Daniel Boone Village

In the chronology

1. 1960 James Freeland buys the South Churton Street land that becomes Daniel Boone Village James Freeland bought the land on South Churton Street in 1960. He developed it from the 1960s as Daniel Boone Village, a motel, restaurant and amusement complex, and his family kept it after his death. The News of Orange County: Daniel Boone Village sold (September 11, 2018)
2. by 1966 James J. Freeland opens the Daniel Boone Inn and restaurant at South Churton Street and I-85 A 1966 plat of the "Daniel Boone Inn and Restaurant Tract", eleven acres lying behind the Shell station on the northeast side of the interchange, shows a pond, a general store, a restaurant later known as the D. B. Cafeteria and a long two-story motel. It was the start of Daniel Boone Village. People: James J. Freeland NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 21
3. by June 1971 Daniel Boone Village grows into an amusement park By June 1971 Daniel Boone Park off I-85 was advertising its railroad, amusement rides, miniature golf, a trail ride, picnic grounds, an amphitheater and a wax museum it billed as the state's only one, and Black clubs from Durham held summer picnics there, among them the W. D. Hill Golden Age Club on June 26, 1972. By 1972 the Daniel Boone Recreation Park also had a roller rink, an ice rink, a ski lift, a refrigerated toboggan slide, an antique car museum, a fort and a campground, circled by a small railroad on which costumed performers staged holdups. With relocated log cabins and false-front shops it looked like a frontier town, and Freeland was dubbed the "Walt Disney of Hillsborough." A family tribute display at Boone Square dates the park's opening to 1965. People: James J. Freeland NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 21 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, June 17, 1971, p. 16; The Carolina Times, July 8, 1972, p. 4; The Daily Tar Heel, June 17, 1971, p. 1; Family tribute display "Orange County Giant," Boone Square, Hillsborough (seen October 2026)
4. June 13, 1971 Junior Samples and Jimmy Martin play the Daniel Boone Amphitheater Hee Haw comedian Junior Samples headed an afternoon country bill at the amphitheater at Daniel Boone Park off I-85, with Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys, Tater Tate and the Shenandoah Cut-Ups, and Glenn Thompson; the crowd was small, the paper reported. Ads that summer offered Sammi Smith and Charlie Louvin on June 20 and Saturday-night rock shows and dances into September, alongside the park's railroad, rides and wax museum. A family tribute display at Boone Square names Loretta Lynn, Jeannie C. Riley and Jerry Lee Lewis among the amphitheater's performers in the 1970s. People: James J. Freeland The Daily Tar Heel, June 17, 1971, p. 1 · Also: Family tribute display "Orange County Giant," Boone Square, Hillsborough (seen October 2026)
5. mid-July 1972 Roller skating rink reopens at the Daniel Boone Inn in Hillsborough After four months of remodeling, a couple of professional skaters reopened the roller rink at the Daniel Boone Inn in Hillsborough in mid-July, with new precision skates, music, games and plans for dance and free-style classes. In its first two weeks most of its customers were UNC students, the Tar Heel reported. The Daily Tar Heel, July 27, 1972, p. 1
6. late 1970s The Daniel Boone amusement park closes and Boone Square replaces its north end By the end of the 1970s the rides were gone, leaving only the campground, ice rink and amphitheater, and the northern part of the property was rebuilt as the Boone Square shopping center; a big-box supermarket stood on the ride site by 1983. Daniel Boone Village became a center for antique shops and restaurants, with the Big Barn Convention Center for community events. People: James J. Freeland NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 22
7. 1978 James J. Freeland moves the Gatewood House from Yanceyville to Daniel Boone Village Continuing his habit of relocating old buildings to his South Churton Street development, Freeland brought the Gatewood House from Yanceyville in Caswell County to Daniel Boone Village in 1978. A family tribute display at Boone Square says the farmhouse, where George Washington was said to have slept, later housed a museum of old musical instruments. People: James J. Freeland NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 21 · Also: Family tribute display "Orange County Giant," Boone Square, Hillsborough (seen October 2026)
8. by October 1978 The Big Barn at Daniel Boone Village is renting to campus parties The Big Barn Convention Center at the Daniel Boone Complex was advertising to UNC clubs, fraternities and sororities by October 1978, with Donna Freeland taking bookings, and by 1980 was thanking them for another party season. Ads through the 1980s offered a rustic hall for about 400 with catering; Donna Freeland managed it in 1982. It also held public events, among them a Hillsborough Democrats summer festival (1981), an ArtSchool benefit reggae concert (1987) and a Tommy Dorsey Orchestra dance sponsored by the ArtsCenter (1989). In 1994 the Daily Tar Heel said it had housed sorority functions for 16 years. People: James J. Freeland The Daily Tar Heel, October 11, 1978, p. 3 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, April 17, 1980, p. 3
9. June 27, 1982 Donna Freeland opens Donna's Folly in a caboose at Daniel Boone Village Donna Freeland opened Donna's Folly, a shop selling and renting clothing from the 1850s to the 1950s, in a renovated caboose at Daniel Boone Village, the development her father had built. Her customers included costume-party goers, owners of restored houses and play directors. DigitalNC: The Chowanian, December 1, 1982, p. 8
10. March 14, 1989 James J. Freeland dies The Hillsborough builder, motel owner and developer of Daniel Boone Village died on March 14, 1989. A family tribute display at Boone Square says he collapsed that evening in a pickup while looking over the Daniel Boone complex and was taken to Duke Hospital; the 2017 architectural survey says he died at the Highway 70 house he had built in 1964. His children kept Daniel Boone Village and Boone Square. People: James J. Freeland NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 22 · Also: Family tribute display "Orange County Giant," Boone Square, Hillsborough (seen October 2026)
11. 1990 The Triangle Youth Hockey Association takes over the ice rink at Daniel Boone Village A group of parents running the nonprofit Triangle Youth Hockey Association took over the Hillsborough ice rink, built in the mid-1960s as the Daniel Boone Twin Ice Rinks, after it had changed hands several times. By 1993 it ran youth and adult leagues, figure-skating classes and public skating from October to April and was the home rink of the UNC and Duke club hockey teams. The Daily Tar Heel, April 5, 1993, p. 6
12. by July 1991 The OCIM Thrift Shop is operating at Daniel Boone Village Orange Congregations in Mission ran a thrift shop at Daniel Boone Village by 1991, also collecting monthly food donations there for its Samaritan Relief food pantry. Ads in 1992-94 placed it at 341 Ja-Max Drive, selling clothing, furniture, books and household goods six days a week, with proceeds going to Meals on Wheels and the Samaritan Relief Program. DigitalNC: The Carolina Times, July 20, 1991, p. 24

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