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Local figure

Addie Williams Totten

Adelaide "Addie" Williams Totten, born in Stedman in 1890, lived in Chapel Hill from her 1923 marriage to botanist Henry Roland Totten and organized the Chapel Hill Garden Club. She was president of the Garden Club of North Carolina from 1935 to 1937 and a certified flower show judge, and died in 1974.

Source: UNC Libraries: Adelaide Totten Papers, 1918-1973

1 work about Addie Williams Totten is indexed here.

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Life and Orange County connections

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StorylineThe North Carolina Botanical Garden's first decade, 1966–19761966–1976 · 6 events · The North Carolina Botanical Garden opened its Mason Farm grounds in 1966, the year its support foundation was formed under William Lanier Hunt. It added a lake in 1967 and Azalea Hill in 1970. When the University refused it more money in 1973, Chapel Hill voted it $6,000, and in 1976 the Totten Center, its first permanent building, opened.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 3 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Addie Williams Totten helps build the Chapel Hill Garden Club Addie Williams Totten, who had lived in Chapel Hill since her 1923 marriage to botanist H. R. Totten, is credited in her papers with organizing the Chapel Hill Garden Club, which a 1959 account dates to 1931. The Weekly shows a Garden Club meeting as a branch of the Community Club by October 1928, with Mrs. Totten its chairman by April 1929 and chairman of its garden contest committee in 1931; in October 1931 the club left the Community Club to join the state garden club federation. She was again its president in 1958. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: H. R. TottenSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Adelaide Totten Papers, 1918-1973 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, October 19, 1928, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, April 26, 1929, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, July 10, 1931, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, October 2, 1931, p. 6
  2. Hillsborough holds a combined flower show and garden pilgrimage The Hillsborough Garden Club held its flower show together with the state garden pilgrimage, opening historic homes and gardens on a "Colonial Hillsboro" theme. Addie Williams Totten of Chapel Hill, state flower show chairman, planned it with the club; it was the first time the two events had been combined. Place: HillsboroughSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 21, 1949, p. 5 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 28, 1949, p. 2; The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 19, 1949, p. 1
  3. The Totten Center opens at the North Carolina Botanical Garden The garden's administrative and interpretive building, its first permanent building, opened in 1976. A bequest from the estate of Henry Roland and Adelaide Totten made it possible, and it was named for them. People: Henry Roland Totten, Addie Williams Totten Place: North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Libraries: North Carolina Botanical Garden of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, 1952-1997 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, September 14, 1976, p. 3

Indexed works

Works about or by Addie Williams Totten. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Oral history interview with H.R. Totten (Addie), 1974 (Chapel Hill Historical Society cassette)

1974

Gardening is the focus of this 1974 interview with Addie Totten, wife of H. R. Totten. An oral history cassette from the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Audiovisual Materials Collection, CHHS.012.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

CH Historical Society

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Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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