Henry Roland Totten

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 13 dated events in the chronology →

During their lifetime

1. by March 8, 1923 Chapel Hill's American Legion post elects Carl Durham commander Chapel Hill Post No. 6 of the American Legion elected Carl Durham commander and raised its annual dues to $5 to clear debts it had carried since its organization in 1919. At its supper on March 12 the post chose aid to disabled veterans of the district as its main work for the year. People: Carl T. Durham, Henry Roland Totten Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 8, 1923, p. 4
2. July 1923 to July 1925 Chapel Hill Insurance and Realty Company opens Forest Hills on the Pittsboro road The Chapel Hill Insurance and Realty Company advertised lots in Forest Hills, its new development on the Pittsboro-Pinehurst highway beyond H. W. Odum's new house, in July 1923, and by August had laid out 22 lots along the highway, with roads, water and sewer to follow. By July 1925, after the State Highway Commission announced it would pave the Pittsboro road from the University Inn to Morgan Creek, the 36-lot development beyond Westwood, laid out by W. F. Prouty, had sold 21 lots, with one house finished and two more begun, mostly by University people. People: Henry Roland Totten Place: Forest Hills, Pittsboro road, south of Chapel Hill · Also named: W. F. Prouty, H. W. Odum · Also mentions: University InnSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 17, 1925, p. 1 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, July 26, 1923, p. 2; Chapel Hill Weekly, August 9, 1923, p. 4
3. 1928 to 1929 Botanist Henry Roland Totten builds a Tudor Revival house on Laurel Hill Road Botanist Henry Roland Totten, a protege of W. C. Coker, and his wife built a stuccoed Tudor Revival house at 110 Laurel Hill Road, with one wing in stone. Plans were drawn in June 1928, the excavation was finished by early August, and the house was finished about 1929. Place: 110 Laurel Hill Road, Chapel Hill · Also named: W. C. CokerSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 64 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, August 3, 1928, p. 1
4. by April 6, 1928 The Chapel Hill post-office plaza is raised to the level of the sidewalk The sunken plaza in front of the post office was raised to sidewalk level, with small lawns planned at each end of the building. Collier Cobb Jr. did the work to a plan of the postal authorities. People: Collier Cobb Jr., Henry Roland Totten Place: U.S. Post Office, East Franklin Street, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 6, 1928, p. 1
5. February to April 1934 Civilian Conservation Corps men build a trail and plant 80,000 trees around University Lake A platoon of about 25 men from the CCC camp in Durham County began cutting a six-foot woods trail around University Lake early in 1934, laid out by botanist H. R. Totten for the University grounds committee. By late April the trail ran about five miles, with bridges over Price's Creek and Mill Branch, and the men had nearly finished planting 80,000 young pines and hardwoods on the slopes around the lake. People: Henry Roland Totten, William Chambers Coker Place: University Lake, west of CarrboroSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 27, 1934, p. 1
6. June 1934 Civilian Conservation Corps crews cut trails and build bridges in Battle Park and the University woods A squad of about a dozen men from the CCC camp near Durham cleared dead undergrowth, built and repaired footbridges, dug drainage ditches and marked trails in Battle Park, and a crew of 25 then began laying about three miles of trails in the University woods south of the campus under botanist H. R. Totten, work expected to last until October. People: Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs, Henry Roland Totten Place: Battle Park and the University woods south of the campus, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, June 15, 1934, p. 1
7. June 4, 1940 Chapel Hill American Legion post calls for a national emergency and conscription The post adopted resolutions, first drafted by retired Rear Admiral Percy W. Foote, asking Congress to declare a national emergency and give the President full powers, to expand the armed forces by at least a million men beyond the National Guard and reserves, and to adopt conscription for military service and for industry. The resolutions were sent to the Legion's state and national commanders and North Carolina's members of Congress. People: Henry Roland Totten, Alexander H. "Sandy" Graham, Henry A. Whitfield Place: Legion Hut, Chapel Hill · Also named: Percy W. FooteSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, June 7, 1940, p. 1
8. December 8 to 11, 1941 UNC students form the Carolina Volunteer Training Corps and the Library organizes a War Information Center In the week of Pearl Harbor the University Library organized a War Information Center (on December 8, by the Weekly's later account) and asked for pamphlets and books on the war and defense, planning to open it in early January. On December 11, at the suggestion of sophomore Henry Wisebram, students formed the Carolina Volunteer Training Corps; ninety signed up at the first meeting, drill was to begin after the holidays, and the University accepted it in place of required physical exercise. People: Henry Roland Totten, Charles E. Rush Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also named: Henry Wisebram · Also mentions: University LibrarySearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) Naval Armory at UNC-Chapel Hill, National Register nomination (OR1541), p. 25 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, December 12, 1941, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, December 19, 1941, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, December 24, 1942, p. 1
9. August 1947 An advisory rent control board for the Chapel Hill area is sworn in Rent Control Director Forrest Pollard swore in the Advisory Rent Control Board for the Chapel Hill Defense Area, chaired by H. R. Totten, at its first meeting in the rent control office in the Henninger Building. Under the Housing and Rent Act of 1947 the board could recommend ending controls, judge rent levels and hear hardship cases. People: Henry Roland Totten, Walter Spearman, Robert O. Forrest Place: Henninger Building, Chapel Hill · Also named: J. S. Henninger, Forrest PollardSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 28, 1947, p. 1
10. 1952 UNC trustees set aside Mason Farm land for a botanical garden The university's Board of Trustees allocated about 72 acres of its Mason Farm property for the North Carolina Botanical Garden, officially establishing it. Botanist H. R. Totten's efforts helped procure the site. Place: Mason Farm, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: North Carolina Botanical GardenSearch the index · UNC Libraries: North Carolina Botanical Garden of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, 1952-1997
11. 1960 to 1961 Henry Roland Totten develops the first sections of Coker Hills Coker College hired UNC botanist Henry Roland Totten, a colleague of the late W. C. Coker, to develop its Estes Drive land, and the first sections of Coker Hills went up along Elliott and Clayton roads in 1960 and 1961. The rest of the neighborhood was built out through 1972. Place: Coker Hills, Elliott Road and Clayton Road, Chapel Hill · Also named: W. C. Coker · Also mentions: Estes DriveSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 79
12. September 27, 1960 Chapel Hill annexes Coker Hills and a new fraternity court tract After a sparsely attended hearing the aldermen unanimously annexed the Coker Hills subdivision east of Estes Hills, owned by the trustees of Coker College, and the University's proposed fraternity court along Mason Farm Road near Finley Golf Course, adding about a tenth to the town's area. The Coker Hills owners were to pay for its sewer and gas lines, curbing and paving. People: Henry Roland Totten Place: Coker Hills and Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Estes HillsSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 29, 1960, p. 6

After their death in 1974

Later events: estates and burials, and the buildings, honors and histories that remember them.

1. April 1976 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: 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