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University buildings and grounds

Graham Memorial

In Chapel Hill. 10 dated events, 1919–2004.

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 Graham Memorial, 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

Graham Memorial guide : your student union, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

1974 · The Board of Directors of Graham Memorial, University of North Carolina

A guide for students to Graham Memorial, the union building at the University of North Carolina, issued in 1974 by the union's board of directors in volumes of 19 centimeters with illustrations. It is a periodical about student unions in Chapel Hill. It sets out what the building offered undergraduates in the mid 1970s.

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Graham Memorial, the student union, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

1966 · The Board of Directors of Graham Memorial, University of North Carolina

A serial publication of the board of directors of Graham Memorial, the student union at the University of North Carolina, issued in volumes of 19 centimeters with illustrations. The 1966 issue is signed at the end by Mayne Albright as director. Topics include student unions in Chapel Hill and the buildings of the university.

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Graham Memorial Student Union : the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, January 29, 1932.

1932 · The University of North Carolina

A single sheet folded to three unnumbered pages with one illustration, issued by the University of North Carolina and dated January 29, 1932, on the Graham Memorial Student Union at Chapel Hill. Topics include student unions in the town and the buildings of the university. Brief as it is, the leaflet marks a date in the building's early life.

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The Graham Memorial Building.

1924

Printed material on the Graham Memorial Building at the University of North Carolina, issued at Chapel Hill in 1924. Topics include college buildings, memorials and university planning in the town. One of several pieces surviving from the years when the student building was under discussion on the campus.

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Graham Memorial number

1924

A special 1924 issue of the Tar Heel, the student newspaper at the University of North Carolina, making the case for the Graham Memorial Building to be put up as a student center. Published at Chapel Hill, it is campaign material rather than a description of a finished building.

UNC

The Graham Memorial.

1919

A 1919 printing from the Graham Memorial campaign at the University of North Carolina, issued at Chapel Hill. Topics include college buildings, memorials and university planning, placing the piece with early proposals for a memorial building on the campus.

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Show 8 more works

"Silent Sam" monument, Graham Memorial

Morton, Hugh M. · 1942

Silent Sam, the Confederate monument, stands before Graham Memorial on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus in this Hugh Morton negative from about 1942, probably made on infrared film. A cropped print appeared in the 1942 and 1943 Yackety Yack yearbooks.

Graham Memorial, UNC-Chapel Hill

Morton, Hugh M. · 1940

Graham Memorial, a building on the UNC campus in Chapel Hill, photographed by Hugh Morton around the early 1940s on black-and-white sheet film.

L.R. Wilson presents student center as most fitting monument to Graham

Wilson, Louis Round, 1876-1979 · 1932 · General Alumni Association of the University of North Carolina

Remarks by Louis Round Wilson at the dedication of Graham Memorial, the student center built at the University of North Carolina in memory of Edward Kidder Graham, printed in the February 1932 Alumni Review at Chapel Hill by the General Alumni Association. Topics include student unions in Chapel Hill, the buildings of the university and monuments to Graham.

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Presentation Graham Memorial

Wilson, Louis Round, 1876-1979 · 1932

Louis Round Wilson's typescript of remarks presenting Graham Memorial, the student union at Chapel Hill named for Edward Kidder Graham, 1876 to 1918. A manuscript hand supplies the caption title and the date January 29, 1932. Topics include college buildings, monuments and student unions at the University of North Carolina. In the North Carolina Collection at UNC.

UNC

Carolina Union of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill records, 1931-2014.

Carolina Union (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) · 1931

Carolina Union records covering 1931 to 2014, roughly 29,600 items in 42 linear feet, in the University Archives at UNC, collection 40128. Subjects include student activities and festivals including the Carolina Symposium, Jubilee, Springfest and Chapel Thrill, along with the Graham Memorial Student Union and the history of student life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Materials in English.

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Graham Memorial Building: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)

Four undated photographs of Graham Memorial on the UNC campus in Chapel Hill: the front of the building, a view from the west, cars parked behind it and a fallen tree lying out front. Part of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection, CHHS.002.

Graham Memorial, U. of N.C., Chapel Hill, N.C.

Wootten, Bayard Morgan, 1875-1959 · Gray & Thompson Advertising, Chapel Hill, N.C

Credited to the photographer Bayard Morgan Wootten (1875-1959), this card shows Graham Memorial at the University of North Carolina, published by Gray and Thompson Advertising of Chapel Hill. It concerns postcards of educational facilities on the Chapel Hill campus.

Graham Memorial, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Sutton's, Chapel Hill, N.C

Sutton's of Chapel Hill issued this postcard of Graham Memorial at the University of North Carolina. Topics include educational facilities, universities and colleges, Chapel Hill and Orange County. The card belongs to the North Carolina postcard series contributed by UNC at Chapel Hill.

Published by or for it

Jubilee, April 28, 29, 30

1967 · Graham Memorial Activites Board, [University of North Carolina]

The printed schedule for Jubilee, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill spring weekend of concerts and films run on April 28 to 30, 1967, by the Graham Memorial Activities Board. It lists the musical events and movies on offer and names the organizers. It concerns campus social life and customs of the twentieth century.

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Reschduled : an evening with Otelia

1963 · Graham Memorial Activities Board

Announcement card for an evening with Otelia Connor, printed on heavy yellow stock by the Graham Memorial Activities Board at Chapel Hill in 1963. The notice gives a rescheduled date of Thursday, March 7 at eight in the evening in Howell Hall. Subjects include Otelia Carrington Cunningham Connor, 1892 to 1969, and student social life and customs at the university.

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Surveys and maps of the area

Not about Graham Memorial 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.

The town and gown architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975

Little, M. Ruth · 2004 · Preservation Society of Chapel Hill

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.

Gatza, M. B. · 1992 · Chapel Hill Planning Department

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.

When Chapel Hill was a village

Love, Cornelia Spencer, 1892-1981 · 1976 · Chapel Hill Historical Society

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

Bryant, Bernard Lee · 1999 · Chapel Hill Historical Society

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.

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[Map of Chapel Hill].

1895

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.

Show 2 more surveys and maps

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Chapel Hill, Orange County, North Carolina.

1925

Sanborn Map Company fire insurance map of Chapel Hill, June 1925, on eleven sheets, with Carrboro also drawn. Sanborn maps recorded the outline, construction and use of each building for fire insurers, so the set shows both towns block by block in the mid 1920s.

Map of Chapel Hill & vicinity.

1933

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.

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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 Graham Memorial, 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.

    In the chronology

    1. Students open the Graham Memorial fund drive in Gerrard Hall At a student rally led by Albert Coates, with William H. Bobbitt and Luther Hodges also speaking, students and faculty pledged $20,000 toward a building now budgeted at $150,000. The drive reached about $70,000 by its June deadline and $120,000 by the end of 1919. People: Albert Coates, William H. (William Haywood) Bobbitt, Luther H. Hodges
    2. 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
    3. 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.
    4. Chase and Coates rally students to revive the Graham Memorial drive President Chase, Albert Coates and student body president Julian Allsbrook held a special chapel meeting in Memorial Hall to restart the stalled fund drive, with plans cut back to a smaller building whose exterior was under way. In March Coates set out a University Life Unification Plan centered on the building. People: Albert Coates
    5. Meeting in the unfinished Graham Memorial, trustees add courses in religion Chase seated the trustees on folding chairs in the empty lounge of Graham Memorial to shame alumni over the unfinished building. There they adopted the faculty's proposal for courses in the history and literature of religion with one dissenting vote, ending nearly ten years of debate. People: Harry Woodburn Chase
    6. Graham Memorial is completed as the university's student union The building named for Edward Kidder Graham was completed in 1931 and served as the student union, holding the Horace Williams Library, a barber shop, a bowling alley, a game room and offices for student publications.
    7. Graham Memorial is dedicated as the student union After more than a decade of unmet alumni pledges, L. Ames Brown guaranteed the money to finish and furnish the building, which opened in the fall of 1931. At the January dedication Charles Tillett Jr. quoted a reader's entry in Nell Battle Lewis's News and Observer contest that counted Ed Graham's living spirit among the state's most beautiful things.
    8. About two hundred officials organize and name the Institute of Government Mayors, legislators, judges and county commissioners met at the new Graham Memorial, endorsed Coates's plan for an association of government officials and formally adopted the name Institute of Government. Junius G. Adams chaired, with Coates as secretary, and a larger meeting was set for September. People: Albert Coates, Gladys Hall Coates
    9. Graham Memorial passes from student union to the Department of Dramatic Arts Graham Memorial, the student union for 27 years, was turned over to the drama department after the new Frank Porter Graham Student Union opened elsewhere on campus.
    10. John Dee Holeman plays a free blues concert at Graham Memorial John Dee Holeman, accompanied by Billy Stevens, played a free noon concert at Graham Memorial on September 30, 2004, in the Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence's Thursdays on the Terrace series. Many of that semester's concerts tied in with William Ferris's course on Southern music. People: William R. Ferris

    Open these in the chronology →

    Research sources

    Background context 3

    Background from selected state and local sources

    Places to visit 3

    Maps, surveys, and the ground itself

    Read contemporary evidence 8

    Newspapers, photographs, and records of the time

    Show all 8

    Search beyond the index 3

    Other catalogs, databases, and guides worth searching

    Ask locally 5

    Local organizations that preserve the story and can help you go further

    Nearby

    Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
    Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026