by Charly Mann

We all have a neighborhood we came from. It is from here we go off into the world, and come home to. For me this is the Whitehead Circle neighborhood of Chapel Hill where my father lived at 426 Whitehead Circle from 1964 until 2003. It was from here that in the 10th grade I left from the back yard to descend down an embankment to the 15-501 bypass and begin my daily 16-mile sojourn hitchhiking to Durham High School. (In those days it did not seem to be a problem to go any public school in the state as long as you could get there, and I then had more friends in Durham than Chapel Hill). It was also here that I lived when I started my freshman year at UNC in September of 1968.

Top two photos are of William Robert Mann's home (front and back) from 1976. This one is from 2009.

The Whitehead neighborhood sits between Mason Farm and Purefoy Roads. It is a beautiful place where the majority of the homes lie in a wooded circle. Most of the houses were architect designed in an assortment of modern and traditional styles. All of the homes were built in the 1950s and early sixties. As you walk the area the most noticeable quality is all of the tall oaks and pines that shade almost the entire neighborhood.

419 Whitehead Circle, Chapel Hill, NC

My Dad and I rarely went anywhere in the car. You could walk to campus in fifteen minutes and almost anywhere else in town in twenty. My father was friends with everyone on Whitehead Circle.

Melissa Long and Dr Long's house at 424 Whitehead Circle, Chapel Hill, NC

This neighborhood will always be a part of me and is where many of my memories are from. Whenever I come back to Chapel Hill I always take a drive or walk there, and leave feeling relaxed and happy. Everything is so familiar, even though it has sometimes been five years between visits.

Kai Jurgensen house, 410 Whitehead Circle, Chapel Hill, NC

I feel privileged to have lived on Whitehead Circle and these photographs and this song are a way to share with you, and for me, to relive, this special place.

400 Whitehead Circle, Chapel Hill, NC

Whitehead Circle is named for Richard Henry Whitehead who was made first dean of the UNC medical school in 1890. Even though Whitehead only stayed in Chapel Hill for fifteen years (in 1905 he became dean of the University of Virginia medical school), he established the medical curriculum that ensured UNC would have a first rate medical school.

First Dean of the University of North Carolina Medical School, Richard Henry Whitehead (1865-1916)

Whitehead Circle has had many distinguished residents. I will include a small sampling of them here:

Edgar Alden, UNC music department chairman, violin professor and expert glider pilot, with his wife Dorothy, one of Chapel Hill's best violinists, and their daughters Meredith and Priscilla Alden. Alden founded and was the original conductor of Chapel Hill’s Village Orchestra. Dorothy Alden started, and was the conductor of, Chapel Hill's Young People's Orchestra.

Many houses on Whitehead Circle are set back deep in the woods

Walter Spearman (1908-1987) who was the most acclaimed professor in the UNC School of journalism and a distinguished actor in many productions by the Playmaker's Theater. During his 45 year teaching career he may well have been UNC's most beloved professor.

Michael Barefoot founder and owner of the United States largest gourmet food store, A Southern Season.

407 Whitehead Circle, Chapel Hill, NC

Dr. Carl W. Gottschalk, physiologist and internationally known kidney researcher, was a professor of medicine at the UNC medical school from 1952 until his death in 1997. He was also a collector of rare books, and left his collection to UNC's Rare Book library. It contains 12,400 items dating from the mid-sixteenth century to the end of the twentieth century.

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