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Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation

Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation, a rural electric cooperative formed under the federal Rural Electrification Administration loan program, was incorporated in 1938 and in 1939 first brought power to members' homes from a substation in Hillsborough. Its brick office on East Tryon Street, built about 1950, was raised to two stories in 1960.

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

In the chronology

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

  1. Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation is incorporated and energizes its first lines Piedmont Electric, a rural electric cooperative formed under the federal Rural Electrification Administration loan program, received its North Carolina incorporation papers in 1938. In 1939 its first substation, in Hillsborough, energized lines to members' homes for the first time. Piedmont Electric: Our History · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, January 20, 1939, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, August 4, 1939, p. 6; Chapel Hill Weekly, November 3, 1939, p. 4
  2. The federal government approves the Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation's application Figures from the state's REA engineer, J. M. Grainger, gave November 22, 1938 as the date the Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation applied to the federal government and January 19, 1939 as the date of approval. The cooperative built its Orange lines with a government loan and set a $2.45 monthly minimum, for 25 kilowatt-hours, so it could repay it. The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 4, 1939, p. 6
  3. Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation lets a contract for rural lines in northern Orange Manager John T. Alderman announced a contract for 124 miles of rural line, 30 of them in Orange County in the New Bethel Church and Rougemont sections, which would bring the cooperative to 326 miles. He also planned a line along route 54 past University Lake to the Damascus church section once rights of way and $5 membership fees came in. The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 22, 1940, p. 1
  4. Clyde Roberts becomes treasurer of the Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation Roberts, a farmer on Route 1, Hillsboro, who had sat on the rural electric cooperative's board of directors since 1938, became its treasurer in 1941, a post he still held in 1949. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 30, 1947, p. 9
  5. Piedmont Electric members hear Gregg Cherry at their annual meeting in Hillsboro The Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation, the REA cooperative based in Hillsboro that served rural Orange, Alamance, Caswell, Person and Durham counties, held its annual membership meeting in the Hillsboro High School auditorium. Gubernatorial candidate R. Gregg Cherry reviewed rural electrification since the 1920s and spoke on farmers' part in feeding the world after the war; members chose A. P. Dabbs of Yanceyville as the one new director, and the board kept H. G. Laws of Hurdles Mill as president. People: Hubert G. Laws The News (Chapel Hill), February 17, 1944, p. 5
  6. The Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation holds its annual meeting at Hillsboro About 200 members of the Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation, the REA cooperative serving some 980 rural members in Orange and four neighboring counties, met at Hillsboro High School, heard Lieutenant Governor L. Y. Ballentine on the legislature and rural needs, and reelected all their directors, who kept H. G. Laws as president. Manager F. E. Joyner's plan to bring power to every farm after the war was laid out. People: Hubert G. Laws The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 8, 1945, p. 1
  7. Piedmont Electric opens bids for 150 miles of new rural power lines The Hillsborough cooperative took bids for 150 miles of lines to reach 450 new members in six counties, and its board approved a low bid of $179,414.53. About 150 Orange farm families signed up since 1940 stood to get power. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 15, 1945, p. 1
  8. Piedmont Electric's members meet in Hillsboro as the co-op reaches 1,271 members About 600 members of the Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation met at Hillsboro high school for the co-op's eighth annual meeting, heard Secretary of State Thad Eure and re-elected H. G. Laws, president since its start. The co-op then served 1,271 members over about 400 miles of line in six counties, had 150 more miles under construction and planned a home office at Tryon and East Boundary streets. People: Thad Eure, Hubert G. Laws The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 6, 1947, p. 1
  9. Piedmont Electric's manager reckons two-thirds of Orange farms have electricity F. E. Joyner, manager of the Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation, estimated that 65 percent of Orange County farms had electric service from the cooperative, the university utilities and Duke Power, ten points above the state average he cited. The cooperative served about 1,800 members in five counties. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 25, 1947, p. 1
  10. Piedmont Electric installs a two-way radio system for its line crews The Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation installed a Motorola two-way FM radio system at its Hillsboro office and in two trucks and a car, which by the co-op's own account cut the time of service interruptions by more than half. The co-op called it the first such system installed by a power company in North Carolina; the town let it use town land for the transmitter building and the town water tank for the antenna. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 3, 1949, p. 16
  11. Piedmont Electric members thank retiring president H. G. Laws and W. F. Shaw takes his place About 600 members at the Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation's ninth annual meeting in the Hillsboro High School auditorium adopted a resolution of thanks to H. G. Laws, an incorporator and president since the cooperative began, who had moved off its lines into Hillsboro, and vice president W. F. Shaw of Reidsville became president. The cooperative then served about 1,800 members over 500 miles of line in six counties. People: Clyde Roberts, Hubert G. Laws The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 12, 1948, p. 1
  12. The REA approves a $132,000 loan for Piedmont Electric's lines and a new headquarters By June 17, 1948, the Rural Electrification Administration had approved a $132,000 loan to the Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation of Hillsboro for a new headquarters and warehouse, a substation and the remaining lines of its 200-mile 'H' project. The cooperative, organized in 1938, had 550 miles of line serving 1,850 rural members and planned 900 miles serving 3,000. People: Carl T. Durham The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 17, 1948, p. 1
Show all 24 dated events
  1. Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation builds its headquarters in Hillsborough The rural electric cooperative serving Orange and five nearby counties put up a new headquarters building in Hillsborough in 1949. By 1953 it ran about 1,100 miles of line to more than 4,000 customers. Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 250
  2. Senator Frank Graham addresses Piedmont Electric's annual meeting at Hillsboro Senator Frank P. Graham told about 1,500 people at the Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation's annual meeting that hopes for the United Nations rested on projects like their cooperative, and he said the first rural electrification project in America had been the line from Calvander to Orange Grove. The members voted to raise the cooperative's debt limit from $1.5 million to $5 million for more lines and elected Lawrence Walker a director in place of A. P. Dabbs. People: Frank Porter Graham The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 9, 1950, p. 1
  3. Piedmont Electric's annual meeting draws some 1,500 members to Hillsboro About 1,500 members attended the Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation's fourteenth annual meeting in the Hillsboro High School auditorium, where Highway Commission chairman A. H. Graham praised the state's progress in rural electrification and roads. The co-op reported more than 4,800 members on 1,250 miles of line in six counties after adding some 300 members and 45 miles of line in the year, and its board re-elected W. F. Shaw president. People: Alexander H. "Sandy" Graham The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 25, 1953, p. 1
  4. Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation honors three long-serving directors At the cooperative's annual barbecue, County Agent Don Matheson gave gold watches to W. F. Shaw, J. G. Jobe and Clyde Roberts, each an unpaid director for 15 years or more. He said rural lines in Orange County had grown from 28 miles in 1932 and 140 in 1937 to about 600. People: Don S. Matheson, Clyde Roberts The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 22, 1955, p. 1
  5. Piedmont Electric members hold their 17th annual meeting at Hillsboro More than 400 members heard Congressman Carl Durham trace rural electrification to 1933, when, he said, Orange County's commissioners started the program and the county 'can claim that it was first,' and heard state REA chairman Gwyn B. Price forecast farm power use tripling in 20 years. Members re-elected nine directors, including S. C. Wilson, Clyde Roberts and N. B. Berry; the co-op served 5,200 members over 1,340 miles of line in six counties. People: Carl T. Durham, Clyde Roberts, John W. Umstead Jr. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 21, 1956, p. 1
  6. Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation cuts its rates The cooperative announced a general rate reduction, about 13 percent for most of its 5,378 members, effective with December bills, which it said would save members some $60,000 a year. It was the co-op's second rate cut in ten years; it then ran 1,359 miles of line in Orange, Alamance, Granville, Person, Caswell and Durham counties. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 19, 1957, p. 1
  7. Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation receives a $579,000 REA loan The Rural Electrification Administration announced a $579,000 loan to the Hillsboro cooperative to build 12 miles of transmission line, tie lines for new stations and 27 miles of distribution line, which the agency said would serve some 1,360 new members. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 30, 1959, p. 4
  8. Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation holds its twentieth annual meeting in the new Hillsboro High gym About 500 to 600 members of the rural electric cooperative met in the new Hillsboro High School gymnasium, heard Farm Bureau president B. C. Mangum urge cooperation, and re-elected all directors and officers. The cooperative reported about 1,400 miles of line serving more than 5,600 members, and said its average power cost had fallen from nine cents a kilowatt-hour in 1939 to two and a half cents. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 25, 1959, p. 1
  9. The Piedmont Electric office on East Tryon Street is raised to two stories The flat-roofed brick office built for the Piedmont Electric Company around 1950 as a one-story building was enlarged to two stories in 1960. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 129 E. Tryon/205 N. Cameron, Piedmont Electric Company
  10. Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation opens a new second story at its Hillsboro headquarters At its annual safety awards dinner, the six-county rural electric cooperative based at Hillsboro showed off the new second story of its headquarters, where it was moving its billing and engineering departments. Directors reviewed forecasts of about $2 million more in plant over the next decade, and the co-op was cited for 235,000 man-hours without a lost-time accident. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 25, 1962, p. 22
  11. Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation marks 25 years at its annual meeting About 300 members at the cooperative's silver anniversary meeting in Hillsborough re-elected its nine directors and W. F. Shaw as president. Manager F. E. Joyner reported that average use per member had more than doubled in five years; the co-op had grown from 356 members in three counties in 1939 to 6,300 in six counties. The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 25, 1964, p. 9
  12. Chapel Hill aldermen approve a Piedmont Electric substation off Smith Level Road After several weeks of study of how it would look, the Board of Aldermen granted Piedmont Electric a special use permit to build a power substation and transmission lines off Smith Level Road southwest of Carrboro. Urban Development director Kurt Jenne advised that the substation would not harm the area or decide how the land around it developed. The Daily Tar Heel, March 6, 1974, p. 3

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Indexed works

The index has no works about Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation itself yet. The surveys and maps below cover where it stands. Search the index for Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation, or tell us about a book or record we have missed.

Surveys and maps of the area

Not about Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation 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.

Hillsborough architectural survey

Slane, Heather Wagner · 2017 · hmwPreservation

Survey of Hillsborough's historic buildings by Heather Wagner Slane of hmwPreservation, completed in September 2017. The 40-page report covers the town's architecture and history with color illustrations and maps.

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.

Time in place, place in time : history and sense of place in Hillsborough, North Carolina

Warren, Cheryl Davis · 2005

Cheryl Davis Warren's 2005 study of history and sense of place in Hillsborough, 216 leaves with illustrations, maps and a bibliography. Written as human geography, it treats the town's past alongside its social conditions and the ways residents understand where they live.

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 Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation, 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

    • Start here · NC 975.656 LLO History of the Town of Hillsborough, 1754-1982 Lloyd, Allen Alexander · 1983

      A 1982 revision of Allen Alexander Lloyd's history of Hillsborough, now written with Pauline O. Lloyd and carried forward from the town's founding in 1754 to 1982. Published in Hillsborough by A. A. Lloyd, 310 pages with illustrations and a bibliography.

    • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 975.656 HOLADAY Hillsborough Holaday, Chris · 2002

      J. Chris Holaday's Images of America volume on Hillsborough (Arcadia, 2002), built mostly from photographs and postcards. Chapters cover homes, churches and schools, business and industry, local people, scenes around town, and sports, entertainment and events.

    • 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.

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    • Foundational · NC 307.1 HIL Hillsborough, North Carolina General Development Plan 1968-1988 1968

      Hillsborough's general development plan for the twenty years from 1968 to 1988, prepared for the town's planning commission with a federal urban planning grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Issued in Hillsborough in 1968, 110 pages with maps, some in color.

    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 720.975 HILLSBOR Hillsborough Historic District Inventory 2006

      An inventory of the buildings in the Hillsborough Historic District, dated 2006. It concerns historic buildings and the buildings and structures of Hillsborough. Useful for anyone checking a particular property in the town's historic district.

    • Start here · NC 720.975 BEL Photocensus: A Photographic Survey of Buildings in the Hillsborough, N.C. Historic District Built Before 1950 Bellinger, Susan McArtor · 1991

      Susan McArtor Bellinger's photographic survey of the buildings in the Hillsborough Historic District put up before 1950, self-published in Hillsborough in 1991. Arranged as a guidebook, it records houses and other structures in photographs. 142 pages with illustrations.

    Show 1 more
    • Rebecca Wall Collection · 917.565 DUL The Pelican Guide to Hillsborough, Historic Orange County, North Carolina Dula, Lucile Noell · 1989

      Lucile Noell Dula's guidebook to Hillsborough and its historic buildings, published by Pelican in 1989. It pairs a tour of the town with notes on its history, in 128 illustrated pages with a bibliography. Part of the Wall Local History Collection.

    Land, family and burial records

    • Foundational · NC 333.3 DUNAWAY Hillsborough, North Carolina History of Town Lots: The Complete Reference Guide Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2013

      Stewart E. Dunaway worked through Hillsborough, N.C., lot by lot, giving each town lot a synopsis of its history, a plat showing where it sits and transcripts of the deeds he could locate for it. The second issue runs to 720 pages with illustrations, maps and facsimiles.

    • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 333.3 DUNAWAY Hillsborough, North Carolina History of Town Lots: Addendum 2015 Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2015

      Stewart E. Dunaway's 2015 addendum to his history of Hillsborough's town lots, adding deed records arranged by lot number and further town history, with the expansion of the 1890s covered for the first time. Self-published in North Carolina as version 1.0, 446 pages with illustrations, facsimiles and maps. Topics include deeds, court records, land titles and real property in Hillsborough.

    • Foundational · NC 333.3 IND An Index to the Town Lots of Hillsborough: Orange County, North Carolina 1982

      An index to the town lots of Hillsborough, Orange County, compiled in 1982 as a guide to the deeds and court records that trace each lot's ownership.

    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 23

    Show all 23

    Collections and databases

    Local help 5

    Nearby

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    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