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Joe Hakan - The Man Who Built Chapel Hill
by Charly Mann
Dean Smith Center
Like Baron von Haussmann, who almost single handedly designed and built Paris, Joe Hakan is the person most responsible for the Chapel Hill we all love. He designed and built the Dean Smith Center or Dean Dome, the tower and facilities for UNC-TV, the sundial outside the Morehead Planetarium, Manning Drive, and the Siena Hotel. He was also the Chief Engineer at the University of North Carolina in the fifties. In his lifetime he was literally responsible for hundreds of projects in the Triangle area. He loved UNC sports, knew all the coaches as friends, and if you did business in Chapel Hill you almost always had a connection to Joe. Joe died in May 2006, at the age of 80.
Joe Hakan
I had several connections to Joe, including the fact that my father-in-law married Joe's ex-wife Virginia. The above set of interviews of Joe, broadcast on WCHL some years ago, will teach you more about Chapel Hill history than any other source. My assocation to WCHL goes back to its beginnings with Ty Boyd in the late 50s. I would go by the station and he often gave me "rock" 45s that the station received. WCHL did not stray into playing "rock" music until the 1970s. In those days they were pure easy-listening. The station's owner, Sandy McClamroch, was also the mayor of Chapel Hill from 1961-1969. He and his family lived in my neighborhood of Greenwood ,at the intersection of Stagecoach and Greenwood Road. Below are a couple of pictures of me with his daughter, Ginny, in my driveway from July of 1954.
Charles Mann, Jenny McClamroch, & Karr Orr at Mann residence on Old Mill Road
Comments:
Bob Isenhower
2:32 PM Thu 4/1/2010
William Lanier Hunt was a Chapel Hill institution to anyone who knew him. I first met "Mr. Hunt" at the Zoom-Zoom. He often had lunch there on Sundays, though he certainly was not a "regular." I was working on the cash register and we struck up a conversation. Mr. Hunt had sparkling blue eyes and, although he was probably nearing 65 (this was in 1970 or so), was extremely agile. He moved with the grace of a dancer, which I found out later was something he had toyed with in his younger years. Mr. Hunt had attended the University and either studied botany as a major or as an avocation under Dr. Coker. Mr. Hunt donated land, about 100 acres, to the University to build the Arboretum. Mr. Hunt had tons of treasures, papers, rugs, furniture, etc. that he kept in a unit at Stratford Hills Apartments (I guess there were no climate controlled storage units at the time). Mr. Hunt allowed us (me and ex-wife) to stay there for $125 per month with the stipulation that (1) we not mess with his things (which we mostly didn't, except for some Life and Look magazines from the 20s and 30s that I occassionally browsed, (2) we never tell anyone where he kept his heirlooms, and (3) we not discuss the terms of our living in his apartment. It was a great "deal" for us, and apparently he was pleased, too. I think we lived there about two years. The only downside was that Mr. Hunt would occasionally drop by unannounced to pick up this or that. He never stayed long and it really wasn't a problem.
I visited Mr. Hunt several times (he lived in a one-room basement appartment near the arboretum) and was always warmly greeted.
Sarah Geer
4:36 PM Thu 12/31/2009
I have a copy of Joe's book, titled Daddy, Why Are Those Two Naked Men Sleeping in That Tree? It is a treasury of stories about Chapel Hill in the 1950s and 60s. The title is based on a question asked by Joe's son Mike, then aged 5, when they drove past the Sigma Nu house on Columbia Street early one Sunday morning. (I think there was also something about a smoldering piano hanging from a rope on another branch. Must have been quite a party. (Hi, Mike! Miss you!)
Joni Roberts
6:40 PM Sun 3/15/2009
That man is incredible, and I learned more about Chapel Hill from listening to this interview than any source I've been exposed to.
Check out our other website:
Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
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".
Check out Charly Mann's other website:
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
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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Hello
Joe Hakan was my uncle in my mothers side. His daughter Elizabeth contacted me a couple of years ago but I have lost her address phone number and am nit sure what her married name is. I know she was living in Florida. Does anyone know how I can get in touch with her? She would be my only link to th mother's side of the family
Thank you
Marilyn Morris
773-472-6611
I once tried to call Joy Hakan a couple of years ago and she didn't seem to understand who I am. Maybe I even had the wrong number or maybe she is not well.