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University buildings and grounds

Peabody Hall

Peabody Hall was built in 1911-13 on Cameron Avenue, next to Commons Hall, as the home of UNC's new School of Education, paid for with a $40,000 gift from the Peabody Fund. Venable presided at its dedication in the spring of 1913.

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.

Sites linked through the same people

Indexed works

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

About the site

The new Peabody education building : dedication services, school week, June 19-22, 1960

1960 · School of Education, the University of North Carolina

Program for the dedication of the new Peabody education building at the University of North Carolina, held during school week, June 19 to 22, 1960, and issued by the School of Education at Chapel Hill. It documents the campus ceremony at Peabody Hall.

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

UNC

Peabody Building, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.

1915 · R. W. Foister, Chapel Hill, N.C

Postcard of the George Peabody Building on the University of North Carolina campus, from about 1915 to 1930. Built in 1912 with a gift from the Peabody Fund, it served the School of Education. Published by R. W. Foister of Chapel Hill.

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

DPLA

Peabody Building, University of N.C. Chapel Hill, N.C.

Sutton & Alderman, Druggists, Chapel Hill, N.C

Peabody Building at the University of North Carolina, published by Sutton and Alderman, druggists of Chapel Hill.

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

DPLA

Surveys and maps of the area

Not about Peabody 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 Peabody 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

    1. The Peabody Fund gives $40,000 for an education building At the 1911 commencement Venable announced a $40,000 gift from the Peabody Fund trustees for a School of Education building. The legislature that year gave $87,000 a year for upkeep and $50,000 a year for four years for improvements. People: Francis Preston Venable Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 722
    2. Work begins on an education building on Cameron Avenue In 1911-12 the university began a building for the Department of Education on Cameron Avenue next to Commons Hall, paid for with the Peabody Fund gift. Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 740
    3. The new School of Education building is dedicated Before the 1913 commencement Venable presided at the dedication of the building for the university's new School of Education, later called the Peabody Building. People: Francis Preston Venable Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 1
    4. Dean M. C. S. Noble takes a year's leave to write a history of education in North Carolina M. C. S. Noble, dean of the University's school of education, took a year's leave of absence in 1923, after 25 years on the faculty, to write a history of education in North Carolina, planning to spend about half his time in the state archives at Raleigh. The News (Chapel Hill), August 30, 1923, p. 1
    5. University trustees open the school of education faculty to women Meeting in Raleigh, the trustees' executive committee adopted President Chase's proposal that the school of education might employ women to teach advanced and graduate courses for elementary teachers and supervisors. The Weekly said the move met no opposition and was not expected to spread to other branches of the University. People: Harry Woodburn Chase The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 15, 1927, p. 1
    6. Trustees appoint Sallie Belle Marks and Cecilia Hatrick Bason, the first women on the faculty With little discussion, the June trustees made both women assistant professors as part of a push to improve teacher training. Marks became supervising principal of the elementary grades at the university's training school in Chapel Hill; Bason worked for the Extension Division from Asheville. Once women were on the faculty, women graduates could join the American Association of University Women. People: N. W. Walker Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 369-370 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 10, 1927, p. 4; Chapel Hill Weekly, August 19, 1927, p. 4
    7. The University decides to rebuild Peabody Hall's interior instead of adding a wing Finding the 1929 legislature's appropriation too small for a satisfactory new wing, the trustees' building committee chose to enlarge Peabody Hall's basement and lay out its two floors anew, with more classrooms, an assembly room and better offices, keeping the outer walls as the University had done with the South Building, the Old East and other old buildings. The school of education was to move into the former library during or soon after the holidays. The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 13, 1929, p. 1
    8. The consolidation commission recommends moving elementary teacher training from Chapel Hill to Greensboro The commission voted to recommend moving the training of elementary school teachers to Greensboro from 1933-34 and making every school of education, Chapel Hill's included, a department, with a joint council on education for the three units. The survey had counted only fifteen seniors preparing for the elementary grades at Chapel Hill. The recommendations went to the new consolidated board of trustees for approval. Commission on University Consolidation, Report of Commission on University Consolidation (1932), scan p. 15 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 17, 1932, p. 1
    9. Pre-meteorology and aviation training units arrive at UNC In the first half of 1943 the university took in pre-meteorology and aviation training units, adding to the Navy programs already on campus. The Army Air Forces pre-meteorology unit of about 250 men was due on March 10, 1943, to be quartered in two new barracks on Pittsboro Street and taught in Peabody Hall from March 15; it finished its six-month course on September 18. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) Naval Armory at UNC-Chapel Hill, National Register nomination (OR1541), p. 25 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, March 5, 1943, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, September 3, 1943, p. 6
    10. Fires set in four UNC classroom buildings damage Peabody Hall Fires reported between about 6:45 and 10 a.m. damaged Peabody, Bingham, Murphey and Gardner halls; a five-room area of Peabody, home of the School of Education, took perhaps $25,000 in damage, while the others lost desks and trash cans. Chapel Hill Police Chief W. D. Blake called three of the fires definitely arson, State Bureau of Investigation agents joined the search, and University estimates of total damage ran as high as $75,000. The Daily Tar Heel, October 22, 1969, p. 1
    11. Frank Brown becomes dean of the UNC School of Education Frank Brown, an Alabama native who had spent most of his career in California and New York, became dean of the School of Education in 1983, one of a handful of Black men heading academic units at UNC. Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), December 7, 1984, p. 5
    12. Joyce Clayton becomes director of UNC's Upward Bound program Joyce Clayton, an assistant dean in the Office of Student Counseling who had worked with the program for ten years, became director of Upward Bound, which the School of Education had run since 1966 for disadvantaged high school students from Orange and Chatham counties and Durham. Earlier that year the school won a three-year federal grant of $529,000 for the program. Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), October 19, 1984, p. 7
    Show all 13 dated events
    1. Frank Brown is named Cary C. Boshamer Professor of Educational Leadership Frank Brown, the School of Education's first Black full-time professor and later its first Black dean, was named Cary C. Boshamer Professor of Educational Leadership. He had come to UNC in 1983 after 11 years at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and he had served with Sonja Stone on a committee reviewing African and Afro-American studies. Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), October 28, 1991, p. 8

    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 14

    Show all 14

    Collections and databases

    Local help 5

    Nearby

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