Chapel Hill's congregations build their churches, 1840–1859

The events, date by date

Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.

1. by 1840 Jesse Hargrave opens a general store whose upstairs room serves the Methodists Jesse Hargrave, in Chapel Hill since 1835, had a general store on Franklin Street by 1840, and bought the Yancey house the same year. In the 1840s (from about 1843) the Methodists, who had first met in Miles Davis's house, used the store's upstairs room, a former Masonic hall that Charles Deems named Bethesda. People: Jesse Hargrave Place: Hargrave's store, Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Franklin StreetSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 75
2. 1840s Charles F. Deems preaches to Chapel Hill Methodists in the hall he names Bethesda While a professor, Deems preached to the village Methodists, at their invitation, in the upper story of Jesse Hargrave's store, a former Masonic lodge room he named Bethesda. After he left the university in 1848, ministers were regularly appointed to the Chapel Hill charge. People: Charles F. Deems, Jesse Hargrave Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, Volume I
3. May 1842 William Mercer Green organizes an Episcopal parish in Chapel Hill In May 1842 William Mercer Green presided over the organization of the Church of the Atonement, an Episcopal parish in Chapel Hill with fifteen communicants, which met in members' homes for five years while its church was built. A record of subscribers for building the church, dated 1843, survives in Green's papers. People: William Mercer Green Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel of the Cross: Parish Archives
4. 1843 to 1848 People enslaved by William Mercer Green work on the Church of the Atonement Green contributed to the building through the labor of several people he enslaved and a pair of his mules. He also meant to give a kiln of bricks made on his land, but had the fires put out at midnight on a Saturday to keep the Sabbath, and the half-fired bricks, worth about $250, were lost. People: William Mercer Green Place: Church of the Atonement (Chapel of the Cross), Chapel HillSearch the index · Archibald Henderson, The Church of the Atonement and the Chapel of the Cross at Chapel Hill (1938), scan p. 42
5. 1843 to 1848 The Episcopal parish begins building the Chapel of the Cross on East Franklin Street A year after organizing, Chapel Hill's Episcopal parish started work in 1843 on its Gothic Revival chapel at 302 East Franklin Street, designed by the architect Thomas U. Walter. The building took until 1848 to finish. Place: Chapel of the Cross, 302 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Thomas U. Walter · Also mentions: East Franklin StreetSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Chapel Hill Historic Sites Survey: Final Report (1992), p. 36
6. November 28, 1843 Swain reports the Chapel of the Cross walls up to a plan by Thomas U. Walter Writing to Charles Manly, university president David L. Swain noted that the Episcopalians had raised the brick walls of their church and that it was planned by Walter of Philadelphia. The nomination treats this letter as the main evidence that architect Thomas U. Walter designed the chapel, which had long been credited to Richard Upjohn. People: David L. Swain, Charles Manly Place: Chapel of the Cross, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Thomas U. WalterSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Chapel of the Cross, National Register nomination (OR0005), p. 6
7. 1846 James Phillips buys the Village Chapel lot for the Presbyterian church Professor James Phillips, as trustee, bought for $200 the lot where the Union or Village Chapel stood, as a site for the Presbyterian church, on condition that no burials be made there. The old chapel was moved a few hundred yards north, enlarged, and long served as the village public school. People: James Phillips Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Village ChapelSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 611
8. 1847–1849 Dabney Cosby builds the Presbyterian church on Franklin Street After the university work Cosby built a small Tuscan style church designed by Alexander Jackson Davis for the Chapel Hill Presbyterian congregation, whose members included university president David L. Swain. In March 1848 the congregation member Charles Phillips wrote to Davis that the mason could not match the lilac gray color specified for the outside. The building no longer stands. People: Dabney Cosby, David L. Swain, Charles Phillips, Alexander Jackson Davis Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · North Carolina Architects and Builders, NC State University Libraries: Cosby, Dabney (1779-1862)
9. October 19, 1848 The Chapel of the Cross is consecrated Bishop Levi Silliman Ives consecrated the Episcopal church at Chapel Hill as the Chapel of the Holy Cross. Designed by Thomas U. Walter for the parish William Mercer Green organized in 1842, it was built of bricks fired by enslaved people at kilns on Green's farm and included a wooden gallery for enslaved worshippers. People: William Mercer Green Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Thomas U. WalterSearch the index · The Chapel of the Cross: Parish Archives
10. September 23, 1849 The Presbyterian church on Franklin Street is finished and dedicated Built with money and effort from James and Charles Phillips, Elisha Mitchell and President Swain, the small Presbyterian church on the old Grand Avenue ground was completed and formally dedicated. Lucy Phillips Russell, writing from the church records in 1936, said it was dedicated free of debt on Sunday, September 23, 1849, when Rev. John A. Gretter of Greensboro preached the dedicatory sermon. People: James Phillips, Charles Phillips, Elisha Mitchell, David L. Swain Place: Presbyterian Church, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: John A. GretterSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 91 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, April 24, 1936, p. 3
11. July 1853 Chapel Hill's Methodists dedicate their first church In July 1853 the Methodist congregation that became University Methodist Church dedicated its first building, at Rosemary and Henderson streets, paid for with about $5,000 that its pastor J. Milton Frost had raised around the state. The congregation had met since about 1840, with Charles F. Deems preaching in the 1840s and Frost stationed there from January 1851. People: Charles F. Deems Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: J. Milton Frost · Also mentions: Rosemary and Henderson streets, University Methodist ChurchSearch the index · University United Methodist Church, Chapel Hill: History · Also: Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952; The Daily Tar Heel, October 3, 1975, p. 1
12. 1854 The Chapel Hill Baptist Church is received into the Sandy Creek Association At its constitution on September 15, 1854 the church voted to apply to the Sandy Creek Association and named delegates, and the Association received it at that year's meeting. Place: Chapel Hill Baptist Church, Chapel HillSearch the index · Almonte Charles Howell, A History of the Chapel Hill Baptist Church, 1854-1924 (1945), scan p. 14