Storyline · 1958–1968
Chapel Hill's first public library opened on December 15, 1958 in the east wing of the Hill House, with about 4,500 books. In November 1964 the State Library Commission again turned down the town's request for a share of new federal library money, because its library did not belong to a county or regional system. In 1965 voters approved a library bond of up to $150,000 by 1,079 to 65. Around 1965 the library committee kept Don Stewart and his modern plan, though its head had asked him about a traditional design. His 1966 building on East Franklin Street used sloping native stone walls and stained wood to fit among the older faculty houses. When the library moved to Pritchard Park in 1994, the building became home to the town museum.
Chapel Hill's first public library held its formal opening on December 15, 1958 in the east wing of the Hill House on West Franklin Street, with about 4,500 books, 2,000 of them lent by state and regional libraries. In November 1964 a delegation led by Mayor Sandy McClamroch asked the State Library Commission for a share of the new federal library services money. The commission again turned the town down, because its library did not belong to a county or regional system, and told it to talk with county and regional library officials about a joint program. On July 6, 1965 voters approved, 1,079 to 65, a bond issue of up to $150,000 to buy land for, build and furnish a new library at Boundary and East Franklin streets. Around 1965 library committee head Mrs. Richmond P. Bond asked Don Stewart about a traditional design; he said he was not a traditional architect and suggested Durham's William Van Sprinkle, but the committee kept Stewart and his modern plan. His 1966 building used sloping native stone walls and stained wood to fit among the older faculty houses on East Franklin Street. The library left its rooms in the Hill House for the new building on the northwest corner of East Franklin and Boundary streets, and when it moved to Pritchard Park in 1994, the building became home to the town museum.
Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.
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 with a page of their own whom the dated events above name, those named most often first.
No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are about the sites and people its dated events name, those named most often first, so they may discuss the storyline only in part. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Program for the dedication of the Chapel Hill Public Library on Sunday, May 22, 1994, at two in the afternoon. Four unnumbered pages with illustrations, issued by the library. The subject is the library itself, so the item is best understood as ephemera from the day, printed for the people who attended.
A 1994 Chapel Hill News piece on the new home of the Chapel Hill Public Library and the path that led to it, issued as a folded sheet of four unnumbered pages with illustrations and a plan. Topics include the library, its Friends group and Quakers, and nothing further is recorded about the text.
A seventy-nine minute videocassette of a lecture on the mission, programs and issues of the contemporary public library, recorded for the course LIBS 243 on January 19, 1987. Topics include public library administration and children's libraries in Chapel Hill along with the Chapel Hill Public Library.
Program for the twentieth anniversary celebration of the Chapel Hill Public Library, held Sunday, December 10, 1978, at two in the afternoon. A folded sheet of four unnumbered pages with an illustration, it carries a brief history of the library on pages two and three. Topics include public libraries in Chapel Hill in the twentieth century.
Daniel W. Barefoot arranges first-hand recollections of the University of North Carolina by decade, from the 'infant university' of the 1790s through the Civil War years when promise turned to despair, the rebuilding of the 1870s, the 'frosh' life of the 1880s, wartime fame in the 1940s, the controversies of the 1960s and the bicentennial of the 1990s. Thomas Wolfe's student years appear among the voices. Published by John F. Blair of Winston-Salem in 2008, 257 pages.
Francis Nash's history of Hillsborough in colonial and Revolutionary times, first published in 1903 and reprinted in 1953 by Edwards & Broughton with an index and a sketch of the author. Topics include the Regulator Insurrection of 1766 to 1771, the Revolution and local genealogy.
Collected first-hand and second-hand stories from the Eno River valley as told from the standpoint of African Americans and Native people who have lived along the river in Orange and Durham counties, from prehistory to the present day. Issued by the Eno River Association in Durham as volume 10, number 2 of the Eno Journal, 2021, 106 pages with illustrations.
Jean Bolduc's collection of oral history interviews with Black residents of Durham and Orange counties, published by The History Press in 2016, 125 pages with photographs and portraits. The narrators are the poet Jaki Shelton Green, civil rights lawyer Floyd McKissick, Walter Jackson, Nate Davis, Brenda Stephens, Diane Wright, Jackie Wagstaff and Michelle Johnson, and a closing chapter deals with the Ku Klux Klan. The interviews document Black life and race relations in the two counties across the twentieth century.
A handbook to the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, published by the museum in 1983 for its twenty-fifth anniversary. It combines a catalog of the collection with a history of the museum, which opened in 1958. Includes a bibliography on pages xviii to xx. 170 pages with illustrations, 22 cm.
Louis Round Wilson's 40-page review of the University of North Carolina library, subtitled on the cover a review of its past and a look at its future. Wilson had directed the library for three decades before leaving for Chicago, and the university's main library carries his name. Published by the University of North Carolina Library in Chapel Hill in 1960, with illustrations.
History of the first 75 years of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, produced by the school in 2007. Includes a chronology of the school, biographical sketches of its deans and a register of alumni. Printed by PhotoBook Press of Minneapolis, 119 pages with illustrations, some in color.
Judith M. Panitch's illustrated account of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library between 1992 and 2004, published by the library in 2004. It is a history of the academic library, and the notes point out its references to the Aldo P. Magi collection of Thomas Wolfe material. 50 pages with color illustrations in an oblong format.
Edward G. Holley's twelfth Hanes Lecture, given in Wilson Library on 11 April 1995, on how the library, philanthropy and publishing helped the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill become a major American university. Printed by the Hanes Foundation, 28 pages.
The papers of Willie Person Mangum, 1792 to 1861, a lawyer, judge and United States senator from the part of Orange County that later became Durham County. Five volumes of correspondence published by the State Department of Archives and History beginning in 1950, arranged by date from 1807 to 1894, with illustrations, portraits and folding maps. A source for antebellum North Carolina and national politics, the Whig Party and the Mangum family.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1951), Journal of American History (1951), The Journal of Southern History (1953), Journal of American History (1953), The Journal of Southern History (1954), The Journal of Southern History (1955), The Journal of Southern History (1957), Journal of American History (1957), The American Historical Review (1957).
Willis P. Whichard's biography of David Lowry Swain, governor of North Carolina from 1832 to 1835 and president of the University of North Carolina from 1835 until his death in 1868. The subtitle ties Swain, nineteenth-century North Carolina and the university together, and the book belongs with the lives of college presidents and governors. Published in 2022.
Jean Bolduc's 2016 collection of interviews with African American residents of Durham and Orange counties, presented as short biographies. The subjects are Floyd McKissick (1922-1991), the first African American admitted to UNC's law school, Walter Jackson, Brenda Stephens, Nate Davis, poet Jaki Shelton Green, Jackie Wagstaff, Diane Wright and Michelle Johnson, with a closing chapter on the Ku Klux Klan. 125 pages with illustrations.
Each dated event above names its source, the place to start. For finding more on an event across newspapers, records and histories, see the research guide Follow an event across several accounts. Ask at the North Carolina Room of the Orange County Public Library for help with local sources.
Friends of the Orange County Public Library. “A home for the Chapel Hill Public Library, 1958–1968.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/chapel-hill-library-home-storyline-1958/. Accessed October 22, 2026.
