Skip to content
Orange County Public Library (opens the library’s website in a new tab)

University buildings and grounds

Hill Hall

Hill Hall is the Beaux Arts building at UNC that opened in 1907 as the Carnegie Library, built with a gift from Andrew Carnegie, and served as the main library until Wilson Library opened in 1929. Remodeled for the music department with an auditorium and organ, it was dedicated in 1930 and named Hill Music Hall in 1931.

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.

Show 14 more

Sites linked through the same people

Indexed works

Books, articles, records, and images about Hill Hall. Each has been reviewed for relevance; materials held at OCPL appear first.

About the site

Library, U.N.C., Chapel Hill, N.C.

1905 · R. W. Foister, Chapel Hill, N.C

R. W. Foister of Chapel Hill published this postcard of the university library among the campus trees, about 1905. The building is the one now known as Hill Hall.

Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.

DPLA

Carnegie Library, U.N.C., Chapel Hill, N.C.

The Carnegie Library at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, on an undated card. Andrew Carnegie's library grants paid for hundreds of such buildings.

Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.

DPLA

Surveys and maps of the area

Not about Hill Hall 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.

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

NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State Durham Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress CH Historical Society

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.

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

NC Cardinal NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

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.

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

NC Cardinal NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

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.

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

UNC Library of Congress CH Historical Society NC Cardinal

[Map of Chapel Hill and vicinity].

Harris, Hunter Lee, 1866-1893 · 1888 · Hunter Lee Harris?

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.

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

UNC

[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.

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

UNC DPLA
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.

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

Library of Congress Digital Collections

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.

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

UNC

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 Hill Hall, 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

    Storyline about this site, with a page of its own:

    1. The university reports the Carnegie library endowment raised and the gift paid On University Day 1906 President Venable reported that the $50,000 endowment for the new library had been raised and Andrew Carnegie's $50,000 subscription paid. Construction began that month. People: Francis Preston Venable Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 660
    2. M. D. Foister wins the electrical contract for the university's Carnegie library M. D. Foister of Greensboro, who grew up in Chapel Hill, was awarded the contract for the electrical work on the new Carnegie library at the university, over competitors from other parts of the state. The News (Chapel Hill), November 15, 1906, p. 1
    3. Masons lay the cornerstone of the Carnegie library On the Saturday of the 1907 commencement the Grand Lodge of Masons, led by Grand Master Francis D. Winston, laid the cornerstone of the new library built with Andrew Carnegie's gift. Construction had begun in October 1906. People: M. C. S. Noble, Eric A. Abernethy, Francis D. Winston, Andrew Carnegie Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 664
    4. UNC's Carnegie Library opens UNC's new library, built with a gift from Andrew Carnegie first offered in 1905 as $50,000 and later raised to $55,000, was finished in the summer of 1907 and opened to students that fall once its furniture arrived. It served as the main library until Wilson Library opened in 1929 and was renamed for John Sprunt Hill in 1931. People: Andrew Carnegie UNC, Names in Brick and Stone: Hill Hall
    5. Fire destroys three fraternity houses on Fraternity Row and nearly takes the Carnegie Library Fire broke out about 2 a.m. and destroyed the Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Pi Kappa Phi and Sigma Nu houses at the lower end of Fraternity Row, a private lane behind the Carnegie Library. The library, about thirty feet from the Sigma Nu house, lost only some window panes and had water damage. The university then bought land across South Columbia Street and swapped it with the fraternities for their old lots, which led to the fraternity courts of the 1920s. The Tar Heel, January 17, 1919, p. 1 · Also: NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975
    6. Builders begin remaking the old Carnegie library into the music building By August 1929 T. C. Thompson and Brothers were reconstructing the interior of the university's former Carnegie library to house the music department, to plans by university architect Arthur C. Nash. Practice rooms were walled with staggered studs and eel-grass quilting to stop sound, and echoing rooms got acoustical plaster. People: Arthur Cleveland Nash The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 23, 1929, p. 1
    7. An anonymous alumnus gives $40,000 for a music auditorium and organ at the old library President Harry W. Chase told the trustees' executive committee in Raleigh that an alumnus who asked not to be named had given $40,000 for an auditorium and pipe organ, to be built as an annex to the former library, which was to become the music building. The donor had earlier offered $30,000 for an organ, and architect A. C. Nash drew tentative plans for a hall of about 800 seats. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, Arthur Cleveland Nash The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 27, 1929, p. 1
    8. UNC trustees' building committee approves the recital hall for the new music building Meeting in President Chase's office, the trustees' building committee approved final plans for the recital hall to be built onto the music building made from the old library. By April 11 the main building was in use, excavation for the roughly 900-seat auditorium had begun with completion promised by September, and its organ was under construction. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, John Sprunt Hill The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 7, 1930, p. 5
    9. The pipe organ for the University's new recital hall arrives and is installed By August 29, 1930, the four-manual pipe organ from the Casavant works at Lawrence, Kansas, had arrived in two railroad cars for the University's new music auditorium in the old Carnegie library building, and factory experts were installing it, echo organ included. It was the gift of an anonymous alumnus, and Harold S. Dyer hoped to have it ready by about October 20. People: Harold S. Dyer The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 29, 1930, p. 1
    10. The old Carnegie Library is dedicated as the music building After the library moved to its new building, the Carnegie Library was remodeled for the music department with an auditorium and a Reuter organ, most of the cost given by the Hill family. It was dedicated on November 14, 1930, and named Hill Music Hall by trustee resolution in the summer of 1931. People: Harold S. Dyer Names in Brick and Stone: Hill Hall · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, November 14, 1930, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, November 21, 1930, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, October 12, 1993, p. 5
    11. UNC trustees name the music building Hill Music Hall The University trustees voted to name the new music building Hill Music Hall, making public what the Weekly called an open secret: John Sprunt Hill and his wife had given the pipe organ and the funds for the recital hall. The resolution also thanked Hill for ten years on the trustees' building committee. People: John Sprunt Hill The Chapel Hill Weekly, June 12, 1931, p. 1
    12. The Folk Music Institute announces a laboratory concert with Adeline McCall at the piano The university's Institute of Folk Music announced its second laboratory concert for 4 p.m. on Wednesday, December 9, 1931, in Hill Music Hall, with Lamar Stringfield on flute, Adeline McCall on piano and Thor Johnson on viola. The program was to include a composition by Herbert Hazelman, an Asheville freshman. People: Lamar Stringfield The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 4, 1931, p. 1 (Asheville Youth's Composition)
    Show all 30 dated events
    1. Harold S. Dyer conducts Elijah, the first choral work on the University's commencement program On the Sunday evening of commencement week a chorus of about seventy-five voices sang Mendelssohn's Elijah under Harold S. Dyer in Hill Music Hall. The Chapel Hill Weekly wrote a year later that this was the first time a major choral performance had been part of commencement, and it was repeated in 1933. The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 20, 1932, p. 1
    2. A puppet Hansel and Gretel is announced for Adeline McCall's music series for children The Music Club and the Parent-Teacher Association announced Hansel and Gretel, a puppet show with music, for 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 9, 1936, in Hill Music Hall. It was to be the fifth in a series of music events for children under Adeline McCall's direction, with elementary school children singing songs from Humperdinck's opera. The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 4, 1936, p. 1 (Puppets, with Music)
    3. House Speaker William Bankhead dedicates the Institute of Government building On the eve of Thanksgiving a standing-room crowd in Hill Music Hall heard Bankhead, Governor Clyde Hoey and President Frank Graham praise Coates, with eight of the state's eleven congressmen and former governor O. Max Gardner on hand. A reception followed in Graham Memorial, and guests stayed for the Virginia football game the next day. People: Clyde Roark Hoey, Frank Porter Graham, Albert Coates, Gladys Hall Coates, O. Max Gardner Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 182 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, December 1, 1939, p. 1
    4. The university hosts 108 South American students in its Winter-Summer School In 1941 the university received 108 students from seven South American countries for a six-week session of English courses and regular classes, called a summer school because it was summer in South America, in a program Leavitt directed. They arrived in January and received diplomas at closing ceremonies in Hill Music Hall on February 28. The General Assembly met in special joint session in Chapel Hill in their honor. People: Frank Porter Graham UNC Institute for the Study of the Americas: One Hundred Years of Latin American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1915-2015 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, January 24, 1941, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, February 28, 1941, p. 1
    5. A member of President Truman's Committee on Civil Rights speaks in Hill Hall On May 20, 1948, Mrs. E. M. Tilley, a member of President Truman's Committee on Civil Rights, spoke to a large audience of students and townspeople in Hill Hall under the auspices of the American Veterans Committee. By the paper's account she charged that state and local governments had protected lynchers, said poll taxes in Southern states kept people from voting, and called for federal action. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 27, 1948, p. 1
    6. Les Petites Musicales stages The Magic Flute in Hill Hall An abridged English Magic Flute in Hill Hall used the University Glee Club under Joel Carter, who also sang Papageno, with the former Metropolitan Opera bass Norman Cordon as Sarastro. The Daily Tar Heel, December 2, 1956, p. 1
    7. The Chapel Hill Choral Club sings Bach's Christmas Oratorio The Chapel Hill Choral Club, directed by Joel Carter, performed the first three parts of Bach's Christmas Oratorio in Hill Hall as part of the Tuesday Evening Series. The Daily Tar Heel, December 12, 1958, p. 12 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, December 17, 1958, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, December 18, 1958, p. 2
    8. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks in Chapel Hill Invited by campus religious groups and the Carolina Forum, King spoke at University Baptist Church on May 8, 1960, visited two UNC sociology classes, and addressed an overflow crowd in Hill Hall on May 9 on the struggle for racial justice. People: Martin Luther King Jr. The Daily Tar Heel: coverage of King's Hill Hall and University Baptist Church talks, May 10, 1960
    9. The general faculty votes to let striking students take their grades as they stand or finish coursework later With more than 4,000 students rallying outside, the general faculty meeting in Hill Hall overwhelmingly approved a substitute motion by Marvin Silver and Gerhard Lenski calling the strike 'a reasonable, peaceful and responsible course of action' and allowing final grades on work completed so far or delayed completion of course requirements, with a right of appeal. Faculty chairman Daniel Okun's letter the next day explained the policy as no penalties for strike absences and make-up exams for those who could not in conscience sit the scheduled exam. People: Joe Straley, Daniel A. Okun, Oscar Knefler Rice The Daily Tar Heel, May 8, 1970, p. 1 (OCR text)
    10. Soprano Martha Flowers joins the UNC music faculty Martha Flowers, known for singing Bess in Porgy and Bess around the world, joined the music department and gave a recital in Hill Hall that drew a three-minute ovation. Black Ink reported she chose UNC because it had Black music students but no Black music instructors. Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), October 1973, p. 5
    11. The North Carolina Folklore Archives opens in Hill Hall The North Carolina Folklore Archives opened in Hill Hall at UNC with about 1,500 long-playing discs and 600 reels of tape of folk tales, blues, ballads, spirituals, fiddle music and other traditions. The Daily Tar Heel described it as the only such collection between Washington, D.C., and the University of Texas. People: Daniel W. Patterson The Daily Tar Heel, November 3, 1976, p. 3
    12. Philadelphia mayor W. Wilson Goode gives the King Memorial Lecture in Hill Hall W. Wilson Goode, Philadelphia's first Black mayor and a native of Seaboard, North Carolina, told about 100 people in Hill Hall that the Constitution's promises of education, jobs and freedom were not reaching all Americans. Asked about divestment, he said Philadelphia had divested at a cost of $11 million but would not say whether UNC should. Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), February 11, 1986, p. 1
    13. UNC holds its first Black Women's Leadership Symposium Women's Studies and the Curriculum in African and Afro-American Studies held Black Women's Leadership: Challenges and Strategies, dedicated to Pauli Murray. Eleanor Holmes Norton gave the keynote to about 400 people in Hill Hall on March 25; Paula Giddings, bell hooks and Mary Frances Berry also spoke, and WTVD's Miriam Thomas led a session on women and poverty. People: Pauli Murray Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), April 15, 1986, p. 4
    14. Randall Robinson and Jawanza Kunjufu speak during the Campus Y's Human Rights Week Human Rights Week 1990, run by the Campus Y's Human Rights Week Committee, brought Randall Robinson to Memorial Hall for a keynote and educator Jawanza Kunjufu to Hill Hall to speak on the education of Black youth, along with the program "Rapping the Odyssey" and Roy Lewis's photo essay "River Road" in the Student Union. Black Ink's editors called it an incredible week. Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), November 19, 1990, p. 2
    15. Mark Mathabane gives a Race Relations Week keynote in Hill Hall Mark Mathabane, the Black South African author of Kaffir Boy and Kaffir Boy in America, spoke in Hill Hall as one of the two keynote speakers of Race Relations Week 1991. A student writing in Black Ink described a soft-spoken talk that stressed education and reading. Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), March 4, 1991, p. 11 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, February 12, 1991, p. 3; The Daily Tar Heel, February 13, 1991, p. 1
    16. UNC trustees choose architects for a Center for Dramatic Art and a Hill Hall addition The Board of Trustees approved Graham Gund Architects of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to design a Center for Dramatic Art beside the Paul Green Theatre, and Walter Robbs Callahan and Pierce of Winston-Salem to design a music library addition to Hill Hall. At the same meeting the trustees heard that the Bicentennial Campaign had raised $384.6 million of its $400 million goal. The Daily Tar Heel, November 21, 1994, p. 3
    17. Allan Gurganus is a visiting scholar at UNC's Institute for the Arts and Humanities Gurganus spent 1996 as a visiting fellow of UNC's Institute for the Arts and Humanities and presented at the institute's symposium Echoes of Home, Imitations of Return in Hill Hall that October. The Daily Tar Heel, February 6, 1997, p. 3
    18. William J. Barber II gives the Weil Lecture on American Citizenship William J. Barber II delivered UNC's 2017 Weil Lecture on American Citizenship in Moeser Auditorium, Hill Hall, speaking on the morality of citizenship. UNC Institute for the Arts and Humanities: Rev. William J. Barber II discusses the morality of citizenship in 2017 Weil Lecture

    Open these in the chronology →

    Research sources

    Sources cited in this site’s history, National Register documents, and places to get research help. Research guide: Investigate a school or community institution.

    Background

    National Register files

    Historic sites, markers, and maps

    Records of the time 29

    Show all 29

    Collections and databases

    Local help 5

    Nearby

    Something wrong or missing on this page, a location, a date or a name? Suggest a correction or a source →

    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