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Chapel Hill in the late 1950s
by Charly Mann
In 1958 UNC students who lived on or near campus had 3000 cars in Chapel Hill. Unfortunately there were nowhere near that many parking spaces on campus. Starting in 1958 all these students were required to park their cars in the Bell Tower Parking lot between 7 AM and 3 PM on weekdays and 7 AM to 1 PM on Saturday. Freshmen were not allowed to have cars, and sophomores could only if they had a "C" average. All student cars had to have a parking sticker on the front driver's side window. Any student who violated these rules could have their car privileges revoked. The problem was that the Bell Tower lot only had 500 spaces. It was built in 1957 for a cost of $75,000. Obviously there were 2,500 cars that students had to park off campus and that often meant in downtown. Parking on campus during these hours was reserved for faculty and staff, as well as any student who had to commute to campus. Students who were veterans or physically handicapped were exempt from these rules.
Downtown Chapel Hill in 1959 when almost everyone jaywalked across Franklin Street
Chapel Hill and the University both accurately projected town and university growth in the late 1950s for 1970 determining there would have to add an additional 6000 extra parking places to satisfy the town and campus needs by then. Less than half that many spaces were added.
Crowell Little Ford was located just before Eastgate in a large new building. They had recently moved from downtown where they were located at the NW corner of Columbia and Franklin Street. In these days east Franklin Street beyond the downtown historic district was called the Durham Road.
Chapel Hill police officer Eugene Cozart giving out one of the first parking tickets in Chapel Hill . In the background you can see Eubank's Drug Store then Chapel Hill's oldest business. Also visible is the NC Cafeteria where the food was truly mediocre. Next door is Lacock's Shoe Repair and Max Snipes' Barber Shop.
In October of 1958 metered parking came to Chapel Hill. There were then 405 parking spaces in town, almost all diagonal. The majority of the spaces had dual meters. Chapel Hill then had a police force of twenty officers, and one, patrolman Eugene Cozart, was assigned to issue meter violation tickets and collect money from the machines. The maximum parking time on the meters was two hours.
Until Belk-Leggett-Horton Department Store opened in Chapel Hill just west of the corner of West Franklin and Church Street in the late 1950s most Chapel Hillians traveled to downtown Durham to do much of their shopping. The best department store in Durham was Ellis Stone which was founded in 1885, and would be akin to a Macy's today. Dollar Days was a huge three day sales event in February throughout downtown Chapel Hill during this time. Chapel Hill's biggest sale event was Hot Diggity Days which occurred for a week each July, and many of the deals rivaled today's early morning Black Friday specials.
This is the inside of the Bank of Chapel Hill on Franklin Street in 1958. The Bank of Chapel Hill was then the only bank in town. They also had a branch in Glen Lennox and Carrboro.
For the first time in its history residents of Chapel Hill were allowed to buy bottles of liquor in 1959. In January voters of Orange County voted to go from "dry" to "wet". This meant hard liquor could be sold to those over the age of 21 at state owned ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Commission) Stores. The last time Orange County had put this issue on the ballot was in September of 1938 and the vote was 1938 to 1496 against the sale of liquor. In 1959 5713 Orange County residents voted, and by a margin of 825 approved liquor sales. The margin of victory came from Chapel Hill voters who went 1834 for to 617 against approving ABC store sales.
Chapel Hill was truly a slow paced sleepy little town for much of its history. Until October of 1958 many businesses including all Barber Shops were closed on Wednesday afternoon. This is the announcement that forever ended that Wednesday tradition.
Comments:
Liz Cherry
5:10 PM Sun 1/17/2010
I remember a small grocery store in the mid-1950s next to where Spanky's is today. The Hub later moved into that location. I recall they had baskets of fruit outside in large baskets.
sue w
7:04 PM Sat 1/16/2010
Bill Harrison I remember that too.....when the Tarheels won the championship. Half the town was downtown afterwards with a big barn fire in the middle of the street & people climbing in the trees to see all the action. I lived there from 1952 until 1962 so Chapel Hill will always be arrested in that time for me. I glad I wasn't there when all the civil rights struggles were going on. As town kids we used all of the university's facilities....the campus, swimming pools, tennis courts etc. It's funny when I think back on that, we thought of the universities facilities as being ours. I remember meeting a few of the basketball players that made up the team & they were so nice to the local kids.
Bill Harrison
2:58 PM Fri 1/15/2010
Looking back on 78 years of my life, most living in or near Chapel Hill, I think 1957 through 1960 were the most wonderful time to live in Chapel Hill. It all started about the time the Tarheels went 32-0 and won the NCAA basketball championship, and ended with the election of 1960 which started dividing people about the civil rights issues of the day.
Dianne Thompson Rolwing
6:35 PM Thu 1/14/2010
I have such wonderful memories growing up in Chapel Hill. The one memory that stands out, while walking the sidewalks downtown, was seeing the lovely "Flower Ladies". It was a sad when they were forced off the sidewalks to set up in the allies. They were just one of the many things that made Chapel Hill so unique.
sue w
5:10 PM Thu 1/14/2010
We moved to Chapel Hill in 1952 & for a few years we lived on Franklin Street & lived there when they started building Belk Leggett & Horton. My sister & II used to go over there later in the day when the construction workers had left & climb all over the new construction....dangerous but fun. We also lived there when the gas station caught on fire. I can't remember the year, but I bet Charly does! .
Sarah Geer
3:57 PM Thu 1/14/2010
I loved going downtown during Hot Diggity Days. Many of the merchants put tables of merchandise out on the sidewalk at very deep discounts.
I'm glad you mentioned Max Snipes' Barber Shop, a real community fixture for the guys. It would be fun to see memories of the different barber shops and "beauty shoppes" in town. As a girl, I often went to the stylists on the mezzanine of Belks Department Store.
I was always amused to realize that the PTA was one of the major organizations supporting the change from dry to wet (sale of alcohol) in Chapel Hill. The revenue from liquor sales supported the schools, and in my mind this is why the Alcoholic Beverage Commission sales outlet was known as the "ABC store."
To a child, "the dime store" was the dominant store on Franklin Street. I loved going to Rose's and browsing all the bins of toys and other goods. During Easter week, Roses's also sold live baby chicks and ducklings, dyed in pastel colors.
Gary Edens
3:31 PM Thu 1/14/2010
Charly,
Love the fins on those fifty-nine Fords!
As always, your writing, photos,newspaper clippings, and music capture the spirit of the Southern Part of Heaven. Thanks for sharing.
Gary
Randy Scott
1:50 PM Thu 1/14/2010
I grew up in Chapel Hill and Carrboro during this time. My head is spinning with memories of that period, but I will mention only one now. At the far end of West Franklin Street about a block from today's Crook's Corner was a large ice-making plant which I recall we had to go to often to get ice.
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Chapel Hill is located on a hill whose only distinguishing feature in the 18th century was a small chapel on top called New Hope Chapel. This church was built in 1752 and is currently the location of The Carolina Inn. The town was founded in 1819, and chartered in 1851.
What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.
-- Charles Kuralt
Dark Side of the Hill -- Pink Floyd, the creators of the most popular album in history, Dark Side of the Moon, took the second half of their name from Floyd Council, a Chapel Hill native, and great blues singer and guitarist. He once belonged to a group called "The Chapel Hillbillies".
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Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
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There would probably be no Chapel Hill if the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees in 1793 had not chosen land across from New Hope Chapel for the location of the university. By 1800 there were about 100 people living in thirty houses surrounding the campus.
The University North Carolina's first student was Hinton James, who enrolled in February, 1795. There is now a dormitory on the campus named in his honor.
The University of North Carolina was closed from 1870 to 1875 because of lack of state funding.
William Ackland left his art collection and $1.25 million to Duke University in 1940 on the condition that he would be buried in the art museum that the University was to build with his bequest. Duke rejected this condition even though members of the Duke Family are buried in Duke Chapel. What followed was a long and acrimonious legal battle between Ackland relatives who now wanted the inheritance, Rollins College, and the University of North Carolina, each attempting to receive the funds. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1949 UNC was awarded the money for the museum. Ackland is buried near the museum's entrance. When the museum first opened, in the early sixties, there were rumors that his remains were leaking out of the mausoleum.
The official name of the Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus is the Coker Arboretum. It is named after Dr. William Cocker, the University's first botany professor. It occupies a little more than five acres. It was founded in 1903.
Chapel Hill's main street has always been called Franklin Street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in the early 1790s.
Chapel Hill High School and Chapel Hill Junior High were on Franklin Street in the same location as University Square until the mid 1960s.
The Colonial Drug Store at 450 West Franklin Street was owned and operated by John Carswell. It was famous for a fresh-squeezed carbonated orange beverage called a "Big O". In the early 1970s, I managed the Record and Tape Center next door, and must have had over 100 of those drinks. The Colonial Drug Store closed in 1996.
Sutton's Drugstore, which opened in 1923, has one of the last soda fountains in the South. It is one of the few businesses remaining on Franklin Street that was in operation when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Future President Gerald Ford lived in Chapel Hill twice. First when he was 24, in 1938, he took a law couse in summer school at UNC. He lived in the Carr Building, which was a law school dormitory. At the same time, Richard Nixon, the man he served under as Vice President, was attending law school at Duke. In 1942, Ford returned to Chapel Hill to attend the U.S. Navy's Pre-Flight School training program. He lived in a rental house on Hidden Hills Drive.
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Remember Jeff's Confectionary or the Scoreboard. I have a lot of fond memories walking downtown with my dad(we lived at 718 E. Franklin St.) and going to look at the scoreboard where they would update the football scores from all over the country in chalk. There was no better place to grow up in the world than Ol' Chapel Hill.