The Intimate Bookshop

In the chronology

1. April 27, 1931 Contempo and the Intimate Bookshop begin in Chapel Hill Milton Abernethy, Anthony Buttitta and three other young men distributed the first issue of Contempo, a four-page review of ideas and personalities, in Chapel Hill on April 27, 1931. They also ran the Intimate Bookshop from a dormitory room; by June it had moved above the Cavalier Cafeteria, and Contempo was later headquartered there. People: Milton Abernethy The Daily Tar Heel, April 28, 1931, p. 1: New Literary Organ Appears on Campus · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, October 28, 1992, p. 2
2. By June 24, 1932 Milton Abernethy moves the Intimate Bookshop across Henderson Street Abernethy, who began selling books from his dormitory and had moved over the Carolina Cafeteria in the Tankersley Building in 1931, took the shop into the west end of Hoot Patterson's old store. The Chapel Hill Weekly reported the move on June 24, 1932, placing the new quarters between Johnson-Prevost and the Betsy Ann Shop; Bryant dates it 1933. Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 245 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 24, 1932, p. 4
3. 1950 Paul Smith becomes owner of the Intimate Bookshop Paul Smith took over the Intimate Bookshop on East Franklin Street, formerly Abernethy's, and fitted it with display fixtures designed for his earlier shop in the French Quarter of New Orleans. People: Milton Abernethy, Isabel Smith The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 3, 1950, p. 8 (Paul Smith Installs New Store Fixtures)
4. 1959 The Intimate Bookshop moves into the old Berman Department Store on East Franklin Street Sam Berman closed his department store in 1959 because of poor health, keeping the building and leasing it to Paul and Isabel Smith, who moved their bookshop into it once it was remodeled. The 119 East Franklin building was the Intimate Bookshop's home for about forty years. People: Paul Smith (Intimate Bookshop), Isabel Smith Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 303 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 5, 1959, p. 8; The Daily Tar Heel, March 2, 1994, p. 5
5. 1965 Paul and Isabel Smith sell the Intimate Bookshop to Wallace Kuralt The Smiths sold the East Franklin bookshop to Kuralt but kept running a rare-book department inside the store until the end of 1968. People: Isabel Smith Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 323 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, September 8, 1980, p. 3; The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 5, 1959, p. 8; The Daily Tar Heel, March 2, 1994, p. 5
6. March 25, 1974 Fire damages the second floor of the Intimate Bookshop A fire of undetermined origin broke out in the poster section on the second floor of the Intimate Bookshop in downtown Chapel Hill about 5:30 p.m.; an employee fought it with a portable extinguisher until firemen put it out within 15 minutes. Damage was confined to racks of books and posters, the walls and the ceiling, and the store expected to reopen the next day. The Daily Tar Heel, March 26, 1974, p. 2
7. August 1976 The Intimate Bookshop stops selling textbooks, leaving the Student Stores the only source The Intimate Bookshop on Franklin Street gave up its textbook department, citing Student Stores expansion and the cost of new books, leaving the Student Stores the sole seller of new textbooks. The Daily Tar Heel, August 27, 1976, p. 7
8. September 20, 1992 Fire guts The Intimate Bookshop at 119 East Franklin Street A Sunday-evening fire on September 20, 1992 gutted The Intimate Bookshop, a longtime Franklin Street bookstore, in the two-story brick commercial building of 1915-25 at 119 East Franklin, with crenellated brickwork and grouped upper windows. Firefighters were called at 6:49 p.m. and had the fire contained about 9:20; the fire department put the damage at up to $1 million, and a preliminary investigation by local, state and federal officials found it had been set, one of two arson fires at Chapel Hill businesses that night. The town's historic sites survey, finished that month, recorded the building as damaged by fire. NC Digital Collections: Chapel Hill Historic Sites Survey: Final Report (1992), p. 57 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, September 21, 1992, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, September 24, 1992, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, October 28, 1992, p. 2; The Daily Tar Heel, February 15, 1993, p. 3; The Daily Tar Heel, July 15, 1993, p. 3
9. September 17, 1993 The Intimate Bookshop marks the topping out of its rebuilt Franklin Street store A year after fire destroyed The Intimate Bookshop, owners Wallace and Brenda Kuralt held a topping-out ceremony on September 17 for the rebuilt store, which kept only the old side walls and added a third floor, an elevator and about 40 percent more space. They set the reopening for November 10 and put the cost of rebuilding and restocking at $1.5 million. The Daily Tar Heel, September 20, 1993, p. 3
10. November 10, 1993 The Intimate Bookshop reopens on East Franklin Street Fourteen months after fire destroyed it in September 1992, The Intimate reopened at 119 East Franklin Street in a rebuilt, larger building with 7,000 square feet for books alone, about the size of the whole old store, and a third floor of offices. Owner Wallace Kuralt held an invitation-only ribbon cutting the night before and a grand-opening program of author visits through November 20, including a signing by his brother Charles Kuralt. People: Charles Kuralt The Daily Tar Heel, November 11, 1993, p. 1
11. by March 2, 1994 Wallace Kuralt starts the Champions of Literacy project in the rebuilt Intimate Bookshop On the new third floor of the Intimate Bookshop at 119 East Franklin Street, rebuilt after a September 1992 fire and reopened in November 1993, owner Wallace Kuralt set up Champions of Literacy to teach adults to read or learn English with local volunteers and computer programs and to help local groups coordinate their work; the floor also held a conference room for nonprofit groups. The Daily Tar Heel, March 2, 1994, p. 3
12. October 20, 1996 Allan Gurganus and Marly Youmans sign books to fund a Habitat for Humanity house Hillsborough novelist Allan Gurganus and Carrboro author Marly Youmans signed books at the Intimate Bookshop in Eastgate, with 15 percent of the evening's sales going to a new Habitat for Humanity house sponsored by seven fraternities and sororities and four parishes. The Daily Tar Heel, October 21, 1996, p. 3

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