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Local figure

John Sprunt Hill

John Sprunt Hill, a Durham banker and 1889 graduate, endowed the university's North Carolina Collection in 1906 and built the Carolina Inn in 1924. As a trustee he chaired the committee on university buildings from 1923 to 1931, and the old Carnegie Library became Hill Music Hall.

Source: NCpedia: Hill, John Sprunt (Roger N. Kirkman, 1988)

1869–1961 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

8 indexed works are connected with this person, and the index includes 4 works by John Sprunt Hill.

John Sprunt Hill, 1919
John Sprunt Hill, 1919

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

By John Sprunt Hill

Against fluoridation of water at the university

Hill, John Sprunt, 1869-1961 · 1952

John Sprunt Hill, who lived from 1869 to 1961, argues against fluoridating the water at the University of North Carolina in this 1952 printing from Chapel Hill. The subjects are water fluoridation and water supply in Chapel Hill. A short statement from one side of a local public health argument of the early 1950s.

UNC

Fluoridation of water conceived in iniquity and born in sin

Hill, John Sprunt, 1869-1961 · 1960 · John Sprunt Hill

John Sprunt Hill (1869 to 1961) signed this typescript at Durham on 26 May 1960, and a manuscript note records that it appeared in the Chapel Hill Weekly four days later. The title states his view of adding fluoride to the town water supply plainly enough, and the piece deals with water fluoridation in Chapel Hill. Part of UNC's North Carolina Collection.

UNC

Address before the Alumni Association of the University of North Carolina, June 2, 1903

Hill, John Sprunt, 1869-1961 · 1903 · The University?

John Sprunt Hill's address to the Alumni Association of the University of North Carolina, delivered on 2 June 1903 and printed at Chapel Hill. Hill was a Durham banker and later a benefactor of the university. The pamphlet deals with American addresses given at Chapel Hill, and the text of the speech is what it carries.

UNC

John Sprunt Hill papers, 1679-1967.

Hill, John Sprunt, 1869-1961 · 1679

Four thousand five hundred items in five linear feet kept as the papers of John Sprunt Hill, 1869 to 1961, with material dated from 1679 to 1967, collection 3564 in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. Genealogy, family histories and campaign literature appear among the genres. Topics include banking and business in North Carolina, the General Assembly, cooperative agriculture, Erwin Cotton Mills, the Carolina Inn, and Hill as a benefactor of the university.

UNC

About John Sprunt Hill

Oral history interview with George Watts Hill, January 30, 1986 interview C-0047, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).

Hill, George Watts · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

George Watts Hill (1901-1993), Durham banker and philanthropist, interviewed by James Leutze on January 30, 1986 for the Southern Oral History Program, over seven hours in all. Hill grew up in Durham, entered UNC in 1918 and describes student life in Chapel Hill in the early twentieth century before leaving in 1924 with two degrees. He also discusses banking, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, dairy farming, the Duke family, his father John Sprunt Hill, the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, and Research Triangle Park.

The Inn crowd : October 16, 1995.

1996

A half hour videocassette of the narrated slide show 'The Carolina Inn', presented when the inn reopened in October 1995 at an event hosted by the Chapel Hill Preservation Society. Bitty Holton, Linnie Green, Judy Kramer and Betty Cloutier narrate. Topics include John Sprunt Hill and the Hill family, whose name is attached to the inn's founding.

UNC

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wilson Library, North Carolina Collection

North Carolina ECHO (Project) · 2002

Exhibit in honor of John Sprunt Hill in the North Carolina Collection at UNC's Wilson Library, Chapel Hill, photographed on 6 May 2002 for the NC ECHO project.

George Watts Hill Jr. papers, 1941-1999.

Hill, George Watts, Jr., 1926-2002 · 1941

Twenty eight linear feet and roughly 26,000 items of George Watts Hill Jr. (1926-2002) papers, 1941 to 1999, in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 5162. Topics include higher education governance: the Speaker Ban Law, the North Carolina Board of Higher Education, the General Assembly, the UNC System Board of Governors and the federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, with the Durham Committee on Community Relations also named.

UNC

Honorary doctorate of law diploma awarded to John Sprunt Hill, 1933

1933

The University of North Carolina conferred this honorary doctor of laws on John Sprunt Hill of Durham, a banker and university benefactor, in 1933. The diploma is lettered in black on white parchment and framed in brown wood with a white mat; its text opens with a greeting from the president, professors and trustees.

George Watts Hill papers, 1859-2000.

Hill, George Watts, 1901-1993 · 1859

George Watts Hill (1901-1993) left roughly 26,000 items in 28.5 linear feet, dated 1859 to 2000, in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 4202. Banking, hospital care and regional planning are represented through organizations including Central Carolina Bank and Trust, the Hospital Care Association, the Research Triangle Institute and the Health Planning Council. Hill sat on the university's Board of Trustees, and aerial photographs of campus are noted.

UNC
Show 1 more about John Sprunt Hill

Hill, John Sprunt: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)

Undated portrait of John Sprunt Hill, one print in the UNC Faculty and Administration binder of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection, CHHS.002.

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 338.097 COV Favored by Fortune: George W. Watts & the Hills of Durham Covington, Howard E. · 2004

    Four generations of a Durham family in Howard E. Covington Jr.'s collective biography: George Washington Watts, John Sprunt Hill (his son-in-law), and the two George Watts Hills, father and son. Their interests ran from the American Tobacco Company to Central Carolina Bank, Watts Hospital and the Carolina Inn at Chapel Hill, and they pressed for credit unions, better highways and Research Triangle Park. Published by the UNC Library at Chapel Hill in 2004; 372 pages and 48 pages of plates.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 19 dated events in the chronology →

  1. John Sprunt Hill endows a fellowship in history In his 1903 alumni address John Sprunt Hill gave the interest on $4,000 to set up a fellowship in the department of history. The first year's interest was to go toward a YMCA building.Search the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 624
  2. John Sprunt Hill endows the North Carolina Collection John Sprunt Hill gave the university library money for collecting historical and literary material about North Carolina, the start of what became the North Carolina Collection.Search the index · NCpedia: Hill, John Sprunt (Roger N. Kirkman, 1988)
  3. Branson's University News Letter publishes its first issue E. C. Branson's University News Letter, a weekly one-page sheet packed with facts about North Carolina gathered by him and his students, first appeared in mid-November 1914 with a run of four thousand copies. Its items were widely reprinted by the state's papers, and circulation grew to fifteen thousand. People: John Sprunt 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), p. 101
  4. Horace Williams's war remarks bring a trustee inquiry that clears the faculty After the Charlotte Observer quoted philosophy professor Horace Williams in May 1917 calling the war a clash of national interests, critics questioned his loyalty, and trustee John Sprunt Hill pressed the matter. The trustees' visiting committee investigated and in June 1918 cleared Williams and the faculty of disloyalty. People: John Sprunt Hill, Edward Kidder GrahamSearch 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), p. 155
  5. Eugene C. Branson proposes calling the planned social science school the School of Public Welfare Branson had urged a school of social science on Graham in 1916. In 1919, worried that "social science" sounded like socialism to North Carolinians, he proposed the name School of Public Welfare, which John Sprunt Hill endorsed, and suggested Hill endow it. People: John Sprunt Hill, Harry Woodburn Chase, Edward Kidder GrahamSearch 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), p. 215
  6. John Sprunt Hill offers the Graves lot and $10,000 for an alumni hotel Hill offered the Graves property across from the west entrance plus $10,000 if 1,000 to 1,500 alumni would each give $100 toward a hotel whose profits would go to the University. The investors did not come, so he built the Carolina Inn himself. People: Harry Woodburn ChaseSearch 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), p. 246
  7. A hard-surface road links Chapel Hill and Durham A new eighteen-foot concrete road ran from the center of Chapel Hill to Durham, credited to trustee John Sprunt Hill as a state highway commissioner. Franklin Street merchants declined to pay for paving its edges, so mud borders remained.Search the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 58
  8. John Sprunt Hill chairs the trustees' buildings committee As a university trustee, John Sprunt Hill chaired the committee on university buildings during the campus building program of 1923 to 1931.Search the index · NCpedia: Hill, John Sprunt (Roger N. Kirkman, 1988)
  9. Trustees ask $350,000 to start a four-year medical college, and the legislature ignores it With the joint plan dead, the trustees heard delegations from Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro and Durham, chose no site, and voted to ask the General Assembly for $350,000 toward a four-year medical college. The legislature did not act; in June 1923 the trustees voted for a four-year program at Chapel Hill. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, John Sprunt 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. 256-257
  10. John Sprunt Hill lets the building contract for the Carolina Inn John Sprunt Hill, for the incorporators of the Carolina Club, let the contract for the Carolina Inn to H. L. Smith of Durham. The old Graves house on the site, at the west gate of the campus, was to be moved south of the inn and joined to it for use as a student boarding house.Search the index · DigitalNC: Chapel Hill Weekly, March 29, 1923, p. 1
  11. The Carolina Inn is built John Sprunt Hill built the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill. People: John Sprunt HillSearch the index · NCpedia
  12. Trustees adopt higher law school standards over Governor Morrison's objection At a four-hour meeting in the governor's office, attended by about half the trustees, 45 of them lawyers, Morrison argued against stiffer entrance rules, but a voice vote approved Chase's plans. The board put off naming a dean rather than accept Chase's out-of-state choice. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, William H. S. Burgwyn, John Sprunt 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. 275-276
  13. Manning Hall is dedicated as the law school's new home Supreme court justices, superior court judges, lawyers and alumni, 200 or more, came for the dedication and lunched at the new Carolina Inn with John Sprunt Hill as host. People: John Sprunt 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), p. 281
  14. Kenan Memorial Stadium opens Kenan Memorial Stadium, the gift of William Rand Kenan Jr., hosted its first event on November 12, 1927, when Carolina beat Davidson 27 to 0. It was formally dedicated before the Thanksgiving Day game against Virginia on November 24, when Governor Angus McLean accepted it for the state and the University. People: William Rand Kenan, William Rand Kenan Jr., John Sprunt HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 18, 1927, page 1: First Game in the New Stadium
  15. Farmers of Durham and nearby counties organize the Farmers Exchange cooperative About 400 farmers and farm leaders formed the Farmers Exchange in March 1930 to market farm products and buy supplies at cost. John Sprunt Hill of Durham backed it, and by 1952 it served about 4,100 members in five counties including Orange. People: John Sprunt HillSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 245-246
  16. The old Carnegie Library is dedicated as the music building After the library moved to its new building, the Carnegie Library was remodeled for the music department with an auditorium and a Reuter organ, most of the cost given by the Hill family. It was dedicated on November 14, 1930, and named Hill Music Hall by trustee resolution in the summer of 1931.Search the index · Names in Brick and Stone: Hill Hall
  17. The new Memorial Hall is dedicated Chase had found the money for the replacement auditorium within university accounts, helped by $5,000 from John Sprunt Hill, but none was left to furnish it. Guests at the dedication sat on the scarred heart-pine benches saved from the old hall, along with its marble tablets to the Civil War dead. People: John Sprunt 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), p. 410
  18. The Hill family gives the Carolina Inn to the university John Sprunt Hill and his family gave the Carolina Inn, which he had built in 1924, to the university on the condition that its income support the North Carolina Collection.Search the index · Names in Brick and Stone: Hill Hall
  19. The Carolina Inn completes the first of its rear additions The Carolina Inn, which Arthur Nash designed for John Sprunt Hill, gained a rear addition in 1940, the first of three (later ones in 1970 and 1995) that tracked the university's growth. People: John Sprunt Hill, Arthur Cleveland NashSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 60

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 5 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

  • The Carolina Inn University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 5 events here
  • UNC Libraries University schools and programs · Chapel Hill · 3 events here
  • UNC School of Law University schools and programs · Chapel Hill · 2 events here
  • Farmers Mutual Exchange Businesses, mills and venues · Hillsborough · 1 event here
  • Hill Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
  • Kenan Stadium University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
  • Memorial Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
  • University YMCA University schools and programs · Chapel Hill · 1 event here

All places and the county map →

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The index lists works with an Orange County connection. To find everything else about John Sprunt Hill, search these catalogs.

Books about John Sprunt Hill

Books by John Sprunt Hill

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Searched with the Library of Congress heading Hill, John Sprunt, 1869-1961, so the results are about this person and not others with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.

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Research sources

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Picture: John Sprunt Hill, 1919. Public domain. History of North Carolina: North Carolina Biography, by Special Staff of Writers, Volume IV, 1919, pages 242–243; via Wikimedia Commons

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