Churches and lodges
The Community Church of Chapel Hill on Purefoy Road was founded in 1953 as an integrated, nondenominational congregation by the Rev. Charlie Jones and members who left Chapel Hill Presbyterian with him. Its first building, by George Matsumoto, was dedicated in 1959, Cogswell/Hausler added an International Style sanctuary in 1970, and it joined the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1993.
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 named in events about this site, ordered by number of mentions. Each example links to an entry with a source citation.
Books, articles, records, and images about Community Church of Chapel Hill. Each has been reviewed for relevance; materials held at OCPL appear first.
Half-hour video from GK Productions, released in Chapel Hill in 2001, centered on Charles M. Jones, the minister whose Presbyterian congregation and the later Community Church of Chapel Hill both figure in it, along with civil rights movements and racism in the town. Color with black and white sequences.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Civic papers of Adelaide Walters, 1907 to 1981, spanning 1954 to 1981, about 900 items in 1.5 linear feet, collection 4293 in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. The papers document her work on the Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen and her political life, covering city and regional planning, the civil rights movement in Chapel Hill, the Community Church, and the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Joseph W. Straley, born 1914, taught at the University of North Carolina, and his papers, about 600 items in a linear foot and a half spanning 1936 to 2002, are in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 5252. Diaries and other primary material cover academic freedom and the Speaker Ban Law, civil rights work and segregation, the Community Church of Chapel Hill, Charles Miles Jones and Howard Lee.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Charles Miles Jones, 1906 to 1993, a Presbyterian minister in Chapel Hill, left these papers covering 1924 into the 1990s, about 1,800 items in 2.5 linear feet, collection 5168 in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. The papers concern civil rights and segregation in North Carolina, the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, the Community Church of Chapel Hill, the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen, and names including Frank Porter Graham and Bayard Rustin.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Material produced by the Community Church in Chapel Hill, with photocopied newspaper articles about it. From the Churches series of the Chapel Hill Historical Society Vertical File Collection (CHHS.001). Undated.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Serial titled Activities, issued by the Community Church of Chapel Hill and dated 1981. Topics include the congregation itself, its finances and community churches in the town, so the issues carry program announcements together with financial reporting. Volumes in a standard letter format, a running record of an independent congregation's work over many years.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Annual report of the Community Church of Chapel Hill, a serial whose third report appeared in 1959 and which is dated here as 1976. Topics include the congregation's finances, so each issue gives a yearly account of the church's program and its money. Useful for following an independent Chapel Hill congregation decade by decade.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
A letter from James Douglass Riddle, minister of the Community Church of Chapel Hill, to his congregation, dated November 20, 1968, reporting on church activities and planning. Seven typed leaves.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Fund-raising pamphlet issued in 1957 by the Community Church of Chapel Hill to support building a sanctuary, with a short history of the congregation and, illustrations, a map and a plan. Eight leaves, 28 centimeters. A piece of Chapel Hill church history and of the story of community churches in the town, useful to anyone tracing the congregation's early years.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Statement issued by the Community Church of Chapel Hill on September 1, 1954, setting out why the church exists, the beliefs it was founded on, how it is governed, the services it means to perform and what membership asks of those who join. Fifteen pages in a narrow format.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Not about Community Church of Chapel Hill 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.
George Arthur Johnson surveys the churches of southern Orange County, the part of the county south of Interstate 85 that takes in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, from 1756 to 2000. The volume also includes his talk to the Chapel Hill Historical Society on March 4, 1996, on the university, the churches and the Jews of Chapel Hill. Published by the society in 2000, 144 pages plus lettered pages A to F.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
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.
Street and property map of Chapel Hill and the surrounding country, revised to 1 January 1933 and printed in the town. Topics include streets, real property and the historical geography of Chapel Hill along with maps of the University of North Carolina in its 1793 to 1962 period. A useful sheet for tracing lot lines and street names as they stood at the start of the 1930s.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
An appendix map from 1944 marking Chapel Hill's African American neighborhoods: Potters Field, Sunset, Tintop, Knolls and South West Lane. A proposed park north of town, possibly Umstead Park, is also shown.
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 Community Church of Chapel Hill, 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.
Storyline about this site, with a page of its own:
Sources cited in this site’s history, National Register documents, and places to get research help. Research guide: Investigate a school or community institution.
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