Theme
Historic houses, architecture, landmarks, districts, and preservation.
In briefFrom Hillsborough’s 18th-century houses and the university’s first buildings to mill villages, the Carolina Inn and the Confederate monument, the county’s buildings carry its history in plain sight. The storylines follow the Burwell School, the founding of the university, Carrboro’s mill town, Silent Sam and the Occoneechee Speedway.
1,264 indexed works are connected with this theme. 22 held at OCPL →
Named events and episodes the index follows in detail. Each has its own page.
Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina, the most widely held first, novels aside. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.
Narrow these works. Each link opens the search already limited to this theme. Counts are indexed works, not copies on a shelf; a work can carry more than one period or place.
Lucile Noell Dula's guidebook to Hillsborough and its historic buildings, published by Pelican in 1989. It pairs a tour of the town with notes on its history, in 128 illustrated pages with a bibliography. Part of the Wall Local History Collection.
Robert Watson Winston's biography of Henry Horace Williams (1858-1940), who taught philosophy at the University of North Carolina for half a century, subtitled gadfly of Chapel Hill. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1942, 309 pages with frontispiece and portraits; this copy is autographed. Topics include educators in Chapel Hill and the university's history.
Reviewed in Social Forces (1943).
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.
Maurice M. Bursey's biography of Francis Preston Venable (1856 to 1934), chemist and president of the University of North Carolina, published by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 1989. It also covers the history of the university's chemistry department. Illustrated, 111 pages, with bibliographies.
Reviewed in Isis (1992).
Architectural and historical inventory of Carrboro by Claudia Roberts Brown, published in 1983 by the Carrboro Appearance Commission and the town. The 48-page survey, with illustrations and maps, documents the town's historic buildings and their conservation.
John V. Allcott's history of the architecture of the University of North Carolina campus across two centuries, from the first buildings of the 1790s to the 1980s, published by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 1986. A 108-page illustrated survey with a bibliography. Allcott taught art history at the university.
A history of the buildings on the University of North Carolina campus by John V. Allcott and JJ Bauer, published by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 2019. It follows campus construction from the 1790s forward: the plans behind each building campaign, the architects, and the university figures who pushed projects through. 132 pages with photographs, maps and plans.
Jill Ridky-Blackburn's history of Coker Hills, a neighborhood in Chapel Hill, published by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 2016. Chapters describe the land before the subdivision, the Coker who gave it its name, how the neighborhood began, the architects, builders and houses that shaped it, its legacy, memories of growing up there and the residents' later advocacy. Subjects include historic buildings in Chapel Hill. 242 pages with illustrations, portraits and a map.
Recently indexed: Album, University of North Carolina (1892) · Autobiography and biography of Rev. Joseph Caldwell ... : first president of the University of North Carolina (1860) · Autobiography and biography of Rev. Joseph Caldwell, D.D. LL.D., first president of the University of North Carolina (1860) · Ballot (1923) · The Betty Smith House : a Chapel Hill landmark (1984) · Books and people (1985)
Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this theme. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled. Books marked Wider context cover the broader subject rather than this theme itself.
The historic preservation element of Orange County's comprehensive plan, prepared for the county Historic Preservation Commission and Planning Department by the Jaeger Company of Gainesville, Georgia, and adopted on 1 April 1996. Partly financed by National Park Service funds through the state Division of Archives and History, it sets county policy on historic buildings and sites and their conservation. 59 pages plus 50 unnumbered, with illustrations and maps, some folded and in color.
Susan McArtor Bellinger's photographic survey of the buildings in the Hillsborough Historic District put up before 1950, self-published in Hillsborough in 1991. Arranged as a guidebook, it records houses and other structures in photographs. 142 pages with illustrations.
Architectural and historical inventory of Carrboro by Claudia Roberts Brown, published in 1983 by the Carrboro Appearance Commission and the town. The 48-page survey, with illustrations and maps, documents the town's historic buildings and their conservation.
An inventory of the buildings in the Hillsborough Historic District, dated 2006. It concerns historic buildings and the buildings and structures of Hillsborough. Useful for anyone checking a particular property in the town's historic district.
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.
Elizabeth Matheson's pictorial memoir of Hillsborough, published by the Hillsborough Historical Society in 1991. Its 63 pages picture the town's historic buildings and views, with notes on its history.
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.
Founded in 1939 chiefly to see Tryon Palace rebuilt at New Bern, the North Carolina Society for the Preservation of Antiquities went on after the war to fight for old buildings across the state. David Louis Sterrett Brook, a former head of the State Historic Preservation Office, tells its story through 1974. Published in 1997 by the Division of Archives and History with Preservation North Carolina, 205 pages.
A history of building in North Carolina from the colonial period to the eve of World War II by Catherine W. Bishir, with photographs by Tim Buchman. Alongside grand public buildings and fine houses it takes in farmhouses, log houses, barns, churches, mills and factories, setting their design and construction in the state's cultural and political history. The University of North Carolina Press published the large volume in 1990 for the Historic Preservation Foundation of North Carolina; 514 pages.
Dated events connected with this theme: sixteen of 667, the highlights and a sample of the rest spread across the years, in date order. See all 667 dated events in the chronology →
A story-and-a-jump house of hewn logs, one room on each floor, went up a few yards from the wagon road to Hillsborough, whose roadbed could still be traced in 1983. Tradition says it was first a tavern; it is the oldest building standing in Carrboro.
Subject: Weaver House
Legal proceedings brought by William Kirkland, Catlett Campbell, Jacob Greer and Isaac Mordecai against Robert Bell placed Hannah and her children Jenny and David in the hands of the sheriff. Sheriff Samuel Turrentine sold the three at public auction at the Hillsborough Market House to Duncan Cameron for 200 pounds.
People: Duncan Cameron · William Kirkland
Robert and Margaret Anna Burwell operated their Hillsborough school for girls from 1837 to 1857.
Part of The Burwell School and the Burwell household · 37 events
People: Margaret Anna Burwell · Robert Armistead Burwell · Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly
Subject: Burwell School
Thomas Ruffin bought lots 177, 178, 179, 204, 205 and 206, which adjoined the house he had acquired the year before, from Pride Jones.
People: Pride Jones
John S. Pope, a Confederate captain, and his wife Mary Jane McDade Pope built a two-story I-house on land she inherited from her father's estate in 1869; it was likely finished by 1874, when her brother's share brought the tract to about 73 acres. Tobacco was the farm's main cash crop, and its oldest surviving barn dates to about 1875.
Subject: John S. Pope Farm
John Sprunt Hill built the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill.
People: John Sprunt Hill
Subject: The Carolina Inn
Hattie V. Brown bought the half of lot 10 that held the old Nash law office. The property then changed hands several times before the Hillsborough Historical Society bought it in 1970.
Subject: Nash Law Office
Federal relief crews began a new library on Churton Street in Hillsborough in December 1933, with local money, including $7,000 from the Hillsborough United Daughters of the Confederacy, paying for materials. The cornerstone of the Confederate Memorial Public Library was laid on July 13, 1934, and the building became the Orange County Historical Museum in 1983.
Subject: Orange County Public Library · Orange County Historical Museum
Morehead Planetarium was dedicated at UNC on May 10, 1949.
People: John Motley Morehead III
Subject: Morehead Planetarium
North Carolina Memorial Hospital opened to patients on Tuesday, September 2, 1952, without a formal ceremony, as the core of the new University Medical Center. Its opening allowed the UNC School of Medicine to grow from a two-year program into a four-year school.
Part of North Carolina Memorial Hospital and the medical center, from 1952 · 24 events
Subject: UNC Medical Center (N.C. Memorial Hospital) · UNC School of Medicine
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. It moved to its own building at 523 East Franklin Street in 1967 and to Pritchard Park in 1994.
Subject: Chapel Hill Public Library
On September 28, 1971 the National Park Service listed the Nash Law Office in Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places.
Subject: Nash Law Office
After more than a decade of organizing, the freestanding Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History opened in Coker Woods with a four-day celebration. A Friday candlelight procession from the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery preceded Saturday's dedication by Chancellor James Moeser before more than 500 guests.
Part of The movement for a freestanding Black Cultural Center, 1991–1993
People: Sonja Haynes Stone
Subject: Sonja Haynes Stone Center (Black Cultural Center) · Old Chapel Hill Cemetery
The county's new 23,500-square-foot Main Library at 137 West Margaret Lane in Hillsborough held its grand opening on January 8, 2010, after planning that began with a task force in 2000 and a groundbreaking in April 2008. It added a teen center, a 90-person meeting room and a local history area.
Subject: Orange County Public Library
North Carolina finalized the addition of more than 200 acres near Hillsborough, including the Historic Occoneechee Speedway trail and the James M. Johnston Nature Preserve, to Eno River State Park. The Eno River Association had arranged the sale from the Jenrette Foundation, formerly the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust.
Part of Saving the Eno · 6 events
Subject: Occoneechee Speedway · Eno River State Park
Orange County's Southern Branch Library opened in February 2025 in the $42 million Drakeford Library Complex at 203 South Greensboro Street in Carrboro, replacing the Carrboro Cybrary, which had closed on January 31, 2025. The building, named for Robert Drakeford, Carrboro's first Black mayor, also houses town recreation offices and WCOM Radio.
Subject: Orange County Public Library
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 127 with a known location.
Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.
Background from selected state and local sources
Maps, surveys, and the ground itself
Newspapers, photographs, and records of the time
Other catalogs, databases, and guides worth searching
Local organizations that preserve the story and can help you go further
Held in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection. Selected because their titles or catalog subjects provide wider historical context for this theme; they may not discuss the Orange County theme directly.
The historic buildings of Lenoir County and its seat, Kinston, on the coastal plain of eastern North Carolina: an essay on the county's architecture by M. Ruth Little, followed by a catalogue of properties by Robbie D. Jones and others. Published in 1998 by the Lenoir County Historical Association with the City of Kinston, 480 pages with photographs, maps, a glossary of architectural terms, a bibliography and an index.
Subjects in the Library of Congress catalog record: Architecture -- North Carolina -- Lenoir County; Architecture -- North Carolina -- Kinston; Historic buildings -- North Carolina -- Lenoir County OCPL call number: NC 720.975 LITThe architecture and historic buildings of Burlington, Alamance County's largest community, in a history compiled by Allison Harris Black for the city's Historic District Commission; published in 1987, 172 pages, illustrated, with notes and an index. Alamance County was carved out of Orange in 1849.
Subjects in the OCPL catalog record: Architecture -- North Carolina -- Burlington -- History; Burlington (N.C.) -- Historic buildings OCPL call number: NC 720.975 ARCHow North Carolina's buildings were planned and put up from about 1650 to the late twentieth century, told by Catherine W. Bishir, Carl R. Lounsbury, Charlotte V. Brown and Ernest H. Wood III: frontier construction, craft traditions to 1830, antebellum improvement, the mechanized making of materials after 1850, new technology after the Civil War, the rise of professional architects to 1945, and practice since. Published by UNC Press in 1990; 540 pages with a long bibliography and an index.
Subjects in the Library of Congress catalog record: Architectural practice -- North Carolina; Building -- Practice -- North Carolina; Construction industry -- North Carolina OCPL call number: NC 720.975 ARCPicture: Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress; public domain. Image credits →
More to discover
The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.
