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Local figure

Robert Varley

Robert Varley was a Chapel Hill clothing merchant who in 1938 opened a men's store on East Franklin Street. He later served on the town's Board of Aldermen. In June 1967 he was one of two aldermen who voted against a fair housing resolution, and in April 1968, described as one of the board's two conservatives, he voted against the open housing ordinance on its first reading.

Source: The Daily Tar Heel, April 28, 1968

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Robert Varley. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Robert Varley’s life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.

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Life and Orange County connections

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

  1. Robert Varley opens a men's clothing store on East Franklin Street Varley's store took the space of Alfred Williams's stationery on the south side of the street. People: Robert VarleySearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 255
  2. Chapel Hill aldermen approve an open housing ordinance 3 to 2 on first reading Weeks after the killing of Martin Luther King Jr. and a petition signed by about 2,200 people, the Board of Aldermen voted 3 to 2 for a local ban on discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. The margin fell short of the two-thirds needed to pass on first reading, so the measure went to a second vote. People: Sandy McClamroch, R. D. Smith, W. David Ethridge, Robert VarleyDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, April 28, 1968, page 3
  3. Mayoral and aldermanic candidates answer questions at the Institute of Government Lee, Giduz and all seven candidates for the Board of Aldermen took questions at an open forum. Sharp exchanges came over a police review board, which Lee said he had never favored, and over whether the town should pay to cover the Mitchell Lane drain, on which Giduz cited county health tests and Steve Bernholz answered that 'the ditch stinks'. People: Howard N. Lee, Roland Giduz, Robert Varley, Ross ScroggsDigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, May 2, 1969, page 1 (OCR text)

Places in this person’s story

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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.

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Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Robert Varley, 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.

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  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Robert Varley Library card 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
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

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