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From West End to Carrboro: railroad, mills, and a new town, 1882–1913

The 1882 spur line and depot, West End and Lloydville, the Alberta and Durham Hosiery mills and their villages, Venable’s incorporation in 1911, and the renaming for Julian Carr in 1913.

In 1882 a university railroad spur ended a mile west of Chapel Hill, and the settlement of West End grew around its boxcar depot. Thomas Lloyd opened a gin and grist mill in 1883 and the Alberta Cotton Mill in 1899, which Julian Carr's Durham Hosiery bought in 1909. Incorporated as Venable in 1911, the town became Carrboro in 1913.

97 indexed works are connected with this event. 5 held at OCPL →

Carr Mill, Carrboro
Carr Mill, Carrboro

Indexed works

Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

Narrow these works. Each link opens the search already limited to this event. Counts are indexed works, not copies on a shelf; a work can carry more than one period or place.

Carrboro, Volume II

Otto, David A.; Ellington, Richard · 2015 · Arcadia Publishing

Second Images of America volume on Carrboro by David A. Otto and Richard Ellington (Arcadia, 2015). Chapters follow the town from mill village to growing urban center, then turn to its merchants, the arts, festivals, changing demographics and changing architecture, in 95 illustrated pages.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Carrboro (N.C.) -- History -- Pictorial works.

Carrboro

Ellington, Richard ; Otto, David A. · 2011

Pictorial history of Carrboro in Arcadia's Images of America series by David A. Otto and Richard Ellington, published in 2011. Its 127 pages of photographs, maps, facsimiles and portraits cover the town's history, social life and African American community, with a bibliography and index.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Carrboro (N.C.) -- History -- Pictorial works.

Orange County Trio: Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro, North Carolina, Histories and Tour Guides

Ryan, Elizabeth Shreve · 2004 · Chapel Hill Press

Elizabeth Shreve Ryan's combined histories and tour guides for Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the three towns of Orange County, with the University of North Carolina treated alongside Chapel Hill. Each town gets a narrative history and a tour of its streets and buildings. Published by Chapel Hill Press in 2004, 369 pages with illustrations and maps.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Carrboro (N.C.) -- History.

Celebrating 50 years on the air and 50 who made a difference : WCHL 1360

2003

Anniversary booklet marking fifty years of WCHL 1360, the Chapel Hill radio station, with profiles of fifty people from Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Published in 2003, 36 pages with portraits. Contributors include Roland Giduz, Jim Heavner, Jonathan Howes, Neil Offen and Rosemary Waldorf.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Carrboro (N.C.) -- History.

Many Things Never Before Remembered in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough, North Carolina

Wyatt, Lesley · 1998 · L. Wyatt

Lesley Wyatt's history calendar for 1999, subtitled the amazing history calendar, a wall calendar with local history notes on Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough. Published by the author in Carrboro in 1998, 28 unnumbered pages with illustrations in a large 28 by 44 cm format. Topics include the history of all three towns and of Orange County.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the OCPL record: Carrboro (N.C.) -- History.

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.

Why this is here: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

Reviewed in Isis (1992).

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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.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Carrboro (N.C.) -- History.

Mill village memories

Quinney, Valerie · 1980

Valerie Quinney's article on the Carrboro mill village, pages 98 to 109 of a 1980 publication, with illustrations and portraits. Topics include Carrboro history and mills and mill work, drawing on residents' recollections of life around the town's cotton mills. It also discusses mill owner Thomas F. Lloyd.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Carrboro (N.C.) -- History.

UNC

A place to live : Carrboro, North Carolina

1978 · F.L. Shetley and L. Bonds?

A six-page illustrated leaflet on Carrboro, printed in December 1978 at the expense of Frances L. Shetley and Lou Bonds, whose names appear on the cover. A short piece of Carrboro history focused on the town's historic buildings, it is a brief local portrait of older structures as they stood when it was printed. A small ephemeral piece.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Carrboro (N.C.) -- History.

UNC

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.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Carr Mill (Carrboro, N.C.).

UNC

Greetings from Cottenboro : Julian Carr has got to go

Goldstein, Bob, 1967- · 2020 · Bob Goldstein

Poster by Bob Goldstein from 2020 arguing that Carrboro should stop carrying the name of Julian Shakespeare Carr, and proposing Cottenboro after the musician Elizabeth Cotten. A single sheet measuring 30 by 31 centimeters. Topics include Carr, Cotten and the question of the town's name, placing the poster with the local debate over commemoration.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Carr, Julian Shakespeare.

UNC

Carrboro centennial commemorative : celebrating 100 years in the Paris of the Piedmont.

2011 · R. Dickson

Published in April 2011 as a supplement to the Carrboro Citizen, this forty-seven page commemorative marks Carrboro's first hundred years with history, biography and recollections of town life, illustrated with photographs, portraits and facsimiles. The subtitle uses the town's own nickname, Paris of the Piedmont.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Carrboro (N.C.) -- History.

UNC

Search all 97 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this event. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled. Books marked Wider context cover the broader subject rather than this event itself.

  • Foundational · NC 385.065 TRE The North Carolina Railroad, 1849-1871, and the Modernization of North Carolina Trelease, Allen W. · 1991

    In 1849 the legislature chartered the North Carolina Railroad, finished in 1856 from Goldsboro through Raleigh, Greensboro and Salisbury to Charlotte. Allen W. Trelease follows the company to 1871, when it leased its line to the Richmond and Danville, and weighs what the railroad meant for the state's development; the line spurred the growth of Durham, Company Shops (later Burlington) and High Point. UNC Press, 1991; 486 pages with illustrations and maps.

  • Start here · NC 720.975 BRO Carrboro, N.C: An Architectural & Historical Inventory 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.

  • Wider context · NC 975.658 STO Company Shops, the Town Built by A Railroad Stokes, Durward T. · 1981

    Burlington began as Company Shops, the town the North Carolina Railroad built around its maintenance shops in the 1850s, incorporated in 1866 and renamed in 1887, and Durward T. Stokes tells its history. The town lies in Alamance County, formed from Orange in 1849. John F. Blair published the 169 pages, with illustrations, a bibliography and an index, in 1981.

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  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 975.656 STANLEY West Hillsborough Origins: Stories & Poems by A Native Son Stanley, Charles B. · 2018

    Charles B. Stanley's stories and poems about growing up in West Hillsborough, the mill village on the west side of town, subtitled by a native son. Born in 1940, Stanley writes of the neighborhood's social life and customs in the twentieth century in autobiographical verse and prose. Published in 2018 by the Create Short Book Writers Project, 162 pages with illustrations and portraits.

  • Wider context · NC 385.097 RAI Railroading in the Carolina Sandhills: A Compilation of Historical Essays on Railroad Operations 1985

    Railroads of the Sandhills region of North and South Carolina, in essays by S. David Carriker on the lines and how they were run. Heritage Publishing Company of Matthews issued the first volume, on the nineteenth century from 1825 to 1900, in 1985 and the second, on 1900 to 1985, in 1987. Both are illustrated, partly in color, and indexed, and Carriker later wrote and edited further volumes.

  • Foundational · 975.656 RYAN Orange County Trio: Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro, North Carolina, Histories and Tour Guides Ryan, Elizabeth Shreve · 2004

    Elizabeth Shreve Ryan's combined histories and tour guides for Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the three towns of Orange County, with the University of North Carolina treated alongside Chapel Hill. Each town gets a narrative history and a tour of its streets and buildings. Published by Chapel Hill Press in 2004, 369 pages with illustrations and maps.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 975.656 OTTO Carrboro Otto, David · 2015

    Second Images of America volume on Carrboro by David A. Otto and Richard Ellington (Arcadia, 2015). Chapters follow the town from mill village to growing urban center, then turn to its merchants, the arts, festivals, changing demographics and changing architecture, in 95 illustrated pages.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 975.656 WYA Many Things Never Before Remembered in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough, North Carolina: The Amazing History Calendar 1999 Wyatt, Lesley · 1998

    Lesley Wyatt's history calendar for 1999, subtitled the amazing history calendar, a wall calendar with local history notes on Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough. Published by the author in Carrboro in 1998, 28 unnumbered pages with illustrations in a large 28 by 44 cm format. Topics include the history of all three towns and of Orange County.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · 975.656 OTTO Carrboro Otto, David · 2011

    Pictorial history of Carrboro in Arcadia's Images of America series by David A. Otto and Richard Ellington, published in 2011. Its 127 pages of photographs, maps, facsimiles and portraits cover the town's history, social life and African American community, with a bibliography and index.

In the chronology

Dated events connected with this event, earliest first. See these 79 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Julian Shakespeare Carr, later Carrboro's namesake, is born in Chapel Hill Julian S. Carr was born in Chapel Hill on October 12, 1845, the son of the Franklin Street merchant John Wesley Carr, and later studied at the university. He built tobacco, banking and textile fortunes in Durham, and his Durham Hosiery Mills went on to own both Carrboro mills; the town took his name in 1913. People: Julian S. Carr, John Wesley CarrUNC Wilson Library, Southern Historical Collection: Julian Shakespeare Carr Papers (#00141), biographical note
  2. Robert F. Hoke obtains a charter for the Chapel Hill Iron Mountain Railroad While the university was closed, Robert F. Hoke, owner of an iron mine north of Chapel Hill, obtained a state charter for a railroad to carry ore from Iron Mountain to the North Carolina Railroad. People: Robert F. HokeUNC Press, UNC A to Z: University Railroad
  3. The railroad is rechartered as the State University Railroad The legislature rechartered the stalled iron-mine line as the State University Railroad, shifting its purpose to a rail link for the university, with UNC president Kemp P. Battle working alongside Hoke to raise funds. People: Kemp Plummer Battle, Robert F. HokeOrangePolitics: Road to Iron Mountain: The railroad comes to Chapel Hill
  4. Jack Brim, a Black blacksmith, and then Bennie F. Ray open smithies at West End As the settlement around the depot and Lloyd's mills grew in the later 1880s, Jack Brim, an African American blacksmith, opened a shop at West End, and Bennie F. Ray opened a second smithy after him. Ray's shop was still working north and east of the depot in the early 1910s.Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 11
  5. Robert F. Hoke raises subscriptions to run the railroad toward Chapel Hill When iron prices rose in 1880 and shipping ore to Pennsylvania furnaces paid, Gen. Robert F. Hoke, who owned most of Iron Mountain north of Chapel Hill, began organizing the branch line from University Station. His Iron Mountain Company put up $6,000, the largest single pledge, and Julian S. Carr was among the other subscribers. People: Julian S. Carr, Robert F. HokeTown of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 10
  6. Ruffin Cheek and then Hiram Stone open West End's first general stores Ruffin Cheek, followed by Hiram Stone, opened grocery and general merchandise stores at West End in the 1880s. The book counts their stores, east of the railroad spur on what became East Main Street, as the start of Carrboro's business district.Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 11
  7. The Neville Building, thought to be Carrboro's first store, goes up east of the depot A one-story frame store later called the Old Neville Building was put up in the 1880s on East Main Street between Broad and Lloyd streets and is believed to be the first store building in Carrboro. Its last tenant was the Carrboro Cash Store, run by Cliff and Wilbur Partin.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 24
  8. Railroad service reaches West End The first passenger train on the University Railroad left Chapel Hill on Monday, February 6, 1882, and ran through University Station to Raleigh. The line ended about a mile west of the village at West End, where a boxcar served as the depot, and the settlement that became Carrboro grew up around it.The News and Observer (Raleigh), February 8, 1882, p. 2: The University Railroad Completed (DigitalNC)
  9. Julia Spencer drives a last spike to celebrate the finished University railroad Chapel Hill celebrated the completed State University Railroad with speeches and the driving of the last spikes, one by Julia J. Spencer, daughter of Cornelia Phillips Spencer, and one by the railroad's agent, J. G. Cooley. Passenger trains had been running to the West End terminus since February.DigitalNC: The News and Observer (Raleigh), May 11, 1882, p. 3
  10. Chapel Hill's mail moves to the University Railroad and its telegraph office opens Mail began running regularly to and from Chapel Hill on the State University Railroad, which the item credited to Congressman W. R. Cox, and a telegraph office opened at Chapel Hill on two wires that made the town part of the main line. People: William R. CoxSearch the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), July 29, 1882, p. 2
  11. Thomas Lloyd and William Pritchard build a grist mill and cotton gin at the West End depot Thomas F. Lloyd, a Confederate veteran, and his partner William Pritchard built a steam-powered grist mill and cotton gin in a two-story frame building just north of the railroad depot at West End in 1883. Farmers from southern Orange County brought grain and cotton there, and Lloyd bought out Pritchard's share in 1886. People: Thomas F. Lloyd (Carrboro mill builder)NC State Historic Preservation Office: Alberta Mill Complex, National Register nomination (OR0001), p. 6
  12. A post office called Blackwood opens at Robson station on the University Railroad A post office named Blackwood was established at Robson station on the University Railroad, halfway between University Station and Chapel Hill, with Morris King as postmaster.Search the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), April 14, 1883, p. 3
Show all 79 dated events
  1. Court-appointed commissioners award damages to landowners along the University Railroad Commissioners named by the Superior Court, C. W. Johnston, Wm. Barton and R. P. Hall, met and assessed what the State University Railroad owed for running through private land, allowing Holloway $100, Robert Strayhorn $75, Richard Fitzgerald $25 and Sarah Fitzgerald $70; the Fitzgeralds were Black landowners.Search the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), June 2, 1883, p. 2
  2. Thomas F. Lloyd buys out his partner and adds a flour mill by the depot Lloyd bought William Pritchard's share of the steam grist mill and cotton gin the two had built north of the station in 1883, and had a flour mill built on the property. People: Thomas F. Lloyd (Carrboro mill builder)Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 11
  3. Berry's Grove Baptist Church is organized Berry's Grove Baptist Church was organized in 1887 with A. T. Hord as first pastor and built a 400-seat church the next year.Search the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 301
  4. Fred Smith begins about fifty years as conductor on the Chapel Hill branch train Captain Fred Smith became conductor on the University Station branch in 1889 and kept the job for about half a century, until passenger service ended. People: Fred SmithSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 282
  5. Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten was born on Lloyd Street in what became Carrboro Elizabeth Nevills, later known as Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten, was born near the railroad tracks on what is now Lloyd Street in Carrboro. As a child she wrote “Freight Train,” which Folkways released on record in 1958 and which carried her into the folk revival.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Elizabeth Libba Cotten
  6. Heavy rains wash out parts of the University Railroad Heavy September rains did damage around Hillsborough, and washouts badly damaged the University Railroad, the branch line between University Station and Chapel Hill.Search the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), September 16, 1893, p. 3
  7. Brodie Lloyd builds a rental house on Oak Avenue before the Alberta mill opens The house at 307 Oak Avenue is one of very few in Carrboro older than the Alberta Cotton Mill and among the first investment houses of Brodie Lloyd, Thomas F. Lloyd's cousin; once the mill opened it was rented to its workers. Carpenter Thomas Clark and later his daughter and her husband, knitter Ben Williams, lived there from the 1920s. People: Thomas Clark (Carrboro carpenter), Brodie LloydTown of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 46
  8. A new mill house on Center Street becomes the community's first school The Alberta Cotton Mill built the house at 109 Center Street about 1898, apparently the first on that side of the street, and it was soon put to use as the village school. It went back to being a house when the Carrboro Public School opened on West Main Street about 1908.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 44
  9. Carpenter Thomas Clark moves to West End at Brodie Lloyd's request Thomas Clark, the earliest carpenter known to have worked in Carrboro, came in from the Cane Creek section of Orange County while the Alberta Cotton Mill was going up, at Brodie Lloyd's urging. He built rental houses for Lloyd, among them 101, 103 and 109 Shelton Street and 205 Weaver Street, and helped Bennie Ray build his two-story house at 301 Weaver Street. People: Thomas Clark (Carrboro carpenter), Brodie LloydSearch the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 17
  10. Herbert Lloyd takes over his brother's cotton gin and grist mill As Thomas F. Lloyd turned to building the Alberta Cotton Mill, his brother Herbert took charge of the steam gin and grist mill by the tracks, the frame buildings that had started the settlement in the early 1880s. People: Thomas F. Lloyd (Carrboro mill builder)Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 38
  11. Thomas F. Lloyd builds the Alberta Cotton Mill Lloyd built the Alberta Cotton Mill beside the railroad in West End in 1898 and 1899, the brick mill that later became Durham Hosiery Mill No. 4 and then Carr Mill Mall. People: Julian S. Carr, Thomas F. Lloyd (Carrboro mill builder)Town of Carrboro: Carrboro Walking Tour
  12. Brodie Lloyd builds a row of rental houses on Weaver Street for Alberta mill workers Brodie Lloyd put up the one-story house with a triple-A roof at 302 Weaver Street, along with nearly identical houses at 300, 304 and 306 Weaver, as rentals for hands at the Alberta Cotton Mill run by his cousin Thomas F. Lloyd, renting either to the workers or through the mill. By 1983 only 302 stood where it was built; 300 had been moved and the others torn down. People: Thomas F. Lloyd (Carrboro mill builder)Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 33 (no. 12, House, 302 Weaver Street)
  13. Thomas F. Lloyd builds twelve houses for Alberta Cotton Mill workers On the mill tract east and northeast of the new Alberta Cotton Mill, Lloyd put up a dozen one-story frame houses for his hands. A house of the same period built for Alberta workers still stands at 105 Short Street. People: Thomas F. Lloyd (Carrboro mill builder)Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 32
  14. A frame depot replaces the box car that had served West End as a station From 1882 a box car had been the passenger depot at West End. In 1900 a one-story frame depot was built a few yards north of the later station; after the 1913 station opened it became a freight shed, and a new freight house had replaced it by 1925.Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 35
  15. Four mill houses go up on Shelton Street for Bill Lloyd Bill Lloyd, a cousin of Alberta Cotton Mill owner Thomas F. Lloyd, had four identical one-story houses built to rent to the mill's workers. Each had two front doors so family members on different shifts could come and go; carpenter Thomas Clark, brought from Cane Creek by the Lloyds, built number 107. People: Thomas Clark (Carrboro carpenter)Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 30
  16. Lloyd and Neville's cotton gin operates on Laurel Street The gin occupied the lot at 108 Laurel Street from the first years of the century into the 1930s. When it was dismantled its materials are said to have gone into houses, perhaps the two porcelain-enamel-tile houses at 108 and 110 Laurel Street.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 48
  17. Mill owner Isaac W. Pritchard builds a large frame house on Ransom Street Isaac Pritchard, who ran one of the first textile mills near the Carrboro depot, built a spacious house at 400 Ransom Street combining a hipped roof and Palladian dormer with a Queen Anne entrance and wraparound porch. Most of his land later became part of the Westwood subdivision.Search the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 48
  18. Southern Railway begins buying cross ties from farmers at the Carrboro depot In the 1900s the Southern Railway began buying hand-hewn oak cross ties at the depot, where its agent graded them and paid the farmers who hauled them in from Orange and nearby counties. By the early 1920s Carrboro was among the largest tie markets in the East, and tie wagons crowded its streets into the early 1930s.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 23
  19. Thomas F. Lloyd gives a church lot facing his mill to Chapel Hill's four congregations Lloyd offered a Weaver Street lot to the Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Baptists and Methodists of Chapel Hill. The first two gave up their rights, and the Baptists and Methodists built Union Chapel on it in 1901 or 1902, a frame building about twenty by thirty feet.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 39
  20. The state charters the Blanche Hosiery Mills Company at West End The secretary of state issued a charter to the Blanche Hosiery Mills Company, formed by W. R. Lloyd, T. J. Hogan, John Lloyd and W. E. Lindsay to make hosiery. The company began on $6,500 in stock, with leave to raise it to $15,000. People: William E. LindsayDigitalNC: The News & Observer (Raleigh), March 4, 1902, p. 5
  21. The Blanche Hosiery Company builds its own knitting mill near the West End depot After more than a year in the upper story of Tom Lloyd's cotton mill, the Blanche Hosiery Company put up a $1,500 building of its own near the depot and planned to move in about July 1. The owners said Lloyd charged too much for power.DigitalNC: Charlotte Daily Observer, June 15, 1902, p. 3
  22. Baptists organize Union Chapel in West End On land Thomas Lloyd deeded for churches, Baptists and Methodists shared a small Weaver Street building on alternate Sundays, and the Baptists organized as Union Chapel with seventeen charter members; the congregation became Venable Baptist in 1911 and Carrboro Baptist in 1914. People: Thomas F. Lloyd (Carrboro mill builder)HillSong Church: HillSong Church History
  23. Elizabeth Cotten composes Freight Train At about age eleven, growing up near the railroad tracks in the settlement that became Carrboro, Elizabeth Cotten wrote "Freight Train." She played a right-handed guitar upside down, and the song became a folk standard after Folkways released her recording in 1958.Search the index · NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources: Elizabeth Cotten 1893-1987 (G-129)
  24. A legislative committee kills a bill to tear up the University Railroad A committee of the General Assembly killed the measure that would have let the railroad from University Station to Chapel Hill be abandoned once a planned Durham-Chapel Hill trolley line had run ninety days, leaving the trolley project in doubt. People along the line and at Chapel Hill had opposed removing the track.Search the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), March 9, 1905, p. 2
  25. The Carrboro Public School is built on West Main Street The one-story frame school at 114 West Main Street replaced the first school, held in a Center Street mill house, and taught seven grades under Mr. McDuffie, also the Baptist pastor. After the graded school opened late in 1921 it became the Methodist parsonage, serving until 1955.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 36
  26. Estelle Ray builds a two-story house on Oak Avenue and takes in boarders The Ray-Upchurch House at 301 Oak Avenue went up in 1909, likely with help from Estelle Ray's carpenter son and other relatives who later worked on the Lloyd yarn mill. For almost fifty years Ray, and after her, her daughter Bedie Upchurch, let rooms there to boarders.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 17
  27. Julian Carr's Durham Hosiery Mills buys the Alberta Mill In early February 1909 Julian S. Carr and his sons closed a deal for both the Alberta Cotton Mill that Thomas F. Lloyd had built at West End and the Blanche Hosiery Mill, to change hands on April 1 and run together as Durham Hosiery Mills' Mill No. 4. The deeds were recorded in March. People: Julian S. Carr, Thomas F. Lloyd (Carrboro mill builder)DigitalNC: The Durham Recorder, February 12, 1909, p. 3
  28. Blacksmith Bennie Ray builds a two-story house on Weaver Street With carpenter Thomas Clark, Ray built a cross-shaped two-story house at 301 Weaver Street, rare among Carrboro's early houses; his family still owned it in 1983. He ran a blacksmith shop on Lloyd Street with his brother Tom and son Atlas, who kept it going after Bennie died in 1933. People: Thomas Clark (Carrboro carpenter)Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 34
  29. Carrboro Methodist Church is organized Methodists in the mill village that became Carrboro organized a church in 1910 with W. A. Stanbury as first pastor.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 298
  30. Carrboro businessman Miles Andrews builds a frame house on East Main Street Miles Andrews, a Carrboro businessman and farmer, builds a one-story, hip-roofed frame house in the 100 block of East Main Street and lives there for many years. It was the only frame building on the block to survive the 1924 fire.National Register: Carrboro Commercial Historic District nomination (OR0126, 1985), section 7
  31. Carrboro's business district shifts from Weaver Street to East Main Street In the late 1910s the center of Carrboro's trade moved from the Weaver Street block by the Alberta mill to East Main Street. Some frame store buildings were hauled over from Weaver Street, and others were newly built on East Main.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 23
  32. Durham Hosiery Mills builds a two-story company house on New Hill for the Oakley family The L-shaped house at 303 South Greensboro Street was one of three two-story houses for large families in the last group the mill built for Mill No. 7. The company recruited the experienced Oakleys from Burlington, whose men became superintendents and foremen, and Cora Oakley ran part of the house as a boardinghouse at 25 cents a room a week.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 42
  33. Mill houses go up for the Lloyd Manufacturing Company's workers One-story frame houses with front porches were built between 1910 and 1915 as worker housing for the Thomas F. Lloyd Manufacturing Company; 25 of them form the Thomas F. Lloyd Historic District on the National Register. People: Thomas F. Lloyd (Carrboro mill builder)The Local Reporter: Carrboro's Heritage Embraces Preservation of the Town's Early Architecture
  34. The Carrs open a night school for Carrboro children working in the mills In the early 1910s the Carr family's company started a night school for children who spent their days in the Carrboro mills. It soon closed because the pupils were too tired after work and had chores waiting at home.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 20
  35. Lloyd organizes a second mill company and builds a yarn mill Thomas F. Lloyd organized the Thomas F. Lloyd Manufacturing Company in February 1910 and built a second mill across Main Street from the Alberta mill in 1910 and 1911 to spin cotton yarn. People: Thomas F. Lloyd (Carrboro mill builder)Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 13
  36. Venable is incorporated The General Assembly incorporated the mill settlement west of Chapel Hill as the Town of Venable in an act ratified March 3, 1911, naming William H. Parker mayor and T. N. Mann, J. F. Ragan, T. A. Ray and J. F. Partin commissioners until the first election. The town, named for UNC president Francis P. Venable, became Carrboro in 1913.Private Laws of the State of North Carolina, Session of 1911, chapter 315, pp. 788-791 (Internet Archive)
  37. Thomas F. Lloyd, founder of Carrboro's first two mills, dies Thomas F. Lloyd died in May 1911, close to the time his second mill, a one-story brick yarn mill a block south of the Alberta mill, was finished. A Confederate veteran with no schooling, he had built the gin, grist mill and flour mill by the depot before starting the Alberta mill in 1898. People: Thomas F. Lloyd (Carrboro mill builder)Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 14
  38. Durham Hosiery Mills nearly doubles Mill No. 4 About 1912 the company added a two-story extension to the west end of the old Alberta mill, enlarged its one-story south wing and put up a new power house northeast of the reservoir. Orders for cotton hosiery had outgrown the building. The Sanborn maps show the work done between March 1911 and December 1915.Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 13
  39. Union Baptist Church becomes Venable Baptist Church Once the Methodists stopped meeting there around 1910, the chapel was known as Union Baptist Church. In 1912 the congregation took the name of the newly incorporated town of Venable.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 39
  40. A new wood-frame railroad station is built in Carrboro The depot that still stands east of the old Alberta mill (Carr Mill) was built about 1913 as an extension of a small frame depot of about 1900, which had itself replaced the boxcar that served as West End's first station. The older depot was later removed, and the 1913 building served as the passenger and freight depot.NC State Historic Preservation Office: Alberta Mill Complex, National Register nomination (OR0001), p. 6
  41. Venable is renamed Carrboro A 1913 act of the General Assembly changed the name of the Town of Venable to Carrboro. Julian S. Carr, owner of the local mill since 1909, had asked UNC president Francis Venable's consent in January 1913, and the town's own history says Carr agreed to supply the community with electricity. People: Julian S. CarrOn the Books (UNC Libraries): 1913 Private Laws, Chapter 97, Section 1, An Act to Change the Name of the Town of Venable
  42. The Lloyd yarn mill becomes Durham Hosiery Mill No. 7 The Thomas F. Lloyd Manufacturing Company mill was sold to Durham Hosiery Mills, which ran it as Mill No. 7 alongside Mill No. 4, the former Alberta mill. People: Thomas F. Lloyd (Carrboro mill builder), Julian S. CarrTown of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 14
  43. The Blanche Hosiery Mill Company is chartered again with $100,000 in authorized capital Four years after Julian Carr's company bought the first Blanche mill, W. E. Lindsay, Blanche Gilbert Lindsay and W. S. Robertson took out a new charter for the Blanche Hosiery Mill Company. By late April its new plant was finished, with 58 knitting machines and work for about 40 hands. People: William E. LindsaySearch the index · DigitalNC: The News & Observer (Raleigh), March 9, 1913, p. 19
  44. A. J. Blackwood recruits Cora Oakley's family from Burlington to the Carrboro mills In 1914 A. J. Blackwood, a Burlington neighbor lately made superintendent of Mill No. 4, drew Cora Oakley and her large family to Carrboro with slightly higher wages and a ten-hour day. Durham Hosiery Mills hired many experienced hands away from Burlington-area mills in this way.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 14
  45. Carrboro Methodists build their first church Organized in 1910 as a mission of the Chapel Hill Methodists, the congregation met in the public school until early 1914, when it built a plain frame church on the large lot east of the school, later the Britt Building site. From about 1900 the town's Methodists had shared Union Chapel with the Baptists.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 36
  46. Venable Baptist Church becomes Carrboro Baptist Church In 1914, the year after the town was renamed for Julian S. Carr, the Baptist congregation changed its name again, to Carrboro Baptist Church.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 19
  47. Carrboro's mayor reports a population of 1,000 Two years after taking its present name, the mill town counted about 800 white and 200 Black residents, by figures the mayor gave the bulletin's author.M. C. S. Noble (University of North Carolina Bureau of Extension), The Teaching of County Geography (1915), scan p. 30
  48. Durham Hosiery Mills builds a house on West Main Street for its Carrboro superintendent Some time between 1915 and 1925 the company built a one-and-a-half-story house with a tall hipped roof and Tuscan porch columns at 103 West Main Street for the head of its Carrboro mills; it was long thought the best house in town. Ralph Ward of Mill No. 4 lived there first and Floyd M. Durham of Mill No. 7 later, and Marvin J. Dawson bought it at the 1939 company sale.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 17
  49. Durham Hosiery Mills builds its last group of mill houses on South Greensboro Street Around 1915 carpenter John Squires built five houses on South Greensboro Street south of Carr Street, thought to be Durham Hosiery Mills' last housing project in Carrboro. The company then planted Lombardy poplars along the street, which was called Poplar Street until the diseased trees came down in the 1930s.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 16
  50. Mill worker Jesse Riggsbee builds his own house on South Greensboro Street Riggsbee and his wife both worked for Durham Hosiery Mills but chose to build rather than rent from the mill or a speculator, and two relatives later built on adjoining West Carr Street lots. A humidifier mechanic, he lived there until his death in 1946.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 42
  51. The Lloyd grist mill burns and is rebuilt in brick The original wood-frame grist mill and cotton gin building burned in 1916 and was replaced by the brick mill that survives at 101 B Street. Around 1921 lightning struck the brick mill, and the fire burned its interior. People: Thomas F. Lloyd (Carrboro mill builder)NC State Historic Preservation Office: Alberta Mill Complex, National Register nomination (OR0001), p. 6
  52. W. H. Parker serves as Carrboro's first listed mayor W. H. Parker heads the list of Carrboro mayors in 1917, four years after the mill town of Venable took the name Carrboro. He served again from 1937 to 1941.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 371
  53. Fitch-Riggs Lumber Company buys Andrews and Lloyd's Carrboro lumber business In 1923 the Mebane firm Fitch-Riggs took over Andrews and Lloyd, a small Carrboro lumber business with one employee, and R. Bernice Fitch ran the Carrboro plant. It traded as Fitch-Riggs Lumber Co. into 1925 and as Fitch Lumber Co. by 1927, and by 1953 it was Carrboro's oldest small concern, with 20 men, a planing mill and a coal yard.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 284
  54. Carrboro Baptist Church completes its brick church at Greensboro and Main The mill-town congregation borrowed $50,000 to build a brick church at the corner of Greensboro and Main streets, paying off the debt in 1942; the building is now the Town's Century Center.HillSong Church: HillSong Church History
  55. J. F. Sturdivant completes a master's thesis on the Carrboro mill village In 1924 J. F. Sturdivant finished a UNC master's thesis studying Carrboro as a small mill village. It found every house painted and about two-thirds with electric lights, and it counted 197 workers at Mill No. 4 and 81 at Mill No. 7 in the early 1920s.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 19
  56. Fire on East Main Street in Carrboro leads to brick rebuilding Early on December 3, 1924, a fire that started in Lueco Lloyd's boarding house burned five frame buildings on East Main Street in Carrboro before it was stopped at Marks's brick store. By late December Lloyd was preparing to put up two brick stores on the site, and the rebuilt block was brick.DigitalNC: Chapel Hill Weekly, December 4, 1924, p. 1
  57. Durham Hosiery closes Mill No. 4, the former Alberta mill Durham Hosiery Mills stopped operations at Mill No. 4 in 1930 as the Depression cut into the hosiery business.Carr Mill Mall: History
  58. Passenger trains stop running on the University Railroad Mixed passenger service on the ten-mile line between University Station and Carrboro ended as car ownership spread and roads improved, leaving the line to freight.UNC Press, UNC A to Z: University Railroad
  59. Durham Hosiery closes its last Carrboro mill Durham Hosiery Mills dissolved its business at Mill No. 7 in June 1938 and laid off the workers, ending the company's operations in Carrboro.Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 24
  60. Durham Hosiery Mills sells its Carrboro houses and land at auction A year after its last Carrboro mill closed, the company auctioned much of its Carrboro property in 1939. Most houses went for $500 to $550, many to the families living in them, while Marvin J. Dawson of Chapel Hill, merchant Ernest Hearn, former foreman W. A. Riggsbee and Dick Andrews bought others as investments.Search the index · Town of Carrboro: Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro, N.C.: An Architectural and Historical Inventory (1983), p. 24
  61. A wartime munitions plant opens in the former Mill No. 7 National Munitions Corporation converted the empty Mill No. 7 on Roberson Street into a shell-loading plant that pressed tetryl pellets for Navy anti-aircraft ammunition, growing from about 126 workers to more than 500; an explosion hit its pellet houses on September 6, 1942.DigitalNC: Bazooka Day Demo, Pellet Houses Explosion Photographs, and More in Latest Batch Centered on National Munitions Corporation
  62. The former Alberta mill reopens as Carrboro Woolen Mills After fifteen idle years the modernized Mill No. 4 building reopened as Carrboro Woolen Mills, which ran until the early 1960s.Carr Mill Mall: History
  63. The idle Carrboro depot is converted into The Station Lee Epting restored the idle Carrboro depot and opened it as The Station restaurant, which was operating by April 1976. By the late 1970s The Station was also a bar with live bands.DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, April 26, 1976, p. 3
  64. The Alberta Mill complex is listed on the National Register The mill, the railroad depot and the brick grist mill were listed together on the National Register of Historic Places, a year after the 1975 nomination made during the fight over demolishing the mill.The Local Reporter: Carrboro's Heritage Embraces Preservation of the Town's Early Architecture
  65. The Carrboro Commercial Historic District is listed in the National Register On June 20, 1985 the National Park Service listed the Carrboro Commercial Historic District in Carrboro in the National Register of Historic Places.NC State Historic Preservation Office: North Carolina Listings in the National Register of Historic Places, Orange County
  66. The Thomas F. Lloyd Historic District is listed in the National Register On August 14, 1986 the National Park Service listed the Thomas F. Lloyd Historic District in Carrboro in the National Register of Historic Places.NC State Historic Preservation Office: North Carolina Listings in the National Register of Historic Places, Orange County
  67. Carrboro backs a study of turning the old University Railroad line into a greenway The Town Council unanimously approved an agreement to study converting the 11-mile rail corridor, which still carries coal to UNC's cogeneration plant, into a multi-use trail once the plant stops using coal.Chapelboro: Carrboro Commits to New Co-Gen Rail Line Project

Places in this history

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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.

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Held in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection. Selected because their titles or catalog subjects provide wider historical context for this event; they may not discuss the Orange County event directly.

  • Background reading · Rebecca Wall Collection Rocky Mount Mills: A Case History of Industrial Development, 1818-1943 1943

    The company history of Rocky Mount Mills, issued in 1943, 125 years after the cotton mill was founded at the falls of the Tar River by a group that included Joel Battle. North Carolina's second cotton mill, it ran on enslaved labor until the 1850s, was burned by Union raiders in 1863 and was rebuilt after the war. Fifty pages with portraits, a map and a color frontispiece.

    Subjects in the OCPL catalog record: Textile industry OCPL call number: NC 677.21 ROC

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Picture: Carr Mill, Carrboro. CC BY-SA 3.0. Photograph by Ikanreed; via Wikimedia Commons

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