Churches and lodges
University United Methodist Church is a Methodist congregation in Chapel Hill that dedicated its first church, at Rosemary and Henderson streets, in July 1853. Its red brick Georgian Revival church at 150 East Franklin Street, designed by New York architect James Gamble Rogers and finished in 1926, has a tall steeple rising above the campus and business district.
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 University United Methodist Church. Each has been reviewed for relevance; materials held at OCPL appear first.
Centennial history of the Chapel Hill Methodist Church covering 1853 to 1953, printed about 1954 in 66 pages with three unnumbered leaves of plates and illustrations. The congregation is also known as University Methodist Church. A hundred years of a single congregation in one account.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Booklet for the fiftieth anniversary of the present building of University United Methodist Church on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, covering May 1926 to May 1976. Published by the church in 1976, 18 pages.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Article on Methodism in Chapel Hill printed in the North Carolina Christian Advocate for October 8, 1953 and kept as a detached two page extract with portraits. The piece concerns University Methodist Church and the standing of Methodists in the town the title calls the crossroad of the state.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Report of the Joint Commission on Church Building at Chapel Hill, dated October 15, 1926 and addressed to the North Carolina and the Western North Carolina Methodist conferences. Four unnumbered pages on a building project for University Methodist Church. A short administrative document for anyone tracing how the church was proposed and paid for.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Postcard of University Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in Chapel Hill, published by Sutton's of Chapel Hill between 1908 and 1928. One photomechanical print, 9 by 14 cm.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Nine linear feet of papers kept by Walter Patten, 1880 to 1947, covering 1901 to 1946, about 5,000 items, collection 4013 in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. Topics include Methodist clergy and missions in twentieth century North Carolina, American sermons, Louisburg College, and University United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, with family social life also noted.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
University Methodist Church in Chapel Hill on a postcard from the North Carolina News Company of Durham. The caption says the Colonial style church was finished in 1927 for $231,000 and dedicated in 1935, and that its tall spire rises over the village. Undated.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
University Methodist Church in Chapel Hill in two undated photographs: a front view taken during construction work and a woman sketching the steeple. Part of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Cookbook of recipes contributed by the University United Methodist Women of Chapel Hill, published in 1996 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the group's bazaar. Published in Collierville, Tennessee.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Congregational newsletter of University Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, issued in volumes with plans among the illustrations, the first number carrying plans for expanding the church. Dated 1978. A serial source for parish news rather than a finished history.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Directory of the Church School at University Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, published by the church in small volumes of fourteen centimeters with illustrations and recorded here from 1974. Topics include Methodists in Chapel Hill and North Carolina Methodist church history. As a directory it lists the people connected with the school.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Bulletin of the University Methodist Church at Chapel Hill, published from time to time by a joint commission of the North Carolina and Western North Carolina conferences, with issues dated April 1925 and 1974. Volumes in a large format.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Year book of the Woman's Society of Christian Service at University Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, published by the church in volumes of seventeen centimeters and recorded here from 1974. Topics include Methodist women and their societies in Chapel Hill, making the run a record of the women's organization within that congregation.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Membership directory of University United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill for 1972 and 1973, published by the congregation. It lists members of the Franklin Street church and provides a source for tracing families in Chapel Hill during those years. An unpaged illustrated volume, 23 cm.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Newsletter of University Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, issued in volumes and dated from 1971. The caption carries a bulk mailing permit notice. A serial rather than a single publication, so the run as a whole, rather than any one issue, is what documents Methodist congregational life here.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
A 1958 booklet from University Methodist Church in Chapel Hill making the case for a building program to serve university students and the congregation. It touches on the religious life of college students and the church's finances. Sixteen unnumbered pages with illustrations, in an oblong 18 by 26 cm format.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Fund-raising booklet from University Methodist Church in Chapel Hill presenting its plan for a new church education building, to be obtained, in the title's words, through faith, prayer and sacrifice. Published by the church in 1955, twelve unnumbered pages with illustrations and portraits. It documents the congregation's planning and finance for the building campaign.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Order of service for the dedication of the Methodist Church in Chapel Hill on Sunday, April 7, 1935, printed by the church in three unnumbered pages. The congregation is also identified as University Methodist Church. Small ephemera from the opening of a church building.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Appeal printed in 1917 asking Methodists across North Carolina to support the church at Chapel Hill, with illustrations, a map and building plans across nine pages. Topics include the religious life of college students in the town and the planning of the congregation the catalog calls University Methodist Church. An early statement of the case for a campus church.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Membership directory of University United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, issued by the congregation in volumes with color portraits of members and families. Directories of this kind list households and church officers, so they serve local and family research as much as church administration. Topics include Methodists at Chapel Hill and the church history of the town.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Twenty Sunday school record books kept by University Methodist Church in Chapel Hill between 1879 and 1933, a linear foot and a half in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 5272. The congregation is now University United Methodist Church.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Not about University United Methodist Church 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.
George Arthur Johnson surveys the churches of southern Orange County, the part of the county south of Interstate 85 that takes in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, from 1756 to 2000. The volume also includes his talk to the Chapel Hill Historical Society on March 4, 1996, on the university, the churches and the Jews of Chapel Hill. Published by the society in 2000, 144 pages plus lettered pages A to F.
Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.
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.
Kelly A. Lally's October 1992 final report on the architectural survey of Chapel Hill township, including Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Besides the report and a bibliography, most of its 56 pages form an annotated index of the historic buildings surveyed.
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.
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 University United Methodist Church, 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.
Deed transcripts for the town lots of Chapel Hill and adjoining land from 1790 to the 1930s, compiled by Stewart E. Dunaway. Each transcript keeps only the working facts: grantor and grantee, price, acreage and the metes and bounds of the parcel. Self-published in 2014 as Issue 1G, 702 pages with maps and facsimiles.
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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