Laurel Hill

William C. Coker gives the Chapel Hill Country Club land for a clubhouse and golf course

By early 1923 Coker had given the new Chapel Hill Country Club its grounds south of the campus. The clubhouse went up that spring and the golf course over the next two years. The land later passed to the university and is used for tennis courts and a greenway park; the Laurel Hill subdivision was laid out along the course.

People: William Chambers Coker

Black stonemasons build the stone walls of Rocky Ridge Farm

The curving walls of random-coursed stone that line Country Club Road, Laurel Hill Road and Laurel Hill Circle were built alongside the houses by local Black masons, among them James Blackwell and Jesse Jones.

Subject: Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District (Laurel Hill)

Gustav Harrer builds a shingled house on Laurel Hill Road

The Harrer house, a two-story, L-shaped Colonial Revival dwelling with shingle siding, is one of the first houses of Rocky Ridge Farm's opening building period, 1928-30.

A Colonial Revival cottage with an attached garage is built on Country Club Road for Robert B. Voitle

The story-and-a-half weatherboarded cottage has an original garage on one side. The 2008 documentation redates it to about 1935 and makes it contributing; the 1989 district nomination had dated it 1955.

Durham architects Hackney and Knott design Carl Pegg's house on Laurel Hill Road

A three-bay brick Colonial Revival house for Carl Pegg was designed by the Durham firm of Hackney and Knott in the district's second building period.

Public health dean Earl Brown builds a red brick house on Laurel Hill Road

The house of Earl Brown, described as dean of the UNC School of Public Health, is a two-story red brick house that mixes Colonial Revival and Cotswold features.

University controller William D. Carmichael Jr. builds a large brick house in Laurel Hill

William Carmichael and his wife had one of the biggest Colonial Revival houses in town built at 106 Laurel Hill Circle, a red brick house with a classical entrance and flanking wings.

Laurel Hill Road is extended south beyond the 1927 plat

On the 1927 plat the road stopped at the south edge of 603 Laurel Hill Road. The extension carried it south toward the line later taken by the 15-501 Bypass and opened lots for postwar houses.

William Van Sprinkle designs a shingled Colonial Ranch on Laurel Hill Road for math professor Ed Cameron

T. D. Green built the four-bay house, which has a board-and-batten front wing and an original screen porch. The nomination cites it as Sprinkle dressing the new Ranch form in colonial details.

Milton Julian wins the right to build his modernist house on Ledge Lane

When W. C. Coker's chosen architect, Walter D. Toy, refused to approve the plans for clothier Milton Julian's house on Ledge Lane, designed by George Matsumoto of the State College School of Design, Milton and Virginia Julian sued on September 30, 1953; Coker's executors, his widow and neighbors Cornelius and Beulah Cathey opposed them. The North Carolina Supreme Court held on June 4, 1954 that the approval clause was personal to Coker and ended at his death in June 1953, and the International Style house was finished by November 1956.

Iris Lane and Fern Lane are platted, extending Laurel Hill onto the Coker estate

After William C. Coker died in 1953, Laurel Hill spread into adjoining land of his estate. The new plat laid out two streets at the south end of the neighborhood, and most of their houses went up before 1960.

Subject: Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District (Laurel Hill)

Milton Julian's Matsumoto-designed house on Ledge Lane is finished

The modernist house George Matsumoto designed for clothier Milton Julian and his family, which neighbors had gone to court to stop, stood finished by November 1956, when it was one of ten homes on the School Art Guild's tour of Chapel Hill homes.

Waverly Branch and his wife build a Williamsburg-style house on Laurel Hill Road

The story-and-a-half house has beaded siding, a slate roof, end chimneys and a pedimented entrance porch in imitation of colonial Williamsburg. Branch was active in UNC affairs, and his wife was for many years the chancellor's secretary.

William Van Sprinkle designs a long Contemporary Ranch on Buttons Road for Charles and Kay Bream

The six-bay house for the radiology professor mixes vertical wood and brick, with sliding windows and a carport set on the diagonal. Sprinkle, known for Colonial Revival work, here turned to a modern design.

The Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District is listed in the National Register

On August 8, 1989 the National Park Service listed the Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District in Chapel Hill in the National Register of Historic Places.

Subject: Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District (Laurel Hill)

The Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District is enlarged in the National Register

On January 30, 2008 the National Park Service listed a boundary increase for the Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District, enlarging the district in the National Register of Historic Places.

Subject: Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District (Laurel Hill)