University buildings and grounds
In Chapel Hill. 25 dated events, 1793–1993.
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.
Books, articles, records and pictures in the index about Old East, found by its names in titles, catalog subjects and the index’s descriptions, and read one by one. Those held at OCPL come first.
A portfolio of programs from the opening ceremonies of the University of North Carolina bicentennial, staged in Chapel Hill on October 11 and 12, 1993. It includes the program for the rededication of Old East, the university's first building, and the citations for the 1993 distinguished alumna and alumnus. Illustrated, and published by the university itself.
Edward K. Graham, president of the University of North Carolina, wrote to Grand Master Alexander Boyd Andrews asking him to appear in Masonic regalia at University Day in 1916. At that ceremony the Grand Lodge of North Carolina gave back to the university the brass plaque taken from the East Building cornerstone.
Wootten-Moulton Studio postcard of Old East, the oldest building and a men's dormitory on the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill, made between about 1915 and 1940. A single photomechanical print in postcard format, 9 by 14 cm.
Hugh Morton's color view of Old East, the dormitory on the UNC campus in Chapel Hill, made about 1973. Old East is the oldest building of a state university in the United States. One 4 x 5 inch color sheet film transparency.
Certificate from the United States Department of the Interior and the National Park Service naming Old East at UNC a National Historic Landmark in 1965, under the Historic Sites Act of 1935. Old East is the university's oldest building, its cornerstone laid in 1793.
Etching by Louis Orr of Old East and the Old Well at Chapel Hill, made in 1949; its title wrongly names North Carolina State University for the University of North Carolina. A landscape print showing university buildings and grounds in Chapel Hill at the end of the 1940s.
The entrance to Old East, the oldest dormitory on the UNC campus, in a Hugh Morton negative from the 1940s or early 1950s.
Old East, the oldest building at the University of North Carolina, from a photograph taken by Forster of Chapel Hill around 1860. Part of The Pageant of America collection of historical pictures.
A hand drawn plan of 1852, in pen and ink with some color, showing the layout of the library of the Philanthropic Society at the north end of Old East on the University of North Carolina campus. Attributed to James Donaldson, 1802 to 1872, but possibly the work of A. J. Davis. In the North Carolina Collection at UNC.
Image of a document about the cornerstone laid in 1793 for the University of North Carolina's first building, Old East. From the Historic Documents series of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.
Thirteen photographs about Old East, the university's first building, spanning 1793 to 1960. They include its cornerstone, a copy of the 1793 floor plans printed from a 1971 negative and a copy of an early sketch of the building. From the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection (CHHS.002).
Bronze cornerplate engraved by Roswell Huntington of Hillsborough and laid with the cornerstone of Old East on 12 October 1793. Old East was the university's first building and the first of any state university in the nation. Topics include William R. Davie and the Freemasons.
Old East at the University of North Carolina, concerning dormitories and published as a card by R. W. Foister of Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill and Orange County give the place, with universities and colleges for the campus setting.
The Old Well with Old East and South Building behind it, from a photograph credited to Bayard Morgan Wootten and printed by the Graycraft Card Company of Danville, Virginia.
Mary deB. Graves drew Old East for this postcard. Her caption calls it the first building put up by a state university in the country, recalls the Masonic ceremony for its cornerstone in 1793, and notes that its bricks were fired on university land with mortar made from shells hauled from Wilmington. Undated.
Not about Old East 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
John Daniel, a surveyor employed by the university trustees, made this pen and ink map of the future university site in 1792. It shows the tracts of land, the springs and creeks, nearby mills and the roads running from Fayetteville to Hillsborough, Pittsborough to Petersburg, Hillsborough to Newberne, and on to Raleigh. William S. Powell describes the map in First state university.
Dated June 1, 1795, this pen and ink plan lays out the University of North Carolina site in its earliest years: the village, the cleared ground, the avenue, the ornamental ground, the lands belonging to the trustees and the springs. Archibald Henderson reproduced it in The campus of the first state university and identified it as the lost 1795 map by Charles W. Harris. Manuscript map, 30 x 36 cm.
Early hand-drawn plan of the University village at Chapel Hill and the lands around it, which Archibald Henderson dated to between 1797 and 1812. It shows town lots with owners' names, Main Building (South Building), the steward's and president's houses, the chapel, Franklin Street and a Grand Avenue, plus a partial list of buyers at the 1793 lot sale.
An early manuscript plan of Chapel Hill drawn at 200 yards to the inch, dated 1812, with a note on the verso reading September 4, 1817. It copies an earlier pen and ink plot in the possession of William Pannill, taken in turn from one by John Craig, and it marks boundary lines, town lots with some owners named, the University buildings, the president's lot, the chapel and the preparatory school.
Henry Dennis Carter's reconstruction, drawn as a blueprint in 1934, of Chapel Hill as it stood between 1875 and 1885, showing the buildings of the village. A note on the map says the information came from old residents who gave it to Mary L. Thornton.
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.
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.
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.
Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.
These books don’t necessarily mention Old East, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Background from selected state and local sources
Maps, surveys, and the ground itself
Newspapers, photographs, and records of the time
Other catalogs, databases, and guides worth searching
Local organizations that preserve the story and can help you go further
