Storyline · 1934–1944
The Chapel Hill post of the American Legion first planned to make the old Methodist church into its memorial hut, then built a log hut on Rosemary Lane. In December 1934 the post announced a bargain to buy the church for $3,750, but by March 1935 it had given up the plan, finding the work would cost more than it could raise. It then planned a log hut on a Rosemary Lane lot from trees given by country members. Legionnaires did much of the building, and a crew of Black masons filled the cracks between the logs. The first meeting in the hut came on March 19, 1937, and in 1944 the post burned the mortgage.
In December 1934 the Chapel Hill post of the American Legion announced that it had closed a bargain with Lueco Lloyd to buy the old Methodist church at Henderson Street and Rosemary Lane for $3,750, to be made over as the American Legion Memorial Hut at a further cost H. D. Carter put at $1,250. On February 18, 1935 the directors of the Chapel Hill Movie Guild voted the net proceeds of one Sunday show toward the work. By March 8 the post had given up the plan, finding the work would cost more than it could raise; a member later said it had only negotiated for the purchase. By late March it held an option on a lot on Rosemary Lane and planned a log hut from trees given by country members, and the Guild set the proceeds of its March 31 show to start it. Legionnaires did much of the building themselves, and a crew of Black masons filled the cracks between the logs. The post and its Auxiliary held their first meeting in the hut on March 19, 1937, marking the Legion's 18th anniversary. On March 15, 1944 the post burned the mortgage on the hut, and commander Dewey Horner, Paul Robertson and Brack Creel were cited for raising the money to build it.
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 the 1 with a known location.
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.
The Old Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, in the congregation's own material, newspaper clippings and photocopied articles. Part of the Churches series in the Chapel Hill Historical Society Vertical File Collection (CHHS.001). Undated.
Old Methodist Church in Chapel Hill in eleven undated photographs and a negative, including a front view and one where trees and shrubs screen the building. Part of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.
Thirteen pages of recollections of Judge Luther James Phipps, 1898 to 1969, assembled in 2008 by Stanley Peele with illustrations and portraits. Contributors are Libby Walters, Barry Winston, Marsha Ferree, Stanley Peele, Dana Phipps and Roland Giduz. It is biography of a Hillsborough judge. Part of UNC's North Carolina Collection.
Family papers of the Kirkland and Hogan families of Chapel Hill, dated from the 1840s to the 1980s, roughly 550 items in two linear feet, collection 5475 in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. Named members include Laura Kirkland Hogan, Oscar A. Hogan and William Samuel Hogan. Topics include civil service work, the Junior Order United American Mechanics, and nativism in the twentieth century.
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.
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.
Robert E. Seymour, a Baptist pastor in Chapel Hill associated with Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church, looks back on segregation and race relations in the South from the pulpit. A clergyman's memoir covering church history in the town, Baptists in North Carolina and the segregation of African Americans. Published by Chapel Hill Press in 2011, 204 pages.
Chapter history of Epsilon Beta of Chi Omega at the University of North Carolina, covering 1923 to 1999 and written by Blanche Clark with Ann Thornburgh. Twenty nine unnumbered leaves with illustrations and a portrait, issued in Chapel Hill in 1999. Guion Griffis Johnson is among the people discussed.
Joint resolutions of the House of Commons from April 17 to May 2, 1782, with messages, petitions and depositions. Among them are thanks to Thomas Burke, the Hillsborough lawyer who had been governor, a land dispute involving James Taylor and Edmund Pendleton of Virginia, and a poll tax exemption for Francis Falkner. 87 images.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
From the 1782 session of the General Assembly, joint select committee reports and papers of 8 to 18 May, in 134 images. Captain James Reed, James Houston of Rowan County and George Meek are among those whose cases came before the committees. Other matters include State Legion officers, disabled veterans, price regulation, Cherokee affairs, Thomas Burke, and Hillsborough and Orange County.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Resolutions of the North Carolina Senate from 16 to 18 May 1782: naming Thomas Davis public printer, favoring Joseph Pitman of Edgecombe County, obtaining clothing for Continental officers and soldiers, and answering a memorial of John Huske. Nathanael Greene, Jethro Sumner and the Battle of Eutaw Springs are among the names. 51 images, with Hillsborough tied to the session.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Reports and messages of joint select committees from August and September 1780, when the General Assembly met at Hillsborough after the defeat at Camden. Committees worked on supplies and provisions for the army and the adjustment of public claims. Horatio Gates, Richard Caswell, Abner Nash, William Hooper, hospitals, surgeons, cavalry and wagons all appear. 88 pages.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Oral histories recorded between 1974 and 1978 for the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Generations of Carrboro Mill Families project, forty items across 1.5 linear feet in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 4205. The interviews concern textile workers and mill families in Carrboro, African American life in Carrboro and Chapel Hill, schooling, the depression that began in 1929, and women's work and family customs.
Mailings and publications of the Eno River Association, beginning in 1973. Subjects include the Association for the Preservation of the Eno River Valley, citizens' associations and community organizing in Durham, conservation of natural resources with citizen participation, and local environmentalists. Part of the North Carolina Collection at Durham County Library.
The activist John Kenyon Chapman left papers covering 1969 to 2009, about 11,200 items across 21.5 linear feet in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 5441. The papers document civil rights and community organizing in North Carolina, African American life in Chapel Hill, student political activity at the university, anti-apartheid work, and the Greensboro Massacre of 1979.
Institutional records of the Chapel Hill Historical Society from 1966 onward, filling six crates: the Society's own files as an organization, collection CHHS.000.
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. “The American Legion's hut, 1934–1944.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/legion-hut-storyline-1934/. Accessed October 22, 2026.
