Storyline
Paul Henderson’s purchase of the run-down inn at auction, the citizens’ petition for building priorities, the restoration, and the reopening of Hillsboro’s hotel in May 1947.
In briefCol. Paul Henderson bought the worn Colonial Inn at auction in April 1946 for $11,800, and that May more than 100 Hillsboro citizens and firms petitioned the Federal Housing Administration for the permits and materials to restore it. Work began in July, and the inn reopened on May 1, 1947 as Hillsboro's first hotel in several years, managed by Martin Henderson. Henderson's daughter Josephine Humphries painted murals of four town landmarks in its private dining room in 1948, and in 1949 the commissioners cut the inn's tax value after Martin Henderson reported that it had lost $12,000 the year before.
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No works in the index are currently linked directly to this storyline. The works below provide background on Buildings & Preservation.
Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 6 dated events in the chronology →
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.
Background reading on Buildings & Preservation. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss this storyline. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Transcription of the first register kept by Chapel of the Cross, the Episcopal parish on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, with its entries from 1842 to 1881. Published by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 2024 with an introduction and a bibliography, 142 pages with illustrations and portraits.
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.
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.
An illustrated survey of the outbuildings and lesser-known structures of Hillsborough, produced for the Preservation Fund of Hillsborough and published by Eno Publishers in 2017. Stewart E. Dunaway and Barbara Hume open with the town's location and early importance; separate chapters by Callie Connor, Jean B. Anderson, Jim Parsley and Mary Ann Peter cover historic kitchens, the houses of enslaved people, smokehouses, springs, wells and their houses, and barns. 194 pages with color photographs and maps.
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.
David R. Godschalk and Jonathan B. Howes describe the ten-year building program that reshaped the UNC campus in Chapel Hill, when some six million square feet in new buildings went up and a million more of historic buildings were restored. Chapters treat the campus master plan, siting and design decisions, the historic north campus, the southeast and health-sciences precincts and the planned Carolina North research campus, with contributions by chancellors James Moeser and Holden Thorp. Published by UNC Press in 2012, 175 pages.
J. Ronald Oakley's pictorial history of Mebane, the railroad town on the Orange and Alamance county line, from Arcadia Publishing in 2012, 127 pages of photographs. Chapters cover the railroad, industries, businesses, the Depression and war years, profiles past and present, churches and civic clubs, recreation and sports, school days, and preserving the past. Topics include Mebane's history, economy, buildings and railroads.
Deborah Carnes Christie's account of designing and building an energy-conserving house in Orange County, self-published in Durham in 2009 in a large illustrated format. Chapters follow the project in order: influences, buying the land, deciding when to build and how, the architectural concept and design process, sourcing, then the systems one by one, heating and cooling, plumbing, the exterior shell, wiring and emergency power, lighting, kitchen design, built-ins and interior paints and sealants. 207 pages with bibliography and index.
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.
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.
Folded guide to the six mural panels painted in the Orange County Courthouse at Hillsborough by Chapel Hill artist Michael Brown for the county's 250th anniversary in 2004, three on the east wall and three on the west. Sponsored by attorneys practicing in Orange and Chatham counties and issued by the Chapel Hill Historical Society, the sheet describes the county history and social customs each panel depicts. One illustrated sheet of six pages.
Mission statement of the West House Coalition, a single sheet dated August 11, 2004, committing the group to the historic character of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus. West House is a small campus building whose preservation the coalition formed to promote.
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