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Local figure

James J. Freeland

James J. Freeland moved to Hillsborough from Durham in 1934 and became the town's leading mid-century builder, selling houses in Fairview and other north Hillsborough neighborhoods without a down payment to families who could not otherwise buy. He built motels, restaurants and ice rinks, restored and moved old houses, and in the 1960s began Daniel Boone Village on South Churton Street.

Source: NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), pp. 20-21

Also found in catalogs as James John Freeland.

1 indexed work is connected with this person. 1 held at OCPL →

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James J. Freeland

Freeland, Maxine · 1999

Maxine Freeland's biography of James John Freeland (1918-1999), a Hillsborough man of the twentieth century, compiled in 1999.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the OCPL record: Freeland, James John, 1918-1999.

✓ Held at OCPL · BIO FREELAND FRE

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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 · BIO FREELAND FRE James J. Freeland: A Gentle Giant Freeland, Maxine · 1999

    Maxine Freeland's biography of James John Freeland (1918-1999), a Hillsborough man of the twentieth century, compiled in 1999.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 40 dated events in the chronology →

  1. James J. Freeland moves to Hillsborough Born in Durham in 1918, Freeland came to Hillsborough in 1934. In his early years there he operated the Sunny Side Inn, a barbecue restaurant, worked part time at a sawmill and helped run a dry cleaning plant in West Hillsborough. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 20
  2. James J. Freeland builds his first house at US 70 and Faucette Mill Road Three years after marrying Maxine Hayes, Freeland built the family's first home where Highway 70 crosses Faucette Mill Road, next to land that became the Fairview subdivision the following year. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 20
  3. Fairview is platted as a neighborhood for Black families north of US 70 The first of Hillsborough's mid-century African American subdivisions was laid out in 1943 along roads that were already there, with twenty-five-foot lots meant to be bought in combination. Local builder James J. Freeland, who owned land in Fairview, built many of its houses. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 24
  4. James Freeland opens the Fairview Bowling Alley in Hillsborough James Freeland opened the Fairview Bowling Alley in a building he put up himself, casting the cinder blocks and laying the concrete floor. It opened with three duckpin alleys and room for a tenpin lane. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, October 26, 1944, p. 5
  5. James Freeland knocks a Black man unconscious at his Fairview bowling alley The News of Orange County reported, from Freeland's account, that Lorenzo Thompson came into Freeland's Fairview Bowling Alley about 11:30 on a Tuesday night, asked to bowl, said he had been allowed to bowl up north, and would not leave when told to. Freeland knocked him down with one punch. Thompson's head struck the concrete floor, and his brother and a friend took him to a doctor for stitches. The paper, which presented the incident as "a vivid reminder of racial distinction in the South," added that a knife fell from Thompson's pocket and that no charges had been brought against him. It reported no charge against Freeland. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, April 5, 1945, p. 1
  6. James Freeland opens a barbecue pit behind his Fairview Bowling Alley James Freeland opened a barbecue pit behind the Fairview Bowling Alley and began serving barbecue every day. As with the alley, he built most of it himself. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, April 5, 1945, p. 5
  7. James J. Freeland develops Mountain View and Colonial Hills east of Hillsborough Freeland laid out two small subdivisions of Minimal Traditional and Ranch houses on curving streets: Mountain View, beside the Eno on its north side at Highway 70 Business, where the family built its second house, and Colonial Hills, off Lawrence Road close to Highway 70A. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 20
  8. James J. Freeland develops a small group of houses on Daye Street Moving beyond single houses, Freeland laid out a small development along Daye Street northwest of Fairview, where tax records show he owned the land. He was known for selling homes to families who could not otherwise buy, with no down payment and a second mortgage instead. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 20
  9. Fairview Baptist Church is organized in Hillsborough Fairview Baptist Church was organized in Hillsborough in October 1952 under pastor James Clegg and put up a 250-seat building that year. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 302
  10. Hillsborough Heights is laid out, with a street named for James J. Freeland The African American neighborhood on Terrell, Central, Forrest, Coley and Freeland streets, below US 70 on the west side of North Nash Street, was laid out in the 1950s. Its Freeland Street was named for the builder, who probably put up houses there. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 38
  11. James and Maxine Freeland open the Ja-Max Motor Lodge on US 70 James Freeland opened the Ja-Max Motor Lodge, named for him and his wife Maxine, on US 70 in the Fairview community at the end of February 1953: twelve units of native stone and white siding, each with a private bath, and a pine-panelled lobby with a television. The 2017 architectural survey, which dates the building to 1952, notes that guests parked at their own doors and that its hipped roof, stone veneer and horizontal-pane windows borrow from the Ranch house. It was probably the first of Freeland's motels, a string that later ran to Durham, Mebane and Roxboro and included Chapel Hill's Tar Heel Motel. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 20
  12. New Hope Presbyterian Church breaks ground for its fifth building The congregation broke ground after Sunday worship for a U-shaped colonial brick church designed by H. H. Haines of Duke University and estimated at about $50,000, meant to be finished for the 200th anniversary in 1956. Mattie Craig, one of the oldest members, turned the first spade. James Freeland, whose father had been a member, volunteered the excavation, and construction began at the end of May. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, May 12, 1955, p. 1
Show all 40 dated events
  1. The Tar-Heel Motor Lodge opens on the Chapel Hill bypass A 25-unit, air-conditioned motor lodge opened on the 15-501 bypass beside the Wishing Well Restaurant. Its owners, S. C. Forrest Jr. of Efland and James Freeland and Joseph Hayden of Hillsboro, also owned the Chesterfield Motel, and Robert G. Brooks managed both. The April building permit, the largest in Chapel Hill that month, put the cost at $150,000. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 10, 1956, p. 5
  2. James Freeland opens Holiday Park on US 70 Freeland's Holiday Park, a 20-acre recreation park on US 70 across from his Ja-Max Motor Lodge, opened with festivities attended by Miss North Carolina. Its L-shaped pool, billed as the largest in the state, was built for 500 swimmers, and the park had picnic grounds and an antique car museum; family season tickets were $25.Search the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, May 22, 1958, p. 3
  3. James Freeland adds a bowling alley, rides and a roller rink to Holiday Park Holiday Park on US 70 west of town reopened for its second season with a new bowling alley built onto the bathhouse, a stable with horses and old carriages for hire, and a merry-go-round, kiddie train and boat ride; the pool was resurfaced and given a new deep well. In late May Freeland opened a 192 by 65 foot roller skating rink beside the pool, which he described as the largest in the state.Search the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, March 26, 1959, p. 1
  4. The Hillsboro Exchange Club starts free swimming lessons at Holiday Park The Exchange Club, the Red Cross and James Freeland began what the paper called the most ambitious learn-to-swim program in Hillsboro history: 18 adults trained as volunteer instructors under Red Cross field representative William J. McDonald, and over 300 children enrolled through their schools for two weeks of free lessons in the park pool. The club repeated the program at Holiday Park in 1961 and 1962. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, June 25, 1959, p. 1
  5. James Freeland builds the General Joseph E. Johnston Motel at US 70 and Interstate 85 Builder James Freeland put up the General Joseph E. Johnston Motel on US 70 near the new Interstate 85, part of a roadside group with his ice rink and, across the highway, the General Sherman Restaurant. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, December 8, 1960, p. 12
  6. James Freeland buys the South Churton Street land that becomes Daniel Boone Village James Freeland bought the land on South Churton Street in 1960. He developed it from the 1960s as Daniel Boone Village, a motel, restaurant and amusement complex, and his family kept it after his death.Search the index · The News of Orange County: Daniel Boone Village sold (September 11, 2018)
  7. James J. Freeland develops houses at Holiday Park In the 1960s, according to the 2017 architectural survey, Freeland developed Holiday Park northwest of town with its own pool and other amenities, at the recreation park he had opened in 1958; some of its houses were former Eno Mill village houses moved to the site. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 21
  8. James J. Freeland remodels and sells the Colonial Inn Freeland, who also restored and moved old buildings, owned the Colonial Inn on West King Street for a time and remodeled it before selling it in the 1960s. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 21
  9. James Freeland opens his rebuilt Holiday Ice Rink beside the General Johnston Motel James Freeland opened a new 65 by 180 foot Holiday Ice Rink on US 70 three miles west of Durham, replacing a rink whose roof had caved in under snow the winter before. It stood next to his new General Johnston Motel. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, December 8, 1960, p. 12
  10. James Freeland's General Sherman Restaurant opens at US 70 and Interstate 85 The General Sherman Restaurant, built by James Freeland across the highway from his General Joseph E. Johnston Motel, opened around the clock and was billed as Orange County's newest. Its advertising placed it a mile and a half from Bennett Place, where Johnston surrendered to Sherman in 1865. It became a common place for Democratic Party dinners and club luncheons in the early 1960s. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, March 2, 1961, p. 6
  11. Orange County's fourth ABC store opens at US 70 and Interstate 85 Orange County's fourth and largest ABC liquor store opened beside the General Sherman Restaurant, half a mile from the Durham County line. James Freeland built the colonial-style building and leased it to the county board; it was said to be the only ABC store in North Carolina on an interstate highway. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, February 23, 1961, p. 3
  12. James Freeland hosts the Orange Democrats' announcement party at the General Sherman About 150 people, most of the county's Democratic leaders, came to a gathering James Freeland put on at his General Sherman Restaurant, which party chairman L. J. Phipps called "an announcement party." Sheriff C. D. Knight said he had filed for his first election, Register of Deeds Betty June Hayes said she would seek re-election, and Lee Kennedy had filed for county commissioner. People: James J. Freeland, Luther James PhippsSearch the index · DigitalNC: The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 25, 1962, p. 1
  13. James J. Freeland's Dixie Motor Inn opens at Interstate 85 and NC 86 The Dixie Motor Inn, owned by James J. and James Rae Freeland, opened two miles south of Hillsborough where Interstate 85 meets NC 86. It had 16 air-conditioned units and was the sixth motel the elder Freeland had built in Orange, Durham and Wake counties. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: News of Orange County, September 27, 1962, p. 2
  14. The General Joseph E. Johnston Motel is among motels that agree to admit Black guests The Carolina Times reported that all eleven motels in the Durham area had agreed to admit Black guests, among them the General Joseph Johnston Motel, which James Freeland had built in 1960 and which was then run by another operator. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: The Carolina Times, June 8, 1963, p. 2
  15. Hillsboro's new bi-racial committee holds its first meeting Mayor Fred T. Claytor's ten-member Bi-Racial Committee, chaired by the Rev. Edward Smith, met for the first time. Its Black members were Knox Mayo, Henry Whitted, Walter Faribault, J. M. Murfree and the Rev. Howe Perry; its white members were Smith, builder James Freeland, Fred Cates Jr., Clarence D. Jones and Dalton Loftin. The town board had authorized the committee the month before at the request of a newly formed Black committee on human rights, with Perry as spokesman, which also asked the town for a fair employment policy, beginning with three Black clerical hires, and for the desegregation of all public and private facilities in Hillsboro. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, August 1, 1963, p. 2
  16. A garment plant starts up in the closed Holiday Park building All-American Apparel, a new corporation managed by C. B. Watson, began making children's dungarees in the Holiday Park building on US 70, leased from James Freeland, who adapted the former bowling alley, bathhouse and concession stand for it. By 1964 the firm, renamed Ideal Fastener, had about 20 workers making zippers there; that November Freeland wrote that it would not build a permanent plant in Hillsborough, and Watson indicated a move to Oxford. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, August 8, 1963, p. 2
  17. James J. Freeland builds his third family house on Highway 70 After homes near Fairview and in his Mountain View development, Freeland built the family's third house in 1964 on Highway 70 a little northwest of that subdivision, and lived there the rest of his life. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 20
  18. James J. Freeland opens the Daniel Boone Inn and restaurant at South Churton Street and I-85 A 1966 plat of the "Daniel Boone Inn and Restaurant Tract", eleven acres lying behind the Shell station on the northeast side of the interchange, shows a pond, a general store, a restaurant later known as the D. B. Cafeteria and a long two-story motel. It was the start of Daniel Boone Village. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 21
  19. James J. Freeland remodels the William Whitted House on East Queen Street In the 1970s Freeland remodeled the William Whitted House, one of several historic Hillsborough buildings he restored or moved. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 21
  20. Junior Samples and Jimmy Martin play the Daniel Boone Amphitheater Hee Haw comedian Junior Samples headed an afternoon country bill at the amphitheater at Daniel Boone Park off I-85, with Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys, Tater Tate and the Shenandoah Cut-Ups, and Glenn Thompson; the crowd was small, the paper reported. Ads that summer offered Sammi Smith and Charlie Louvin on June 20 and Saturday-night rock shows and dances into September, alongside the park's railroad, rides and wax museum. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, June 17, 1971, p. 1
  21. Daniel Boone Village grows into an amusement park By 1972 the Daniel Boone Recreation Park had a roller rink, an ice rink, a ski lift, a refrigerated toboggan slide, an antique car and wax museum, a fort, an amphitheater and a campground, circled by a small railroad on which costumed performers staged holdups. With relocated log cabins and false-front shops it looked like a frontier town, and Freeland was dubbed the "Walt Disney of Hillsborough." People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 21
  22. The Daniel Boone amusement park closes and Boone Square replaces its north end By the end of the 1970s the rides were gone, leaving only the campground, ice rink and amphitheater, and the northern part of the property was rebuilt as the Boone Square shopping center; a big-box supermarket stood on the ride site by 1983. Daniel Boone Village became a center for antique shops and restaurants, with the Big Barn Convention Center for community events. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 22
  23. James J. Freeland moves the Gatewood House from Yanceyville to Daniel Boone Village Continuing his habit of relocating old buildings to his South Churton Street development, Freeland brought the Gatewood House from Yanceyville in Caswell County to Daniel Boone Village in 1978. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 21
  24. The Big Barn at Daniel Boone Village is renting to campus parties The Big Barn Convention Center at Daniel Boone Village was advertising to UNC sororities, fraternities and dorms by 1980, thanking them for another party season. Ads through the 1980s offered a rustic hall for about 400 with catering; Donna Freeland managed it in 1982. It also held public events, among them a Hillsborough Democrats summer festival (1981), an ArtSchool benefit reggae concert (1987) and a Tommy Dorsey Orchestra dance sponsored by the ArtsCenter (1989). In 1994 the Daily Tar Heel said it had housed sorority functions for 16 years. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, April 17, 1980, p. 3
  25. James J. Freeland moves Poplar Hill across the Eno to South Cameron Street Freeland, who had moved the Gatewood House in 1978, had the Poplar Hill house hauled over the Eno River from Tuscarora Drive to a new lot at 203 South Cameron Street, just south of Burnside, on the north side of the river. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District, National Register additional documentation (2014), section 7, p. 20
  26. James J. Freeland dies The Hillsborough builder, motel owner and developer of Daniel Boone Village died in 1989 at the Highway 70 house he had built in 1964. His children kept Daniel Boone Village and Boone Square. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 22
  27. Local historian Scotty Washington proposes a James Freeland Day Writing in the News of Orange County, local historian Scotty Washington urged readers to mark July 24, Freeland's birthday in 1918, as James Freeland Day. He credited Freeland with more than 700 Hillsborough homes, some for people of modest means, with moving the house where James Hogg and later James Carr lived, the Dickinson House and the Gatewood House, and with the Hillsborough Historical Society's Engstrom Award for restoring the Whitted House. People: James HoggSearch the index · The News of Orange County: Scotty Washington, "Freeland helped shape Hillsborough of today" (July 26, 2014)
  28. The Hillsborough survey proposes the Ja-Max Motor Lodge for the state Study List The survey report recommended the 1952 motel on US 70 for North Carolina's National Register Study List as one of the town's few surviving mid-century motels. It cited the eleven rooms, each with its own bath and parking at the door, the lamp-lined drive, and Ranch-house features rarely used on a commercial building, and proposed a 2.87-acre boundary. The National Register Advisory Committee added the motel to the Study List on October 12, 2017. People: James J. FreelandSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 41

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