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Local figure

Edward M. Knox

Edward M. Knox, a recent graduate of the University's engineering school when Chapel Hill hired him, was the town's manager until July 1928, when he left to become city manager of High Point. He brought in modern municipal bookkeeping, and in June 1928 he read the town's new zoning ordinance to citizens at the hearing before its adoption.

Source: DigitalNC: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 22, 1928, p. 1

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Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 37 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Chapel Hill hires its first town manager, E. M. Knox Chapel Hill appoints E. M. Knox as its first town manager. He served until 1928, when J. M. Foushee took the post. People: John M. Foushee, Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 365
  2. Chapel Hill builds sidewalks, extends its sewers and plants street trees In E. M. Knox's first year as town business manager the town laid about 1,500 feet of sidewalk, extended its sewer lines by about 2,000 feet and planted more than a hundred trees along its streets. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · E. M. Knox, Report of the Town Business Manager to the Board of Aldermen, Chapel Hill, for the Fiscal Year 1922-1923 (1923), scan p. 11
  3. Chapel Hill aldermen ban bicycles from the sidewalks and order a traffic light The Chapel Hill board of aldermen passed an ordinance forbidding bicycle riding on the town's sidewalks and requiring lights on bicycles at night, with a $5 fine. The board also told the town manager to buy a "mushroom" traffic light for a Columbia Street intersection and to put a light at the school, and passed an ordinance carrying a $50 fine for each offense. People: W. S. Roberson, Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The News (Chapel Hill), November 23, 1922, p. 1
  4. Chapel Hill aldermen forbid chickens to run at large and join the state municipal association At a meeting reported in mid-January 1923, the Chapel Hill board of aldermen passed an ordinance forbidding anyone to let chickens run at large in town, with a $5 fine for each offense, voted to join the North Carolina Municipal Association and accepted the audit of the town's books. They also paid for plumbing on the Graham Memorial Fountain and for water used in building the new curb and gutter. People: W. S. Roberson, Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The News (Chapel Hill), January 18, 1923, p. 1
  5. Chapel Hill aldermen authorize $750 in bonds to extend the sewer system On April 10, 1923, the Chapel Hill board of aldermen passed an ordinance under the Municipal Finance Act to issue up to $750 in bonds to extend the town's sewer system, with a yearly tax to pay them. The town's statement put its average assessed valuation at $1,913,729 and its net debt at $37,409.75. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The News (Chapel Hill), April 19, 1923, p. 8
  6. Chapel Hill ends its first year under a business manager with every bill paid Knox reported that the town had inherited $3,314.41 in unpaid bills and $6,700 in short-term notes, paid the old bills, borrowed nothing new and closed the year with $1,632.27 in the general fund. General fund receipts came to $26,720.77 against spending of $25,088.50, and an outside auditor examined the books. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · E. M. Knox, Report of the Town Business Manager to the Board of Aldermen, Chapel Hill, for the Fiscal Year 1922-1923 (1923), scan p. 12
  7. Chapel Hill orders its dog license law enforced and sets up a pound The board of aldermen ordered strict enforcement of the town law requiring a $1 license for every dog and forbidding dogs to run at large, after finding only about a dozen of some 100 town dogs licensed. Loose dogs were to be taken by the police to a pound just west of the fire house at Rosemary and Columbia streets. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 6, 1923, p. 1
  8. Town crews lay a 24-inch storm pipe across West Franklin and Mallett streets After the summer's heavy rains flooded the area, Business Manager E. M. Knox had a force cutting a ditch across West Franklin and Mallett streets and laying 24-inch terra cotta pipe to carry off the water; rock in the way had to be blasted. Town crews were also hauling gravel to sidewalks washed out by the rains. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The News (Chapel Hill), July 31, 1924, p. 5
  9. Chapel Hill's clerk certifies petitions for concrete curb and gutter on Cameron Avenue and Rosemary Street Town clerk E. M. Knox certified that property owners' petitions asking for concrete curb and gutter on both sides of Cameron Avenue from Columbia to Mallett Street, and on Rosemary Street to the Hillsboro road, had the signatures of more than half the abutting owners and met the state's 1915 local improvements act. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The News (Chapel Hill), November 27, 1924, p. 4
  10. Franklin and Columbia streets are paved curb to curb In 1925 Franklin and Columbia streets were paved from curb to curb from the President's House through the business district to the west campus gate. Town Manager E. M. Knox put the final cost at $27,000, the town paying one third and the abutting property owners two thirds. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 18, 1925, p. 1
  11. Chapel Hill installs a telephone gong alarm to summon its police Chapel Hill put in a police alarm system: a caller told the telephone operator 'Police!' and she rang gongs in five boxes around town, at the city manager's office, police headquarters at Rosemary Lane and Columbia Street, Sutton and Alderman's drugstore, Andrews corner, and near the Black restaurant on West Franklin Street. The nearest officer then opened a box with his key and learned where he was wanted. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 29, 1925, p. 1
  12. Chapel Hill certifies owners' petition to pave the Franklin Street business block Town clerk E. M. Knox certified on February 9, 1925, that a majority of owners on Franklin Street between Columbia and Henderson streets had petitioned to pave the dirt strips on both sides of the concrete state highway strip, making the business block concrete from curb to curb. The town was to pay a third of the cost and the owners on each side a third, payable over ten years; Knox put the whole cost at about $9,000. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 12, 1925, p. 3
Show all 37 dated events
  1. Chapel Hill aldermen fix the site of the new sewage disposal plant below Strowd's bridge Mayor W. S. Roberson announced that the Chapel Hill Insurance and Realty Company had given the school board a 12-acre tract 1,700 feet below Strowd's bridge, and the school board sold it to the town for $4,000 as the site of the new sewage disposal plant. The Elliott Building Company of Hickory had the construction contract, and the plant was put at about $35,000. People: W. S. Roberson, Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 10, 1925, p. 1
  2. Chapel Hill aldermen set a $1.35 tax rate and pass $80,000 in street improvement bonds With the town's assessed valuation up $253,555 to $2,955,555, the aldermen fixed the 1925 tax rate at $1.35, two and a half cents above the year before, and passed ordinances for $80,000 of street improvement bonds, $27,500 of sewer bonds and smaller issues for street equipment and old debts. The bonds were sold November 2 at 5 1/4 percent, below the 6 percent the town had been paying. People: John Lindsay Morehead, Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 11, 1925, p. 1
  3. Chapel Hill sells $116,000 of bonds at 5 1/4 percent The town of Chapel Hill sold $116,000 of bonds for street, sewer and equipment work and old debts to Braun, Bosworth and Co. of Toledo, best of 19 bidders, for $116,670, borrowing at a little under 5 1/4 percent where it had been paying 6. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 6, 1925, p. 1
  4. Zeb P. Council is installed as chancellor commander of the Chapel Hill Knights of Pythias Deputy Grand Chancellor E. M. Knox installed the officers of Chapel Hill Lodge No. 97, Knights of Pythias, with Zeb P. Council as chancellor commander. A year later Council, by then deputy grand chancellor, installed the lodge's next officers. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 15, 1926, p. 1
  5. Downstream landowners sue Chapel Hill over sewage in Bolin Creek G. H. King filed suit against the town of Chapel Hill for damages, saying its sewage had polluted Bolin Creek where it ran through his land several miles below town, and five more suits were threatened. King said his cattle would not drink the creek water during the 1925 drought; Town Manager E. M. Knox said the town could show no nuisance had been created and that its new disposal plant now cleaned the water. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 26, 1926, p. 1
  6. Chapel Hill and the University arrange a sewer for the Black neighborhood on Church Street By joint action the University agreed to put in a new water line and the town to build a sewer for the Black section along Church Street. Town Manager E. M. Knox said that with this job done Chapel Hill would be 'ninety-five per cent sewered.' People: Edward M. KnoxThe Chapel Hill Weekly, April 16, 1926, p. 1
  7. Chapel Hill lays a sewer system through the Black neighborhood around Church Street In mid-May 1926 the town of Chapel Hill finished a complete sewer system for the Black neighborhood in the northwest corner of the village, with a trunk line along Church Street and three branch lines, connecting 70 houses. The Weekly reported that Black residents had wanted the sewers and worked with the town on them, and the state's chief of sanitary engineering wrote to commend the town for serving its poorer neighborhoods as well as its prosperous ones. People: Edward M. KnoxThe Chapel Hill Weekly, May 21, 1926, p. 4
  8. Chapel Hill aldermen give Jack Long the contract for curbs, gutters and paving At a special meeting on July 21, 1926, the Chapel Hill board of aldermen gave Jack Long the contract for the year's street work: curbs and gutters on West Franklin Street west of Columbia Street with a planted center strip between twin roadways, curbs and gutters on Rosemary Street from Hillsboro to Columbia, paving of the Columbia Street block between Franklin and Rosemary, and concrete sidewalks on the business block and on Columbia Street. The town did the excavating and storm sewers with its own men, and the whole program was put at about $45,000. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 23, 1926, p. 1
  9. A flashing traffic beacon is set up at Franklin Street and the Raleigh road A traffic beacon, a column on a concrete base topped by a blinking light, was put up at the dangerous junction of Franklin Street and the Raleigh road by the President's House. Louis Graves called it an eyesore that spoiled one of the village's finest vistas, and the New Jersey maker wrote to Town Manager Knox defending the design, which it said stood near palaces in London, Havana and Stockholm. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 5, 1927, p. 1
  10. Chapel Hill aldermen authorize $20,000 in street improvement bonds The Chapel Hill board of aldermen passed an ordinance to issue up to $20,000 in bonds under the Municipal Finance Act for grading and surfacing streets with curbs, gutters, drains and sidewalks, at least a fourth of the cost to be assessed on property owners. The ordinance was not to be submitted to the voters. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 11, 1927, p. 2
  11. Chapel Hill drops a plan to extend its town limits Chapel Hill abandoned a proposal for an election on extending its limits after Town Manager E. M. Knox's survey showed that the services a larger town would need, a sewage plant, mains, roads, lights, hydrants and police, would cost far more than its new taxes. The proposed line took in the Pittsboro road section, the Country Club and Gimghoul neighborhoods, the Strowd plantation homes and the area around the Black school at the end of Church Street. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 18, 1927, p. 1
  12. Chapel Hill aldermen act on protests over Kenan Stadium blasting After residents of the south side of the village protested that dynamite blasts on the stadium site were breaking windows, cracking plaster and throwing stones as far as 1,600 feet, the board unanimously adopted R. D. W. Connor's resolution authorizing Town Manager E. M. Knox to get expert advice, confer with the contractors and act to protect the community. The contractors' superintendent said he had already cut the charges in half twice. People: R. D. W. Connor, John M. Booker, Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 22, 1927, p. 1
  13. Chapel Hill aldermen adopt the 1927-28 budget The board approved Town Manager E. M. Knox's budget, calling for $24,758 from taxes, and his report on five years' growth: automobiles in town up from 95 in 1921 to 500, sewer connections from 180 to 440, street lights from 40 to 95, and $275,000 spent on permanent improvements, with an $8,134 deficit turned into a $5,311 surplus. The town now paid a full-time health officer and a Black community nurse. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 1, 1927, p. 1
  14. Chapel Hill aldermen begin work toward a zoning ordinance When Clarence Pickard asked for a permit to build a filling station next to the Presbyterian church, across from the Graham Memorial, the board put off a decision and had a committee, with Town Manager E. M. Knox, study an ordinance to keep businesses out of residential neighborhoods. Pickard withdrew his application in July. People: Clarence Pickard, Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 1, 1927, p. 1
  15. Chapel Hill aldermen hold the town tax rate at $1.38 At their meeting of August 8 the aldermen kept the town tax rate at the previous year's $1.38 on $100 of valuation, although Town Manager Knox had expected it to rise to $1.40. The Weekly reported village assessments of $3,417,344 and warned that the county's 10 percent cut in Chapel Hill assessments would leave revenue short of the budget, while the county rate was expected to rise 19 cents to about $1.53 to clear old deficits. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 12, 1927, p. 1
  16. Chapel Hill aldermen authorize $7,500 in bonds to buy a town hall site On November 30 the aldermen passed an ordinance for up to $7,500 in bonds to buy land for a municipal building, to take effect in thirty days unless a petition forced a vote. Town Manager Knox said the town would then plan a building for all the town offices and the fire department. The same night the board authorized $12,000 more in street improvement bonds. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 2, 1927, p. 1
  17. Post-mounted lamps replace hanging lights on Franklin Street's north side Ten electric lamps on fluted posts 100 feet apart, borrowed from the University and matching those on the campus, were set up on the north side of Franklin Street from the post office to Columbia Street while that sidewalk was being paved from curb to building line. Town Manager E. M. Knox hoped to light the south side the same way, after which the lamps hung over the middle of the roadway would come down. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 25, 1927, p. 1
  18. Chapel Hill aldermen authorize $140,000 in street bonds and $40,000 in sewer bonds The board of aldermen passed ordinances for up to $140,000 in bonds for street surfacing, curbs, gutters and sidewalks, without a vote of the people, and up to $40,000 in bonds to extend the town sewer system. Both replaced several smaller ordinances passed earlier. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 13, 1928, p. 2
  19. 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. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 27, 1928, p. 1
  20. Chapel Hill aldermen decide to keep a full-time fireman at fire headquarters After the Pickard Hotel fire, when none of the fire company's officers heard the alarm, the aldermen voted to employ a full-time fireman on duty at headquarters. With new water mains and a better alarm, the town expected a higher insurance rating. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 27, 1928, p. 1
  21. Chapel Hill business and University men organize a Rotary Club A Rotary Club was organized in Chapel Hill at an initial meeting in late April 1928, with Dr. Eric A. Abernethy as president and about twenty charter members; the district president, Luther Hodges, helped launch it. The club met weekly for supper at the Carolina Inn and received its charter from Rotary International at a dinner there on June 14. People: Eric A. Abernethy, Luther H. Hodges, Milton E. Hogan, Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 4, 1928, p. 1
  22. New water mains and full-time firemen bring Chapel Hill a cut in fire insurance rates New water mains were laid through Mallett Street, Battle Lane and a block of Rosemary Lane, bringing fire hydrants to every part of town and every outlying colony but Gimghoul. With two men now on duty at fire headquarters, the state insurance department told the town manager premiums could fall by as much as 25 per cent, about $10,000 a year. People: Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 20, 1928, p. 1
  23. Chapel Hill aldermen pass the town's first zoning ordinance on first reading The board took up a zoning ordinance and zone map drafted over almost a year by its zoning commission, aldermen M. E. Hogan, G. M. Braune and P. L. Burch, and passed it on first reading. It was to be published for fifteen days before a public hearing; the board adopted it in June. People: Milton E. Hogan, Peter L. Burch, Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 18, 1928, p. 1
  24. Aldermen choose John Foushee to succeed E. M. Knox as town manager After E. M. Knox, Chapel Hill's town manager since 1922, resigned to become city manager of High Point, the aldermen on June 21, 1928, approved their committee's choice of John Foushee, his engineering assistant for two years and a University engineering graduate. The Weekly credited Knox with paved streets, sewer extensions, a disposal plant, a health department and better fire protection, all without a higher tax rate. People: Brodie Thompson, Gustave M. Braune, Zeb P. Council, John M. Foushee, Edward M. KnoxSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, June 22, 1928, p. 1
  25. Chapel Hill adopts its first zoning ordinance The Board of Aldermen unanimously adopted an ordinance dividing the town into two residence zones and two business zones, with height limits, setbacks, yard rules and a board of adjustment. The published text makes no reference to race. People: Edward M. KnoxThe Chapel Hill Weekly, June 22, 1928, p. 1

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