University Inn in Chapel Hill
Black-and-white photograph of the University Inn in Chapel Hill on fire in 1921, with a crowd of onlookers gathered to watch the hotel burn. From the Images of North Carolina collection.
Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.
People in its history
Indexed works
Books, articles, records and pictures in the index about Eagle Hotel, found by its names in titles, catalog subjects and the index’s descriptions, and read one by one. Those held at OCPL come first.
About the site
Talk by Dr. Davis, Stephen Jr. (Research Labs of Archeology, UNC-CH), 1999 (Chapel Hill Historical Society cassette)
R. P. Stephen Davis Jr. of UNC's Research Laboratories of Archaeology spoke to the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 1999 on excavations on the campus at the sites of the Eagle Hotel and the poor house. Cassette.
Chapel Hill, N.C. Chapel Hill Hotel and Annex
Chapel Hill Hotel and its annex, with their porches, on a PCK Series postcard from Piedmont Supply Co., printed in Germany about 1905 to 1915. The writer's message on the back concerns travel plans: staying over in Shoskie and asking to be fetched with the horse on the afternoon of the 27th.
Pickard, W.W. and Betty Pickard: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)
Portraits of W. W. Pickard and Betty Pickard, owners of the University Inn in Chapel Hill, dated 1900. One photograph in the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.
University Inn: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)
The University Inn in Chapel Hill between 1890 and 1900, in five photographs: exteriors with trees and sidewalk, one showing the annex taken from the former Eagle Hotel, and duplicate prints. From the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.
W.W. Pickard papers, 1885-1931.
About fifty items kept as the papers of Walter W. Pickard, 1853 to 1917, spanning 1885 to 1931, collection 5151-z in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. Subjects include the Pickard Hotel and the Chapel Hill Hotel and University Inn, together with estate law and real property in North Carolina, so the papers bear on hotel keeping and property matters in Chapel Hill and Alamance County.
Show 3 more works
University Inn Advertisement: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)
Undated advertisement for the University Inn, the Chapel Hill hotel, preserved as a photograph in the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.
University Inn Fire: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)
Six undated photographs of the fire at the University Inn, the Chapel Hill hotel. Part of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.
University Inn Interior: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)
Interior staircase of the University Inn in Chapel Hill, in an undated photograph from the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.
Surveys and maps of the area
Not about Eagle Hotel 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
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.
The town and gown architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975
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.
Chapel Hill historic sites survey : final report.
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.
Chapel Hill township survey final report
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.
When Chapel Hill was a village
Cornelia Spencer Love's recollections of Chapel Hill as a village, published by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 1976 with drawings by John V. Allcott. Love lived from 1892 to 1981, and the book covers Chapel Hill biography, the town's social life and customs, and the faculty of the university before 1962. viii and 87 pages with illustrations.
Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, North Carolina at 5-Year Intervals, 1793-1998
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.
Show 8 more surveys and maps
[Map of the site of the University of North Carolina and Chapel Hill].
John Daniel, a surveyor employed by the university trustees, made this pen and ink map of the future university site in 1792. It shows the tracts of land, the springs and creeks, nearby mills and the roads running from Fayetteville to Hillsborough, Pittsborough to Petersburg, Hillsborough to Newberne, and on to Raleigh. William S. Powell describes the map in First state university.
A plan of the situation of ye University, ye ornamental ground, ye adjacent village : the lands belonging to ye trustees together with ye springs : June 1st, 1795.
Dated June 1, 1795, this pen and ink plan lays out the University of North Carolina site in its earliest years: the village, the cleared ground, the avenue, the ornamental ground, the lands belonging to the trustees and the springs. Archibald Henderson reproduced it in The campus of the first state university and identified it as the lost 1795 map by Charles W. Harris. Manuscript map, 30 x 36 cm.
Plan of the village at the University with the adjoining lands belonging to the institution.
Early hand-drawn plan of the University village at Chapel Hill and the lands around it, which Archibald Henderson dated to between 1797 and 1812. It shows town lots with owners' names, Main Building (South Building), the steward's and president's houses, the chapel, Franklin Street and a Grand Avenue, plus a partial list of buyers at the 1793 lot sale.
Plan of the village of Chapel Hill on a scale of 200 yards to an inch.
An early manuscript plan of Chapel Hill drawn at 200 yards to the inch, dated 1812, with a note on the verso reading September 4, 1817. It copies an earlier pen and ink plot in the possession of William Pannill, taken in turn from one by John Craig, and it marks boundary lines, town lots with some owners named, the University buildings, the president's lot, the chapel and the preparatory school.
Map of Chapel Hill as it was in 1875 to 1885
Henry Dennis Carter's reconstruction, drawn as a blueprint in 1934, of Chapel Hill as it stood between 1875 and 1885, showing the buildings of the village. A note on the map says the information came from old residents who gave it to Mary L. Thornton.
[Map of Chapel Hill and vicinity].
Dating from 1888 and attributed to Hunter Lee Harris, a map of Chapel Hill and its vicinity, reproduced as a photocopy measuring 22 by 37 centimeters. Harris died in 1893, which brackets the drawing to the late nineteenth century. An early depiction of the streets of the village and the land around it.
[Map of Chapel Hill].
Pen-and-ink manuscript map of Chapel Hill dated 1852, with a table of measurements, showing the University campus, the village around it, street widths and layout, and the town limits. Later notes attributed to Kemp P. Battle give the longitude and latitude of landmarks as measured from atop New East Hall in 1880.
Map of Chapel Hill business district in 1892
Hand-drawn map of downtown Chapel Hill as it stood in 1892, covering Franklin, Henderson, Columbia and Church streets and part of the campus. It locates Pickard's Hotel, the Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist churches, the H. H. Patterson store and other businesses and owners. Julia Hooper Graves and the writer Phillips Russell are both connected with it.
Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.
Start at OCPL
Where to look on the shelf
These books don’t necessarily mention Eagle Hotel, 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.
Histories of the town and county
- Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 975.656 STO
Chapel Hill: A Pictorial History
Stolpen, Steven · 1978
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.
- Foundational · 975.656 RYAN
Orange County Trio: Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro, North Carolina, Histories and Tour Guides
Ryan, Elizabeth Shreve · 2004
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.
Buildings and surveys
- Foundational · NC 720.975 BIS
A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina
Bishir, Catherine W. · 2003
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.
- Foundational · NC 917.56 HIS
Historic Buildings and Landmarks of Chapel Hill, N.C
Chapel Hill Historical Society · 1973
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.
Land, family and burial records
- Foundational · NC 333.3 DUNAWAY
Chapel Hill, N.C. History of Town Lots (1790-1930s)
Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2014
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.
In the chronology
- John Taylor Sr. opens a tavern on Franklin Street By 1799 the former steward had put up a tavern on Lot #13, which he had bought in 1796. The lot stayed in the hotel trade for decades: Alsobrook's hotel, the Watts Hotel, the Eagle Hotel and the Union Hotel all stood on it.
- Nancy Hilliard buys the Watts Hotel from Lucy Watts Lucy Watts sold the hotel and the land beside it to Nancy Hilliard, already known as a Chapel Hill hotel keeper. A year later Hilliard enlarged it for President Polk's commencement visit. People: Nancy Hilliard
- Nancy Hilliard adds a castellated annex to the Eagle Hotel for President Polk's visit For President James K. Polk's visit to the 1847 commencement, Nancy Hilliard, who kept the Eagle Hotel, added a stuccoed two-story wing with a battlemented porch in a medieval manner. The annex stood on the site of today's Graham Memorial; Dabney Cosby likely built it, perhaps to his own design or one by A. J. Davis. People: Dabney Cosby, Nancy Hilliard
- Nancy Hilliard sells the Eagle Hotel, renamed the Union Hotel In the early 1850s Miss Nancy Hilliard, long the students' and travelers' landlady, sold her hotel interest for $10,000 to Hugh B. Guthrie, who renamed the Eagle the Union Hotel. She went on to run the North Carolina Railroad eating house at Company Shops. People: Nancy Hilliard
- David McCauley buys the Union Hotel and renames it the Chapel Hill Hotel McCauley bought the Union Hotel, the house Nancy Hilliard had once kept as the Eagle Hotel, and gave it the name Chapel Hill Hotel. He also bought the building at the northeast corner of Franklin and Henderson streets where Richard Benbury Saunders had kept his drugstore. People: Nancy Hilliard, David McCauley
- David McCauley lets Nancy Hilliard live rent free in her old hotel After losing her house and failing at hotel work in Raleigh, Nancy Hilliard came back to Chapel Hill destitute, and David McCauley, who now owned her former Eagle Hotel, let her live rent free in a room there. Former students sent her money until her death in 1873. People: David McCauley
- John H. Watson buys the Chapel Hill Hotel from David McCauley John H. Watson, a brother of Jones Watson, bought the Chapel Hill Hotel from McCauley. By 1891 he had taken W. W. Pickard as a partner. People: David McCauley
- Watson and Pickard rebuild the Chapel Hill Hotel and add the University Inn Annex With money from W. G. Peckham, a New York lawyer, John H. Watson and his partner W. W. Pickard tore down the old hotel except for the Polk apartment, rebuilt it, and added a large new section called the University Inn Annex.
- The trustees agree to buy the old hotel near the campus At their June 1906 meeting the trustees agreed to buy the old Eagle Hotel, later the Chapel Hill Hotel and then the University Inn, for $19,700 to use for dormitories. The two-acre lot had sold for $200 in 1792. W. W. Pickard kept the hotel until early 1908, when the University put Addison Lambeth in charge.
- The Chapel Hill Red Cross moves its workroom to the University Inn After the armistice of November 11, 1918, the chapter left the Zeta Psi fraternity hall for roomy quarters in the University Inn that the University provided.
- Fire destroys the main building of the old University Inn Fire on November 30, 1921 destroyed the main building of the old University Inn, the former Eagle Hotel, and left 42 student roomers without quarters; students on the roof with a hose saved the annex Nancy Hilliard had built for President Polk's 1847 visit. The annex stood until it was razed in January 1924 to clear the site for Graham Memorial. People: Nancy Hilliard
- Trustees put Graham Memorial on the site of the burned University Inn After other sites were floated, the trustees settled on the University Inn lot, set back from Franklin Street. Alumni pledges then stood near $120,000, only half of it paid. People: Harry Woodburn Chase
- Work begins on Graham Memorial on the site of the burned University Inn Construction of Graham Memorial started where the University Inn had stood until the 1921 fire. By 1928 only its social room was in use.
Research sources
Places to visit 4
Maps, surveys, and the ground itself
- National Register nomination: Chapel Hill Historic District (1971) State Historic Preservation Office
- HPOWEB, the state’s map of surveyed and listed historic places State Historic Preservation Office Find the site on the map to read its survey record
- North Carolina Maps UNC Libraries Historic maps of the state, including the county and its towns
- Orange County GIS and land records Orange County Parcel maps and ownership history for the land today
Read contemporary evidence 13
Newspapers, photographs, and records of the time
- Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 123 cited by an event here
- Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 125 cited by an event here
- Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 135 cited by an event here
- Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 161 cited by an event here
- Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 233 cited by an event here
- Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 27 cited by an event here
Show all 13
- Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 81 cited by an event here
- DigitalNC: The Tar Heel, December 2, 1921, p. 1 cited by an event here
- Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 657 cited by an event here
- NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 24 cited by an event here
- State Archives of North Carolina, Military Collection, WWI Papers, Box 2, Folder 37: Orange County Red Cross History (typescripts, 1918-1919), scan 18 cited by an event here
- The Chapel Hill Weekly, 1923–1972 DigitalNC Digitized issues, searchable by name; this paper covers years the site stood
- Orange County Register of Deeds Orange County Deeds and plats, searchable online, to trace who owned the property
Ask locally 5
Local organizations that preserve the story and can help you go further
- Chapel Hill Historical Society Photographs, maps and papers on Chapel Hill and Carrboro, with a research links page
- Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection, Orange County Public Library The county library’s local-history room at the Main Library in Hillsborough: books, journals, maps, and microfilm of county records from 1752
- Local History Help Hours and request form The library’s Local History Liaison helps in person most Mondays, 12 to 3, at the Main Library, or by the online request form
- Preservation Chapel Hill Chapel Hill buildings and neighborhoods
- Orange County Historical Museum Orange County history, objects, and interpretation
Additional research sources
Other sources to search and local organizations that can help.
- Background context: Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 245 cited by an event here
- Background context: NCpedia: Hilliard, Nancy Ann Segur (John Macfie) cited by an event here
- Search beyond the index: Orange County History Guide: Buildings and Maps UNC Libraries Surveys, inventories and maps of the county’s buildings
- Search beyond the index: NC LIVE: prepared search for Eagle Hotel or Chapel Hill NC LIVE Articles, e-books and newspapers across the state’s shared databases, already scoped to this site’s names and the county; sign in through your North Carolina library to read
Nearby
- Graham Memorial 0 m · 10 events
- Silent Sam (UNC Confederate monument) 60 m · 14 events
- Morehead Planetarium 100 m · 6 events
- McCorkle Place (with the Davie Poplar) 110 m · 13 events
- Alumni Building 120 m · 8 events
- University Presbyterian Church 130 m · 12 events
- The Rathskeller (Amber Alley) 150 m · 4 events
- Chapel of the Cross 150 m · 21 events
- Chapel Hill Post Office and Peace and Justice Plaza 160 m · 13 events
- University United Methodist Church 190 m · 8 events
