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Storyline

Northside, Pine Knolls, and Tin Top

Chapel Hill’s historic Black neighborhoods as their residents tell them: the Marian Cheek Jackson Center’s Northside Stories, the churches, the schools, the businesses, and the pressure of a growing town.

In briefChapel Hill’s historic Black neighborhoods took shape after emancipation around the West End church and school, the Orange County Training School and its Rosenwald campus of 1924, St. Joseph CME and First Baptist, and the tin-roofed houses that named Tin Top. Lincoln High opened on Merritt Mill Road in 1951, residents resisted urban renewal in the 1970s, and as the Black population fell by about 40 percent the conservation districts, the Jackson Center and the 2015 Northside initiative worked to keep the neighborhoods in place.

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21 works about Northside, Pine Knolls, and Tin Top are indexed here. 1 held at OCPL →

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Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 63 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Freedpeople build a church and school at Chapel Hill's West End After emancipation, Black families kept homes and small farms on Chapel Hill's west end. St. Paul's congregation, first gathered under an arbor in December 1864, built a log church on Merritt Mill Road and bought land in 1878, and in 1866 Benjamin Craig and Green Cordal bought an acre nearby for a freedmen's school. People: Green Cordal, Benjamin CraigChapel Hill Historical Society, From the Rock Wall: St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church
  2. Benjamin Craig and Green Cordal secure land for a Black school In 1866 Benjamin Craig and Green Cordal bought a plot of land near what is now the corner of West Franklin Street and Merritt Mill Road and gave part of it to the Philadelphia Quakers for a school for freedpeople and the rest for the church that became St. Paul AME. In the spring of 1867 the Friends reported that the freedmen were putting up a school and house of worship on a fifty-dollar lot. People: Green Cordal, Benjamin Craig, George DixonTown of Carrboro: Historic Downtown Walking Tour, stop 14 · Also: Internet Archive: Fourth Annual Report of the Friends' Association of Philadelphia for the Relief of Colored Freedmen; NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975; Open Orange: Quaker Freedmen's School
  3. Cotton Chapel CME Church, the forerunner of St. Joseph CME, was organized Chapel Hill members of the Colored Methodist Episcopal church, who had worshipped at Hamlet Chapel in Pittsboro, formed their own congregation named for founder Henry Cotton. Its first building later burned and was rebuilt as a frame church.From the Rock Wall: St. Joseph C.M.E. Church
  4. Hackney's school on Merritt Mill Road is bought for a public training school Louis Hackney had opened his school for Black students on Merritt Mill Road in 1912. In 1916 the property was bought for a public training school for Black students, after Black residents raised $3,000 toward the purchase. People: Louis H. HackneyNC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School National Register nomination (2023), sec. 8 p. 8 · Also: Open Orange: Orange County Training School
  5. Henry Guthrie opens a movie theatre on West Franklin Street Henry "Buddy" Guthrie opened a picture house just west of Graham Street, in the blocks where Black families were settling. Bryant's history says that by 1923 it was owned by Davie O'Kelly and called the Standard Theatre. The papers of 1924 tell it differently: Guthrie's land, with a building used as a moving-picture house, lay on the north side of Franklin Street and was advertised for foreclosure that July, while the Chapel Hill Weekly described the Standard, opened July 4, 1924, as a new theatre on the south side owned by Durward O'Kelly, Charlie Brooks and Jesse Kirkland.Search the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 219 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, July 10, 1924, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, July 25, 1924, p. 6
  6. Carpenter Luther Hargrave builds a bungalow on Lindsay Street for his daughter's family In the African American section of Northside west of Church Street, carpenter Luther Hargrave built a side-gabled bungalow with a large front dormer at 308 Lindsay Street in 1920 for his daughter and her husband.NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 48
  7. Luther R. Hargraves built the tin-roofed houses that gave Tin Top its name Luther R. Hargraves, a carpenter and Chapel Hill's first African American mortician, built a row of houses with tin roofs on Hargraves Street near the railroad tracks behind St. Paul AME, and the cluster became known as Tin Top or Tin Top Alley.The Marian Cheek Jackson Center: Tin Top and the Soundscapes of History
  8. Orange County Training School burns About 4 a.m. on Monday, June 12, 1922, fire broke out in the Sallie Flanner house, a large two-story frame house on South-West Lane at the edge of the Carrboro town limits where eight or ten Black roomers lived; the News supposed it began in the kitchen, and two roomers were hurt jumping from windows. With no hydrant near, firemen had to borrow hose from the University and Carrboro to reach one almost half a mile away. The fire spread to the house of the school's head, Bozeman, and destroyed the large school building and one or two other buildings of the Orange County Training School, the county's school for Black students on the former Hackney campus; most of the furniture was saved. The school reopened on September 20, using the Masonic and Odd Fellows halls, a hall over the picture house and a dwelling on Rosemary Street until it could rebuild, and in spring 1923 its pupils were meeting in the Odd Fellows' hall, lent free of charge. A Rosenwald-aided brick building replaced the burned campus in 1924.NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 15 · Also: The News (Chapel Hill), September 14, 1922, p. 5; Chapel Hill Weekly, April 5, 1923, p. 1; Open Orange: Orange County Training School; The News (Chapel Hill), June 15, 1922, p. 1
  9. Kennon Cheek helps negotiate the land swap that brought Hackney's school to Northside Cheek's daughter Marian Cheek Jackson said he was instrumental in negotiating the 1924 land swap that moved Hackney's Educational and Industrial School from South Merritt Mill Road into the Northside community. People: Marian Cheek JacksonSearch the index · UNC Names in Brick and Stone: Cheek Clark Building
  10. Orange County Training School opens a Rosenwald campus The Orange County Training School's new brick building for Black students rose on land given by Henry Strowd at the north end of Church Street in Northside, Chapel Hill. Its cornerstone was laid on Labor Day 1924 and it opened late that year; the Rosenwald Fund gave $1,500 of its $23,112 cost, Black residents $500.The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 18, 1924, p. 1: Negro Children's Rally (celebrating the opening of the new building)
  11. The Standard, a movie theatre owned by and for Black residents, opens on West Franklin Street Chapel Hill's new movie house, owned by and run for Black residents, opened with two crowded shows. Its owners were tailor Durward O'Kelly, builder Charlie Brooks and brick mason Jesse Kirkland.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 10, 1924, p. 1 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, December 22, 1933, p. 3
  12. Henry and Matilda Guthrie's Franklin Street lot, with its moving-picture house, is advertised for foreclosure A trustee advertised for public sale on August 16, 1924 the Franklin Street land of Henry and Matilda Guthrie, which held two houses, a building used as a moving-picture house, two stores and a garage. The Guthries had bought it from Mary McCauley Lindsay and D. McCauley and fallen behind on the note.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 25, 1924, p. 6 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, August 14, 1924, p. 4
Show all 63 dated events
  1. Chapel Hill and the University arrange a sewer for the Black neighborhood on Church Street By joint action the University agreed to put in a new water line and the town to build a sewer for the Black section along Church Street. Town Manager E. M. Knox said that with this job done Chapel Hill would be 'ninety-five per cent sewered.' People: Edward M. KnoxThe Chapel Hill Weekly, April 16, 1926, p. 1
  2. Chapel Hill lays a sewer system through the Black neighborhood around Church Street In mid-May 1926 the town of Chapel Hill finished a complete sewer system for the Black neighborhood in the northwest corner of the village, with a trunk line along Church Street and three branch lines, connecting 70 houses. The Weekly reported that Black residents had wanted the sewers and worked with the town on them, and the state's chief of sanitary engineering wrote to commend the town for serving its poorer neighborhoods as well as its prosperous ones. People: Edward M. KnoxThe Chapel Hill Weekly, May 21, 1926, p. 4
  3. St. Joseph CME builds its first church on West Rosemary Street The Weekly reported on June 9, 1933 that the mortgage on Cotton Chapel, the congregation's church in the northwest part of the village, had been foreclosed and the building sold, and that the pastor, Rev. J. S. Miller, was appealing for help to buy a new site and build anew. Henry Baldwin, Margaret Burnette and Kennon Cheek mortgaged their homes for the down payment on the Rosemary Street lot, which Black leaders had judged too small for a new high school. A frame church went up under Miller and was dedicated as St. Joseph Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. In September 1935 the Weekly reported that Black Methodists had almost completed a new church on West Rosemary Street near the town line, and by 1937 it was naming St. Joseph's C. M. E. church. People: Kennon CheekThe Marian Cheek Jackson Center: Saint Joseph CME Church historical sketch, 118th anniversary journal (2016) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 9, 1933, p. 5; Chapel Hill Weekly, September 6, 1935, p. 4; Chapel Hill Weekly, March 12, 1937, p. 5
  4. The Standard Theatre building becomes a funeral home and a grocery store The West Franklin Street movie house that had served the Black community was given over to a funeral home and a grocery.Search the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 255
  5. Citizens buy land for a Negro Community Center Ten Chapel Hill men, among them Louis Graves, R. B. House and Paul Wager, signed a $1,500 note at the Bank of Chapel Hill to buy about five acres of the old Craig place at the west end of Rosemary Lane for a Black community center. The project grew out of concerns raised by the Negro Civic Club. People: William Chambers Coker, Louis Graves, R. B. HouseThe Chapel Hill Weekly, October 6, 1939, p. 2 (People of Both Races Combine Efforts to Establish a Community Center for Negroes)
  6. Kennon Cheek dies at work in Venable Hall Cheek, born in Chapel Hill about 1890, built his house in Northside on land bought from the university's holdings, and diabetes and overwork wore him down in the late 1930s. The UNC histories place his death at that house in 1940, but the Weekly reported that he died suddenly of a heart attack on the morning of December 19, 1940, while at work in Venable Hall. He was president of the University Janitors Association and a leader in Chapel Hill's Black community.Search the index · UNC Names in Brick and Stone: Cheek Clark Building · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, December 20, 1940, p. 5; Chapel Hill Weekly, July 19, 1940, p. 1
  7. Black University janitors move into the first houses of the Knolls home colony Six five-room houses were finished and occupied in Knolls, a colony for the University's Black janitors on the old Creel place beyond the laundry near the west end of Cameron Avenue, where a 40-acre tract held sites for 60 homes. The janitors' own committee chose the buyers, the FHA financed the houses at about $17.50 a month for 25 years, and John Clark, janitor of the South Building, was the first to move in.The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 1, 1941, p. 1
  8. The Navy B-1 Band lives in the Community Center With the community center unfinished for lack of funds, the town lent it on May 22, 1942 to the Navy as quarters for the B-1 Band, the Black musicians of the Pre-Flight School. The Navy, not the band, finished and equipped the building. The band, trained at Norfolk, arrived on July 31, 1942 and lived there until the town regained it on October 24, 1945.The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 13, 1942, p. 1 (open house at the Negro Community Center) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 22, 1942, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, July 31, 1942, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, August 7, 1942, p. 1
  9. Sunset Drive property owners ask Chapel Hill for sewer lines County sanitarian Ford P. Brendel presented the Chapel Hill aldermen a petition from seven property owners asking that sewer lines be run to the Sunset Drive area, a request the paper said grew out of the Black Community Health Club's survey.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 21, 1944, p. 1
  10. John Wesley Campbell builds a fieldstone house for a pastor on North Graham Street John Wesley Campbell designed and built a large fieldstone house at 214 North Graham Street in Northside for a local pastor, finished in 1945 and one of the first houses on the street. It is the largest of his four stone houses in the neighborhood, with a broad arched corner porch and a stone end chimney. People: John Wesley CampbellNC State Historic Preservation Office: Jeter and Ethel Neville House, National Register nomination (OR3151), p. 23
  11. George Campbell and his father build a stone house on North Graham Street On a lot owned by George Campbell, he and his father John Wesley Campbell, helped by the other Campbell sons, designed and built a small one-story fieldstone house at 203 North Graham Street, finished in 1948. It is the only one of the family's Northside stone houses whose stonework runs up into the gable. People: John Wesley CampbellNC State Historic Preservation Office: Jeter and Ethel Neville House, National Register nomination (OR3151), p. 23
  12. Orange County Training School is renamed Lincoln High School In March 1949 the Parent-Teachers Association of the Orange County Training School, Chapel Hill's school for Black students, voted to rename it Lincoln High School and sent the request to the superintendent and school board. By May 13, 1949, the Chapel Hill Weekly reported that the name had been changed. People: Charles A. McDougleChapel Hill Weekly (May 13, 1949): Negro School's Name Is Changed
  13. The name Northside began to replace Pottersfield and Sunset When the old Lincoln building became Northside Elementary in 1951, the school's name spread to the Black neighborhoods around it. By the mid-1950s Pottersfield, north of West Rosemary and west of Columbia Street, and its western neighbor Sunset were both being called Northside.From the Rock Wall: A Note on "Northside"
  14. Lincoln High School opens on Merritt Mill Road In 1951 Lincoln High School, Chapel Hill's high school for Black students, moved from the old Orange County Training School building on Caldwell Street to a new building on Merritt Mill Road, and the old building became Northside Elementary. Lincoln used the Merritt Mill Road campus until 1966; the building is now the school district's Lincoln Center. People: Charles A. McDougleFrom the Rock Wall: A Note on "Northside" · Also: fromtherockwall.org; The Daily Tar Heel: Cammie Bellamy, New school, old ground; The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 24, 1950, p. 1; Open Orange: 350 Caldwell St. / Orange County Training School; Lincoln High School student newspaper (Chapel Hill), October 1, 1951, p. 1
  15. Stephen J. Edwards's Midway Barber Shop is open on West Rosemary Street Edwards's Midway Barber Shop was advertising on West Rosemary Street, at the Chapel Hill and Carrboro line, by late 1952. His son Stepney Edwards later ran the Black-owned shop.DigitalNC: The Lincoln Echo, December 1, 1952, p. 4 · Also: Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), February 9, 1989, p. 6; Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), November 2, 1976, p. 2
  16. The Rock Baptist Church building on West Franklin Street is torn down The Black Baptist congregation's church on West Franklin, in use since 1908, was demolished late in 1953 once its new church on North Roberson Street was finished.Search the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 291
  17. Rock Hill Baptist, renamed First Baptist, holds its first services on North Roberson Street The Black Baptist congregation organized in 1865 had worshipped for decades as Rock Hill Baptist Church on the south side of West Franklin Street. Under its pastor, the Rev. J. R. Manley, it raised $10,001 in the first months of 1952 and began a colonial-style brick church on North Roberson Street between Franklin and Rosemary streets. The first services in the $100,000 building were held on Sunday, September 27, 1953, opening three weeks of dedication services; with the move the congregation took the name First Baptist Church. By early 1954 the old Franklin Street lot stood vacant.The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 25, 1953, p. 4 (Many Visiting Ministers Will Preach at 3-Weeks Dedication of Negro Church) · Also: From the Rock Wall: First Baptist Church; Chapel Hill Weekly, November 21, 1952, p. 4; Chapel Hill Weekly, October 2, 1953, p. 7; Chapel Hill Weekly, May 9, 1952, p. 4
  18. Frances Hargraves teaches Chapel Hill's new special education classes at Northside School The Chapel Hill schools had begun special education classes, one at Chapel Hill Elementary School and one taught by Frances Hargraves at Northside School. The Junior Service League paid a $200 scholarship for her training.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly: Children Get New Attitude in Special Education Classes (March 5, 1957)
  19. Charlie Mason's motor court on West Rosemary Street was lodging Black travelers Charlie Mason's family ran Mason Grocery and the Mason Motel, which was advertising in Chapel Hill by December 1957. As Mason's Motor Court at 603 West Rosemary Street, with the Starlite Supper Club, it took Black guests, including well-known Black performers in town for concerts, when other Chapel Hill hotels would not.From the Rock Wall (Marian Cheek Jackson Center): Mason Motel · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, December 24, 1957, p. 8; Open Orange: 603 W. Rosemary St. / Mason Motel / Mason's Motor Court
  20. Chapel Hill's city directory lists sixteen bricklayers, twelve in Black neighborhoods The 1959 Hill's Chapel Hill directory named sixteen bricklayers, twelve of them living in Northside and other historically Black neighborhoods. By 1962 the list had grown to eighteen, including John, Handy and Leo Campbell. People: John Wesley CampbellSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Jeter and Ethel Neville House, National Register nomination (OR3151), p. 21
  21. Stanley Vickers's parents apply for his transfer from Northside Elementary to Carrboro Elementary After ten-year-old Stanley Boya Vickers finished fifth grade at Northside Elementary School in June 1959, his parents, Thomas Lee and Lattice Vickers, filed a written application to have him reassigned to Carrboro Elementary School, which was much nearer their home. The school board denied it on August 3, 1959.Search the index · Caselaw Access Project: Vickers v. Chapel Hill City Board of Education, 196 F. Supp. 97 (M.D.N.C. 1961)
  22. Chapel Hill school board refuses Stanley Vickers a transfer to all-white Carrboro Elementary and adopts a first-grade proximity policy The Chapel Hill City Board of Education denied ten-year-old Stanley Vickers a transfer from all-Black Northside Elementary to the nearer all-white Carrboro Elementary School, and at the same meeting adopted a policy of limited integration at the first-grade level starting with the 1960-61 year. UNC law dean Henry Brandis, who had twice moved to approve the transfer, resigned from the board in protest and called the action both morally and legally indefensible. People: Stanley Vickers, Henry P. Brandis Jr.The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 6, 1959, p. 1 · Also: Justia: Vickers v. Chapel Hill City Board of Education, 196 F. Supp. 97
  23. Chapel Hill annexes the 48-acre Northside School area Chapel Hill's town limits took in the 48-acre Northside School neighborhood, as the school board had asked, moving the northern edge of town to Clark Road near Longview. Some new residents of the area registered as town voters for the first time before the March bond vote.The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 18, 1960, p. 1
  24. Nate Davis moves from Northside Elementary to Chapel Hill Junior High In 1962, after sixth grade at Northside Elementary, Davis went to Chapel Hill Junior High School on Franklin Street as one of the first Black students in the town's formerly white schools. Harassment kept him out of school for two or three months, and he later attended the new Chapel Hill High School when it opened.Search the index · Documenting the American South: Oral History Interview with Nate Davis, February 6, 2001 (K-0538), transcript
  25. Northside Elementary closed as the school system integrated The Caldwell Street school closed soon after the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools began mandatory integration in 1966, and the building was turned into office space.The Daily Tar Heel: Cammie Bellamy, New school, old ground (July 16, 2013) · Also: From the Rock Wall: A Note on "Northside"; Open Orange: 350 Caldwell St. / Orange County Training School
  26. Chapel Hill annexes the Merritt Mill Road area The town took in the mostly residential area between South Greensboro Street, Morgan Creek, Pritchard Branch and the Carrboro line, around Knolls and Johnson streets and the Lincoln and Frank Porter Graham schools. Its streets other than Merritt Mill Road were unpaved and many were dead ends.Research Triangle Regional Planning Commission, Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Development Alternatives (1969), scan p. 117
  27. Northside discussions turn Chapel Hill redevelopment toward rehabilitation and away from more public housing there Planners showed three sets of options for Northside on November 7, 1967. A note added before their report appeared in November 1969 says meetings in the neighborhood since then had led to decisions to favor repairing and conserving existing housing in redeveloping Northside, and not to add more public housing in the area.Research Triangle Regional Planning Commission, Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Development Alternatives (1969), scan p. 77
  28. Stonemason John Wesley Campbell, builder of Northside stone houses, dies John Wesley Campbell, born about 1888 to a white father and a Black mother and trained in masonry from age seven, died in 1968. He worked on UNC buildings, Memorial Hospital and Franklin Street stores, built stone houses and the Hargraves Center in Northside, and taught the trade to his five sons and other Black masons. People: John Wesley CampbellNC State Historic Preservation Office: Jeter and Ethel Neville House, National Register nomination (OR3151), p. 17
  29. The Pine Knolls Community Center opens in the Green House on Johnson Street The University Baptist Church gave two wooden buildings for a multi-purpose neighborhood center in Pine Knolls, later moved onto land given by the Joint Orange-Chatham Community Action agency. Known as the Green House, it held tutoring, adult classes, free lunches and family reunions, with help from the BSM and Chi Psi fraternity in its first years; by 1977 it had been condemned.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), February 1, 1977, p. 4
  30. Most unpaved streets in the Merritt Mill Road area are paved after an owners' petition Most of the area's unpaved streets were being paved in 1969 after a majority of the owners along them signed a paving petition. The town expected to pave the rest and add other improvements under a redevelopment program stressing conservation and rehabilitation.Research Triangle Regional Planning Commission, Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Development Alternatives (1969), scan p. 117
  31. Northside and Pine Knolls residents resist federal urban renewal When Northside and Pine Knolls were targeted for urban renewal, residents confronted HUD and avoided the wholesale clearance seen in Durham's Hayti, winning home improvements and new construction instead.Marian Cheek Jackson Center: Our Neighborhoods (history of Northside)
  32. Pine Knolls residents ask the town to rebuild their condemned community center Residents of Pine Knolls, where most people were Black, asked the town for $10,000 to renovate the condemned Green House community center or $15,000 to $20,000 for a new one, and began raising half the cost. Assistant Town Manager Gene Shipman said a neighborhood center was not in the town's interest while it planned a citywide recreation center.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), February 1, 1977, p. 4
  33. Northside's Black population falls by about 40 percent Between 1980 and 2010 Northside's Black population fell by roughly 40 percent as investors bought homes and converted or replaced them as student rentals; over the same period the share of university workers living 10 or more miles away rose above 60 percent.UNC-Chapel Hill: Supporting the Northside Neighborhood Initiative
  34. Northside Gymnasium opens at Hargraves Park Chapel Hill's Northside Gymnasium at William H. Hargraves Park, beside the Hargraves Center on North Roberson Street, opened to the public on June 15, 1998. Construction began April 21, 1997, paid for in part with parks bonds voters approved in November 1996, and the gym was dedicated on September 16, 1998.The Daily Tar Heel, September 17, 1998, p. 2: Northside Celebrates Gym Opening
  35. Mama Dip's Kitchen moves across West Rosemary Street into a new building at number 408 Mildred "Mama Dip" Council's restaurant, serving Southern country cooking since 1976, moved from across the street into a new building at 408 West Rosemary Street in February 1999. People: Mildred CouncilSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 29, 1999, p. 22
  36. Chapel Hill enacts the Northside neighborhood conservation district After residents asked for protection from student-rental conversions, the council enacted the town's first neighborhood conservation district, a zoning overlay limiting house size and height in Northside. An advisory committee drafted it through 2003 before a January 21, 2004 public hearing.Town of Chapel Hill: Northside Neighborhood Conservation District (council presentation)
  37. Chapel Hill enacts the Pine Knolls neighborhood conservation district The council voted 9-0 to adopt Ordinance O-7 creating the Pine Knolls district, which bans new duplexes, caps floor area at 2,500 square feet and reduces front-yard parking. The Greenwood and Kings Mill/Morgan Creek districts were adopted the same night.Town of Chapel Hill: Council business meeting minutes, June 12, 2006
  38. St. Joseph CME Church and UNC begin the Northside oral history partnership Rev. Troy Harrison and UNC professor Della Pollock began collecting oral histories in Northside, the project that grew into the Marian Cheek Jackson Center. People: Marian Cheek JacksonMarian Cheek Jackson Center: Our Story
  39. Marian Cheek Jackson Center opens at St. Joseph CME Church The Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History held its ribbon cutting on the second floor of the H.W. Baldwin Fellowship Hall at St. Joseph C.M.E. Church. It is named for Marian Cheek Jackson, the church historian and lifelong Pine Knolls resident. People: Marian Cheek JacksonMarian Cheek Jackson Center: Saint Joseph Christian Methodist Episcopal Church historical sketch (2016)
  40. The Greenbridge condominium towers topped out on West Rosemary Street The 10-story and 7-story Greenbridge towers, with 98 condominium units, rose on the former Black business block that had held the Mason Motel. Northside residents opposed the project in an open letter, and restaurant owner Mildred "Mama Dip" Council said rising property values threatened her business. People: Mildred CouncilThe Daily Tar Heel: Greenbridge leases more than half its units
  41. Council freezes building in Northside and Pine Knolls for six months The council voted 7-0 for a six-month development moratorium in Northside and Pine Knolls, backdated to May 23, 2011, while a community plan was drafted. Jackson Center staff helped organize residents in support.INDY Week: Chapel Hill freezes Northside, Pine Knolls building for six months
  42. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board decides to build a new Northside Elementary on the old school's site The board announced a new elementary school on the grounds of the Northside school that had closed in 1966, to carry the Northside name. Black families in the Northside neighborhood, whose children had been bused to other schools for decades, welcomed it as a return of their school.Willow Lung-Amam, "The Not-So-New South Suburbs," RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 9, no. 2 (2023), p. 63
  43. Council adopts the Northside and Pine Knolls community plan The council approved three resolutions under the plan, amending both conservation districts with building rules effective February 1, 2012 and a four-vehicle-per-lot parking limit effective September 1, 2012.Daily Tar Heel: New Northside ordinance to limit parking this fall
  44. The school board votes 5-2 for the attendance plan that fills the new Northside Elementary After two months of public hearings on four draft plans, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board chose Plan 2.1, which spread at-risk students most evenly among the elementary schools and reassigned about 1,045 children. Most came from the two schools nearest Northside, including crowded Seawell Elementary, and the whole Section 74A area north of town was moved.Willow Lung-Amam, "The Not-So-New South Suburbs," RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 9, no. 2 (2023), p. 66
  45. A new Northside Elementary opened on the old Training School grounds The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools opened a new Northside Elementary on the former Orange County Training School site. In 2012 neighbors had rallied to make sure the new school kept the Northside name.From the Rock Wall: Orange County Training School
  46. UNC, Self-Help, the Jackson Center and the town launch the Northside neighborhood initiative UNC-Chapel Hill committed a $3 million, 10-year, no-interest loan to Self-Help to buy Northside homes as they came on the market and hold them in a land bank for affordable resale or rental. The Jackson Center and the Town of Chapel Hill were partners. People: Mark Kleinschmidt, Carol L. FoltUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Supporting the Northside Neighborhood Initiative
  47. A stone gateway honoring Northside's freedom fighters was opened at Rosemary and Roberson streets The gateway of Chatham stone carries eight black granite slabs with civil rights images and quotations from oral history interviews. It was opened with a ribbon cutting at the first Northside Festival, as the Jackson Center renamed its annual celebration. People: Hilliard CaldwellThe Marian Cheek Jackson Center: The New Gateway: A Historic Welcome to Northside
  48. Self-Help buys the Neville House for the Northside land bank On November 8, 2018, Self-Help Ventures Fund bought the vacant Neville House through the Northside Neighborhood Initiative land bank, which uses a $3 million no-interest UNC loan to keep homes in Northside, Tin Top and Pine Knolls from becoming student rentals.NC State Historic Preservation Office: Jeter and Ethel Neville House, National Register nomination (OR3151), p. 13
  49. Northside land bank passes 41 properties By mid-2022 the initiative had bought more than 41 Northside properties with the UNC loan, and 51 families with 50 children had moved into the neighborhood through its housing work.Marian Cheek Jackson Center: Northside Neighborhood Initiative
  50. Chapel Hill names the Hargraves Center gym for Nate Davis The Town Council unanimously approved naming the Northside Gym at the Hargraves Community Center for Davis, the center's director for more than three decades, and its indoor court for Fred Battle, director from 1970 to 1987. People: Fred BattleSearch the index · Chapelboro: Renaming of Gym, Basketball Court Honors Chapel Hill Community Leaders
  51. EMPOWERment broke ground on PEACH apartments at the former Pine Knolls Community Center The nonprofit began building 10 debt-free apartments for households earning 30 percent or less of area median income at 107 Johnson Street, where Ted Parrish had run the independent Pine Knolls Community Center. It had raised $3.5 million for the project.Chapelboro: PEACH Apartments for Vulnerable Residents Break Ground in Chapel Hill

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 the 13 with a known location.

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.

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Indexed works

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

Histories of home : a walk with Northside neighbors

Jackson Center for Saving & Making History · 2021 · Marian Cheek Jackson Center

A folded walking tour map of Northside, the historically African American neighborhood near downtown Chapel Hill, produced by Alexander Stephens for the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History in 2021. One illustrated sheet, 43 by 28 centimeters, folded to pocket size. The walk introduces the neighborhood through its residents' own histories of home.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Northside (Chapel Hill, N.C.) -- Tours.

UNC

African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties

Bolduc, Jean · 2016

Jean Bolduc's 2016 collection of interviews with African American residents of Durham and Orange counties, presented as short biographies. The subjects are Floyd McKissick (1922-1991), the first African American admitted to UNC's law school, Walter Jackson, Brenda Stephens, Nate Davis, poet Jaki Shelton Green, Jackie Wagstaff, Diane Wright and Michelle Johnson, with a closing chapter on the Ku Klux Klan. 125 pages with illustrations.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.656 BOLDUC Duke

Significance report : the Northside Neighborhood, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Mary L. Reeb, consultant · 1989 · Town of Chapel Hill

Consultant Mary L. Reeb's April 1989 report for the Town of Chapel Hill on the significance of the Northside Neighborhood, the historically Black neighborhood north of downtown. Topics include the neighborhood's buildings and dwellings and real estate development in Chapel Hill. Prepared as a working document for the town, it runs to 34 leaves with maps and a two-page bibliography.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Northside Neighborhood (Chapel Hill, N.C.).

UNC

Announcing: the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History

2009

Announcement issued in Chapel Hill in 2009 for the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History, a community history organization in the town's Northside neighborhood.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

UNC

African Americans of Durham and Orange counties : an oral history

Bolduc, Jean · 2016 · The History Press

Jean Bolduc's collection of oral history interviews with Black residents of Durham and Orange counties, published by The History Press in 2016, 125 pages with photographs and portraits. The narrators are the poet Jaki Shelton Green, civil rights lawyer Floyd McKissick, Walter Jackson, Nate Davis, Brenda Stephens, Diane Wright, Jackie Wagstaff and Michelle Johnson, and a closing chapter deals with the Ku Klux Klan. The interviews document Black life and race relations in the two counties across the twentieth century.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Davis, Nate, 1951?-.

NC Cardinal Duke Durham Wake Forest CH Historical Society UNC

Northside neighborhood, Chapel Hill, Orange County : an action-oriented community diagnosis : findings and next steps of action

2005 · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A community diagnosis of the Northside neighborhood in Chapel Hill, dated the twelfth of May 2005 and published by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Findings on health status and socioeconomic conditions are followed by proposed next steps for action. Topics include community health services for town and county. Appendices A and D are missing from the copy described, and the bibliography sits on leaf 41.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

UNC
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Pine Knolls, Chapel Hill and Carr Court, Carrboro, Orange County community diagnosis

1997

A 1997 community diagnosis of two neighborhoods, Pine Knolls in Chapel Hill and Carr Court in Carrboro, dated the tenth of May. Topics include community health services, health status, socioeconomic factors and public opinion in the county. Bound in with it are a list of health services for Orange County and a 1995 guide to services for county parents and young children.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

UNC

A small business incubator for a disadvantaged community : is it the answer for Northside

Chanin, Douglas · 1995 · University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Douglas Chanin's 1995 study weighing a small business incubator as a tool for the Northside neighborhood in Chapel Hill. Forty-seven leaves, filmed on a single microfilm reel by the university library. Topics include African American business enterprises in North Carolina, small business in Chapel Hill and the town's economic conditions, which places the work with local community development research.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Northside Neighborhood (Chapel Hill, N.C.).

UNC

Newsletter, Pine Knolls-Northside communities

1988

Neighborhood newsletter for the Pine Knolls and Northside communities of Chapel Hill, starting in 1988. Issued in volumes at 36 centimeters, the large format of a folded news sheet.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Northside (Chapel Hill, N.C.) -- Periodicals.

UNC

Let the record show, the Hackneys : two early, prominent Black families of Chatham and Orange Counties, NC : a history and genealogy of Charles H. & Antoinette Stone Hackney and Louis Henry and Laura Edwards Hackney

1987 · The Associates

A history and genealogy of two Black families of Chatham and Orange counties, tracing the households of Charles H. Hackney and Antoinette Stone Hackney and of Louis Henry Hackney and Laura Edwards Hackney. Published in 1987 by The Associates, it sets out the family lines from the nineteenth century forward.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

Library of Congress

Chapel Hill - Carrboro : report of a survey conducted by a group participating in a workshop on neighborhood centers.

1966 · Institute of Government, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Report of a survey of Chapel Hill and Carrboro made in 1966 by a group at a workshop on neighborhood centers, sponsored jointly by the National Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers and the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina. Subjects include the Hargraves Community Center and the Northside neighborhood, and the topic is community center planning and social conditions in the town. Forty-six leaves.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Northside Neighborhood (Chapel Hill, N.C.) -- Social conditions.

UNC

Northside news.

Jackson Center

Community paper for the Northside neighborhoods of Chapel Hill, issued by the Jackson Center and described beneath its title as a print link for the neighborhoods of Northside. Volumes with color illustrations at 36 centimeters.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Northside (Chapel Hill, N.C.) -- Periodicals.

UNC

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