The Chapel Hill Weekly

In the chronology

1. March 1, 1923 The Chapel Hill Weekly publishes its first issue Louis Graves published the first issue of his newspaper, the Chapel Hill Weekly, on Thursday, March 1, 1923. He owned and edited it until 1954. NCpedia: Graves, Louis · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, February 24, 1928, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, February 25, 1927, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, May 10, 1923, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, March 6, 1931, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, February 26, 1937, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, March 1, 1923, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, September 24, 1991, p. 3
2. by July 10, 1924 Work begins on a brick building for the Chapel Hill Weekly and the Orange Printshop Workmen began clearing ground on Rosemary Street behind the hardware store and the People's Bank for a one-story brick building with a fireproof roof for the Chapel Hill Weekly and its printer, the Orange Printshop, which had worked since May 1923 in the basement under Sutton and Alderman's drugstore. Charles Martindale was the builder, and the paper hoped to move in by October 1. People: Louis Graves The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 10, 1924, p. 1
3. September 1924 The Chapel Hill Weekly's printshop moves into its own brick building After a year and four months in the flood-prone basement of the Strowd building, the Weekly's printing plant moved into a new one-story brick building on Rosemary Lane behind the hardware store, adding equipment from a closed Burlington printing company. People: Louis Graves The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 25, 1927, p. 1
4. by August 23, 1935 The Orange Printshop and the Chapel Hill Weekly finish a brick addition on Rosemary Lane A 60-by-32-foot brick addition with a fireproof roof, designed by H. D. Carter and built by Brodie Thompson, went up in front of the old building of the Orange Printshop and the Chapel Hill Weekly on Rosemary Lane, giving room for offices, paper stock and student editors. The shop held an open house on September 13 with its presses and linotypes running. People: H. D. Carter, Brodie Thompson, Louis Graves The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 23, 1935, p. 3
5. March 22, 1940 Louis Graves's Weekly takes up J. L. Morehead's call to give Franklin Street a Williamsburg look Durham attorney J. L. Morehead, for years the attorney and financial adviser of the town government, urged the mayor, the aldermen and other citizens to make the Franklin Street business block as handsome as the campus and residential streets, pointing to the business street of Colonial Williamsburg as proof it could be done, and Louis Graves's Chapel Hill Weekly reported his plan favorably on March 22, 1940. Later accounts credit Graves's paper with the campaign. Joseph Hyde Pratt, John M. Booker, W. D. Carmichael Jr., Collier Cobb Jr. and George Watts Hill backed the plan, and architect Archie Davis gave the planning commission watercolors showing owners how to remodel. People: Joseph Hyde Pratt, William D. Carmichael Jr., George Watts Hill, Archie Royal Davis, John M. Booker, Collier Cobb Jr., John Lindsay Morehead NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 68 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, March 22, 1940, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, March 22, 1940, p. 2
6. By November 1941 Chapel Hill appoints its first town planning commission After more than a year of urging by the Chapel Hill Weekly, a Town Meeting on April 4, 1941 named a committee of John M. Booker (chairman), W. D. Carmichael Jr., Clyde Eubanks, Joseph Hyde Pratt and H. G. Baity to study the look of the business section. Its report, taken up at a Town Meeting on April 21, asked the mayor and aldermen to appoint a five-member Town Planning Commission to plan for stream-valley land, zoning and parking and to have a consulting architect pass on the designs of new and remodeled buildings. The aldermen then created the commission by ordinance, and by November it was at work with Baity as chairman and Pratt, Collier Cobb Jr., L. J. Phipps and J. P. Harland as members. It set the Colonial Revival look of downtown for the next decade. People: William D. Carmichael Jr., Herman G. Baity, Joseph Hyde Pratt, Clyde Eubanks, John M. Booker, Collier Cobb Jr., Luther James Phipps NC State Historic Preservation Office: Chapel Hill Town Hall, National Register nomination (OR0327), p. 10 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, April 11, 1941, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, April 18, 1941, p. 4; Chapel Hill Weekly, November 28, 1941, p. 6
7. May 8, 1942 The Chapel Hill Weekly prints a special edition for the farm war campaign, sent to every rural family On May 8, 1942, the Chapel Hill Weekly put out a special edition backing the county's neighborhood-leader campaign, and a sample copy went to every rural family in Orange County. Stories in the county's papers that spring covered the leaders, edible soybeans, scrap and war bonds; the Mebane Enterprise printed the leaders' names on April 30. U.S. Department of Agriculture Extension Service, Orange and Lee Counties, North Carolina, Demonstrate How Neighborhood Leaders Can Help in Securing Participation of Rural Families in Agriculture's Wartime Programs, Extension Service Circular 387 (1942), scan p. 13
8. 1954 Louis Graves sells the Chapel Hill Weekly After 31 years as its editor and owner, Louis Graves sold the Chapel Hill Weekly in 1954 to the Chapel Hill Publishing Company. He stayed on as contributing editor through 1960. UNC Libraries: Louis and Mildred Graves Papers, 1814; 1876-1992
9. 1963 The Chapel Hill Weekly moves into the old Harris-Connors Chevrolet agency on West Franklin The town's weekly paper took over the space the Chevrolet dealer had left. Renamed the Chapel Hill Newspaper, it moved a few doors west in late 1973. Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 313
10. January 23, 1965 Louis Graves, founder of the Chapel Hill Weekly, dies Louis Graves, founder and longtime editor of the Chapel Hill Weekly, died in Chapel Hill at 81. A 1902 University graduate and former New York Times reporter, he had come back in 1921 to teach journalism and direct the University News Bureau, and edited the Weekly until he sold it in 1954; his column "Chapel Hill Chaff" was widely quoted. People: Louis Graves The Daily Tar Heel, February 2, 1965, p. 1
11. by April 30, 1966 The Chapel Hill Publishing Company buys the News of Orange County The Chapel Hill Publishing Company, publisher of the Chapel Hill Weekly, bought the News of Orange County from Edwin J. Hamlin, who said he sold it to run for clerk of Superior Court. Roland Giduz, editor since 1959, stayed on as editor of the editorial page, and the first issue under the new owners was printed by offset with a tabloid front page. People: Roland Giduz The Daily Tar Heel, April 30, 1966, p. 1
12. 1968–1969 Jeff MacNelly draws editorial cartoons for the Chapel Hill Weekly UNC student Jeff MacNelly began drawing editorial cartoons for the Chapel Hill Weekly under editor Jim Shumaker, then left school to work for the paper full time. He modeled the editor in his later comic strip Shoe on Shumaker. Cigar Aficionado: Quick On The Draw

Open these in the chronology →