The full story
In the spring of 1975 an Atlanta firm took an option to buy Carrboro's vacant former Alberta mill, tear it down and build a shopping center. Frances Shetley and other Carrboro residents circulated a petition against the demolition, and in June the mill, the railroad depot and the brick grist mill were nominated together to the National Register of Historic Places. The Atlanta firm let its option go, and the owner turned to a plan to reuse the building. The Charlotte firm Southern Real Estate proposed making the mill a shopping center with a new grocery and drug store building beside it; the EDY Corporation put in the property, valued at $300,000, as general partner, and three Southern Real Estate principals joined as limited partners. Saving the mill also became an issue in that fall's mayoral race, which Ruth West, who had once worked in the mill, won on November 4, 1975, beating Fred Chamblee 777 to 549.
Hearings and negotiation on the project began in December 1975. At a crowded and sometimes angry public hearing on January 14, 1976, the Board of Aldermen heard supporters of the plan to turn the 1898 mill at Weaver and Greensboro streets into a mall of about 12 shops and a variety store, and voted 3 to 2 to hear opponents at a continued hearing on January 28. The mill, depot and grist mill were listed on the National Register on January 19. On February 11 the board unanimously approved a conditional use permit for the project, which a 1979 study of it called the town's first for several businesses in more than one building on one lot. Among its 12 conditions, the developers agreed to keep the southwestern lawn as public open space, save trees, get the Appearance Commission's approval for the new building, give land for street widening, build sidewalks and put utilities underground.
Work on the first phase, the ground-floor mall, the new grocery and drug store building and the site, began in August 1976 with a $1.2 million construction loan from Mutual Savings and Loan of Charlotte, and Wooten-Brawley and Company of Statesville as contractor. In December the town amended the permit so the developers could rent the second floor as offices; in return they paid to widen the access road and build sidewalks to the new parking lot. Carr Mill Shopping Village was scheduled to open on May 1, 1977 with ten retail stores, a Harris Teeter supermarket and a Revco drug store, and by that September it advertised about 25 businesses. The upstairs offices were finished in February 1978. Tenants who had asked for space included North Carolina Memorial Hospital, which moved its kidney dialysis laboratory there and proposed moving three administrative divisions out of the crowded hospital, a state Vocational Rehabilitation area office and a Southern Bell regional office. That month, at the town's request and with the developers' consent, Carrboro amended the permit again to let a farmers' market use the mill's second parking lot on weekends, and a permanent open-air shelter was built there with a $25,000 state matching grant, the town supplying the site. The complex is now known as Carr Mill Mall.
Reading on the places and people in this storyline
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.
About Carr Mill · named in 9 of this story’s entries
Carr Mill, Carrboro, North Carolina : a rehabilitation project under the Tax Reform Act of 1976
Thomas, Margaret A. (Margaret Ann), 1951- · 1979
Margaret A. Thomas wrote this 1979 report on the rehabilitation of Carr Mill in Carrboro for the Technical Preservation Services Division of the Interior Department's Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service. It presents the mill as a rehabilitation project under the Tax Reform Act of 1976, with attention to federal aid for historic sites and the restoration of historic buildings. 32 illustrated pages.
Carr Mill shopping village
1977 · Carr Mill?
A short booklet on Carr Mill, the former Carrboro mill remodeled as a shopping village, issued around 1977. A note beneath the title names the owner, a limited partnership called Carr-Mill, the leasing agent Southern Real Estate of Charlotte, the architects Miller/Steever/Finch of Charlotte, and the contractor Wooten-Brawley of Statesville. Five unnumbered pages with illustrations, a map and a plan.
Carr Mill Mall
Cotten, Jerry (some photos) · 1900
Photographs following the Carrboro mill site from about 1900 to the 1970s: the Carrboro Mill in the early 1900s, a group portrait of Durham Hosiery Company workers at Carr Mill, the Carr Mill Mall later built on the site, and the sign for Elmo's Diner there. Some of the pictures are by Jerry Cotten.
Friends of Old Carrboro, Inc. collection, circa 1970s-2000
Friends of Old Carrboro, Inc · 1974
Organizational records of Friends of Old Carrboro, Inc., roughly 2,600 items in 4.5 linear feet spanning circa 1970s to 2000, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 70171. Topics include historic preservation and architectural conservation in Carrboro, city planning, zoning and traffic calming, with names including Claudia Roberts Brown and Jay Bryan and sites such as Carr Mill and Weaver Street Market. Materials in English.
Lloyd Grist Mill in Chapel Hill
Undated photograph of the Lloyd Grist Mill in Chapel Hill. An accompanying note places the old mill near the depot and says it went up some time after the University Railroad station was built.
Lloyd Grist Mill: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)
Lloyd Grist Mill in an undated photograph of the building's front, one of the business photographs in the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection (CHHS.002).
Carrboro Farmers' Market Guide : cultivating local agriculture and community : Carrboro, North Carolina.
1999 · Carrboro Farmers' Market
Guide to the Carrboro Farmers' Market issued for the summer of 1999, 98 pages under a subtitle about cultivating local agriculture and community. Topics include the market itself, farmers' markets in Carrboro and the marketing of farm produce in North Carolina. A record of how the market presented itself and its growers at the end of the 1990s.
Wider background: Buildings & Preservation · the most widely held histories of the theme this story belongs to; they may not discuss it
The Pelican Guide to Hillsborough, Historic Orange County, North Carolina
Dula, Lucile Noell · 1989
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.
Horace Williams
Winston, Sr., Robert Watson · 1942 · The University of North Carolina press
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).
The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, North Carolina: 1795-1975
Little-Stokes, Margaret Ruth · 2006
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.
Francis Preston Venable of the University of North Carolina
Bursey, Maurice M. · 1989 · Chapel Hill Historical Society
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).
Carrboro, N.C
Brown, Claudia Roberts · 1983
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.
The Campus at Chapel Hill
Allcott, John V. · 1986 · Chapel Hill Historical Society
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.
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The Campus at Chapel Hill: 225 Years of Architecture
Allcott, John V.; Bauer, JJ · 2019 · Chapel Hill Historical Society
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.
Historic Coker Hills
Ridky-Blackburn, Jill · 2016
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.
Well worth a shindy : the architectural and philosophical history of the Old Well at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Madry, Sarah Brandes · 2003 · iUniverse
Sarah Brandes Madry's history of the Old Well at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, treating both its architecture and the ideas attached to it. It takes in drinking fountains and water use in Chapel Hill and the university's history, with a chapter on Edwin Anderson Alderman, the president under whom the well took its present form in 1897, and one on water at the university. Published by iUniverse in 2003, 399 pages with illustrations.
History of the Town of Hillsborough, 1754-1966
Lloyd, Allen Alexander · 1966
Allen Alexander Lloyd's history of Hillsborough from the town's founding in 1754 to 1966, published by the author in Hillsborough in 1966. 306 pages with illustrations, maps and portraits, dedicated to the best interest of our town. Topics include Hillsborough's history and biography, its historic buildings and Orange County history.
Hidden History of Chapel Hill
Burns, Brian · 2023 · The History Press
Brian Burns's collection of lesser-known episodes from Chapel Hill's past, published by The History Press of Charleston, South Carolina, in 2023. Topics include the town's history, its buildings and structures, and the history of civil rights in Chapel Hill. 158 pages with illustrations and portraits.
An address on the history of the buildings of the University of North Carolina
Battle, Kemp P. · 2005
Kemp P. Battle's University Day address of 1883, delivered as president of the University of North Carolina on the day marking the laying of the Old East cornerstone. Battle goes building by building through the Chapel Hill campus, telling how each was named and why it stands where it does. Fifteen pages. Electronic edition issued 2005 by the UNC University Library for Documenting the American South.
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