Holiday Park

In the chronology

1. mid-May 1958 James Freeland opens Holiday Park on US 70 Freeland's Holiday Park, a 20-acre recreation park on US 70 across from his Ja-Max Motor Lodge, opened with festivities attended by Miss North Carolina. Its L-shaped pool, billed as the largest in the state, was built for 500 swimmers, and the park had picnic grounds and an antique car museum; family season tickets were $25. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 22, 1958, p. 3 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 15, 1958, p. 1
2. March-May 1959 James Freeland adds a bowling alley, rides and a roller rink to Holiday Park Holiday Park on US 70 west of town reopened for its second season with a new bowling alley built onto the bathhouse, a stable with horses and old carriages for hire, and a merry-go-round, kiddie train and boat ride; the pool was resurfaced and given a new deep well. In late May Freeland opened a 192 by 65 foot roller skating rink beside the pool, which he described as the largest in the state. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 26, 1959, p. 1 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 28, 1959, p. 7
3. June 1959 The Hillsboro Exchange Club starts free swimming lessons at Holiday Park The Exchange Club, the Red Cross and James Freeland began what the paper called the most ambitious learn-to-swim program in Hillsboro history: 18 adults trained as volunteer instructors under Red Cross field representative William J. McDonald, and over 300 children enrolled through their schools for two weeks of free lessons in the park pool. The club repeated the program at Holiday Park in 1961 and 1962. People: James J. Freeland The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 25, 1959, p. 1
4. 1960s James J. Freeland develops houses at Holiday Park In the 1960s, according to the 2017 architectural survey, Freeland developed Holiday Park northwest of town with its own pool and other amenities, at the recreation park he had opened in 1958; some of its houses were former Eno Mill village houses moved to the site. People: James J. Freeland NC Digital Collections: Heather Wagner Slane, Hillsborough Architectural Survey (2017), p. 21
5. August 1963 A garment plant starts up in the closed Holiday Park building All-American Apparel, a new corporation managed by C. B. Watson, began making children's dungarees in the Holiday Park building on US 70, leased from James Freeland, who adapted the former bowling alley, bathhouse and concession stand for it. By 1964 the firm, renamed Ideal Fastener, had about 20 workers making zippers there; that November Freeland wrote that it would not build a permanent plant in Hillsborough, and Watson indicated a move to Oxford. People: James J. Freeland The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 8, 1963, p. 2

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