Houses, farms, parks and cemeteries
The Chapel Hill Historic District takes in the town's nineteenth- and early twentieth-century residential and academic areas and was listed in the National Register in 1971. Its boundaries were enlarged in 2015, though at the university's request the campus portion was not extended.
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.
Books, articles, records, and images about Chapel Hill Historic District. Each has been reviewed for relevance; materials held at OCPL appear first.
A handbook of guidelines for Chapel Hill's historic district, compiled by Elizabeth Staples for the town's Historic District Commission and dated July 1979, with funding noted from the Chapel Hill Preservation Society. Guidelines of this kind set out what owners may do to buildings inside a district.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
A hand drawn guide to the Chapel Hill historic district, published in 1976 by the town's Bicentennial Commission with the Chapel Hill Preservation Society and researched by the Chapel Hill Historical Society. Selected streets are mapped, with the historic houses and buildings along them shown and described. One folded sheet of two unnumbered pages with illustrations, 21 x 63 cm.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Color-coded 1999 map of Chapel Hill's historic districts, marking the Cameron-McCauley, Gimghoul and Franklin-Rosemary districts along with the UNC campus.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Chapel Hill map from 1999 marking the town's historic districts in pink, among them Franklin-Rosemary, Gimghoul and Cameron-McCauley.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Undated map from the Chapel Hill Planning Department showing the town's three historic districts, with separate colors for the districts, university buildings and the main town buildings.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Newspaper clippings, photocopied articles, a magazine article and promotional material on the Franklin-Rosemary historic district in Chapel Hill. Undated; Chapel Hill History series of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's vertical file collection.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Not about Chapel Hill Historic District alone: the architectural surveys that cover its town or the county, and maps drawn while it stood. Several of the surveys can be read free online at NC Digital Collections.
Margaret Ruth Little-Stokes's survey of Chapel Hill's town and campus buildings from 1795 to 1975, published by the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill in 2006. Chapters run from the first campus buildings through David Swain's romantic campus to midcentury modernism, followed by area surveys of the campus, east and west Chapel Hill, downtown, Northside and the suburbs.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
M. Ruth Little's 2004 architectural history of Chapel Hill and the university campus from 1795 to 1975, written for the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill. A 99-page survey with a bibliography.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
M. B. Gatza's final report of the 1992 Chapel Hill historic sites survey for the town Planning Department, with contributions by Beverly C. Kawalec and Catherine Bishir. It covers historic buildings and districts in Chapel Hill in 80 pages.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Kelly A. Lally's October 1992 final report on the architectural survey of Chapel Hill township, including Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Besides the report and a bibliography, most of its 56 pages form an annotated index of the historic buildings surveyed.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Bernard Lee Bryant's compilation of who occupied each structure on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill at five-year intervals from 1793 to 1998, issued by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 1999 as a photocopy of his original computer printout on cotton paper. 191 leaves.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.
These books don’t necessarily mention Chapel Hill Historic District, but they cover where it stands, its kind of building and the land, family and burial records behind it, and they are where a search for a place like this usually goes next. All are at OCPL, most in the Wall Collection.
Steven Stolpen's pictorial history of Chapel Hill, one of the Donning Company's photographic town histories, published in Norfolk, Virginia in 1978. Photographs and portraits carry the story of the town and the university, including references to Thomas Wolfe's years as a student at Carolina. 156 pages with illustrations.
Elizabeth Shreve Ryan's combined histories and tour guides for Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the three towns of Orange County, with the University of North Carolina treated alongside Chapel Hill. Each town gets a narrative history and a tour of its streets and buildings. Published by Chapel Hill Press in 2004, 369 pages with illustrations and maps.
Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern's field guide to the historic buildings of the North Carolina Piedmont, arranged county by county from Wake and Franklin in the east to Mecklenburg and Gaston in the west. The Orange County section takes in Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro along with the rural county, with entries on individual buildings and maps for finding them. Published 2003, 596 pages with illustrations and maps.
A pocket-sized guide to the historic buildings and landmarks of Chapel Hill, prepared by the Chapel Hill Historical Society and printed by Creative Printers in 1973. Forty pages with illustrations and maps, 14 by 22 cm. Topics include architecture, historic buildings and historic districts in Chapel Hill, and the guide is useful for a walking tour of the older parts of town.
Deed transcripts for the town lots of Chapel Hill and adjoining land from 1790 to the 1930s, compiled by Stewart E. Dunaway. Each transcript keeps only the working facts: grantor and grantee, price, acreage and the metes and bounds of the parcel. Self-published in 2014 as Issue 1G, 702 pages with maps and facsimiles.
Sources cited in this site’s history, National Register documents, and places to get research help. Research guide: Research a house or property.
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