Chapel Hill Memories is for anyone who wants to relive and help preserve memories of Chapel Hill. We welcome your recollections of any subject related to Chapel Hill and The University Of North Carolina in written, photo, audio, and video form. We have the ability to scan and transfer photos, audio, and video if you do not. We do not charge for this, and will return your materials within a week.
Send your memories, ideas, photos, and questions to CHMemories@gmail.com.
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Huggins Hardware - Chapel Hill's Best Shopping Center
by Charly Mann
Recalling life in Chapel Hill when I was a young boy can be a challenge. Every time I begin to write a about a place, person, or event, an array of images and voices begin floating through my consciousness on that subject that I try to pick up before they go by. I wish I had the eloquence to describe these things better, but how does one capture in words the vibrant smell of Franklin Street in the 1950s, or the taste of the amazing selection of foods served in the downtown restaurants or UNC dining halls in the 1960s? There is a long list of things I thought about trying to describe today, but in an age where an e-mail is rarely longer than a paragraph I do not want to exceed my audience’s attention span. Finally, I encourage readers to submit articles that will hopefully capture a more faithful record of life in Chapel Hill.
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WCHL - The Radio Station that Made Chapel Hill a Village
In 1973 WCHL was twenty years old and celebrated that milestone by producing a lighthearted periodical that highlighted the key events in the station's history. WCHL was integral in making that period the Golden Age of Chapel Hill by transforming a small college town into a sophisticated and well-connected village.
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The Carolina Barber Shop - Chapel Hill's Community Center
by Charly Mann
In March of 1973 The Carolina Barber Shop which was located at 131 East Franklin Street closed. It had been the oldest operating business downtown, opening its doors 55 years earlier in January of 1918 under the ownership of barber P.R. Perry. Now that it was gone Lacock's Shoe Shop, operated by 83 year old Wilson Lacock, became the senior business on the block. During the same month The Tar Heel Barber Shop located at the corner of Franklin and Henderson which had started in 1927 also closed.
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Charles Hopkins' Jewelry Store
by Charly Mann
The best thing about Chapel Hill when I was growing up was that everyone in town was a character. One of these characters was Charles Hopkins who owned a world-renowned Franklin Street jewelry store for nearly 50 years. The jewelry that he designed and created has been displayed in almost every major museum in North America and Europe.
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Chapel Hill's Christmas Past
by Charly Mann
For most of Chapel Hill’s history Franklin Street was filled with independent stores and restaurants. Christmas shopping downtown was a relaxing experience in holiday ambiance where every store carried unique gifts and customer service was always personalized.
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$8.00 a Year for Chapel Hill Student Health Insurance
This is George L. Coxhead's rate for one year of student health insurance in 1964
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A Timely Article on the State Of Chapel Hill Business
In the last week I have received 8 letters or e-mails with hard copies or links to the following article. As a of this outpouring I have decided to share the piece with all readers of Chapel Hill Memories. As a former merchant in Chapel Hill I share, and have experienced, many of the same concerns brought up by Mr. Deconto.
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Chapel Hill Memories
by Jay Bagwell - Chapel Hill High School Class of 1964
I grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It was and still is a beautiful place, located in the middle of the state. Whenever I think back about the town, I always remember it as being green with large trees, manicured lawns and lots of flowers and gardens.
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ROSE'S 5 and 10 CENT STORE
by Charly Mann
There was no greater adventure for a child in 1950s Chapel Hill than to go to ROSE'S 5 and 10 CENT STORE. It was a magical store with everything you could imagine under one roof. The floors were wood plank and it had a unique and inviting smell that combined the scent of popcorn from its large candy counter with the odor of new merchandise.
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Chapel Hill's Town & Campus Clothing Store
by Charly Mann
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Downtown Chapel Hill - Then and Now
by Charly Mann
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The History of Springfield, Buffalo, & Schoolkids Records
by Pauline Williams
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The Best Downtown in The United States
by Charly Mann
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Sloan's Drug Store
by Bob Jurgensen and Charly Mann
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Chapel Hill's Greatest Man - A.A. Kluttz
by Charly Mann
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The History of Jeff's Confectionery
by Charly Mann
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Sutton's Drug Store - Quintessential Chapel Hill
by Charly Mann
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Kemp Battle Nye and Kemp's Record Store
by Charly Mann
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Milton Julian and Milton's Clothing Cupboard
Tracks include five classic Milton's radio ads, and a song I produced in 1978 by a group from Chapel Hill named The Blazers called "I Ain't Got You" that includes a line about Miltons.
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Fowler's Food Store
by Charly Mann
Fowler's Food Store was the first supermarket in Chapel Hill, and was started in the 1920’s by the Fowler Family. It was located on West Franklin Street. Fowler's had the best selection of frozen foods and produce in Chapel Hill, until the early 1970s, when large grocery chains began opening larger supermarkets. It was particularly famous for its high quality fresh meats and outstanding butchers. From time to time the store carried a small selections of other items, including popular 45-rpm records. The town’s only record store throughout the 1950s and 60s, Kemps, never carried 45s, or much selection in rock and roll LPs. I bought my first Elvis Presley record there in August of 1956, Hound Dog backed by Don’t Be Cruel.
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Lily Pad Waterbeds and Larry Carswell
by Charly Mann
Lily Pad Waterbeds was a phenomena. It was the first waterbed store in Chapel Hill when it opened in 1971, and was an instant success. It started in the basement of the Record and Tape Center, and soon moved next door to a separate location. It was owned and operated by Larry Carswell, a lifelong Chapel Hill resident whose father owned Colonial Drug Store for more than half a century.
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The Record Bar - Henderson Street
by Norman Hunter
I had the great good fortune of managing the Chapel Hill Record Bar on Henderson Street for approximately 2 ½ years between 1972 and 1974. Not only that, I lived less than a block from the store in a totally cool third floor apartment situated above the import store / head shop run by the legendary Kemp B. Nye. Just writing these words brings back a flood of memories.
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Chapel Hill Businesses Through The Years (Part One)
I think this dispels the notion that today's students are not as bright as their counterparts in the 1950s.
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Chapel Hill Businesses Through The Years (Part 2)
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1902 - Chapel Hill's First Department Store
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InformZoo
A Year of Charly Mann’s Thoughts
(August 2009 to August 2010):
http://www.informzoo.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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