Nancy Hilliard

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 12 dated events in the chronology →

1. 1817 Nancy Hilliard's family moves from Granville County to Chapel Hill William and Lucy Walker Hilliard moved their family, including their daughter Nancy, from Granville County to Chapel Hill in 1817. She later kept the village's main hotel for students and travelers.Search the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 38
2. 1846 Nancy Hilliard buys the Watts Hotel from Lucy Watts Lucy Watts sold the hotel and the land beside it to Nancy Hilliard, already known as a Chapel Hill hotel keeper. A year later Hilliard enlarged it for President Polk's commencement visit. People: Nancy HilliardSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 81
3. 1847 Nancy Hilliard adds a castellated annex to the Eagle Hotel for President Polk's visit For President James K. Polk's visit to the 1847 commencement, Nancy Hilliard, who kept the Eagle Hotel, added a stuccoed two-story wing with a battlemented porch in a medieval manner. The annex stood on the site of today's Graham Memorial; Dabney Cosby likely built it, perhaps to his own design or one by A. J. Davis. People: Dabney Cosby, Nancy HilliardSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 24
4. May 31 to June 3, 1847 President James K. Polk returns to Chapel Hill for the university commencement Polk came from Raleigh by carriage with Sarah Polk and a large party, lodged in an annex Nancy Hilliard built onto the Eagle Hotel for his stay, visited his old room in South Building and met Elisha Mitchell, and stayed through commencement on June 3. People: Elisha Mitchell, Nancy HilliardSearch the index · Open Orange: James K. Polk
5. early 1850s Nancy Hilliard sells the Eagle Hotel, renamed the Union Hotel In the early 1850s Miss Nancy Hilliard, long the students' and travelers' landlady, sold her hotel interest for $10,000 to Hugh B. Guthrie, who renamed the Eagle the Union Hotel. She went on to run the North Carolina Railroad eating house at Company Shops. People: Nancy HilliardSearch the index · NCpedia: Hilliard, Nancy Ann Segur (John Macfie)
6. 1853 Nancy Hilliard builds the house students called the Crystal Palace After selling her hotel, Hilliard built a large two-story house east of it on land she had bought from Lucy Watts. Students nicknamed it the Crystal Palace for its many big windows. People: Nancy HilliardSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 91
7. between 1869 and 1873 David McCauley buys the Union Hotel and renames it the Chapel Hill Hotel McCauley bought the Union Hotel, the house Nancy Hilliard had once kept as the Eagle Hotel, and gave it the name Chapel Hill Hotel. He also bought the building at the northeast corner of Franklin and Henderson streets where Richard Benbury Saunders had kept his drugstore. People: Nancy Hilliard, David McCauleySearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 123
8. between 1869 and 1873 David McCauley lets Nancy Hilliard live rent free in her old hotel After losing her house and failing at hotel work in Raleigh, Nancy Hilliard came back to Chapel Hill destitute, and David McCauley, who now owned her former Eagle Hotel, let her live rent free in a room there. Former students sent her money until her death in 1873. People: David McCauleySearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 125
9. 1869 Solomon Pool buys Nancy Hilliard's house, the Crystal Palace, at a sheriff's sale When the hotel keeper Nancy Hilliard went bankrupt, university president Solomon Pool bought her Franklin Street home, known as the Crystal Palace, at a sheriff's sale for $150. He let Col. Hugh B. Guthrie and his wife Jane, a daughter of Hudson Cave, move in, which Bryant reads as a way of forcing Hilliard out. People: Solomon Pool, Nancy HilliardBernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 125
10. November 8, 1873 Nancy Hilliard, longtime Chapel Hill hotel keeper, dies Nancy Segur Hilliard, whose family moved to Chapel Hill in 1817 and who fed students and stage travelers for decades, died on November 8, 1873. Cornelia Phillips Spencer appealed to alumni to help her in her last illness and to pay for her burial and a modest monument. People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Nancy HilliardSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 38
11. August 1884 Old students start a subscription for a monument over Nancy Hilliard's grave E. T. McKethan of Fayetteville began collecting money from former Chapel Hill students to put a plain stone over Nancy Hilliard's neglected grave, and Cornelia Phillips Spencer endorsed the plan. The stone records the alumni's gratitude for her kindness and hospitality. People: Cornelia Phillips SpencerSearch the index · DigitalNC: The State Chronicle (Raleigh), August 9, 1884, p. 2
12. November 30, 1921 Fire destroys the main building of the old University Inn Fire on November 30, 1921 destroyed the main building of the old University Inn, the former Eagle Hotel, and left 42 student roomers without quarters; students on the roof with a hose saved the annex Nancy Hilliard had built for President Polk's 1847 visit. The annex stood until it was razed in January 1924 to clear the site for Graham Memorial. People: Nancy HilliardSearch the index · DigitalNC: The Tar Heel, December 2, 1921, p. 1