Local figure
Brodie Thompson
Brodie Thompson (1884–1971) was Chapel Hill's leading building contractor in the 1920s and 1930s. He built Colonial Revival fraternity houses around the campus and many village homes, among them his own house at 214 Henderson Street (1920), the Wagstaff house (about 1925) and the brick Milton Hogan house on North Boundary Street (1927).
Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Brodie Thompson. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Brodie Thompson’s life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.
Life and Orange County connections
Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 10 dated events in the chronology →
- Contractor Brodie Thompson builds his own house on Henderson Street Brodie Thompson, the town's leading builder of the 1920s and 1930s and contractor for many fraternity houses and village homes, built a Colonial Revival house for himself at 214 Henderson Street. People: Brodie ThompsonSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 58
- Brodie Thompson oversees the building of the Ben Warren house on Hillsborough Street Julius A. "Ben" Warren, the university's treasurer, and his wife Pattie Spurgeon Warren built a large two-story frame house at 301 Hillsborough Street on four acres he had bought in 1917, under the supervision of local builder Brodie Thompson.Search the index · National Register: Chapel Hill Historic District Boundary Increase and Additional Documentation (OR1750, 2015), section 7
- The rebuilt Pickwick Theatre opens on Franklin Street S. J. Brockwell's new fireproof Pickwick, built on the site of the burned one, opened with seats for 750, and crowds were turned away from the first show. W. S. Roberson ran it under lease. People: W. S. Roberson, Brodie ThompsonSearch the index · DigitalNC: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 5, 1924, p. 1
- Brodie Thompson builds a house for historian Henry McGilbert Wagstaff For Henry and Mary Wagstaff, Thompson built a two-story frame house at 206 North Boundary Street with a fanlit entrance, a porch with turned balusters, a high hipped roof and a long side porch toward Rosemary Street. People: Brodie ThompsonSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 58
- Brodie Thompson builds a house on East Rosemary Street for George and Sarah Pickard Contractor Brodie Thompson builds a two-story, five-bay Colonial Revival house for George and Sarah Pickard at the southeast corner of East Rosemary and North Boundary streets. People: Brodie ThompsonSearch the index · National Register: Chapel Hill Historic District Boundary Increase and Additional Documentation (OR1750, 2015), section 7
- S. J. Brockwell hires Brodie Thompson to build a Dutch Colonial house on Henderson Street S. J. Brockwell and his wife let Thompson the contract for a two-story Dutch Colonial house on the west side of Henderson Street next to the W. P. Jordan home. The house at 211 Henderson Street was much enlarged in 1968.Search the index · DigitalNC: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 28, 1925, p. 3 (Brockwells' New Home)
- Five fraternity houses by Brodie Thompson form the Big Fraternity Court Alumni gifts paid for the Big Fraternity Court on the first block of South Columbia Street: five Colonial Revival houses built by Brodie Thompson and set around a shared court, in the manner of the new campus quadrangles. A smaller court stands around the corner on Cameron Avenue. People: Brodie ThompsonSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 61
- Brodie Thompson builds a brick Colonial Revival house for banker Milton Hogan At 104 North Boundary Street, Thompson built a two-story brick house for Milton and Carrie Hogan with a Doric-columned entrance, modillion cornice and one-story side porches. People: Brodie ThompsonSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 58
- Contractor Brodie Thompson is elected to the Chapel Hill board of aldermen In a light vote Zeb P. Council was elected mayor, and P. L. Burch with 127 votes, R. D. W. Connor with 121 and contractor Brodie Thompson with 117 were chosen councilmen. A petition had put Thompson forward as the only declared candidate for alderman. People: R. D. W. ConnorSearch the index · DigitalNC: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 6, 1927, p. 1 (Light Voting in Town Elections)
- Brodie Thompson rebuilds Howard Odum's burned house in record time After fire gutted the Odum house on February 20, 1938, the insurance was settled in five days and Thompson began clearing the ruins the next day. Within 26 days the new house on the old foundations had walls, roof and most of its weatherboarding, which the Weekly called the fastest building job Chapel Hill had seen. People: Howard W. OdumSearch the index · DigitalNC: Chapel Hill Weekly, March 18, 1938, p. 1 (Odum House Rises Fast)
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 them all.
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.
- Pickwick Theatre Businesses, mills and venues · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
Named with them in the chronology
People named in the same dated entries as Brodie Thompson, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.
- Howard W. Odum 1 entry: Brodie Thompson rebuilds Howard Odum's burned house in record time (March 1938)
- R. D. W. Connor 1 entry: Contractor Brodie Thompson is elected to the Chapel Hill board of aldermen (May 1927)
- W. S. Roberson 1 entry: The rebuilt Pickwick Theatre opens on Franklin Street (May 31, 1924)
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Books about Brodie Thompson
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- Chapel Hill Public Library (opens in a new tab) Public library in Chapel Hill
- Durham County Library (opens in a new tab) Public library next door in Durham
- UNC Libraries (opens in a new tab) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Duke Libraries (opens in a new tab) Duke University, Durham
- NC Cardinal (opens in a new tab) The State Library of North Carolina and public libraries across the state
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- Search beyond the index: NC LIVE: prepared search for Brodie Thompson NC LIVE An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
- Ask locally: Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection, Orange County Public Library Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection (OCPL) The county library’s local-history room at the Main Library in Hillsborough: books, journals, maps, and microfilm of county records from 1752
- Ask locally: Local History Help Hours and request form OCPL Local History Liaison The library’s Local History Liaison helps in person most Mondays, 12 to 3, at the Main Library, or by the online request form
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