Bicycle and Greenways Map
Steve Spindler Cartography's 2014 map of bicycle routes and greenways in Chapel Hill. It shows the town's bicycle trails, cycling routes and greenway network.
Named event or history
Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900
Building the North Carolina Railroad through Hillsborough and Durham’s Station in the 1850s, the depots at Hillsborough and University Station, and the 1882 branch line toward Chapel Hill.
In briefOrange County backed a central route for a state railroad in 1849, and its residents put up $100,000 toward the North Carolina Railroad. Built partly by enslaved workers, the line reached Durham's Station in December 1854 and Hillsborough in April 1855, and through trains ran early in 1856. The Hillsborough depot shipped flour, tobacco and bacon in its first year, a depot on the Orange-Alamance line gave rise to Mebanesville, and the railroad agreed to a depot at University Station in 1875. State convicts built the University Railroad from University Station, which brought trains to West End in 1882.
The dated events and research sources on this page document this event. Explore the dated events, or browse the research sources.
Orange County Indexed has not yet linked any indexed works directly to this event. The background reading below is about Roads, Rail & Transportation, the wider history this event belongs to.
In the chronology
Dated events connected with this event: sixteen of 82, the highlights and a sample of the rest spread across the years, in date order. See all 82 dated events in the chronology →
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Farmers of Orange, Chatham and Guilford meet to talk about a railroad
On August 1, 1828, citizens of Orange, Chatham and Guilford met at William Albright's store in Chatham County, with James Mebane of Orange in the chair, to urge a central railroad through North Carolina, the first such meeting in the state. The Rev. Joseph Caldwell gave the address, which was to be printed as a pamphlet, and Caldwell, Duncan Cameron and Michael Holt were named the Orange members of a committee of correspondence. Public meetings on a line through the county went on into the early 1850s.
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The North Carolina Railroad is chartered and built
The General Assembly chartered the North Carolina Railroad in 1849, after Senate speaker Calvin Graves cast the deciding vote. The state built the 223-mile line from Goldsboro to Charlotte between 1851 and 1856, running it through Hillsborough, and the first train ran its full length in January 1856.
Subject: North Carolina Railroad
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Railroad convention at Hillsborough pledges the remaining North Carolina Railroad stock
A railroad convention at Hillsborough, called to complete the list of one hundred men pledged to take the unsubscribed stock, agreed that the whole amount still needed under the charter would be taken. When the general commissioners met at Greensborough on March 30 they found $76,000 to $78,000 still lacking, mainly because the Petersburg Railroad found it could not take its $40,000, and reopened the books, at Hillsborough until May 1.
Subject: North Carolina Railroad
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Contracts for grading the North Carolina Railroad through Orange are let at Hillsborough
At a letting in Hillsborough on Wednesday, June 25, 1851, contractors took the grading and other work on the North Carolina Railroad from Pratt's Store to the Alamance line, except for one short section about five miles west of town, which was let within the following days. Contracts for the Alamance part of the line were taken at Graham two days later.
Subject: North Carolina Railroad
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A railroad depot is built at the Orange-Alamance line and Mebanesville grows up around it
The North Carolina Railroad put a depot on the county line in 1854, and the settlement of Mebanesville, later Mebane, soon formed there.
Subject: North Carolina Railroad
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Paul Cameron tells the county agricultural society the railroad will wake Orange up
Speaking for two hours at the county's first agricultural fair at Hillsborough to the Orange County Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, the Mechanic Arts, and Manufactures, Cameron predicted the coming railroad would shake local farmers and businesses out of their old habits.
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Hillsborough station opens its freight warehouse under agent Dr. Hooker
The North Carolina Railroad's freight warehouse at Hillsborough was ready for use, and Dr. Hooker, newly appointed the company's agent at the Hillsborough station, took up his duties. The road had also dropped a rule that charged more per barrel to farmers shipping fewer than five barrels of flour at a time.
Subject: North Carolina Railroad
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A permanent depot at University Station brings a plan for a town there
By May 10 the North Carolina Railroad had made University Station, on Stone's Creek, a permanent depot through which the trade of Chapel Hill and that part of Orange would pass. The court of equity ordered twenty half-acre lots there sold on June 7 for Calvin G. Strayhorn and others, and the sale notice said a town would be laid off.
Subject: University Station · North Carolina Railroad
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A Confederate provost marshal takes charge of railroad passes at Hillsborough
Lt. P. L. Harwell of the Confederate infantry was appointed provost marshal at Hillsborough, and no citizen or soldier was allowed to travel on the railroad without a pass from him.
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North Carolina Railroad stockholders meet at Hillsborough and accept the charter amendment
At their annual meeting at Hillsborough the North Carolina Railroad stockholders tabled W. R. Myers's motion to make Raleigh the permanent meeting place, then on the State's vote accepted the 1874 act amending the company charter so that it could issue bonds secured by a mortgage. Private stockholders including P. C. Cameron, Thomas Webb and William A. Graham opposed and entered a protest, and the new board elected W. A. Smith president.
People: Paul C. Cameron · Thomas Webb · William A. Graham
Subject: North Carolina Railroad
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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. Hoke
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Mebaneville, the railroad village on the Orange-Alamance line, is incorporated
The settlement that grew along the North Carolina Railroad from 1854 was incorporated in 1881 and shortened its name to Mebane in 1883. Part of the town lies in Orange County.
Subject: North Carolina Railroad
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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.
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A freight car loaded with cotton burns at University Station
A car of cotton attached to a freight train burned at University Station on Friday, March 4. The cars behind it were uncoupled before the fire spread to them.
Subject: University Station
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G. E. Thurston succeeds J. W. Massey as the Southern Railway agent at Hillsborough
The Southern Railway transferred its Hillsborough station agent, J. W. Massey, to Selma and put his brother-in-law G. E. Thurston of Raleigh in charge of the Hillsborough station.
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Work begins on a new railroad depot to replace the one burned in November
Contractor J. D. Elliott began work on the new depot on May 9; it was to resemble the one destroyed by fire the previous November and to be finished in about four weeks.
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 4 with a known location.
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.
- North Carolina Railroad Public buildings and services · Hillsborough · 51 events here
- University Station Public buildings and services · Chapel Hill · 14 events here
- Eno River road bridge, Hillsborough Public buildings and services · Hillsborough · 1 event here
- Gerrard Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
- Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough Public buildings and services · Hillsborough · 1 event here
Background on Roads, Rail & Transportation
These works give background on Roads, Rail & Transportation, the wider history this event belongs to (477 works in all). Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.
Widely held
Comprehensive transportation plan Orange County
Comprehensive transportation plan for Orange County prepared by Sarah Lee for the Transportation Planning Branch of the N.C. Department of Transportation, October 2013. It covers highway planning, roads and their environmental effects, and traffic engineering, with color maps, some folded.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Farewell forever, old road to Durham : lessons from the history of transportation planning in the North Carolina Piedmont
Mark Chilton's short history of transportation planning in the North Carolina Piedmont, drawing lessons from earlier projects. Subjects include the Cape Fear Navigation Company and river navigation, and the railroads of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, including the State University Railroad Company whose spur brought trains to the two towns. Chilton was mayor of Carrboro when the book appeared. Published by Hand Made Books, Carrboro, 2012, 92 pages with illustrations, maps and portraits.
Mebane
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.
Orange County, North Carolina
A group of materials combining a county planning document with a highway map of Orange County, dated 2012. The planning piece, issued in Raleigh by a state commission, lays out a planning and management process for the county with recommendations on land development. The map, based on the statewide highway planning survey, shows roads, bridges, utilities, public property, businesses and industries across Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough; one copy carries red-pencil notes naming the county's voting precincts.
Transportation impact analysis for the Carolina North development
Traffic study for Carolina North, the University of North Carolina's planned development in Chapel Hill, prepared by the consulting firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin of Watertown, Massachusetts, and dated June 3, 2009. One spiral-bound volume in various pagings with illustrations and folded maps, plus a 12-page addendum on parking and mode share. The study includes traffic estimates and the environmental effects of transportation.
Show 6 more
Orange County, N.C. Road Records
Three volumes of historic Orange County road records compiled by Stewart E. Dunaway and self-published through Lulu.com in 2008, with maps. The documents, reproduced as facsimiles and sometimes transcribed, include petitions for new roads, requests for road upkeep, bridge records and papers explaining why roads were rerouted. Road petitions name the householders along a route. The third volume also gathers records connected with Cyrus Guy's lynching in Orange County in 1869.
[Replace Durham County bridge no. 158 on SR 1402 (Rivermont Rd) over unamed [sic] tributary to Eno River, TIP project no. B-3169, state project no. 8.2353701, W
An environmental document prepared in 2006 by the Project Development and Environmental Analysis Branch of the North Carolina Department of Transportation for replacing Durham County bridge number 158, which carries Rivermont Road, State Road 1402, over an unnamed tributary of the Eno River, TIP project B-3169. Its subjects are environmental impact statements and the Eno River's environmental conditions; one volume of various foliations with maps, some folded.
2030 Long Range Transportation Plan
A long range transportation plan adopted in 2005 with a planning horizon of 2030. It concerns highway and transportation planning in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough and Orange County, together with Durham and Chatham counties, and includes population, employment and economic statistics for the three counties.
A taste of heaven : a collection of recipes
Community cookbook from Cross Roads Baptist Church in Hillsborough, printed by Morris Press Cookbooks in 2005 in a three-ring binder. Recipes are credited to their contributors. The book includes Southern cooking, church history and material on the Family House of Chapel Hill. 124 pages of recipes plus front and back matter, with color illustrations.
Draft 2030 Long Range Transportation Plan
The draft of the 2030 Long Range Transportation Plan for the Durham and Orange County area, dated 2004, covering highway and transportation planning in Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, Durham and Orange County and population, employment and economic statistics in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties. A planning document for those tracing how the county's roads were projected to grow.
Fish Dam Road Maps
Joe Liles's 2004 maps of Fish Dam Road, tracing its course across Durham, Orange, Granville and Wake counties.
Research sources
Resources picked for this event, each with a note on what it holds.
Collections and databases
- NC LIVE: prepared search for Railroads through Orange, 1849–1900 Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
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 The library’s Local History Liaison helps in person most Mondays, 12 to 3, at the Main Library, or by the online request form
More to discover
Keep Reading Local
The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.
