Carolina Nursing through the decades: a historic timeline
An illustrated online timeline of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing, issued by the school in 2025. One page with portraits.
Storyline
The fraternity house boom and the University’s land, 1922–1930
The big fraternity houses built in Chapel Hill from 1922 to 1930: the Columbia Street and Cameron Avenue courts, the trustees’ stand against selling University land, the Phi Delta Theta fire, the new fraternity colony on the Pittsboro highway, and the Daily Tar Heel’s count.
In briefFraternities put up a run of large chapter houses from 1922 to 1930, and on April 20, 1926 the trustees' executive committee resolved against selling them University land. Delta Kappa Epsilon finished the first of the big Colonial Revival houses in 1923, and three fraternities bought a place on Cameron Avenue for a second fraternity court. Alumni gifts paid for the Big Fraternity Court, five houses on South Columbia Street, and fire destroyed the Phi Delta Theta house in 1927. In May 1929 the University set aside land on the Pittsboro highway for a new fraternity colony, taking lots on old Fraternity Row in exchange. That September the Daily Tar Heel counted 31 fraternities with over 900 members.
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No works in the index are currently linked directly to this storyline. The works below provide background on UNC & Campus Life.
The full story
By November 30, 1922 Sigma Nu had let the contract for a three-story house on Columbia Street, which it celebrated with a reception in November 1925, and in 1923 Delta Kappa Epsilon finished the first of the big Colonial Revival chapter houses. By April 1926 Zeta Psi, Kappa Alpha and Kappa Sigma had jointly bought Wallace Patterson's place on Cameron Avenue for a second fraternity court, and on April 20 the trustees' executive committee resolved against selling University land to fraternities. By October 1926 alumni gifts had paid for the Big Fraternity Court on South Columbia Street, five houses built by Brodie Thompson, and Pi Kappa Alpha put up a $35,000 house drawn by Atwood and Nash. On January 12, 1927 fire destroyed the Phi Delta Theta house behind the library. In May 1929 the University set aside land on the Pittsboro highway for a new fraternity colony, taking lots on old Fraternity Row in exchange, and Phi Delta Theta and Pi Kappa Phi began houses there. By August 16 Phi Gamma Delta had let a $45,000 contract for a house on Cameron Avenue. On September 28 the Daily Tar Heel counted 31 fraternities with over 900 members and $500,000 in property. Kappa Alpha began its Cameron Avenue house late in 1929, Kappa Sigma built beside it in 1930, and Alpha Tau Omega built a Tudor Gothic house on East Franklin Street.
In the chronology
Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 17 dated events in the chronology →
- Sigma Nu lets the contract for a three-story fraternity house on Columbia Street The Sigma Nu fraternity at the University gave out the contract for a three-story fraternity house on Columbia Street in Chapel Hill. The item named no builder or cost.Search the index · The News (Chapel Hill), November 30, 1922, p. 5
- Delta Kappa Epsilon completes the first of the large new fraternity houses In the move off the old campus row, DKE finished the first of the big Colonial Revival chapter houses in 1923; Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Chi soon followed, and the South Columbia Street court had five houses by 1926.Search the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Beta Theta Pi Fraternity House, National Register nomination (OR1744), p. 15
- Sigma Nu celebrates its new chapter house on Columbia Street The Sigma Nu fraternity marked the completion of its new house on Columbia Street with a reception for faculty, townspeople and other fraternities on Friday afternoon and a house party that weekend. The Weekly praised the interior decoration, done by a Durham art shop.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 20, 1925, p. 1
- Five fraternity houses by Brodie Thompson form the Big Fraternity Court Alumni gifts paid for the Big Fraternity Court on the first block of South Columbia Street: five Colonial Revival houses built by Brodie Thompson and set around a shared court, in the manner of the new campus quadrangles. A smaller court stands around the corner on Cameron Avenue. People: Brodie ThompsonSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 61 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, September 24, 1926, p. 2
- Pi Kappa Alpha builds a $35,000 chapter house designed by Atwood and Nash Pi Kappa Alpha put up a new house in 1926 for about $35,000, one of the fraternity houses drawn by the university's architects Atwood and Nash.Search the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Beta Theta Pi Fraternity House, National Register nomination (OR1744), p. 14
- University trustees resolve against selling University land to fraternities The executive committee of the University trustees, meeting in Chapel Hill, adopted a resolution against selling University land to fraternities. At the same meeting it created the post of executive secretary and chose Robert B. House to fill it. People: R. B. HouseSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 23, 1926, p. 1
- Zeta Psi, Kappa Alpha and Kappa Sigma jointly buy the Wallace Patterson place on Cameron Avenue The three fraternities together bought Wallace Patterson's place on Cameron Avenue, the old Harris home, for $25,000 as the Weekly understood it, to lay out a second fraternity court: the Zeta Psi house, designed by Arthur C. Nash, in the middle where the Patterson house stood, with Kappa Alpha and Kappa Sigma on either side. Kenneth Ellington later designed the Kappa Alpha and Kappa Sigma houses there with Nash's advice so they matched Zeta Psi. People: Arthur Cleveland NashSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Beta Theta Pi Fraternity House, National Register nomination (OR1744), p. 16 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, April 16, 1926, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, August 13, 1926, p. 1
- Fire destroys the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house A midnight fire destroyed the Phi Delta Theta house at the northwest corner of the campus, behind the library. Students on the upper floor jumped from windows, and firemen kept the flames from the Kappa Sigma and Sigma Delta Phi houses next door.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 14, 1927, p. 1 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, August 19, 1927, p. 1
- Kappa Alpha begins a new house on Cameron Avenue Kappa Alpha, whose old hall stood on Fraternity Row, started a pink granite Colonial house on Cameron Avenue designed by Kenneth Ellington. With Kappa Sigma next door it flanked the Zeta Psi house to form a court.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 1, 1929, p. 3 (New Fraternity Houses), with December 20, 1929, p. 1 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, December 20, 1929, p. 1
- The Beta Theta Pi fraternity house is completed on South Columbia Street The Beta Theta Pi house at 114 South Columbia Street, apart from the fraternity courts, is a brick house laid in Flemish bond with a slate roof and dormers, a Doric portico across the front and wings on each side, set back on a wide lawn.Search the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 61
- Board of adjustment lets Acacia fraternity build in the residence zone The zoning board of adjustment allowed the Acacia fraternity, whose house predated the ordinance, to put up a new house on its lot at Franklin and Boundary streets in the eastern residential zone, on condition that the lot not be divided. The board said the ruling set no precedent for fraternities in zones where none had been.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 31, 1929, p. 1
- Pi Kappa Phi and Phi Delta Theta begin houses on the Pittsboro highway Pi Kappa Phi and Phi Delta Theta began building colonial-style houses on the new fraternity lots along the Pittsboro-Pinehurst highway, each to cost about $40,000 and house 35 to 40 men. Berry McAllister of Columbia, Missouri, handled design, building and financing, spreading the cost over 17 years.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 10, 1929, p. 1
Show all 17 dated events
- The university sets aside land on the Pittsboro highway for fraternity houses The university set aside a strip on the west side of the Pittsboro highway for a new fraternity colony, taking fraternity lots on old Fraternity Row in exchange. Phi Delta Theta and Pi Kappa Phi began building there first and moved into their brick houses that fall.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 10, 1929, p. 1 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, November 1, 1929, p. 3
- Phi Gamma Delta lets the contract for a new house on Cameron Avenue By mid-August 1929 the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity had let Berry McAlester of Columbia, Missouri, the contract for a three-story Colonial house of about $45,000 on the north side of Cameron Avenue between the D.K.E. and Zeta Psi houses. The rear of its old quarters, the frame Weedon place, was torn down to make room. McAlester was then building four fraternity houses in Chapel Hill worth about $175,000 in all.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 16, 1929, p. 1
- The Daily Tar Heel counts 31 fraternities with over 900 members and $500,000 in property By the end of the 1920s about a quarter of UNC students belonged to one of thirty-one national fraternities, whose houses and land were valued at around half a million dollars.Search the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Beta Theta Pi Fraternity House, National Register nomination (OR1744), p. 14
- Alpha Tau Omega builds a Tudor Gothic house on East Franklin Street Architect Courtland Curtis designed Alpha Tau Omega's house on East Franklin Street in Tudor Gothic, one of the few big fraternity houses of the era not in the Colonial Revival mode.Search the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Beta Theta Pi Fraternity House, National Register nomination (OR1744), p. 16
- Kappa Sigma builds a $35,000 house on the Cameron Avenue fraternity court Kappa Sigma's new house, designed by Kenneth Ellington to match its neighbors on the Cameron Avenue court, cost about $35,000.Search the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Beta Theta Pi Fraternity House, National Register nomination (OR1744), pp. 14, 16
Places in this history
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.
- Beta Theta Pi Fraternity House Houses, farms, parks and cemeteries · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
- Wallace Patterson place (old Harris home) Houses, farms, parks and cemeteries · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
Background on UNC & Campus Life
Background reading on UNC & Campus Life. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss this storyline. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Widely held
North Carolina baseball: the blue thread and the rise of an ACC power
A 2025 history of University of North Carolina baseball from its nineteenth-century beginnings to the program's rise as an ACC power. Chapters cover the early years on campus, the building of Boshamer Stadium, and the Mike Fox era. Self-published by the author, 288 pages.
Tar Heel Bred
Scott Whisnant's memoir of a life measured out in North Carolina basketball seasons. A former sportswriter, Whisnant writes for readers raised in ACC country who learned the fight song early and treated the conference tournament in Greensboro as the high point of the year, recalling family, friends and the personal milestones that fell alongside Tar Heel games. Subjects include humor and anecdotes as well as the team's history. Published by Bearface Publishing in 2025, 318 pages with photographs.
Bright and tender dark: a novel
Joanna Pearson's novel of a cold case at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Karlie Richards was a nineteen-year-old student when she was murdered; decades later her onetime roommate, divorced and in middle age, finds herself drawn back to the crime as online conspiracy theories about it multiply. A psychological thriller with a Chapel Hill setting, published by Bloomsbury in 2024, 275 pages.
Chapel Hill Murder and Mayhem
Rick Jackson's true crime history of Chapel Hill, published by The History Press in 2023, in 28 short chapters. Cases include the Efland bank robbery, the execution of John Henry Breeze, the unsolved murder of Suellen Evans, the killing at the Internationalist Bookstore and the death of Eve Carson.
Lessons afield : adventures in nature with students and other living things
R. Haven Wiley's anecdotes of field work with students at Mason Farm, the university's biological reserve on the edge of Chapel Hill, and at other natural settings in North Carolina. It is natural history and nature anecdotes, personal pieces from a working naturalist. Published in Carrboro by Hickory Woods Press in 2023, 109 pages with illustrations.
Show 6 more
Putting Down Roots
William R. Burk's history of botany at the University of North Carolina, from its early natural scientists such as Denison Olmsted and Elisha Mitchell through later figures including George Francis Atkinson, Joseph Austin Holmes and Henry Van Peters Wilson, closing with a chapter on the Department of Botany itself. Published in Fort Worth in 2023.
Bloodmarked
Tracy Deonn's young adult fantasy novel set around the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bree, an African American teenager with newly awakened powers she cannot yet control, learns that the leaders of the secret Order mean to hide the coming demon war, and she and her friends flee so that she can find her own training. Subjects include magic, secret societies, imaginary wars and psychic trauma. Published by Simon & Schuster in 2022, 561 pages.
Reviewed in Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books./Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (2022).
A Consequential Life: David Lowry Swain, Nineteenth-Century North Carolina, and Their University
Willis P. Whichard's biography of David Lowry Swain, governor of North Carolina from 1832 to 1835 and president of the University of North Carolina from 1835 until his death in 1868. The subtitle ties Swain, nineteenth-century North Carolina and the university together, and the book belongs with the lives of college presidents and governors. Published in 2022.
The dove in the belly
Jim Grimsley's coming-of-age novel about Ronny, who grew up in a trailer alongside his mother and a string of stepfathers, kept his head down, earned good grades and won a scholarship to UNC in Chapel Hill. On campus he finds his first love and begins to sort out who he is. Subjects include gay college students, first loves and mothers and sons. Published by Levine Querido in 2022, 322 pages.
Hooper finds the pitch
A picture book by Courtney Soling Smith about a Boston terrier named Hooper and a glee club at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Published in 2022 by the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough, 35 unnumbered pages with illustrations, facsimiles and portraits.
Together: The Amazing Story of Carolina Basketball's 2021-2022 Season
Adam Lucas's account of the 2021-2022 Carolina men's basketball season, Hubert Davis's first as head coach. Davis, appointed in April 2021, was the first Black head coach in the program's history, and the season ended at the NCAA tournament in New Orleans. Published 2022 by the UNC Department of Athletics, 155 pages with color illustrations. Topics include the Tar Heels, Davis, and college basketball in Chapel Hill in the twenty-first century.
Research sources
Sources and research tools for this storyline. Research guide: Follow an event across several accounts.
Background
- Fraternity Life at Chapel HillChapel Hill Historical Society Local history essays, oral histories, and neighbourhood research
National Register files
- Beta Theta Pi Fraternity House, National Register of Historic Places nominationNational Register nomination Section 8 traces the fraternity building boom of the 1920s.
Collections and databases
- NC LIVE: prepared search for The fraternity house boom and the University’s land, 1922–1930 Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
Local help
- Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection, Orange County Public Library The county library’s local-history room at the Main Library in Hillsborough: books, journals, maps, and microfilm of county records from 1752
- Local History Help Hours and request formOCPL Local History Liaison Meet with the Local History Liaison at the Main Library, usually Mondays from noon to 3 p.m., or send a question using the online request form
More to discover
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