Churches and lodges
University Presbyterian Church, at 209 East Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, grew from Presbyterians worshipping in homes and university buildings about 1829 and organized formally in 1845. Its first church, designed by Alexander Jackson Davis, was dedicated in 1849; the 1920 Sprunt Memorial church burned in 1958, and a larger church replaced it on the same site in 1961.
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 Presbyterian Church. Each has been reviewed for relevance; materials held at OCPL appear first.
Mark Pryor's biography of the Rev. Charles M. Jones (1906-1993), minister of the Presbyterian church in Chapel Hill. It explores his life in relation to civil rights work, race relations and the religious response to racism in the town. Published by Writer's Showcase, San Jose, in 2002, xii and 398 pages with illustrations.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
The Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church marked its centennial with this history, published in 1950 and covering the congregation from 1849 to 1949. Thirty-nine illustrated pages at 23 centimeters. The history also concerns the religious aspects of the Civil War.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
The Rev. Charles M. Jones (1906-1993), minister of Chapel Hill's Presbyterian church in the late 1940s, and his wife Dorcas talk with John Egerton in a Southern Oral History Program interview recorded July 21, 1990. Jones spends most of the hour on the disputes his stand on race provoked, when the regional presbytery objected to his conduct of the church, and his dealings with university president Frank Porter Graham. Published online in 2006 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
A thesis on the controversy between Charles Miles Jones and Orange Presbytery in 1952 and 1953, the dispute that ended his ministry at the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church. The text was reprinted in 1995 with excerpts from Jones' sermons added for the dedication of the Charles M. Jones Community Building on September 24 of that year. One volume of various pagings, with a portrait.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Half-hour video from GK Productions, released in Chapel Hill in 2001, centered on Charles M. Jones, the minister whose Presbyterian congregation and the later Community Church of Chapel Hill both figure in it, along with civil rights movements and racism in the town. Color with black and white sequences.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Brief history of University Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill written by William W. McLendon and printed by the congregation in 1999. Seven pages.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Henry Gibbons Ruark's article on the case of Orange Presbytery against Charles Miles Jones of the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, printed in the Christian Century for March 18, 1953 and detached from that issue. Two pages. The dispute belongs to Presbyterian church history in North Carolina, and the presbytery takes its name from the county.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Charles Miles Jones set out his reasons for leaving the Presbyterian ministry in this statement, delivered to the summer meeting of Orange Presbytery at New Hope Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill on July 6, 1953. Jones had served the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church. He printed it himself in 1953, 22 pages.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Frank Porter Graham, the former president of the University of North Carolina, gathered his written and spoken statements on the case of the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church and its minister Charles M. Jones into a nine-leaf summary dated January 24, 1953. The dispute touched Presbyterians in Chapel Hill and the town's race relations.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Alan Keith-Lucas wrote this history of University Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill, carrying the story from the congregation's earliest days to the spring of 1977. A photocopied typescript of 137 pages in the North Carolina Collection at UNC.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Real photo postcard of the Presbyterian church in Chapel Hill, a columned building, published by Sutton's of Chapel Hill. Dated 1912; a pencil note on the back gives 1912 to 1915. One print in postcard format, 9 by 14 cm.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Twenty photographs of University Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill, dated 1955, nearly all front views, one taking in a stone wall. From the churches series of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
About twenty items kept as the papers of Robert Leon Johnson, born 1930, spanning 1952 to 2000, half a linear foot, collection 5362 in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. Topics include civil rights work in Chapel Hill, the North Carolina Speaker Ban Law, chaplains and religion at the University of North Carolina, the Wesley Foundation, the Presbytery of Orange, and Charles Miles Jones.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Charles Miles Jones, 1906 to 1993, a Presbyterian minister in Chapel Hill, left these papers covering 1924 into the 1990s, about 1,800 items in 2.5 linear feet, collection 5168 in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. The papers concern civil rights and segregation in North Carolina, the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, the Community Church of Chapel Hill, the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen, and names including Frank Porter Graham and Bayard Rustin.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Papers of the Presbyterian minister William Dygnum Moss (1866-1932), about 600 items in two and a half linear feet running from 1899 to 1970 and concentrated before 1932, in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 4916. The collection includes sermons, diaries and photographs concerning the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, rural education in North Carolina, student religious life at the university, and the diaries of women.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
An eight-page account of the Presbyterian church in Chapel Hill by Cornelia Phillips Spencer, 1825 to 1908, reprinted from the North Carolina Presbyterian of January 21, 1897, from a copy then owned by Elizabeth Kirkland of Chapel Hill. A note records that the remainder of the article is missing. In the North Carolina Collection at UNC.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Clippings, photocopied newspaper articles, promotional material and reports about the Presbyterian manse in Chapel Hill. Undated, from the Historic Houses files, Chapel Hill History series, of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Vertical File Collection.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Presbyterian churches in Chapel Hill, followed in newspaper articles, photocopies of others, and reports with notes. From the Churches series of the Chapel Hill Historical Society Vertical File Collection (CHHS.001). Undated.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Former Presbyterian manse in Chapel Hill, in two undated photographs: the house seen through trees and a view of its front porch. From the churches series of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.
Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.
Directory of University Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill, issued as a serial and recorded here at the 1991 volume, with color illustrations and portraits of the congregation. A numbered issue also dates from 1988.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
An earlier run of the directory of University Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill, recorded at the 1984 volume and printed by the church without illustrations. Topics include Presbyterians at Chapel Hill, the congregation itself and the church history of the town. The lists carry the names of members and officers, of use to anyone tracing a family through the parish.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Directory from Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, published by the church in 1963. It concerns Chapel Hill church history, Presbyterians in Chapel Hill, and the Civil War in its religious aspects among Presbyterians, alongside the church directory itself. 24 pages, a small record of the congregation in the early 1960s.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
The completion program, a brochure published by Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church in 1962. Eight unnumbered pages with illustrations, a plan and portraits.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Serial publication of the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, recorded at 1962, issued by the congregation in volumes of 23 cm and treated as both a directory and a periodical. Some issues carry their own titles. Topics include Presbyterians at Chapel Hill and the church history of the town, and the member lists tie families to the congregation in a given year.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Order of service for the dedication of the sanctuary of the Presbyterian Church of Chapel Hill on November 18, 1962, published by the church. Twelve unnumbered pages with two floor plans.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
An eight-page program for the dedication of the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church's new buildings on October 18, 1959, the additions fronting Henderson, Rosemary and Franklin Streets in the center of town. Illustrated, with one portrait.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church published this twelve-page booklet in 1959. It concerns the congregation, Presbyterian church buildings in Chapel Hill and the town's church history. Includes illustrations, plans and portraits. 28 cm.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Illustrated pamphlet printed by the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church in 1956, opening with a letter from the pastor dated March 16 of that year. Eight unnumbered pages with portraits and building plans, with material on the congregation's finances and Presbyterian church history.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Treasurers' statements of the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church for the year from April 1, 1926 to April 1, 1927, printed by the church in a small three-page leaflet measuring 14 by 16 centimeters. Slight in itself, it documents the income and spending of a Chapel Hill congregation in the mid-1920s.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Recipes collected by the Woman's Auxiliary of the Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill and printed in 1939 by the town's Orange Printshop.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Seventeen items of records kept by Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church between 1845 and 1885, collection 1978-z in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
A cookbook published by the Women's Auxiliary of the Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill, from box 12 of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Vertical File Collection, groups and clubs series. Undated.
Included because: Published by or for this institution.
Not about University Presbyterian 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.
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 University Presbyterian 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.
Storyline about this site, 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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