Robert Lee Fowler

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 10 dated events in the chronology →

1. 1923 John T. Fowler buys the Model Market at auction After Sam Pickard died, John T. Fowler bought his Model Market at auction. Fowler's sons enlarged it after 1925, and Robert L. Fowler later moved it across the street. People: Robert Lee FowlerSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 219
2. May 28-30, 1932 The Fowler brothers move the Model Market across Franklin Street into a new building Robert L. Fowler and his brother James built a one-story brick store on the old Guthrie place near the Hill Bakery, on the south side of the street. They carried their stock across after closing on Saturday night, May 28, 1932, and opened there on Monday, May 30, with a grand opening on June 4. People: Robert Lee FowlerSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 243 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, April 8, 1932, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, May 27, 1932, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, June 3, 1932, p. 1
3. June 23, 1942 Chapel Hill's Model Market closes for lack of help and tires The Model Market, a charge-and-delivery grocery with eighteen employees, failed to open one morning, its owners James S. Fowler and J. F. Byrd posting a notice that they were closing, perhaps for the duration of the war, because of the shortage of help and tires. Fowler said drafted and departing workers had left him working seventeen hours a day; his brother Robert Fowler bought the stock and fixtures to reopen a store on the same site. People: Robert Lee FowlerSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, June 26, 1942, p. 1
4. July 23, 1942 Fowler's Food Store opens in the old Model Market building Robert Fowler opened a self-service grocery and meat market in the building the Model Market had vacated, selling on a cash-and-carry basis with a telephone order, charge and delivery service at a small markup. Most of its clerks had worked for the Model Market. People: Robert Lee FowlerSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 24, 1942, p. 1
5. January 26, 1948 Chapel Hill orders traffic lights for the post office corner On the recommendation of aldermen R. J. M. Hobbs and Obie Davis, the Chapel Hill board told town manager Gilbert Ray to put up two lights at Franklin and Henderson streets, one for pedestrians at the safety walk and one for cars, to end U-turns at the post office corner, and moved Henderson Street parking to the west side. The same meeting swore in Robert Fowler to fill the seat of the late alderman E. B. Patterson. People: Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs, Gilbert W. Ray, Robert Lee FowlerSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 29, 1948, p. 1
6. July 22, 1948 Fowler's Food Store opens its new building on West Franklin Street Fowler's Food Store, successor to the old Model Market, held a grand opening in a new 80-by-200-foot building on West Franklin Street, with a parking lot reaching through to Rosemary Street. Robert L. Fowler of Chapel Hill and Marvin M. Fowler of Durham owned the store. People: Robert Lee FowlerSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 23, 1948, p. 1 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, July 23, 1948, p. 5
7. May 3, 1949 Mrs. Roland McClamroch and the Rev. J. H. Jones run for the Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen In the record-turnout election that unseated Mayor Robert W. Madry, Mrs. Roland McClamroch and the Rev. J. H. Jones ran for the Board of Aldermen; the News called her the town's first woman candidate and him its first Black candidate. Each drew 607 votes and lost to R. B. Fitch, Kenneth Putnam and Robert Fowler. People: Robert Lee FowlerSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 5, 1949, p. 1
8. February 9, 1953 Chapel Hill aldermen ask for a new, smaller perimeter zoning act On February 9, 1953, the Chapel Hill aldermen voted 4 to 2 to ask Representative John W. Umstead Jr. to introduce a new enabling act, replacing the 1949 and 1951 laws, to let the town zone a much smaller area of about a mile on each side of the new Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard, with planning and adjustment boards of five town and five outside members. The vote shelved the zoning ordinance that rural residents had fought for more than a year. People: Oliver K. Cornwell, John W. Umstead Jr., Peter L. Burch, Robert Lee FowlerSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 12, 1953, p. 1
9. April 1953 Chapel Hill aldermen thank Robert Fowler as he leaves the board At the same meeting that passed the natural gas franchise for the Public Service Company of North Carolina on final reading, the aldermen gave official thanks to Robert Fowler, who was retiring from the board after about four years.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 30, 1953, p. 1
10. February 14, 1961 Grocer and former alderman Robert Lee Fowler dies Robert Lee Fowler, 55, president of Fowler's Food Stores in Durham and Chapel Hill, a charter member of the Chapel Hill Kiwanis Club and a Chapel Hill alderman until 1953, died at Duke Hospital. He was buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery after a funeral at University Methodist Church on February 16. People: Robert Lee FowlerSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 16, 1961, p. 8