations to record their condition before the June 1931 judging. People: William Chambers Coker, Gustave M. Braune Place: Chapel Hill township · Also named: Mrs. J. M. ValentineSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 17, 1930, p. 1
  21. Town plants grass between the curb and the new Franklin Street sidewalk Grass was planted along the south side of Franklin Street in the strip between the curb and the new sidewalk, with trees to follow under W. C. Coker's direction. Stores along the block, among them R. A. Eubanks's, rebuilt their fronts to meet the new sidewalk grade. People: William Chambers Coker Place: Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: R. A. EubanksSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 24, 1930, p. 1
  22. Sixteen sugar maples are planted along the south side of Franklin Street Under the direction of University botanist W. C. Coker, sixteen sugar maples from a Mebane nursery were set out on the south side of Chapel Hill's main street between Columbia Street and the Methodist church. The aldermen had approved regrading the sidewalk there, which cost several old elms, only on condition that new trees be planted. People: William Chambers Coker Place: South side of Franklin Street between Columbia Street and the Methodist church, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Columbia StreetSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 27, 1931, p. 1
  23. The Garden Club holds its flower show in the town's own gardens Instead of a one-day display in a building, the Garden Club opened private gardens to the public at set hours, beginning with receptions at the gardens of Mrs. J. M. Bell, Mrs. F. P. Venable and Mrs. Isaac H. Manning and going on through April with gardens, doorways, springs and tulip beds entered by other householders. The Weekly called it a new kind of flower show; prizes given by W. C. Coker and Joseph Hyde Pratt were offered for the best lawns, premises, back yards and rock and pool gardens. People: William Chambers Coker, Joseph Hyde Pratt Place: Private gardens, Chapel Hill · Also named: Mrs. Isaac H. ManningSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 3, 1931, p. 1
  24. W. C. Coker sells 308 acres on the Raleigh road to St. Pierre DuBose W. C. Coker sold St. Pierre DuBose of Durham a 308-acre tract on both sides of the new Nelson-Raleigh highway a little over a mile east of Chapel Hill, made up of the old Cheek and Duke farms. The agent, A. E. Hughes, said DuBose meant to build a country home on a hill north of the road, and DuBose was said to have bought the adjoining Lloyd Mountain tract as well. Place: Nelson-Raleigh road (later NC 54) near the Durham County line, east of Chapel Hill · Also named: St. Pierre DuBoseSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 8, 1931, p. 1
  25. D. St. Pierre DuBose lets the contract for a stock barn and farm cottage east of Chapel Hill D. St. Pierre DuBose, who had bought a farm from W. C. Coker east of the village on the Raleigh road, awarded George W. Kane the contract for a 36-by-58-foot stock barn and a farmer's cottage designed by Atwood and Weeks, and Kane began work. The Weekly reported that DuBose, John Sprunt Hill's son-in-law, was said to plan a country estate there. People: William Chambers Coker Place: DuBose farm, Raleigh road, east of Chapel Hill · Also named: D. St. Pierre DuBose, George W. Kane, John Sprunt HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 18, 1931, p. 5
  26. Watts Hill gives the University the Ashe herbarium George Watts Hill gave the University the herbarium of the late William Willard Ashe, some 20,000 dried plants, which the Weekly said made the University's herbarium the largest in the South. W. C. Coker, Ashe's friend, arranged the gift, and the plants were to be mounted and shown in the botany building. People: George Watts Hill, W. W. (William Willard) Ashe, William Chambers Coker Place: Botany building, University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 17, 1933, p. 2
  27. Federal relief workers clear a public picnic ground below the University Lake dam Men paid from federal relief funds cleared two or three acres of thick woods along the stream below the University Lake dam, about two miles west of Chapel Hill, into a free picnic ground with tables, benches from the old Memorial Hall, a playground and a footbridge laid on rails discarded from the railroad at Carrboro. The Battle Park Association, newly in charge of the lake grounds, ran motorboat rides at 10 cents to pay for more improvements. People: William Chambers Coker, John S. Bennett Place: University Lake, west of Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Memorial HallThe Chapel Hill Weekly, June 2, 1933, p. 1
  28. Civil Works crews begin improving Chapel Hill's streets and sidewalks A force of 26 Civil Works men under Charles Martindale began grading, draining and resurfacing Chapel Hill's sidewalks on January 25, starting with a new walk on Graham Avenue, while W. C. Coker directed the pruning of street trees. The tar-and-crushed-stone surfacing of 76,500 square yards of streets waited on stone from crushers being set up on University land and at Carrboro. People: William Chambers Coker, John L. Caldwell Place: Graham Avenue and Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Charles MartindaleSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 26, 1934, p. 1
  29. Civilian Conservation Corps men build a trail and plant 80,000 trees around University Lake A platoon of about 25 men from the CCC camp in Durham County began cutting a six-foot woods trail around University Lake early in 1934, laid out by botanist H. R. Totten for the University grounds committee. By late April the trail ran about five miles, with bridges over Price's Creek and Mill Branch, and the men had nearly finished planting 80,000 young pines and hardwoods on the slopes around the lake. People: Henry Roland Totten, William Chambers Coker Place: University Lake, west of CarrboroSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 27, 1934, p. 1
  30. Chapel Hill aldermen refuse to rezone for a filling station beside the Presbyterian church Clarence Pickard and Lucius E. Stacy had asked the town to move the block east of the Presbyterian church, facing the campus, into a business zone for an oil-company filling station. After a hearing at which the University, the church's officers and W. C. Coker opposed it, the aldermen unanimously upheld the planning board and denied the application. People: R. B. House, William Chambers Coker, Clarence Pickard Place: Franklin Street east of the Presbyterian church, opposite Graham Memorial, Chapel Hill · Also named: Lucius E. StacySearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 17, 1934, p. 1
  31. Botanist William C. Coker marries Louise Venable William Chambers Coker married Louise Manning Venable, daughter of former UNC president Francis P. Venable, on Sunday afternoon, October 28, 1934, at her mother's home, with Rev. Alfred S. Lawrence officiating before a few relatives and friends. After her death in 1983 part of the grounds of The Rocks, the Coker home on North Street, became a public garden in her memory. Place: Home of Mrs. Francis P. Venable, Chapel Hill · Also named: Louise Venable Coker, Alfred S. Lawrence, Francis P. Venable · Also mentions: The RocksSearch the index · North Carolina Botanical Garden: Preserves and Natural Areas (The Rocks) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, November 2, 1934, p. 5
  32. University and Duke committee issues its first report on cooperation A joint committee of University and Duke faculty, appointed in the autumn of 1933, issued its first report on cooperation between the two universities, released at once in Chapel Hill and Durham with a foreword by President Frank P. Graham and President Few. It urged coordinated graduate work, with students taking some courses for credit at the other school and exchanges of professors, along with shared library resources, research, lectures, concerts and publishing. People: Frank Porter Graham, Howard W. Odum, William Chambers Coker, Edgar Wallace Knight Place: Chapel Hill and DurhamSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 22, 1935, p. 6
  33. Chapel Hill plants 300 willow oaks along its streets Beginning November 29, crews set out 200 willow oaks along the village streets, with 100 more to follow, in what the Weekly called the largest tree-planting in the town's history. The University gave the saplings from its Mason farm, the WPA supplied the labor, W. C. Coker chose the species, and George H. Dickinson directed the work. People: William Chambers Coker Place: Village streets, Chapel Hill · Also named: George H. Dickinson · Also mentions: Mason farmSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 6, 1935, p. 1
  34. Schoolchildren of the Junior Garden Club plant a small park behind the Chapel Hill post office In March 1936 children of the Chapel Hill school, organized as the Junior Garden Club, planted 200 shrubs given by W. C. Coker, beds of flowers and bulbs on the lot behind the post office at Henderson Street and Rosemary Lane. The town cleared and graded the ground with WPA labor, Paul Green gave cedar poles for the fence, and the Senior Garden Club and the Movie Guild gave $25 each. People: William Chambers Coker, Paul Green Place: Lot behind the post office, Henderson Street and Rosemary Lane, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Chapel Hill school, Henderson Street, Rosemary LaneSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 20, 1936, p. 1
  35. A Pure Oil filling station opens on the old Methodist parsonage lot Ben Rose Strowd opened a Pure Oil station on the West Franklin Street lot the Methodist church had sold to the Pure Oil Company, and thanked motorists for the trade of its opening days. The sale had gone through in early September after Clyde Eubanks, a Methodist steward and alderman, got the assent of three other aldermen and the town manager issued a permit to cut the street trees in front; W. C. Coker said his tree committee had not been consulted. People: Clyde Eubanks, William Chambers Coker Place: Former Methodist parsonage lot, West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Ben Rose StrowdSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 20, 1936, p. 5
  36. The University chooses the site for its new medical building After an inspection by the faculty buildings and grounds committee under W. C. Coker, the competition-winning architects Atwood and Weeks, and consulting architect Arthur C. Nash, the University fixed the site on the wooded crest east of the Pittsboro highway near University Drive. Work on the foundations was expected to begin about February. People: William Chambers Coker, Arthur Cleveland Nash, William de Berniere MacNider Place: East side of the Pittsboro road near University Drive, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 26, 1937, p. 1
  37. The University refuses to give up part of the Carolina Inn yard to widen the highway The state highway commission had offered a curb, gutter and sidewalk for children walking to the Chapel Hill school only if the road beside the Inn were widened by a 10-foot strip. President Graham and the faculty grounds committee inspected the place and declined, proposing instead that the railroad trestle abutment be set back so the existing sidewalk could run under the tracks. People: Frank Porter Graham, William Chambers Coker Place: Carolina Inn and the railroad underpass on the Pittsboro road, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Chapel Hill schoolSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 26, 1937, p. 1
  38. W. S. Crawford plans a lake and home colony on Booker's Creek Walter S. Crawford described plans for a 55-acre lake with fishing, swimming and boating, homes on the wooded hillsides and perhaps a clubhouse, on about 400 acres he owned or held under option along Booker's Creek off the Durham highway, aimed at University and Duke faculty. People: Walter S. Crawford, William Chambers Coker Place: Booker's Creek, near Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 14, 1938, p. 1
  39. The University and the highway commission agree to widen the Pittsboro road underpass by the Carolina Inn The University consented to give an 8-foot strip of the Carolina Inn yard so the State Highway Commission could widen the road, build a longer underpass and run a sidewalk and curb from Cameron avenue to West University drive. The roughly $30,000 job, paid from federal and state funds, was meant to keep school children from crossing the road under the railroad. People: William Chambers Coker, John L. Caldwell Place: Pittsboro road beside the Carolina Inn, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 13, 1938, p. 1
  40. The faculty grounds committee places the new dining hall on Emerson Field and the zoology building on the South Road The faculty committee on grounds and buildings, chaired by W. C. Coker, decided that the University's new eating hall would go at the southwest corner of Emerson Field and the new zoology building on the south side of the South Road at its fork with the Pittsboro highway, opposite Venable Hall, so that zoology would sit near chemistry and medicine. It also decided that one of the five new dormitories would house medical students near the new medical building; the committee's choice, the Weekly said, was formally a recommendation to the trustees but in practice final. People: William Chambers Coker Place: Emerson Field and South Road, UNC campus · Also mentions: Venable HallSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 14, 1938, p. 1
  41. Citizens buy land for a Negro Community Center Ten Chapel Hill men, among them Louis Graves, R. B. House and Paul Wager, signed a $1,500 note at the Bank of Chapel Hill to buy about five acres of the old Craig place at the west end of Rosemary Lane for a Black community center. The project grew out of concerns raised by the Negro Civic Club. People: William Chambers Coker, Louis Graves, R. B. House Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Paul Wager · Also mentions: Bank of Chapel Hill, Rosemary LaneThe Chapel Hill Weekly, October 6, 1939, p. 2 (People of Both Races Combine Efforts to Establish a Community Center for Negroes)
  42. The zoology department moves into its new building During the University's spring holidays the zoology department under Robert E. Coker moved into its new building near the junction of the South road and the Pittsboro highway, opposite Venable Hall, and the botany department took over its old rooms in Davie Hall. The move nearly finished the shifts brought on by the building program, leaving only the new power plant, whose steam and cable tunnel had been held up by the hard winter. People: R. E. Coker, William Chambers Coker Place: New zoology building, University campus, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Davie Hall, Venable HallThe Chapel Hill Weekly, March 29, 1940, p. 1
  43. W. C. Coker lends the money to buy land for a home colony for Black University workers Plans for homes for the University's Black janitors and other Black employees on the 40-acre old Creel place advanced: W. C. Coker provided at low interest the $3,000 for the land, a lender arranged through University officials agreed to advance 95 per cent of building costs, and engineer Ralph M. Trimble had nearly finished laying out streets and lots of at least half an acre. Owners were to do the ditching, grading and landscaping themselves and pay off $1,500 to $1,700 houses in 15 years for about what they paid in rent. People: William Chambers Coker, Ralph M. Trimble Place: Old Creel place, west of Chapel Hill beyond the University laundryThe Chapel Hill Weekly, May 31, 1940, p. 1
  44. Coker, Baity and Bradshaw lay out the Mason Farm Road Development south of Chapel Hill William C. Coker, Herman G. Baity and Francis F. Bradshaw bought an 18-acre tract on both sides of the Mason Farm road, half a mile or so short of Morgan's Creek, divided it into 12 lots of an acre or more, and recorded restrictions in Hillsborough requiring houses costing at least $6,000, set 60 feet back, and barring apartment houses. Two lots had been sold by September 6. People: William Chambers Coker, Herman G. Baity, Francis Foster Bradshaw Place: Mason Farm Road, south of Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Morgan's CreekSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 6, 1940, p. 1
  45. Davie Hall is rebuilt inside for the botany department alone With the zoologists moved into their new building in the spring, carpenters and masons remade the inside of Davie Hall for the botany department: a fern laboratory from three offices on the top floor, an enlarged botany library and department office, a herbarium doubled in size, and new basement laboratories, one of them for F. J. LeClair of the Soil Conservation Service. People: William Chambers Coker, Francis Joseph LeClair Place: Davie Hall, UNC campus, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 13, 1940, p. 1
  46. Would-be vegetable gardeners organize in Chapel Hill and are offered plots Faculty members and townspeople who meant to grow their own vegetables against rising food prices met in Phillips hall on January 26 to hear Lloyd R. Roof of the Mason farm nursery and W. F. Lathan, with Grover Beard leading the movement for civilian defense. W. C. Coker, Herman Baity, Francis Bradshaw, Henry M. Burlage and others offered land in six sections around the town, and in February plots were staked out on Coker land for families in the Oakwood suburb. People: William Chambers Coker, William F. Lathan Place: Phillips hall, Chapel Hill · Also named: Grover Beard, Lloyd R. Roof, Francis Bradshaw · Also mentions: Mason farmThe Chapel Hill Weekly, January 30, 1942, p. 2
  47. William C. Coker lends fourteen acres on the Raleigh Road for a Pre-Flight victory garden Dr. William C. Coker of the university faculty lent the Navy a fourteen-acre tract on the Raleigh Road near the school for the duration, and Commander Graff approved a victory garden to be worked by cadets on the labor crew. The labor engineering staff under Ensign Warren H. Chivers was to run it with advice from the university's federal farming project of the Soil Conservation Service, and the vegetables were meant for the cadets' mess. People: William Chambers Coker, John P. Graff Place: Raleigh Road, Chapel Hill · Also named: Warren H. ChiversCloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), January 23, 1943, p. 1
  48. John N. Couch chairs the university botany department John N. Couch succeeded his teacher William C. Coker as chairman of the botany department in 1944 and led it until 1960. He was given a Kenan professorship in 1945. People: John N. Couch, William Chambers Coker Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Libraries, Southern Historical Collection: John Nathaniel Couch Papers, 1924-1985 (#3810)
  49. Morgan Creek Hills subdivision begins beside the new 15-501 Bypass Work on Morgan Creek Hills, on the south side of the 15-501 Bypass, started while the bypass itself was being built between 1952 and 1954. The land had several owners, among them William Chambers Coker and Bill Hunt, and the neighborhood filled in over many years with large houses on rough, hilly lots. People: William Chambers Coker, William Lanier Hunt Place: Morgan Creek Hills, Chapel Hill · Also named: Bill HuntSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 80
  50. William C. Coker dies and leaves his land north of town to Coker College At his death in 1953, botanist and real estate developer William Chambers Coker left a large tract along Estes Drive, including the land around Eastwood Lake, to Coker College in Hartsville, South Carolina. The college later had the land developed, producing Coker Hills and Lake Forest. Place: Estes Drive, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Eastwood LakeSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 79

After their death in 1953

Later events: estates and burials, and the buildings, honors and histories that remember them.

  1. UNC completes Coker Hall and names it for William C. Coker The university completed a new building in 1963 and named it Coker Hall for William Chambers Coker, Kenan professor of botany and long-time head of the buildings and grounds committee. Place: Coker Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · Carolina Story: Virtual Museum of University History: William Coker (1872-1953) and Coker Hall
  2. The Rocks in Chapel Hill and Cedar Grove School join the Study List Among nine central and southeastern public requests approved on October 12, 2017 were William C. Coker's house, The Rocks, in Chapel Hill and the Cedar Grove School north of Hillsborough. The same meeting placed the Hillsborough survey's Ja-Max Motor Lodge and Military Academy dining hall site on the list. People: William Chambers Coker Place: The Rocks, Chapel Hill; Cedar Grove School, Hillsborough vicinity · Also mentions: Cedar Grove School, Ja-Max Motor LodgeSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register Advisory Committee agendas, minutes and approved lists, p. 1418

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as William Chambers Coker, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

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Indexed works

Works about or by William Chambers Coker. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

By William Chambers Coker

The shrubs and vines of Chapel Hill

Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953; Totten, H. R. (Henry Roland), 1892-1974 · 1916 · Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society

William Chambers Coker and Henry Roland Totten identify the shrubs and climbing plants growing around Chapel Hill, reprinted in 1916 from the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, volume 32, number 2. Topics include the identification of shrubs and climbing plants in the town. The paper works as a field list of the local woody flora.

UNC

Observations on the lawns of Chapel Hill

Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953; Randolph, Eldred Oscar · 1915 · Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society

Observations on the lawns of Chapel Hill by William Chambers Coker and Eldred Oscar Randolph, detached from volume 31, part 2 of the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society for November 1915. A botanical note published by the society at Chapel Hill on what was growing in local yards.

UNC

Winter grasses of Chapel Hill

Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953 · 1915 · Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society

Coker's account of the grasses growing at Chapel Hill in winter, reprinted without change of paging from the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society for December 1915. Topics include grasses of the town and lawns in the southern states. It pairs with the observations on local lawns that he and Eldred Oscar Randolph published earlier the same year.

UNC

Chapel Hill ferns and their allies

Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953 · 1907 · Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society

William Chambers Coker's guide to the ferns and fern allies growing around Chapel Hill, with attention to identification. Reprinted in November 1907 from the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, it covers the Pteridophyta of the town and comes out of the botanical work Coker carried on from the University of North Carolina.

UNC

Chapel Hill liverworts

Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953 · 1904

William Chambers Coker's 1904 account of the liverworts growing around Chapel Hill, reprinted from volume twenty of the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society. Written as an aid to identification, it lists the species found in the town and its surroundings.

UNC

The woody plants of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Coker, William Chambers · 1903

William Chambers Coker's eight-page account of the woody plants growing at Chapel Hill, reprinted in 1903 from the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Society, volume nineteen, part two. As an early local survey of the trees and shrubs of the Orange County piedmont, it is a baseline for anyone comparing what grows there now.

NC Cardinal UNC

All 8 works by William Chambers Coker →

About William Chambers Coker

Welcome to Coker Arboretum of the North Carolina Botanical Garden, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

North Carolina Botanical Garden · 2000 · The Botanical Garden

Visitor guide to the Coker Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill, issued by the North Carolina Botanical Garden in 2000. It covers the arboretum's history and William Chambers Coker, the botanist it is named for, who died in 1953. A short orientation piece for people walking the grounds.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953.

UNC

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UNC Herbarium

North Carolina ECHO (Project) · 2002

Portrait of William Chambers Coker, who chaired the UNC Botany Department from 1908 to 1940 and gave his name to the Coker Building, home of the Herbarium. NC ECHO photograph, Chapel Hill, 6 March 2002.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

William T. Alexander oral history interview 2, 1992 April 25

Alexander, William Tasse, 1904-1992 · 1992

William T. Alexander (1904 to 1992), in the second of three interviews, describes his schooling in Mecklenburg County, Charlotte and Chapel Hill in the 1910s and 1920s, beginning at the one-room Mallard Creek School. Rural education, corporal punishment, getting children to school, amusements, student life at UNC and the botanist William Chambers Coker come up. About 64 minutes, April 1992, tied to the William Tasse Alexander Family Papers, MS0256.

Included because: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953.

DPLA

Campus beautiful

1919 · District of Columbia Alumni Association of the University of North Carolina

Pamphlet on the campus beautiful published in 1919 at Washington by the District of Columbia Alumni Association of the University of North Carolina. Topics include landscape protection and planning at Chapel Hill and include the botanist William Chambers Coker, 1872 to 1953.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953.

UNC

H.R. Totten papers, 1912-1973.

Totten, H. R. (Henry Roland), 1892-1974 · 1912

Eight linear feet and about 5,000 items make up the H. R. Totten papers, 1912 to 1973, in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 3843. Maps are among the material. Subjects include botanical gardens and arboretums in North Carolina, the Highlands Biological Station, medicinal plants and mushroom culture, the Department of Botany at Chapel Hill and William Chambers Coker, and the American Expeditionary Forces in France.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953.

UNC

Patterson's General Store Ledger

Store, Patterson's General · 1910

Account ledger of Patterson's General Store in Chapel Hill for 1910 to 1911, recording what customers owed. Accounts run from townspeople and the university Athletic Association to figures such as Kemp Plummer Battle, Edward Kidder Graham, Collier Cobb, Horace Williams and Louis Round Wilson, and firms including the Bank of Chapel Hill, Odell Hardware, Standard Oil and the Southern Railway. Part of North Carolina Memory.

Included because: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953.

DigitalNC DPLA
Show 2 more about William Chambers Coker

William Chambers Coker papers, 1884-1956 (bulk 1914-1950).

Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953 · 1884

Botanist William Chambers Coker (1872-1953) left papers running 1884 to 1956, the bulk between 1914 and 1950: about 29,000 items in 36.5 linear feet, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 3220. Topics include mycology and the teaching of botany, the Coker Arboretum, the Highlands Biological Station, the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society and the Garden Club of North Carolina, along with family social life in North Carolina.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953.

UNC

William Lanier Hunt papers, 1880s-1996.

Hunt, William Lanier · 1884

Papers of the horticulturist William Lanier Hunt, dated from the 1880s to 1996, about 40,000 items in 130 linear feet, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 5286. Topics include southern gardens and garden design, horticultural societies and teaching, the North Carolina Botanical Garden and its foundation, photographs of flowers, and the botanist William Chambers Coker at Chapel Hill.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Coker, William Chambers, 1872-1953.

UNC

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 580.92 JOS Essays on William Chambers Coker, Passionate Botanist Joslin, Mary Coker · 2003

    Mary Coker Joslin's essays on her uncle, William Chambers Coker (1872 to 1953), the University of North Carolina botanist who began the Coker Arboretum in Chapel Hill in 1903 and chaired the botany department for 36 years. She presents him as scientist, teacher, landscape designer and editor. Published in Chapel Hill by the Botanical Garden Foundation in 2003, the arboretum's centennial year, with drawings by Sandra Brooks-Mathers and eight pages of plates.

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