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Businesses, mills and venues

Hearn’s Grocery (102 East Main Street)

In Carrboro. 2 dated events, 1925–1944.

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.

In the chronology

  1. Lueco Lloyd builds the brick store that houses Hearn's grocery After the December 1924 fire that began in the Pendergraph boarding house, Lueco Lloyd put up a one-story brick building at 102 East Main Street as rental property, with T. C. Thompson as contractor. His only tenant was John Hearn, who had moved his grocery from Chapel Hill after World War I and ran what by 1983 was Carrboro's oldest business. People: Lueco Lloyd Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 34 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, December 23, 1924, p. 1
  2. Len Hearn buys the East Main Street building his family grocery rents After John Hearn died his son Len ran the store as L. D. Hearn, bought the building in 1944 and extended the back three times. It became L. D. Hearn & Son in the 1950s and, under grandson James, Hearn's Grocery. Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 34

Open these in the chronology →

Indexed works

The index has no works about Hearn’s Grocery itself yet. The surveys and maps below cover where it stands. Search the index for Hearn’s Grocery, or tell us about a book or record we have missed.

Surveys and maps of the area

Not about Hearn’s Grocery 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.

Carrboro Map [1935]

1935

Hand-drawn map of Carrboro from about 1935, centered on Greensboro Avenue and Weaver Street and marking buildings, lots and the main roads.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

DigitalNC DPLA

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 Hearn’s Grocery, 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 · 975.656 OTTO Carrboro Otto, David · 2011

      Pictorial history of Carrboro in Arcadia's Images of America series by David A. Otto and Richard Ellington, published in 2011. Its 127 pages of photographs, maps, facsimiles and portraits cover the town's history, social life and African American community, with a bibliography and index.

    • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 975.656 OTTO Carrboro Otto, David · 2015

      Second Images of America volume on Carrboro by David A. Otto and Richard Ellington (Arcadia, 2015). Chapters follow the town from mill village to growing urban center, then turn to its merchants, the arts, festivals, changing demographics and changing architecture, in 95 illustrated pages.

    • 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.

    • Start here · NC 720.975 BRO Carrboro, N.C: An Architectural & Historical Inventory Brown, Claudia Roberts · 1983

      Architectural and historical inventory of Carrboro by Claudia Roberts Brown, published in 1983 by the Carrboro Appearance Commission and the town. The 48-page survey, with illustrations and maps, documents the town's historic buildings and their conservation.

    Research sources

    Sources cited in this site’s history, National Register documents, and places to get research help. Research guide: Research a business or a changing street.

    Background

    Historic sites, markers, and maps

    Records of the time

    Collections and databases

    Local help 5

    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