Skip to content
Orange County Public Library (opens the library’s website in a new tab)

Theme

Roads, Rail & Transportation

From the Trading Path to the railroad depots, highways, and buses that tied the county's towns together.

In briefThe Great Trading Path, the North Carolina Railroad of 1849, the depots that turned West End into Carrboro, and the highways and buses that followed tied the county’s towns together. The storylines follow the railroad town and the Occoneechee Speedway.

479 works about Roads, Rail & Transportation are indexed here. 8 held at OCPL →

Search these works Research sources View indexed works ↓
A Southern Railway locomotive and cotton bales at a depot.

Events and storylines

Named events and storylines the index follows in detail. Each has its own page.

From West End to Carrboro: railroad, mills, and a new town, 1882–1913The 1882 spur line and depot, West End and Lloydville, the Alberta and Durham Hosiery mills and their villages, Venable’s incorporation in 1911, and the renaming for Julian Carr in 1913 Occoneechee Speedway, HillsboroughNASCAR’s early dirt track on the Eno, 1949–1968; not the Orange County Speedway in Rougemont Railroads through Orange, 1849–1909Building 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 Paving the rural roads, 1949Governor Kerr Scott’s 1949 secondary road bonds in Orange County: township road committees, the miles allotted to each township, and the first paving contracts Roads and bridges to the new University, 1793–1817The roads the county court laid out to the University and its village from Hillsborough, the Haw River ferries, the Chatham line and Raleigh, beginning from Franklin Street, and the bridges over New Hope and Ben’s creeks on the Raleigh road Bridging the Eno, 1787–1816The county court’s bridges over the Eno River: at the Town Ford by Hillsborough from 1787, the bridge opposite the town rebuilt and repaired through 1814, and the bridge at Bennehan’s and Cameron’s mills finished in 1816
Show all 40 events and storylines
Interstate 85 comes to northern Orange County, 1955–1962The rebuilding of US 70 as a limited-access interstate road south of Hillsborough: the route decisions and the hearing that drew protests, the contracts and second lanes, and the motels, restaurants and liquor store that grew up at the new interchanges The I-85 access road into Hillsborough, 1962–1964The new road and high bridge carrying traffic from Interstate 85 up South Churton Street into Hillsborough: the 1962 hearing, the right of way, the 1963 postponement and the bids, and the bridge’s opening in 1964 The county road bonds of 1911–1912How Orange County came to borrow for its roads: the Good Roads Association and Joseph Hyde Pratt’s talk, the bond election called off in 1911, the Chapel Hill citizens’ committee, the 1912 vote for $250,000, and the test of the road law The 1915 road law and the county road supervisor, 1915–1917How the 1915 road law put Orange County’s roads under one county fund and a superintendent of roads: A. W. Clarke’s hiring, the federal engineer’s roads, convict labor, the 1917 road classification, and the bridges and road contracts that followed Paving the Chapel Hill to Durham road, 1913–1921The road between Chapel Hill and Durham from the 1913 survey to a hard surface: federal engineers and upkeep money in 1916, the highway commission’s experimental pavement to the Durham line, and the Thanksgiving Day opening in 1921 The Central Highway route fight, 1921–1922The fights over where Orange County’s new hard-surfaced roads would run after the 1921 Highway Act: the eastern and western routes from Chapel Hill to Hillsboro, Hillsborough’s protests against the Central Highway route north of the courthouse, the Eno bridge, and John Sprunt Hill burned in effigy Consolidating the rural schools and hauling the children, 1919–1926How Orange County began closing its one- and two-teacher schools and hauling children to larger ones: the first school trucks to Chapel Hill, Claytor’s consolidation plan, the new schools at Cedar Grove, Efland, Orange Grove and White Cross, the county’s first buses, and the sale of closed schoolhouses Paving Chapel Hill’s streets, 1924–1931How Chapel Hill paved its streets from 1924: the owners’ petitions for curb and gutter, Franklin and Columbia streets paved curb to curb, the Ziegler Brothers contracts with the University and the state, new parking rules, the West Franklin plan, and the street bonds Buses between Chapel Hill, Durham and Hillsboro, 1924–1925The bus lines out of Chapel Hill in the mid-1920s: the death of C. S. Pendergraft, who had run cars to Durham since 1911, his line’s new service to Hillsboro, and the Safety Coach Line’s buyout of every service between Chapel Hill and Durham The short route to Raleigh: the old Raleigh road, the Nelson road and Route 54, 1925–1929How Chapel Hill got its short route to Raleigh and its state roads east and west: the county’s vote and reversal on the old Raleigh road, the write-in protest that followed, the state’s takeover of the Nelson and Calvander roads, the Carrboro link, and Route 54 Rebuilding Franklin Street’s business block, 1922–1927How Chapel Hill remade the Franklin Street business block: E. M. Knox’s first sidewalks and street trees, the 1927 traffic beacon and street bonds, the paved center strip and moved curb, the fight over the block’s trees, the ride-seeker ordinance and the new post lamps The Orange County Civic Association, 1928The Orange County Civic Association in its first months of 1928: its founding at Hillsboro as a nonpartisan group to gather facts about county government, with E. C. Branson and Paul W. Wager, and its meetings on school bus costs and the county’s roads Orange County in the 1928 election and the new county board, 1928–1929Orange County in the 1928 election and after: the enlarged Chapel Hill precinct, Hoover’s county majority and Smith’s Chapel Hill vote, the new sheriff and commissioners, the student voting charge, George Johnston’s bedside oath, resignation and death, and John Hanner’s return as chairman Chapel Hill’s first airports, 1928–1934Charlie Lee Martindale’s airfield north of Chapel Hill from 1928 to 1931: the first passenger flights, the North State Aircraft Company’s hangar and lessons, the Legion’s roof marker, the longer runways, Southern Airways, and the field’s place on the federal air maps West Franklin Street paving and its Black homeowners, 1926–1941How Chapel Hill paved West Franklin Street on assessments and what the debt meant for its Black homeowners: the 1926 street program and contract, the bonds of 1927 and 1928, the relief committee, the Duke legal aid clinic, and the federal home loans of 1934 The Civil Works Administration in Orange County, 1933–1934The Civil Works Administration in Orange County from November 1933 to March 1934: George H. Lawrence’s projects and quota, the work on Hillsborough’s courthouse square and library, Chapel Hill’s streets, the creek, schools and campus, the February cuts, and the program’s end Hard-surfacing Chapel Hill’s streets with federal labor, 1934–1935How Chapel Hill hard-surfaced most of its streets in 1934 with Civil Works and then relief labor: the start in January, the restored program, the state’s paving of East Franklin Street, the bond ordinances, the finished mileage and its cost, and the tax rate that paid for it Chapel Hill’s PWA sewers, incinerator and streets, 1936–1937Chapel Hill’s PWA-aided town works of 1936 and 1937: the $21,000 grant, the bonds sold at the lowest rate the town had paid, the southwest sewer and pumping station, the new incinerator in Strowd’s Lowgrounds, the higher tax rate and the street surfacing The Horace Williams Airport, 1940–2018How the University turned Chapel Hill’s small airfield into the Horace Williams Airport: the 1940 purchase and Williams’s land gift, the civilian pilot training, the WPA grading, the hangar fire of 1941, the new road from North Columbia Street and the wartime flights over the field Chapel Hill’s street bonds and the state streets, 1937–1941How Chapel Hill paid for hard-surfaced streets from 1937 to 1941: the last of the PWA street surfacing, the $16,000 curb-and-gutter bonds the debt-limitation amendment put to a vote, the 1941 street and fire apparatus bonds, and the state’s taking over of three streets Internal improvements and the 1833 Hillsborough railroad convention, 1828–1837How Orange County pressed for roads, river navigation and a railroad from 1828 to 1837: James Mebane’s flour boat, the early railroad and navigation meetings, the 1833 internal improvement convention at Hillsborough, the call for two-fifths state aid and the county’s later delegates and appointments The Hillsborough Military Academy, 1858–1861How Charles C. Tew of South Carolina built a military school on the west end of Hillsborough: the land bought in 1858, the opening in January 1859, the barracks cornerstone, the Commandant’s House, the cadets’ registers and Tew’s departure for Fort Macon in April 1861 Building the State University Railroad, 1879–1883How the State University Railroad was built from University Station to Chapel Hill: the 1879 charter, the fight over a Durham route, the convict force and its deaths, the grading and track laying, the first train of February 1882, the last spikes and the mail and telegraph that followed Working the county roads: the road tax fights, 1891–1899How Orange County argued over paying for its roads in the 1890s: the road tax of 1891, the justices’ repeal of 1893 over the commissioners’ votes, J. A. Holmes’s road plan, the special road law of 1896 and the return to work days on the roads in 1899 The Bellevue Manufacturing Company, 1904–1919How the Bellevue Manufacturing Company built its cotton mill in West Hillsborough: the land bought for the site, the incorporation under Shepperd Strudwick in 1904, the knitting mill, spinning plant and railroad siding of 1905, and the ginghams and electric power that followed Macadam for Hillsborough: the township road tax, bonds and paved streets, 1900–1908How Hillsborough Township paid for and laid its first macadam: the township road tax of 1900, the rock crusher and King Street work of 1905, the $40,000 road bond election of 1907, the chain gang and the paving of Churton Street in 1908 Bridging Morgan Creek: McCauley’s and Merritt’s mills, 1793–1818How the county court bridged Morgan Creek where the Fayetteville road crossed it: Matthew McCauley’s public mill, the bridge site, the commissioners and inspectors, the nine-to-nine vote on Tobias Rogers’s pay, Henry Merritt’s mill and toll bridge and the county’s payment to Merritt in 1818 The University’s building program, 1923–1925How the University spent the building money the legislature gave it in 1923: the trustees’ division of the fund, Old East and Old West rebuilt inside their old walls, the new roads and the three dormitories across the Raleigh road, the Tin Can, the Swain Hall fire, Venable Hall and the first building for women students The summer floods of 1924The rains and floods of the summer of 1924 around Chapel Hill: the wet weeks that ruined crops, the June downpours that took the Morgan Creek bridges, the August 3 cloudburst that carried off Purefoy’s and King’s mills, and the bridges the county rebuilt From campus buses to Chapel Hill Transit, 1968–1990How Chapel Hill got a public bus system between 1968 and 1974: the student-run campus buses, the town buses that ran for five weeks in 1971, the referendums Chapel Hill passed and Carrboro turned down, the federal grant and the University’s bus-pass contract, and the start of Chapel Hill Transit in August 1974 Carrboro and the Chapel Hill buses, 1971–1986How Carrboro came to be served by Chapel Hill’s buses: the town’s refusals and referendum defeats from 1971 to 1976, the 1977 route past its apartment complexes paid for with the University, the 1978 deadlock and cost formula, and the F route and year-round service of 1979 The joint Chapel Hill-Carrboro thoroughfare plan, 1983–1984How Chapel Hill and Carrboro tried to agree on one thoroughfare plan in 1983 and 1984: the crowded hearings, the fights over roads across Mason Farm and McCauley Street, Carrboro’s West Franklin Street extension, the split over Estes Drive, the failed compromise and the state’s endorsement of Chapel Hill’s plan The Downtown Commission, the downtown trolleys and Streetscape, 1988–1994How Chapel Hill and Carrboro set out to revive their downtowns in 1988 and 1989: the Main Street pledge, the Downtown Commission and its first directors, the sidewalk vendors, Chapel Hill’s downtown tax district, Carrboro’s refusals, and the trolleys that began running on Franklin Street in 1989 UNC’s land use plans, the Horace Williams tract and the joint town-University committee, 1987–1994How UNC’s 1987 land use plan met opposition and a joint town-University committee reworked its roads: the crowded June hearing, the committee’s votes against a loop road through Battle Park and against taking private property, the Pittsboro Street extension fight, the 1988 acceptance and the 1989 town-gown committee

More storylines

Other storylines that include this theme, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineGeneral Assembly sessions at Hillsborough, 1778–17841782–1789 · 18 events · An act of the April 1782 session, held at Hillsborough, directed that future General Assemblies meet there until a proper place was fixed for the seat of government. With the war over, the April 1783 session, also at Hillsborough, repealed it. That year a post route opened between Hillsborough and Richmond, part of a push to make the town the permanent seat of government. Its backers pressed the question from session to session, and in 1785 a bill to fix the capital at Hillsborough lost 41 to 37. In November 1786, meeting at Fayetteville, the Assembly ordered the state treasurer and comptroller to take their offices and records to Hillsborough, to be convenient to most of the state's people; the comptroller was slow, and the order was repeated a year later. The treasurer's office was kept in a confiscated store known as the Blue House, though its records were carted to Tarboro and back in 1787 and 1788. On August 2, 1788 the convention meeting there fixed the seat of government at Isaac Hunter's in Wake County, and on August 4 it adjourned. On November 10, 1789 the House of Commons voted to pay John Armstrong of Orange County three pounds for taking the Treasury's books and papers from Hillsborough to Fayetteville, and five pounds each to nine men of the Orange Company of Horse who guarded the money on the road. StorylineStagville and Fairntosh: the Bennehan and Cameron plantations, 1799–18261799–1826 · 8 events · Stagville and Fairntosh grew into the Bennehan and Cameron plantations on the labor of enslaved people, and the county court's records show how the law reached into their lives. Richard Bennehan built Stagville in 1799 on about 4,000 acres worked by 44 or more enslaved people, and Duncan Cameron built Fairntosh beside it from 1810. In 1809 the court let four men they enslaved carry guns and made patrollers return six guns taken from others. Mary Walker was born into a family they held in 1818, and by 1826 the plantations sold close to 30,000 pounds of tobacco. StorylineAgricultural societies and fairs in Orange County, 1821–18571821–1857 · 13 events · Orange County farmers organized agricultural societies repeatedly between 1821 and 1857. The Cane Creek Agricultural Society, reporting in 1821 that the county's wheat crop had largely failed, asked farmers to report their improvements and trials. A county society formed at Hillsborough in 1822, with Duncan Cameron as president, offered premiums and planned a cattle show, and in 1841 a grand jury proposed another. In 1853 the Orange County Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts was organized under Paul C. Cameron. At its first fair, in 1854, Cameron predicted that the coming railroad would shake farmers out of their old habits. The society bought fair grounds near the depot in 1856 and held fairs through 1857. StorylineChapel Hill's town government and its codes, 1829–18591829–1859 · 17 events · Chapel Hill's early town codes governed its streets and policed its Black residents, enslaved and free. On February 19, 1829 the commissioners adopted fifteen ordinances that divided white men into patrol companies, made white and Black men liable to work the streets, and barred enslaved people from the streets on Sundays and at night without a written pass. An act of 1851 incorporated the town under five elected commissioners. A revised code of March 19, 1859 fixed the village limits at about 839 acres, ordered officers to check the status of Black residents who claimed to be free, and barred Black people from the country from the streets after 4 p.m. on tax and election days. StorylineHall's Mill on the Eno, 1835–20171835–2017 · 6 events · A mill on the Eno west of Hillsborough and the brick house across the road passed through several families before a 2017 review found the site did not qualify for the National Register. The Rev. Ira Ellis bought the land in 1835, and his Federal brick house, later called Little Ayr Mount, is usually dated to that purchase. In 1878 Nelson Parrish Hall bought the house and 267 acres, and the mill took the Hall name. After Hall died, his widow Martha bought the farm from his estate and sold it to sheriff R. D. Baine. Only the mill's stone dam, a foundation and the trace of its race survived. StorylineDurham’s rise while part of Orange, 1850s–18811854–1881 · 63 events · The North Carolina Railroad reached Durham's Station in December 1854, and flour and then tobacco went out by rail; a small smoking-tobacco factory opened by the depot in 1858. After the war Washington Duke began making smoking tobacco, the Dukes moved into a Durham factory in 1870, and by 1877 the town counted four sale warehouses and about fourteen factories. Hillsborough tobacco firms moved there, and in 1881 Durham County was formed from Orange over Hillsborough's protest.
Show all 24 storylines
StorylineTelephones in Hillsborough and the countryside, 1883–19641883–1964 · 31 events · Hillsborough's first telephone line ran from the railroad depot to Hooker's drug store in 1883. In 1905 the town gave John D. Morris of Roxboro a twenty-year franchise, and his exchange opened in March 1906 in the Murdock house on West King Street with Mamie Murdock, later Mamie Gordon, at the switchboard, where she stayed for 41 years. Morris switched Hillsborough to dial telephones in a new East King Street exchange in September 1947. In the countryside, Schley Grange members strung lines to 51 families in 1948, and the University's telephone service reached Calvander in 1949. Morris opened an exchange at Efland in 1951. The Mebane Telephone Company built 140 miles of rural lines in western Orange in 1955, the year Hillsboro merchants and the county commissioners asked the state to investigate Morris's service. In 1964 Morris built a larger exchange on East King Street. StorylineThe last trains on the Chapel Hill branch, 1888–19371888–1937 · 4 events · Passenger service on the ten-mile branch between University Station and Carrboro ended as car ownership spread and roads improved. Captain Fred Smith became the branch's conductor on October 16, 1888. Effective January 1, 1924, the Southern Railway put the line under a separate corporation, to be operated as the State University Railroad Company, the News reported. The State Utilities Commission let the railroad drop passenger service, and the last passenger train ran on October 24, 1936, a trip some Chapel Hill and Carrboro people made into a railway picnic. The freight train was taken off by January 8, 1937, and Smith retired after 47 years as the line's conductor, kept on by the Southern Railway as a freight solicitor. StorylineSmallpox and the county's first pest house, 1899–19001899–1900 · 5 events · With no pest house, a building for isolating contagious patients, Orange County had to quarantine each smallpox patient at home when the disease came in 1899 and 1900. In 1899 Hillsborough quarantined itself against an outbreak in Alamance County. In 1900 a University medical student caught smallpox and recovered, and in February Postmaster J. Clyde Cheek of Hillsborough was found to have it; his house was cut off, everyone there was vaccinated, and no other town case followed. Cases then turned up among Black workmen building a telephone line. On Dr. C. D. Jones's advice, the commissioners bought 15 acres that had belonged to William Wheaton, a Black landowner, and ordered a two-room pest house built at once. StorylineThe Occoneechee Mountain quarry, its convicts and its Italian laborers, 1900–19061900–1906 · 6 events · Convicts did much of the work at the Southern Stone Company's quarry on Occoneechee Mountain, begun in the late 1800s, whose gravel surfaced Hillsborough's sidewalks and crossings by 1902. In early 1903 more than a hundred state convicts came from Mitchell County, and another gang from Raleigh, to get out stone for ballasting the North Carolina Railroad. That April a guard shot dead a convict named Stevens, who was serving thirty years for murder, when he broke for liberty. In January 1904 the state convicts were taken back to the penitentiary at Raleigh. In August 1906 nearly thirty Italian workers came to work in the quarry, and quarrying on the mountain went on at least until about 1910. StorylineHighways through Orange County, 1911–19241911–1924 · 17 events · Hillsboro fought to be on the Central Highway, and between 1911 and 1924 hard roads were built across Orange County. In 1911 Hillsboro, joined by delegations from Durham and Mebane, pressed its claim, and the trustees chose the route by way of Hillsboro and Mebane. In 1919 the commissioners let the national highway across the county. The 1921 Highway Act, championed by Harriet Morehead Berry of Hillsborough, paid for a state network whose Central Highway ran through the town. The state bridged the Eno at Hillsboro in 1922, and the Durham-Hillsboro highway opened in 1924, after paving had sent traffic through Chapel Hill and onto a private detour whose owner charged drivers. StorylineHillsboro's improvements, 1922–19231922–1923 · 5 events · In 1922 and 1923 Hillsboro gained a new bridge, a new school and paved streets. On February 8, 1922 the State Highway Commission let a reinforced concrete bridge over the Eno to contractor George W. Kane for $30,651.20; it was the main way into town from the south until 1964. That September the town's new $100,000 brick school on West Tryon Street was nearly ready, and by early 1923 it housed grades one through eleven of the consolidated Hillsboro schools. Paving the streets with bond money cost Main Street some of its old elms and maples, to the regret of some citizens, and in April the Carolina Playmakers performed in the school's new auditorium. StorylineAuctioning land into house lots, 1923–19251923–1925 · 7 events · From 1923 to 1925 farms and fields around Chapel Hill and Carrboro were cut into house lots. The Chapel Hill Insurance and Realty Company opened Forest Hills on the Pittsboro road and lots on North Street in 1923. In 1924 the Durham Auction Company sold the Lloyd field in Carrboro and part of the old Purefoy land at sales with bands and free dinners, and W. C. Coker's woods east of the campus were laid out in large lots. In 1925 the realty company bid in most of Robert L. Strowd's farm east of town at auction and began selling lots there as Davie Woods. StorylineTraffic, parking and the drive against speeding in Chapel Hill, 1925–19581925–1958 · 12 events · By 1925 growing car traffic was crowding Chapel Hill's streets, and for more than thirty years the aldermen answered with new rules on parking and speed. They changed the parking angle, made Franklin Street a through street in 1930, and in 1934, after complaints of cars racing along the main street, put a motorcycle officer on the traffic laws, and 25 or 30 students were soon fined. After a schoolgirl was struck by a student's car, a boys' safety patrol began guarding crossings near the school. In 1956 businesses opened what the News called the town's first customer parking lot, and in 1958 the aldermen backed a plan for about 437 metered spaces downtown. StorylineChapel Hill's bus service and bus stations, 1936–19461936–1946 · 4 events · Chapel Hill's bus service went from a station on Rosemary Lane, through a contest between two lines, to a Colonial-style station on West Franklin Street held up by wartime shortages. In 1936 Carolina Coach Company moved the town's station to Rosemary Lane and Columbia Street, running ten round trips a day to Durham. In December 1942 Carolina Coach and the Virginia Stage Lines explained rival applications to run through Hillsboro and Yanceyville, and about fifty citizens petitioned for the Virginia line. By 1945 Carolina Coach had bought a lot at West Franklin and Kenan streets and promised a Colonial-style station, as the town planning commission wished, once wartime priorities for materials came through. It built the station in 1946. StorylineParking in Chapel Hill and on campus, 1956–19921956–1992 · 72 events · Chapel Hill's downtown parking passed from a merchants' lot to town meters and town lots. In June 1956 an association of East Franklin Street businesses opened what the News called the town's first customer parking lot. In 1958, after heated debate, the aldermen passed an ordinance for about 375 meters on business-district streets, and they voted to put meter money in the general fund, though Alderman Roland Giduz wanted it kept to buy land for off-street parking. In 1962 the town agreed to buy the Hanson property on East Rosemary Street for a lot for about 30 cars, and after deeds recorded in 1963 it began building a 70-car lot there, which opened in 1964. In 1965 the University zoned parking on the campus and began towing, and the town banned parking on South Road and let the police tow illegally parked cars. Street meter income later fell. In 1977 the town banned weekday parking on 41 streets near the campus; a court barred its free permits for residents after a law student sued, and the aldermen adopted a narrower permit ordinance in 1978. Voters turned down a Rosemary Street parking deck in 1979, and after court rulings limited towing in 1982 the town required hearings and police supervision for tows and raised its fines. In 1984 the council opened talks with the Fraser Company on Rosemary Square, a deck with a hotel-condominium on the Rosemary Street lot. From 1985 Chapel Hill and Carrboro raised parking fines and changed their towing and street rules, and the University raised permit prices nearly every year while it planned a parking deck on the Craige lot; after protests over paying for it with permit fees, the trustees raised fees in 1989 to help repay a 1,600-space deck. The Craige deck opened in September 1991. In 1991 and 1992 Chapel Hill limited commuter parking on McCauley Street, let downtown developers offer transportation plans instead of parking, eased its towing rules and began ticketing cars parked on sidewalks, and Carrboro raised its parking fines to $25. StorylineChapel Hill's thoroughfare plan, road widenings and bypasses, 1959–19941959–1994 · 32 events · The State Highway Commission approved a northern bypass around Chapel Hill and Carrboro in 1959, and in 1961 Chapel Hill adopted a long-range thoroughfare plan of 32 projects that included one. The plan was amended in 1962 and adopted for the town and its environs in 1965, with a road along Bolin Creek, an outer loop and one-way pairs downtown. That fall the aldermen pressed the state to return to the plan's route for a northwest bypass. From 1973 residents and the University opposed proposed roads through Battle Park, along Bolin Creek and past the Horace Williams House as the plan was revised, and in 1979 the town asked the state for a southern bypass over rural residents' objections. The council withdrew that request in 1980. In 1985 the town and the state made Pittsboro and South Columbia streets a one-way pair, and in 1988 the council endorsed the state's design for widening the U.S. 15-501 bypass to four lanes with a planted median. The state let the first widening contract in 1989 and put off widening South Columbia Street until 1994. From 1990 to 1992 Chapel Hill put off a decision on widening South Columbia Street, made frontage roads along U.S. 15-501 its first federal road request and chose a four-lane design with a median for widening N.C. 86, while the county commissioners opposed widening N.C. 54. In 1993 and 1994 Chapel Hill and Durham studied the U.S. 15-501 corridor, weighing six lanes against light rail, and in November 1994 the council endorsed the state's four-lane plan for N.C. 86. StorylineDaniel Boone Village, Hillsborough, 1966–19781966–1978 · 8 events · James J. Freeland's Daniel Boone Village grew from an inn and restaurant at the South Churton Street exit of I-85 in 1966 into an amusement park with a railroad, rides, rinks, an amphitheater and a wax museum by the early 1970s. The rides were gone by the end of the decade and a shopping center replaced the park's north end, while Freeland moved old buildings to the village and the Big Barn hosted campus parties. StorylineChapel Hill, Carrboro and the bicycle, 1971–19921971–1992 · 33 events · Chapel Hill lifted its ban on bicycles on its main downtown streets in 1971 and marked bike routes, and Mayor Howard Lee led about 500 riders on a Bike Day parade. The town began ticketing cyclists, studied licensing and safety, and in 1974 began registering bicycles; Carrboro's aldermen took up the Carrboro Cyclists' safety plan that fall. By 1980 Chapel Hill had built its bond-financed bikeways, and from 1980 to 1982 Carrboro built its own with bonds and a federal grant, opening the Jones Ferry Road lanes in 1981 and a railroad-spur path to Chapel Hill in 1982. From 1985 Chapel Hill fined cyclists on downtown sidewalks, the state funded bike lanes on Airport Road and Carr Street in 1987, and in 1989 Carrboro adopted a safety campaign for cyclists and a townwide sidewalk and bikeway plan. In 1990 and 1991 town and University police began bicycle patrols and Carrboro planned a bike path behind Carr Mill Mall, and Chapel Hill, after sending back a helmet rule for all riders, required helmets for riders under 16. StorylineChoosing the I-40 route through Orange County, 1971–19891971–1989 · 17 events · Federal highway officials favored a route for Interstate 40 through Orange County in 1971. Chapel Hill's aldermen opposed the route proposed in 1973 and in 1974 resolved to join ECOS in a possible suit, and in 1976 county planners favored carrying I-40 traffic on I-85 instead. After the state approved a route through southern Orange County in 1977, the towns and county sued in 1978; Chapel Hill withdrew and a judge dismissed the suit in 1979, and the county appealed. The interstate through the county, named for Harriet Morehead Berry in 1986, was finished south of Hillsborough in 1988. Gov. Jim Martin opened its first section, between U.S. 15-501 and New Hope Church Road, that September, and in 1989 Chapel Hill put money toward landscaping the new interchanges. StorylineThe Franklin Street extension fight in Carrboro, 19841984 · 5 events · A Carrboro citizens' task force recommended extending Franklin Street into downtown Carrboro in 1984, and the aldermen put $700,000 in bonds for it on the November ballot, choosing a route along Carr Street by the mayor's tie-breaking vote. Residents organized against the road, and voters rejected the extension bonds while approving bonds for streets and bike lanes. StorylineThe Pittsboro Street extension, 1987–19911987–1991 · 6 events · Extending Pittsboro Street through Little Fraternity Court drew opposition from Northside residents, fraternities and University Square at 1987 hearings. The Chapel Hill Town Council dropped it from its capital improvements program in 1989 and from the thoroughfare plan in June 1991, though UNC officials had supported it. That October state highway staff said they would still encourage the road. StorylineLight rail for the Triangle, 1990–20191990–2019 · 4 events · In January and February 1990 the Chapel Hill Town Council, the Carrboro aldermen and the Orange County commissioners backed studies of a Triangle light rail line on existing tracks, pressed by the Durham group Save the Water as cheaper than new highways and kinder to watersheds. In March 2019 GoTriangle stopped planning the Durham-Orange light rail line after Duke University declined to sign needed agreements, and the county ended its work on it. StorylineGun rules in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and at UNC, 1990–19941990–1994 · 17 events · In 1990 Joe Herzenberg asked Chapel Hill's town attorney to study local gun control, and the attorney reported that the town could not ban handgun sales. In April 1992 the Town Council adopted Herzenberg's ordinance barring guns on town property, at street fairs and on public transportation, and UNC banned concealed weapons in its Code of Student Conduct. After crowded hearings Chapel Hill adopted five more gun ordinances in November 1993, Carrboro formed a study committee, and in 1994 Buy Back the Hill bought about 100 guns from residents.

Indexed works

Works about Roads, Rail & Transportation from library and archive catalogs. The most widely held appear first; novels are not shown here. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

Filter these works by material, period, or place. Counts refer to works, not individual copies. A work may appear under more than one period or place.

Material

Maps 133Histories 60Periodicals 22Biography 13Plats 13other types 73

Period

Colonial era (to 1775) 417th century 418th century 23Revolution (1775–1783) 1219th century 41Civil War (1861–1865) 1920th century 23World War II era 3

Place

Orange County 263Chapel Hill 242North Carolina (statewide) 153Hillsborough 102Carrboro 90City of Durham (neighboring) 80

Widely held

Orange County, N.C. bridge records 1787-1865

Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2013

Stewart E. Dunaway's compilation of Orange County road and bridge papers concerning county bridges between 1787 and 1865. It reproduces documents in facsimile, with maps and partial transcriptions, and provides names useful for genealogical research. First compiled in two volumes in 2008, then combined and updated, this 2013 edition has 253 pages, 28 cm.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Bridges.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 388.1 ORANGE NC Cardinal UNC Durham

Farewell forever, old road to Durham : lessons from the history of transportation planning in the North Carolina Piedmont

Chilton, Mark · 2012 · Hand Made Books

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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Railroads.

NC Cardinal UNC Durham

Orange County, N.C. Road Records

Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2008

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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the OCPL record: North Carolina -- Orange County -- Roads.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 388.1 ORANGE NC Cardinal Durham

Orange County, North Carolina, road records

Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2009

Three volumes of Orange County road records assembled by Stewart E. Dunaway from the original petitions, orders and maps at the North Carolina State Archives, reproduced in facsimile with partial transcriptions. Volume 1 covers 1786 to 1820, volume 2 1820 to 1849 and volume 3 1850 to 1883. The papers document the laying out and upkeep of county roads and name the residents involved. June 2009 update, distributed through Lulu, 28 cm.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Roads.

NC Cardinal UNC

Orange County, North Carolina Lost Deeds Records (1752-1769,1793)

Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2013

Stewart E. Dunaway's 2013 compilation of Orange County deed records outside the regular deed books, covering 1752 to 1769 and 1793. The loose papers include road petitions and cartway orders, providing material for county history, genealogy and the history of roads.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Durham record: Roads -- North Carolina -- Orange County -- History.

Durham

Orange County, N.C., road records. Volume I, 1786-1820

Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2010 · S.E. Dunaway

Stewart E. Dunaway's first volume of Orange County road records, reproducing documents and maps from the North Carolina State Archives for the years 1786 to 1820, with partial transcriptions, an index and a list of overseers. Road papers name the landowners along each route. Self-published in 2010, 348 pages.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Roads.

UNC
Show 2 more

Freedom riders : 1961 and the struggle for racial justice

Arsenault, Raymond · 2006 · Oxford University Press

Raymond Arsenault's history of the 1961 Freedom Rides and the campaign against segregated interstate travel in the South. Published by Oxford University Press in 2006. Its North Carolina material reaches Chapel Hill, Durham, Greensboro and Charlotte, which is where the Orange County connection lies, and the wider subject is African American civil rights work, segregation in transportation and race relations through the twentieth century.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Segregation in transportation.

UNC

A taste of heaven : a collection of recipes

Cross Roads Baptist Church (Hillsborough, N.C.) · 2005 · Morris Press Cookbooks

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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Cross Roads Baptist Church (Hillsborough, N.C.) -- History.

UNC

Recently indexed: An act to incorporate the University Rail Road Company (1869) · Alexander Boyd Andrews (1894) · Autobiography and biography of Rev. Joseph Caldwell ... : first president of the University of North Carolina (1860) · Autobiography and biography of Rev. Joseph Caldwell, D.D. LL.D., first president of the University of North Carolina (1860) · Bikeways and bicycle use, Chapel Hill, NC (1978) · Capt. and Mrs. Fred Smith to celebrate 50-year romance in railroading today : popular railroad conductor is fondly remembered by thousands of university students he has hauled from University Junction to Chapel Hill : has seen 43 years of service (1931)

Search all 479 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this theme. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled. Books marked Wider context cover the broader subject rather than this theme itself.

  • Start here · NC 388.1 ORANGE Orange County, N.C. Road Records 2013

    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.

  • Foundational · NC 385.065 TRE The North Carolina Railroad, 1849-1871, and the Modernization of North Carolina Trelease, Allen W. · 1991

    In 1849 the legislature chartered the North Carolina Railroad, finished in 1856 from Goldsboro through Raleigh, Greensboro and Salisbury to Charlotte. Allen W. Trelease follows the company to 1871, when it leased its line to the Richmond and Danville, and weighs what the railroad meant for the state's development; the line spurred the growth of Durham, Company Shops (later Burlington) and High Point. UNC Press, 1991; 486 pages with illustrations and maps.

  • Foundational · NC 388.1 ORANGE Orange County, N.C. Bridge Records 1787-1865 2013

    Stewart E. Dunaway's compilation of Orange County road and bridge papers concerning county bridges between 1787 and 1865. It reproduces documents in facsimile, with maps and partial transcriptions, and provides names useful for genealogical research. First compiled in two volumes in 2008, then combined and updated, this 2013 edition has 253 pages, 28 cm.

Show 6 more
  • Wider context · NC 385.097 RAI Railroading in the Carolina Sandhills: A Compilation of Historical Essays on Railroad Operations 1985

    Railroads of the Sandhills region of North and South Carolina, in essays by S. David Carriker on the lines and how they were run. Heritage Publishing Company of Matthews issued the first volume, on the nineteenth century from 1825 to 1900, in 1985 and the second, on 1900 to 1985, in 1987. Both are illustrated, partly in color, and indexed, and Carriker later wrote and edited further volumes.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 388.1 ORANGE Orange County, N.C. Road Records 2009

    Orange County road records gathered by Stewart E. Dunaway in three volumes, covering 1786 to 1820, 1820 to 1849 and 1850 to 1883, and issued in an updated edition in 2009 with illustrations, maps and an index. Dunaway has published many other compilations on Hillsborough and Orange County, among them histories of local mills, town lots and land grants.

  • Wider context · NC 975.658 STO Company Shops, the Town Built by A Railroad Stokes, Durward T. · 1981

    Burlington began as Company Shops, the town the North Carolina Railroad built around its maintenance shops in the 1850s, incorporated in 1866 and renamed in 1887, and Durward T. Stokes tells its history. The town lies in Alamance County, formed from Orange in 1849. John F. Blair published the 169 pages, with illustrations, a bibliography and an index, in 1981.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC BIO CHURTON SMI The Young Man From Mitre Court: William Churton, Surveyor, 1710-1767 Smith, Marshall L. · 1998

    Marshall L. Smith's brief life of William Churton, 1710 to 1767, the surveyor who laid out Hillsborough in the 1750s, with notes on the Churton family. Self-published in Hillsborough in 1998, 22 unnumbered pages with illustrations and maps.

  • Wider context · NC 388.1 GUI Guilford County, North Carolina Road and Bridge Records 2008

    Stewart E. Dunaway's compilation of Guilford County road and bridge records in three volumes, covering 1799 to 1839, 1840 to 1854 and 1855 to 1890, with maps and an index. Issued in 2008 with no publisher named. Guilford was formed in 1771 from parts of Rowan and Orange counties.

  • Wider context · NC 388.1 PER Person County, North Carolina Road and Bridge Records, 1797-1888 2008

    County documents on roads and bridges in Person County from 1797 to 1888, compiled by Stewart E. Dunaway and issued in 2008: 263 pages with illustrations, maps and an index. Person County, cut from Caswell in 1791, lies just north of Orange.

In the chronology

A selection of 12 events from the 1,444 chronology entries for this theme, including highlights and examples from different years. See all 1,444 dated events in the chronology →

  1. John Lawson's party fords the Haw and meets a Virginia pack train in the Haw Fields On the last stages before Occaneechi Town, Lawson's party stripped in cold weather to ford the Haw River, which he described as running among boulders the size of houses. The next day, crossing the rich land known as the Haw Fields, they met a pack train of thirty loaded horses and four or five men led by Massey, an Englishman from Leeds trading out of Virginia, and reached the Occaneechi town about three that afternoon. People: John Lawson Place: Haw River ford and the Haw Fields (now Alamance County)Internet Archive: Douglas L. Rights, "The Trading Path to the Indians", North Carolina Historical Review 8 (1931), p. 417
  2. 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. Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Calvin Graves · Also mentions: North Carolina RailroadIn the index: North Carolina Railroad Company · Documenting the American South: Railroads in North Carolina
  3. Elizabeth Cotten composes Freight Train At about age eleven, growing up near the railroad tracks in the settlement that became Carrboro, Elizabeth Cotten wrote "Freight Train." She played a right-handed guitar upside down, and the song became a folk standard after Folkways released her recording in 1958. People: Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten Place: CarrboroSearch the index · NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources: Elizabeth Cotten 1893-1987 (G-129)
  4. State convicts leave the Southern Railway's ballast quarry at Hillsboro The state convicts who had been getting out ballast at Hillsboro for the Southern Railway were taken back to the penitentiary at Raleigh on January 20, and the Southern Broken Stone Company was to suspend work for a month or so. Place: Southern Broken Stone Company quarry, HillsboroughSearch the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), January 28, 1904, p. 3
  5. Journey of Reconciliation comes to Chapel Hill Interracial riders testing segregation on interstate buses reached Chapel Hill on April 12, 1947. The next day police arrested four of them at the bus station and a white cab driver struck rider James Peck. Convicted in Orange County, Bayard Rustin, Igal Roodenko and Joe Felmet surrendered at the Hillsborough courthouse on March 21, 1949 to serve chain-gang sentences. People: Bayard Rustin, George Houser, Igal Roodenko, Joseph A. Felmet Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Hillsborough courthouseTown of Chapel Hill: Information packet for Freedom Riders resolution (Council agenda, January 28, 2008) · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, February 27, 1976, p. 1
  6. Hyconeechee Regional Library is established The three county library systems incorporated as one region to enlarge book collections, run a shared bookmobile and provide trained supervision. The regional board held its second meeting on September 13, 1948 at the Confederate Memorial Library in Hillsboro, with Sydney Green of Orange County as president and Mrs. Douglas Davis as regional librarian. Place: Countywide · Also named: Sydney Green, Mrs. Douglas Davis · Also mentions: Confederate Memorial LibraryThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 23, 1948, p. 1
  7. Chapel Hill orders traffic lights for the post office corner On the recommendation of aldermen R. J. M. Hobbs and Obie Davis, the Chapel Hill board told town manager Gilbert Ray to put up two lights at Franklin and Henderson streets, one for pedestrians at the safety walk and one for cars, to end U-turns at the post office corner, and moved Henderson Street parking to the west side. The same meeting swore in Robert Fowler to fill the seat of the late alderman E. B. Patterson. People: Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs, Gilbert W. Ray, Robert Lee Fowler Place: Franklin and Henderson streets, Chapel Hill · Also named: Obie Davis, Gilbert Ray, Robert Fowler · Also mentions: Henderson StreetSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 29, 1948, p. 1
  8. Braxton Foushee becomes Carrboro’s first Black alderman Braxton Foushee was elected to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen in 1969, the first Black member of the town's governing board, and served until 1981. He pressed for paved roads and sidewalks in Black neighborhoods and counted bringing bus service to Carrboro as his proudest achievement. People: Braxton Foushee Place: CarrboroTown of Carrboro: Braxton Foushee to Receive the Order of the Long Leaf Pine (November 14, 2025)
  9. Chapel Hill Transit begins service Chapel Hill's municipal bus system began running on August 1, 1974, after Mayor Howard Lee and UNC Chancellor Ferebee Taylor cut the ribbon, with eight town, campus and park-and-ride routes. Carrboro was not yet served. People: Howard N. Lee Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Ferebee TaylorSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel: bus system opening day ceremony, August 26, 1974 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, August 26, 1974, p. 11; The Daily Tar Heel, November 8, 1976, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, September 5, 1984, p. 4
  10. Chapel Hill commissions a study of how to split bus costs with UNC and Carrboro The town manager commissioned Barton-Aschman Associates of Washington to study dividing the bus system's costs, since Chapel Hill appeared to be paying more than its share: the town had put in $410,000 that year and the University $396,000 in passes resold to students, while Carrboro, in a nine-month trial, paid $20,000. Transportation director Robert Godding said a cost agreement was needed before the April budget. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Robert GoddingSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 21, 1978, p. 1
  11. Carrboro backs a study of turning the old University Railroad line into a greenway The Town Council unanimously approved an agreement to study converting the 11-mile rail corridor, which still carries coal to UNC's cogeneration plant, into a multi-use trail once the plant stops using coal. Place: CarrboroChapelboro: Carrboro Commits to New Co-Gen Rail Line Project
  12. Tropical Storm Chantal floods Orange County Chantal dropped up to 10 inches of rain on Orange County on the night of July 6, 2025. Chapel Hill crews made more than 50 water rescues around Camelot Village and Eastgate Crossing, Carrboro's Weatherhill Pointe flooded, and the Eno at Hillsborough set a record crest on July 7. The county declared an emergency that day. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Orange County, NC Emergency Operations Center: Tropical Storm Chantal Executive Summary #8 (September 4, 2025)

See all 1,444 dated events in the chronology →

Places in this theme

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 59 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.

Show 63 more

All places and the county map →

Research sources

Sources and research tools for this subject. Research guide: How to research with Orange County Indexed.

Background 6

Show all 6

Historic sites, markers, and maps

Records of the time

Collections and databases 6

Show all 6

Local help

Related themes

Growth, Land & Planning →UNC & Campus Life →Eno & Environment →Business, Shops & Commerce →Schools & Education →Research Triangle Park and the county’s transformation →

Picture: Farm Security Administration photographs, 1939–1940, Library of Congress; public domain. Image credits →

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Browse New Arrivals → Meet Local Authors → Explore Local Publishers →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026