Historic district and property boundaries Every building in the state survey Cemeteries (county GIS; burials at Cemetery Census)

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.

People in its history

People named in events about this site, ordered by number of mentions. Each example links to an entry with a source citation.

Rebecca Clark4 entries, including University laundry workers reject a piece-work plan and demand a wage increase (August 5, 1942)
Frank Porter Graham2 entries, including Black laundry workers take complaints of racial pay discrimination to the Fair Employment Practice Committee (March 1945)
Kennon Cheek2 entries, including The University Laundry is renamed for housekeeping leaders Kennon Cheek and Rebecca Clark (January 28 – September 17, 1998)
Josephus Daniels1 entry: University laundry workers stage a sit-down strike (September 30, 1946)
L. B. Rogerson1 entry: University laundry workers reject a piece-work plan and demand a wage increase (August 5, 1942)

Sites linked through the same people

University Laundry through Rebecca Clark, L. B. Rogerson and 3 more
Forest Theatre through L. B. Rogerson and Frank Porter Graham
Gerrard Hall through Frank Porter Graham and Josephus Daniels
Kenan Stadium through Frank Porter Graham and Josephus Daniels
Memorial Hall through Frank Porter Graham and Josephus Daniels
Navy Pre-Flight School through Frank Porter Graham and Josephus Daniels

In the chronology

October 1925 to January 11, 1926 The University Laundry is built on West Cameron Avenue The University's new laundry near the west end of Cameron Avenue, a steel-and-brick building 120 by 75 feet that cost $23,000, went up in eleven weeks in the fall of 1925; Superintendent G. H. Paulsen moved the plant from the old campus laundry in 12 days, and it opened on January 11, 1926, the Weekly reported. The 1992 Chapel Hill survey dates the laundry at 609 West Cameron Avenue, brick over a steel frame with an Art Moderne front block and a long industrial rear wing, to 1940, which may mark a later front or rebuilding. An addition came after 1960. NC Digital Collections: Chapel Hill Historic Sites Survey: Final Report (1992), p. 12 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, January 8, 1926, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, January 8, 1926, p. 2
August 5, 1942 University laundry workers reject a piece-work plan and demand a wage increase Meeting by shifts, the laundry workers turned down the university's offer of piece rates with no assured raise. Their union wrote that it would take the matter to President Graham within a week if nothing changed. People: Rebecca Clark, L. B. Rogerson Sixty Years of Struggle: A Documented History of Housekeepers at U.N.C. (1996), scan p. 29
March 1945 Black laundry workers take complaints of racial pay discrimination to the Fair Employment Practice Committee Press operators Bessie Hargraves and Etta Guthrie said white folders earned more because of race. At President Graham's request the personnel officer investigated, and his memo denied that race set the pay. People: Frank Porter Graham Sixty Years of Struggle: A Documented History of Housekeepers at U.N.C. (1996), scan p. 37
September 30, 1946 University laundry workers stage a sit-down strike The workers, some earning thirty-five cents an hour, stopped work on their own and set a further strike for October 14. Student Martin Watkins reported it to President Graham and to trustee Josephus Daniels. People: Frank Porter Graham, Josephus Daniels Sixty Years of Struggle: A Documented History of Housekeepers at U.N.C. (1996), scan p. 41
1953 Rebecca Clark moves from the University Laundry to nursing at Memorial Hospital In 1953 Clark left the University Laundry for the newly built university hospital, where she spent the rest of her working years as a nurse. UNC's Employee Forum says she was the first licensed practical nurse in the campus infirmary and retired in 1979. UNC, Names in Brick and Stone: Cheek-Clark Building
January 28 – September 17, 1998 The University Laundry is renamed for housekeeping leaders Kennon Cheek and Rebecca Clark On January 28, 1998 the trustees voted to rename the 1920s University Laundry for Kennon Cheek and Rebecca Clark, who led campus housekeepers in the 1930s and 1940s. The building was rededicated on September 17, 1998. People: Rebecca Clark, Kennon Cheek Names in Brick and Stone: Histories from UNC's Built Landscape: Cheek Clark Building
February 2020 Exhibit honoring housekeeping and facilities staff opens in the renovated Cheek-Clark Building A lobby exhibit in the renovated Kennon Cheek and Rebecca Clark Building presents the lives of Cheek, Clark and groundskeeper William Hubbard with a timeline of the university's housekeeping and facilities work. People: Rebecca Clark, Kennon Cheek UNC-Chapel Hill: Exhibit in renovated Cheek Clark Building honors Carolina staff

Open these in the chronology →

Indexed works

The index has no works about Cheek-Clark Building itself yet. The surveys and maps below cover where it stands. Search the index for Cheek-Clark Building, or tell us about a book or record we have missed.

Surveys and maps of the area

Not about Cheek-Clark Building 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.

The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, North Carolina: 1795-1975

Little-Stokes, Margaret Ruth · 2006

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.