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
Planning the University’s growth and the south quadrangle, 1917–1922
How the University planned its postwar growth and turned it southward: John Nolen’s campus studies and 1919 plan, the trustees’ decision to build toward the south end, the consulting architects, and the first dormitories behind South Building, among them Steele and Mangum.
In briefPlanning for a larger University after 1916 turned its new building south of South Building, onto what became Polk Place. After the trustees endorsed a full campus plan, President Edward K. Graham brought in the national planner John Nolen, whose plan of February 1919 laid out fourteen new buildings and recommended building out the land south of South Building. In June 1919, planning for 1,500 students, the trustees chose to build toward the south end rather than add four dormitories at the north end. On University Day 1921 the Masons laid the cornerstone of a new dormitory. Steele Dormitory was the first building on what became Polk Place, and Mangum Dormitory opened in 1922.
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No works in the index are currently linked directly to this storyline. The works below provide background on UNC & Campus Life.
The full story
After the trustees endorsed a full campus plan in spring 1916, President Edward K. Graham brought in the national planner John Nolen. In 1918 Nolen advised placing the School of Applied Science building, paid for by the 1917 bonds, between Memorial Hall and the Peabody Building. In February 1919 he delivered a campus plan laying out fourteen new buildings, and he recommended building out the land south of South Building. In June 1919, planning for 1,500 students the next year, the trustees decided that new building should move toward the south end of the campus rather than into four dormitories proposed for the north end. The university engaged the Aberthaw firm in 1919 to survey the campus and rework its plan, and by May 1920 it had retained McKim, Mead and White of New York as consulting architects. In November 1919 the state building commission and the trustees authorized two dormitories for 175 students behind South Building. On University Day, October 12, 1921, the Grand Lodge of Masons laid the cornerstone of a new dormitory, the first building of the state's new program for the campus. Steele Dormitory, designed by J. A. Salter and built just south of Smith Hall, was the first building on what became Polk Place, and Mangum Dormitory opened in 1922.
In the chronology
Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 9 dated events in the chronology →
- President Edward K. Graham engages planner John Nolen to study the campus Urged by a faculty grounds committee of W. C. Coker, George Howe and Collier Cobb, formed in 1913, and after the trustees endorsed a full campus plan in spring 1916, Graham brought in the national planner John Nolen. Between 1917 and 1919 Nolen studied the campus and recommended building out the land south of South Building, the direction the 1920s expansion took. People: Collier Cobb, William Chambers Coker, George HoweSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 50 · Also: The Tar Heel, March 24, 1917, p. 1
- John Nolen recommends a site for the engineering building As plans took shape for the School of Applied Science building paid for by the 1917 bonds, planner John Nolen advised placing it between Memorial Hall and the Peabody Building and chose a spot for a flagpole. He promised broader campus plans by the June 1918 commencement. People: Edward Kidder GrahamSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 161
- The university hires Aberthaw and McKim, Mead and White for its expansion For the postwar building program the university engaged the Aberthaw firm in 1919 to survey the campus and rework its plan, and by May 1920 it had retained the New York firm of McKim, Mead and White, led by William Kendall, as consulting architects for red brick Colonial Revival buildings. Local supervision came later, under Thomas C. Atwood from 1921, with H. P. Alan Montgomery and, from 1922, Arthur C. Nash. People: Arthur Cleveland Nash, Thomas C. AtwoodSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 52 · Also: The Tar Heel, May 8, 1920, p. 3
- Planner John Nolen delivers a campus plan for the university Hired by the university's new buildings committees, John Nolen produced a campus plan in February 1919 that laid out fourteen new buildings, among them classrooms, a gymnasium and three dormitories. The university then engaged McKim, Mead and White and local architects to carry it out.Search the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District, National Register nomination (OR0303), p. 17
- UNC trustees turn the campus's growth southward and call for a landscape plan Planning for 1,500 students the next year, the trustees combined their committees on buying land and on buildings, authorized them to hire a landscape engineer to draft a development plan, and decided that new building should move toward the south end of the campus rather than into four dormitories proposed for the north end. They also voted a monument over the graves of President and Mrs. Graham. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, Charles T. Woollen, John Sprunt Hill, J. Bryan (John Bryan) Grimes, James Alexander GraySearch the index · The News (Chapel Hill), June 26, 1919, p. 1
- The state building commission and trustees authorize two new University dormitories The state building commission and the University trustees authorized the immediate building of two dormitories for 175 students to relieve crowded student housing, to be ready by the next September. They were to stand behind South Building, opening a new area of University growth.Search the index · The News (Chapel Hill), November 6, 1919, p. 5
- Steele Dormitory, the first building of the new south quadrangle, goes up Designed by Raleigh architect J. A. Salter and built just south of Smith Hall, Steele was the first building on what became Polk Place and the best-equipped dormitory the campus had yet seen.Search the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 53
- Masons lay the cornerstone of a new dormitory on University Day On University Day, October 12, 1921, the Grand Lodge of Masons, with about sixty local members marshaled by M. C. S. Noble, laid the cornerstone of a new dormitory, the first building of the state's new program for the campus. Lefler and Wager's lodge histories name it Grimes Dormitory and say Past Grand Master Samuel M. Gattis of Hillsborough's Eagle Lodge ran the ceremony and gave the address, with Chapel Hill's University Lodge taking part. The News called it the new Steele dormitory, then nearing completion; the group of four dormitories that includes Grimes had not yet been started. People: Samuel Mallett Gattis, M. C. S. NobleSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 319 · Also: The News (Chapel Hill), September 8, 1921, p. 3; The News (Chapel Hill), October 13, 1921, p. 1
- Mangum Dormitory opens, named for three members of the Mangum family The university opened Mangum Dormitory in 1922, naming it for Senator Willie Person Mangum, his nephew Willie Person Mangum Jr., and Professor Adolphus Williamson Mangum. People: Willie P. MangumSearch the index · Carolina Story: Mangum Residence Hall
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.
- Steele Building University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 2 events here
- Eagle Lodge Churches and lodges · Hillsborough · 1 event here
- Polk Place University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
- University Lodge Churches and lodges · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
Background on UNC & Campus Life
Background reading on UNC & Campus Life. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss this storyline. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Widely held
North Carolina baseball: the blue thread and the rise of an ACC power
A 2025 history of University of North Carolina baseball from its nineteenth-century beginnings to the program's rise as an ACC power. Chapters cover the early years on campus, the building of Boshamer Stadium, and the Mike Fox era. Self-published by the author, 288 pages.
Tar Heel Bred
Scott Whisnant's memoir of a life measured out in North Carolina basketball seasons. A former sportswriter, Whisnant writes for readers raised in ACC country who learned the fight song early and treated the conference tournament in Greensboro as the high point of the year, recalling family, friends and the personal milestones that fell alongside Tar Heel games. Subjects include humor and anecdotes as well as the team's history. Published by Bearface Publishing in 2025, 318 pages with photographs.
Bright and tender dark: a novel
Joanna Pearson's novel of a cold case at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Karlie Richards was a nineteen-year-old student when she was murdered; decades later her onetime roommate, divorced and in middle age, finds herself drawn back to the crime as online conspiracy theories about it multiply. A psychological thriller with a Chapel Hill setting, published by Bloomsbury in 2024, 275 pages.
Chapel Hill Murder and Mayhem
Rick Jackson's true crime history of Chapel Hill, published by The History Press in 2023, in 28 short chapters. Cases include the Efland bank robbery, the execution of John Henry Breeze, the unsolved murder of Suellen Evans, the killing at the Internationalist Bookstore and the death of Eve Carson.
Lessons afield : adventures in nature with students and other living things
R. Haven Wiley's anecdotes of field work with students at Mason Farm, the university's biological reserve on the edge of Chapel Hill, and at other natural settings in North Carolina. It is natural history and nature anecdotes, personal pieces from a working naturalist. Published in Carrboro by Hickory Woods Press in 2023, 109 pages with illustrations.
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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.
National Register files
Collections and databases
- John Nolen papers: Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1918 (University of North Carolina campus plan)
- John Nolen papers: University of North Carolina project correspondence
- NC LIVE: prepared search for Planning the University’s growth and the south quadrangle, 1917–1922 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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