University buildings and grounds
South Building, the university's main building, was begun on April 14, 1798, when Masons laid its cornerstone, but its walls stood roofless for years for want of money, and students moved in only in 1814. Modeled on Nassau Hall at Princeton, the three-story brick building has served as the university's administrative building and its symbol.
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 named in events about this site, ordered by number of mentions. Each example links to an entry with a source citation.
Books, articles, records, and images about South Building. Each has been reviewed for relevance; materials held at OCPL appear first.
Photograph from about 1903 of South Building on the university campus in Chapel Hill. Work on the building started in 1798 under Samuel Hopkins, was later carried on by John Clare, and finished in 1814. Part of the Images of North Carolina collection.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Draft minutes of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina for 14 April 1798, recording the Masonic ceremony for laying the cornerstone of the University of North Carolina's Old South Building in Chapel Hill.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
South Building at UNC on 22 April 1987, showing its columns with flowers in bloom, in a Hugh Morton color photograph. Mounted 35 mm slide.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
South Building on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, probably shot on infrared film by Hugh Morton in late 1946 or early 1947. Morton gave six photographs to the Alumni Office that autumn, and this one ran on page 216 of the April 1947 Alumni Review. Black-and-white sheet film negative.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Students in groups, with a bicycle, on the steps of South Building on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, probably March 1942, by Hugh Morton. A very similar picture appeared in the April Fool's issue of the Daily Tar Heel on 1 April 1941, printed under the mock title Daily Tar Heil, and again in the 1942 Yackety Yack. Black-and-white sheet film negative.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Hugh Morton photographed South Building from the top of Wilson Library on the UNC campus in Chapel Hill, about 1941 to 1942. Black-and-white sheet film negative, 3 by 4 inches.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Hugh Morton photographed South Building, with students below, from the roof of Wilson Library on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus about 1941 or 1942. Black-and-white sheet film negative, 3 by 4 inches.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Hugh Morton photograph from the early 1940s of the UNC campus in Chapel Hill, with South Building in the center background and the Old Playmakers theater, identified as the Center for Dramatic Arts, among other buildings and a parking lot. Black-and-white sheet film negative, 3 by 4 inches.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Clouds above South Building on the UNC campus, seen from the roof of Wilson Library in the 1940s or 1950s. Hugh Morton probably used infrared film. Black-and-white sheet film negative, 4 by 5 inches.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
South Building, one of the oldest buildings at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, photographed by Hugh Morton sometime in the 1940s or 1950s. Black-and-white sheet film negative, 3 by 4 inches.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Hugh Morton's view of South Building under clouds, probably made on infrared film from the Wilson Library roof, dated with some doubt to the 1940s or 1950s. Black-and-white sheet film negative, 4 by 5 inches.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Postcard of Old South Building and the Old Well in Chapel Hill, about 1917 to 1918. The back carries a printed wartime greeting from university president Edward Kidder Graham to Carolina men serving in France, sending the university's pride and affection and hoping for their safe return.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
South Building at the University of North Carolina on a Commercialchrome postcard published by R. W. Foister of Chapel Hill, dated 18 June 1916. The sender wrote 'This is my building' on the front and complained of the wet weather on the back.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
South Building with the Old Well in front of it, the classic view of the old campus at the University of North Carolina, on a black and white postcard by the Graycraft Card Co. of Danville, Virginia, about 1915 to 1930. White border, divided back. Ellen Payne Odom Genealogy Library Postcard Collection.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Old Well and South Building at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, on a Wootten-Moulton Studios black-and-white sheet film negative. Undated, part of the studio's negative series of about 1904 to 1954.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
South Building on the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill, reproduced in The Pageant of America collection from an 1860 photograph by Forster, a Chapel Hill photographer.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Twelve images of South Building at the University of North Carolina, dated 1851 to 1986. They show its front and rear, and a side view of the entrance that was printed on the back of a university advancement mailer. From the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection, CHHS.002.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
The Old South Building, called the Administration Building in the title, credited to Jack Taylor and published by Photo Center of Fayetteville.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
South Building at the University of North Carolina, titled here as the Old South Building.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
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.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
North Carolina News Company postcard of the Old Well, the domed well at the center of the Chapel Hill campus across from South Building, which then held the university's administrative offices. The caption calls the well a traditional gathering place for students and faculty. Undated.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Round plaster medallion, 12 cm across, with a colored relief of the Old Well and South Building and the words 'The Old Well, University of North Carolina.' The Old Well stands at the south end of McCorkle Place and appears in the university's logo. Undated.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
South Building and its well at the University of North Carolina, on a card from Piedmont Supply Company.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
A postcard view of South Building on the University of North Carolina campus at Chapel Hill. Part of UNC's North Carolina postcard series.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Printed by the E. C. Kropp Company of Milwaukee, this card shows South Building at the University of North Carolina. The caption places the university in Durham, although the location is identified as Chapel Hill, Orange County. It concerns North Carolina postcards of educational buildings.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Not about South Building 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.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
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 Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
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 Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
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.
Bernard Lee Bryant's compilation of who occupied each structure on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill at five-year intervals from 1793 to 1998, issued by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 1999 as a photocopy of his original computer printout on cotton paper. 191 leaves.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
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.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
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.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
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.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
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.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
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.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.
These books don’t necessarily mention South Building, 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.
Storylines about this site, each with a page of its own:
Sources cited in this site’s history, National Register documents, and places to get research help. Research guide: Investigate a school or community institution.
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