The following was complied from various sources and provided by the Chapel Hill, Orange County Visitors Bureau


Chapel Hill

The population of Chapel Hill in 2000 was 48,715.

Chapel Hill is at an altitude of 510 feet above sea level and has an average rainfall of 42 inches per year.

The town derives it name from the highest point where a church (of England) was located in the late 1700s. Called New Hope Chapel hill (where The Carolina Inn stands today), the name was shortened to Chapel Hill.

Chapel Hill was chosen as the site of the first state university because of the area?s ?healthfulness,? and the seat of the University was on the summit of a very high ridge called Point Prospect.

Local settlers of the community promoted the selection of the town as the site of the University by donating 1,386 acres of land.

When the cornerstone for the University was laid in 1793, 30 two- and four-acre lots (at the center of today?s downtown) were auctioned to the villagers, who bought 22 of them,

The earliest gravestone in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery is for a student named George Clarke, who died in 1798 at the age of 19. Graves of other students reflect an era when it was difficult and costly to take bodies home for interment. Other unmarked graves bear the remains of slaves.

The Old Chapel Hill Cemetery originally served as a burial place for University faculty, their slaves, and students. It was deeded to the Town of Chapel Hill in 1989 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in June 1995.

A recent tombstone in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery that attracts many visitors is: ?I was a Tar Heel born I and a Tar Heel bred I and here I lie /a Tar Heel dead. Born 1896 and still here 1980?. The gravesite is for Jane Tenney Gilbert.

In 1818, Chapel Hill had four stores, two hotels, a blacksmith shop and 13 homes. By 1876, the village had four general stores, three blacksmith shops, three woodworking shops, two drugstores and several shoemakers.

The village grew slowly until the 1850s, when enrollment and funding of the University expanded. Chapel Hill was incorporated in 1851 and elected its first mayor in 1879.

In 1869, the population of Chapel Hill was 937? ?white population 483 and the blacks 454, making all told 937?according to the first extant minutes of the July 17,1869, commissioners meeting.

In the early 1880s, Dr. Thomas W. Harris, founder of the UNC medical school, operated a drugstore and private medical practice on the northeast corner of East Franklin and Henderson Streets, after Richard B. Saunders established the business there in 1855.

Telephone service was brought to Chapel Hill in 1901 by Henry Houston (?Hoot?) Patterson, who owned an upscale merchandise store in town.

The first automobile arrived in Chapel Hill in 1901, owned by University pharmacy professor E. Vernon Howell. The first dealership was founded in 1914.
Main streets of Chapel Hill were paved in 1920, and the road to Durham was fully paved by 1926.

The Carolina Coffee Shop was established in 1922 as the Carolina Confectionery, making it one of the oldest original restaurants in the area. (Before that, Gooch?s Cafe operated there.)

The first motion picture in Chapel Hill was shown in the UNC Campus YMCA building, which was built between 1904 and 1907. This is also where the first jukebox in town was installed.

Graham Memorial (the first student union) was completed in 1931. Previously occupying the site were several hotels, including the Eagle, Union and Chapel Hill Hotels, plus the University Inn.

Until World War II, a vital segment of village life was boarding houses, often run by widows. After the University started serving meals to students on campus, their consistent mediocrity led to success of private dining facilities around town...

Today, Chapel Hill and Carrboro have one of the largest choices of fine, ethnic and standard-fare restaurants in the country. With about 210 restaurants and a combined population of about 60,000 residents, the two communities offer a restaurant for every 285 residents.

Downtown Chapel Hill alone has nine bookstores.

Franklin Street was named after Benlamin Franklin. Rosemary Street was named after residents who lived at its opposite ends?Rose and Mary.

Since 1974, Chapel Hill has operated one of the best bus systems in the country. Besides regular service to and from the campus, it offers six park-and-ride facilities in Chapel and Carrboro for commuters? and since January 2002 service is free to all users.

Per capita, more subscription copies of The New Yorker magazine are delivered to residents of Chapel Hill than to residents of New York City.

Traditionally, fire engines are red. In Chapel Hill, however, Engines 32, 33 and 35 are Carolina blue, like the color of the Carolina Tar Heel sports teams.

Chapel Hill has been referred to as the ?Southern Part of Heaven,? after the title of the book by William Meade Prince, which was published in 1950.

Carrboro

The population of Carrboro in 2000 was 16782. Carrboro?s current population falls within a cozy area of about 4.25 square miles.
Carrboro was founded in 1882, when a spur from the Durham-Greensboro Southern Railway line was extended to link students at the University of North Carolina with the outside world. (The last passenger train to Carrboro ran in 1936, a result of the growing use of automobiles.)

The train depot, first named West End, was located one mile from campus, the minimum distance (as mandated by a state law) to keep students as far as possible from ?city temptations?.

Alberta Mill, the town?s first textile mill, was built by Thomas P. Lloyd in 1899. Ten years later, it was bought by Julian Carl, a Durham tobacco magnate.

Carrboro was incorporated in 1911 and named after Carr when he agreed to furnish electricity to town residents from his mill. (The town had been named Venable, in honor of Francis P. Venable, who was president of the University at the time.)

Carrboro?s railroad depot, first textile mill (now Carr Mill Mall) and a former gristmill are all listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Currently within the Carrboro city limits, there are approximately 150 structures still standing that were built before 1930.

In 1973, concerned bicyclists and town staff members devised a bikeway plan for Carrboro. Today, the town has one of the most extensive on-and off-road bikeway systems in the state.

North Carolina has nine designated State Bicycling Highways, one of which?NC Bike Route 2?runs
across the southern portion of Orange County through Carrboro. The highway, also called the Mountains-to-Sea Bikeway, is the longest of the nine at 700 miles!

Performance Bicycle Shop, the largest retailer in the bicycle industry, has one of its 34 nationwide stores in Carrboro. (Its assembly and distribution center is three miles south in Chatham County.)

Carrboro has been referred to as ?the Paris of the Piedmont,? because of its high concentration of art galleries and related facilities and services.

The ArtsCenter, a 21,000 sq.ft. community arts center that offers a variety of classes and events in the visual, literary and performing arts, began as a painting class in a loft in 1975. First called The ArtSchool, it adopted its current name in 1986.

On April 3, 1996, Joan Baez scheduled a fill-in concert at The ArtsCenter, and tickets to its 350-seat concert hall sold out in an hour.

Carrboro-based Mammoth Records was recently sold to the Walt Disney Company. It was started in 1987 by Jay Faires to promote young music groups and now has 20 employees with branch offices in New York and London.

In June 1995, Vegetarian Times, a national magazine, named Carrboro as one of the most vegetarian-friendly small towns in the U.S.

In June 1995, Entrepreneur magazine spotlighted Weaver Street Market, located next to Carr Mill Mall, for its cooperative organizational structure and sales (in 1994) of $4.5-million.

Carrboro has a strong small business community. In 1997, there were more than 150 operating within its corporate limits. The town encourages small business development through a special revolving loan fund.