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
Person Hall becomes the University’s art museum, 1933–1937
How Civil Works and relief labor and private gifts turned Person Hall into the University’s art museum: the work begun and stopped in 1934, Katherine Pendleton Arrington’s part, the federal grant that restarted it, and the plans announced that December.
In briefTurning old Person Hall, once a chapel and later the home of medicine, chemistry, pharmacy and music, into the University's art gallery depended on relief money that started and stopped. Work began in early 1934 with a federal allotment to be matched by friends of the University led by Katherine Pendleton Arrington, then halted for months with the building a roofless shell. A special relief grant let the University resume that September, and by December the Weekly already spoke of the hall as an art museum, though it was not finished. Emergency Relief Administration money closed it in during 1935, work went on through 1936, and the Person Hall Art Gallery opened on January 15, 1937.
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The full story
Begun as a Civil Works project in the winter and revived after the February 1934 cuts in the Civil Works program, the project to make the old Person Hall into an art gallery was under way by early March, and by late March the roof was off and the windows out. A federal allotment of $10,500 was to be matched by about $11,000 from friends of the University led by Katherine Pendleton Arrington, whose talks with Metropolitan Museum experts shaped Atwood and Weeks's plans. The work then stopped for months with the building a roofless shell. By September 14 a special $3,000 relief grant, obtained through the state relief director, Mrs. Thomas O'Berry, and limited to skilled labor, let the University resume. H. D. Carter, the FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration) construction supervisor for Orange, planned to roof the building and put in windows and doors within five weeks.
In December the Weekly already spoke of Person Hall, once a chapel and later the home of medicine, chemistry, pharmacy and music, as converted into an art museum, and at the North Carolina Art Society meeting in Raleigh on December 3 President Graham and Leila Mechlin of the American Federation of Arts described plans to make it a center for the fine arts, with lectures and exhibitions. The building was not finished, though. In June 1935 Emergency Relief Administration money let the work of closing it in go forward, the roofing and enclosure were done in 1935 ready for the inside finishing, and the work went on through 1936.
The Person Hall Art Gallery opened on the evening of January 15, 1937, after dedication exercises in Hill Music Hall at which Everett V. Meeks, dean of the Yale school of fine arts, spoke, with a show of about 60 paintings lent by the National Gallery of Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and dealers. A government grant and gifts from Mrs. Arrington, Mrs. Rufus L. Patterson, W. D. Carmichael, Frank L. Fuller and Mrs. B. H. Griffin had paid for the rebuilding.
In the chronology
Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →
- Civil Works crews begin turning Person Hall into the University's art museum Revived after the February cuts, the Civil Works project to make the old Person Hall into an art gallery was under way by early March, and by late March the roof was off and the windows out. A federal allotment of $10,500 was to be matched by about $11,000 from friends of the University led by Katherine Pendleton Arrington, whose talks with Metropolitan Museum experts shaped Atwood and Weeks's plans for display rooms, ateliers and skylights.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 23, 1934, p. 1
- A federal grant restarts the rebuilding of Person Hall as an art museum A special $3,000 relief grant, obtained through the state relief director, Mrs. Thomas O'Berry, and limited to skilled labor, let the University resume rebuilding Person Hall, the ante-bellum building that had housed chemistry, pharmacy and music, as an art museum. H. D. Carter, the FERA construction supervisor for Orange, planned to roof it and put in windows and doors within five weeks; the work, begun as a CWA project the winter before, had stopped for months with the building a roofless shell. People: H. D. CarterSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 14, 1934, p. 1
- President Graham and Leila Mechlin announce plans for a fine arts center in Person Hall At the North Carolina Art Society meeting in Raleigh on December 3, 1934, President Graham and Leila Mechlin of the American Federation of Arts described plans to make Person Hall, once a chapel and later the home of medicine, chemistry, pharmacy and music, a center for the fine arts, with lectures, a Grand Central Galleries exhibition and a traveling exhibit in the spring. The Weekly wrote that the gutted hall had been converted into an art museum with CWA and ERA labor and private gifts, Mrs. Katherine Pendleton Arrington among the main donors, but it was still a shell: relief money paid to roof and enclose it in 1935, and the Person Hall Art Gallery opened on January 15, 1937. People: Frank Porter GrahamSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 7, 1934, p. 1 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 21, 1935, p. 5; Chapel Hill Weekly, January 3, 1936, p. 4; Chapel Hill Weekly, January 15, 1937, p. 1
- Emergency relief money lets work go forward on Person Hall The Emergency Relief Administration allotted enough money to finish closing in Person Hall, the old chapel being made into the University's art museum, and the work was going forward in June 1935. People: H. D. CarterThe Chapel Hill Weekly, June 21, 1935, p. 5
- The University opens the Person Hall Art Gallery The rebuilt Person Hall opened as the University's art gallery on the evening of January 15, 1937, after dedication exercises in Hill Music Hall at which Everett V. Meeks, dean of the Yale school of fine arts, spoke. Its first show of about 60 paintings, lent by the National Gallery of Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and dealers, stayed up until February 21; a government grant and gifts from Katherine Arrington and others paid for the rebuilding.The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 22, 1937, p. 1
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.
- Person Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 5 events 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.
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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
- Person Hall (Names in Brick and Stone: Histories from UNC's Built Landscape)UNC-Chapel Hill The art gallery years are one part of this history of the building.
- Overview of the Visual Arts in North Carolina, 1930s-1950s Tells how the University turned Person Hall into a place to teach and show art.
Collections and databases
- NC LIVE: prepared search for Person Hall becomes the University’s art museum, 1933–1937 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
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