by Charly Mann

Throughout much of its history Chapel Hill has prided itself for its high moral standards, but in the mid 1930's the town was plagued by a flagrant violation of common decency by a large number of its citizens. People who visited Chapel Hill were often shocked to see children of both sexes and young men with no clothing on above the waist in the summers. By 1936, this public lewdness had spread to both men and women who were often seen wearing short pants on the streets of town.

 
We all know that children who start off young wearing short pants are likely to turn to a life of drugs and crime as adults

In 1937, Mrs. R. B. Lawson, wife of the man who ran the UNC gymnasium, began a crusade to end this indecent behavior with a proposal that the town ban the wearing of short pants in public. The town council questioned Mrs. Lawson about at what age the ban should be enforced, and she was adamant that it be applied to anyone of school age and older. The council worried about this provision because Chapel Hill courts then could only try cases for those 16 years and older and all minor aged lawbreakers had to go to Hillsboro to receive their punishment.

Girls with no shame use to go out in public and display their legs to everyone in town

Mrs. Lawson cajoled the town officials to not allow the streets of Chapel Hill to be used for walking sunbathing. The town finally agreed to have police officers warn all adults they saw wearing shorts that this was not considered proper attire.
 

Unfortunately, displays of indecent behavior like this are becoming more common in Chapel Hill

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Life in Chapel Hill in the late 1940's and early 1950's was simple. In most ways it was the best time to live in Chapel Hill. In the photo below from the middle of August 1952 Chapel Hill High School freshmen Richard Gunter, Gene Smith and Clyde Campbell drink fountain Cokes between two-a-days training for the Chapel Hill High School football team. The Cokes were then 5 cents. They are sitting on the grass in front of the "new" auditorium at Chapel Hill High School on West Franklin Street and now the site of University Square Plaza.

Friends for Life, left to right, Richard Gunter, Gene Smith, and Clyde Campbell

These three young men began a lifelong friendship the year this picture was taken. Richard had moved to Chapel Hill in the fifth grade, but had known Gene since Richard's grandfather started bringing him to town at age 9 to go to the Western movies on Saturdays. Richard recalls that on those Saturdays he took 15 cents to town, paid 5 cents for a bag of jellybeans from Rose's 5 & 10 Cent Store and then went to see the movie at the Varsity Theater for 9 cents. In the afternoon after the movie Richard sold newspapers around town for a nickle, and was allowed to keep 2.5 cents from each sale. He did this until he sold six papers and had made 15 cents. That was all the he needed for town the following Saturday. After that he would stop by Danziger's Candy Shop where Mrs. Danziger would give him a piece of pumpernickel bread as a snack. Richard said it was as good as chocolate cake.

Richard says the legendary Cat Baby, George Canada, was also selling papers at that time. Cat Baby was in Richard's Chapel Hill High School graduating class of 1956, though he was about 21 by then.

This is George (Cat Baby) Canada on top of Leon Ivey at Bill Albans Service Station in downtown Chapel Hill in 1953. Among the onlookers at the fight are left to right Robby Ross, Tommy Goodrich, Arnold Smith, Bobby Thompson, Billy Thompson, Roy Jones, Floyd Pittard, Gene Cate, Billy Wayne Andrews, Johnny Watts, (first name unknown) Womble, unknown, and John Hall. I have been told that Ivey probably deserved getting a little banged-up that day.

Clyde Campbell moved from Newton-Conover to Chapel Hill during the summer of 1952. The three friends went on to co-captain the Chapel Hill High School football team their senior year.

The three friends in 1955 as co-captains of the Chapel Hill High School football team. They are in same order as top photo.

After graduating from Chapel Hill High School in 1956 the three men went their separate ways for a while. Gene and Richard joined the United States Air Force, while Clyde stayed in town to graduate from the University of North Carolina before going into the Marine Corps. Gene returned to Chapel Hill to enter the insurance business and remained in Chapel Hill. Richard came back to go to UNC and graduate with a math degree before beginning a career as an actuary, living as far away as Texas. He traveled to 41 states in his career as a presenter for insurance industry marketing seminars. Clyde began a career with IBM when he returned from service, and held jobs for the company in Boulder, San Diego and Austin, before finally retiring to New Canaan, Connecticut. As with most men, there was little communication while they were settling down, having families and building their careers but whenever one came back to Chapel Hill, visiting family or passing through, he could get caught up because Gene stayed abreast of the goings on in town.

Gene was still away in the service when Richard got married, but Clyde was there to be best man. Richard met his wife Ka (pronounced "Kay") when they were in the fifth grade in Chapel Hill in 1949. They got married 10 years later in her home on Westwood Drive. Richard was at Clyde's wedding a few years later. Gene got married while Richard and Clyde were away in the service. They do manage to get together at class reunions and just recently, Gene and Clyde attended Richard and Ka's 50th wedding anniversary. Richard and Gene both live in Chapel Hill now so they see each other frequently. The phone lines stay hot between Chapel Hill and Connecticut as Richard and Clyde have been known to be connected on the phone during entire televised Carolina basketball games.

During the time Richard, Gene, and Clyde were at Chapel Hill High School "The REC" was where high school aged students congregated on the weekends. It had been a Methodist Church and was converted as a place for teenagers to have parties and events. Every Friday night there was a "sock hop" dance at The REC. It was managed by Sarah Umstead, who was from an old Chapel Hill family. It was torn down more than forty years ago.

This is The REC where Chapel Hill teenagers got together for parties and dances in the 1950's 

Photos for this article provided by Richard Gunter and Ruth Vickers

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by Charly Mann

For more than twenty-five years I have tried to make sense of the death of my childhood friend and neighbor Craig Newman at the hands of his father Dr. William S. Newman. Dr. Newman was probably the most talented and knowledgeable musician ever to live in Chapel Hill. Craig was two years younger than me, born in 1952, and the sweetest child in the Greenwood neighborhood.

Dr. Newman was born on April 6, 1912 in Cleveland, Ohio, and was a first cousin of the actor Paul Newman, who was also from Cleveland. He showed remarkable talent from an early age as a pianist, scholar, and automotive engineer. By the time he was 23, in 1935, he had received a PhD in music, and had published the first of a long line of critically acclaimed books on classical music. He was also regularly giving piano recitals around the world, often as the featured soloist of major orchestras. Newman loved motorcycles and several times traveled the country on the back of his Harley Davidson during his concert tours. Remarkably, at the same time he was doing all this touring, he also held teaching positions at both Julliard and Columbia University. During World War II Bill, as he preferred to be called, worked in Army Intelligence rising to the rank of major by the end of the war.

Dr. William Stein Newman lecturing in his music class at UNC Chapel Hill 

Shortly after World War II, in 1945, Bill became a professor of music at the University of North Carolina. A year after that he met Claire Murray on an airplane flight from New York to Boston as he was on his way to give a concert and she was returning from her job in New York City to visit her family. They were married on December 20th, 1947. In 1950 they built the first house on Old Mill Road in the Greenwood neighborhood. Newman was one of UNC's most beloved professors. He often invited as many as two hundred of his students and other faculty members to parties that were held in his backyard. All the food for these events was prepared for by the Newman's. Bill also loved teaching his students how to repair their cars and fix broken electronic equipment. When he was not teaching or performing around the country, he was usually in his garage working on his Mercedes or motorcycles, or writing one of his many books. His textbook, Understanding Music, is considered the best book on music appreciation in the English language.

William and Claire Newman home at 808 Old Mill Road, Chapel Hill

The Newmans however were not a normal Chapel Hill family. Their son, Craig, was an only child, which was highly unusual in those days, and Bill was 40 when he was born in 1952. I was a friend of Craig during his childhood and found him to be sensitive, but lacking interests in things most boys my age enjoyed like riding bicycles around town, playing sports or anything else that involved much physical activities. He also did not have much interest in the then emerging rock 'n roll music. He seemed introverted, but not really shy. He had plenty of friends and enjoyed being in the company of people his age.

Two of more than two dozen well regarded books Dr. William S. Newman of UNC wrote on music history and technique

One thing odd about the Newmans was that they seemed to exercise much less parental supervision than other parents. They allowed Craig to have things other parents would never have. For example, before he was twelve he had a real vintage World War I pistol and a military sword. As a young teenager he had adult men's magazines openly displayed in his room. This was exceptionally out of the ordinary since they were not even commonly available in Chapel Hill, and then could only be purchased by adults. Since both of his parents seemed so refined and sophisticated this was particularly bizarre. One final thing that was unusual about the Newmans was that even though they were quite polite to Craig's friends, it was the only house in Greenwood that I recall where children did not congregate or stay for very long. It was much more typical for Craig to be at someone else's house.

Jim Baucom front and Craig Newman left 1958 Chapel Hill. Jill Adams is standing in the back. 

By the time Craig was twelve he began exhibiting strange behavior, and there was a noticeable friction between him and his parents. Several of his former friends recall him hiding when his mother would come to pick him up from school, at a Boy Scout meeting, or from their house. His downward spiral seemed to start about the time he entered Guy B. Phillips Junior High School in 1964. His best friend Jim Baucom now went to Durham Academy and they rarely spent time together anymore. By the time he was 16 the only kids he was hanging out with were aimless outcasts, and he started smoking hash and marijuana which was still rather uncommon for most high school and college students. Some have speculated that Craig got into harder drugs which may have contributed to his weird behavior, but I have my doubts about this. First since Craig's only source of money was his parents, and they had strong concerns about his drug use, I doubt if he could have afforded a serious hard drug habit. He definitely was not the kind of endearing personality to whom others would give drugs for free. Finally, several people who knew him in his twenties who were wild and regular drug users have no recollection of him doing the same. Craig did graduate from UNC in 1978, but there is no evidence he ever got a job.

About the time Craig entered college his parents had a small room built for him next to the garage. This seemed strange to me then since Craig didn't seem to get along that well with his parents, and if he was going to live at home he already had a room in the house. From time to time in the 1970s he would disappear for a week or more and then reappear at home. Craig spent much of his time sitting on the rock wall across from the downtown Post Office at Franklin and Henderson Street. He did not seem very happy, and was fixated on having plastic surgery so he could look like then James Bond actor Roger Moore.

In the early 1980s there were several confrontations between Craig and his mother. In one he knocked her down in front of the NCNB bank on Franklin Street. Soon after this Craig began to threaten to kill his mother, and Dr. Newman bought a gun for their protection. Early on the afternoon of October 12, 1983 Craig had another violent confrontation with his mother. Later he began ranting in their back yard that he was going to kill her. At about 5 PM Craig tried to break into the house through the kitchen door, and Dr Newman shot him once in the chest with a .32 caliber pistol. This shot did not stop Craig, and he tried to get in through an adjacent breezeway. This time Dr Newman shot Craig in the head, and he fell mortally wounded onto their backyard. The South Orange County Rescue Squad was summoned by the Newmans before they called the Police. Claire rode in the ambulance with her son. He died at North Carolina Memorial Hospital later than evening.

Craig Newman front right next to his then best friend Jim Baucom 1964. This is a crop of the photograph Jim gave to Craig's mother several years after his death. It was taken at a boy scout jamboree in 1964. They were the two youngest members of Troop 826 which met at the University Baptist Church. Jim's father was instrumental in getting Craig into boy scouts.

Dr. Newman was originally charged with voluntary manslaughter, but those charges were dropped when the police investigation showed he did not intend to shoot Craig. No one who knew the Newmans had any doubts that on that terrible afternoon they feared for their lives and the shooting was an act of self-defense.

Claire Newman, their lawyer Steven Bernholz, and William S. Newman during the manslaughter hearing of their son Craig in 1983

Dr. Maynard Adams, UNC philosophy professor, and neighbor and friend of the Newmans for more than 30 years, gave the eulogy at the funeral. Professor Adams was one of few people in Greenwood who Craig talked to in his final years. Their conversations were usually quite deep and pertained to subjects like the meaning of life. The Newmans were both terribly sad at the funeral. Neither of them ever looked up during the service. Everyone I have spoken to who knew them say they were never the same after this. Years later Craig's boyhood friend, Jim Baucom, gave Mrs. Newman a boy scout picture of Craig and him. She thanked him but said there were so many sad memories.

Chapel Hill's musical genius William S. Newman's book on Beethoven

Looking at the facts now it is likely that Craig suffered from Asperger Syndrome which was unheard of at that time. Craig had almost all the symptoms of the disease. They include having significant difficulties in social interaction and being physicaly clumsy. As one grows older people with AS become obsessed with a single topic which they learn about in great detail, and helps them develop an above average vocabulary. They also develop repetitive routines or rituals that they follow for years. Like Craig, AS suffers have limited empathy for their peers. The exact cause of Asperger's is unknown, though it is likely genetic and not related to drug use.

The most disturbing fact about Asperger's is that by adolescence it begins manifesting itself through violent behavior. It is fairly typical that by one's teenage years one becomes noncompliant to their family members, often getting very angry, breaking things, slamming doors, and screaming. Parents and siblings of someone with AS often fear for their safety. Without learning behavior modifications and taking medications, boys with Asperger's get progressively more destructive to property, people, and pets. It is likely that Craig's early use of hash actually helped control his symptoms. One boy with the disease tried to kill his mother by putting, what he thought was, poison in her food. When she did not die, he expressed disappointment that his method had failed.

Craig had great difficulty talking to people by the age of thirteen. He also seemed to lack empathy, had poor social skills, and rarely made eye contact when talking. He would often go off into long conversations about his then favorite subject, like his desire to have plastic surgery. He also had a daily ritual of just sitting on the wall across from the downtown Post Office. Sadly people with AS, like Craig, deeply desire frienships but often give up trying because so many of their relationships fail. It seems Craig cared for his parents very much, especially his mother, but was frustrasted he could not figure out how to even be close to her.

Unfortunately for Craig and the Newmans, Asperger Syndrome was not diagnosed in the United States until 1992, so there was no way he could have gotten treatment for the malady.

Back cover of UNC Professor William S. Newman's book The History of the Sonata Idea

I would like to remember the Newmans by a performance Bill Newman gave at Hill Hall in 1955. I was six years old and he performed an incredible version of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 3 in D Minor, which I later learned is the most technically demanding and difficult pieces of music to play on the piano.

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by Bea Witten

How the Greenwood Neighborhood in Chapel Hill Came to Be

The Greenwood neighborhood began in 1933 when Paul Green (1894-1981) purchased over 200 wooded acres outside Chapel Hill—in the country—with his earnings from screenwriting in Hollywood. He paid about $25 per acre. It was the Depression, but the '20s had been a time of strong growth for the University, and land was viewed as a good investment while it was cheap. Furthermore, Paul had grown up on a Harnett County farm and always loved land—walking it, acquiring it, selling it, using and developing it.

Paul Green the founder and first resident of Chapel Hill's Greenwood neighborhood

A Pulitzer Prize winner in 1927, Paul was at this time teaching philosophy at UNC. He and his wife Elizabeth had met as drama students here in 1919 and, in the long woodland walks that were a part of their courtship, had discovered this place where they would build their dream house, "if their ship came in." Build it they did in 1936 at the end of the road that Paul laid out himself. He always favored curves, and while Greenwood Road is a fairly direct mile from Raleigh Road to the house, it follows natural contours and is not straight. Paul Green’s son remembers how they made the track drivable, his dad standing on the old road grader hooked to the Buick and he, age 10, driving the car very slowly.

In the beginning the four Green children had the wilderness to themselves and their playmates were all from school. The way they came home in the car was to get out at the beginning of Greenwood Road and hang onto the runningboard while Paul drove weaving and teasing and scaring them all the way home. They tramped the woods barefoot and lay on the grass summer nights learning all the constellations from their father. They loved to watch and feel a storm build and roll up the valley. A three-mile walk to get anywhere was normal. Paul Jr. liked to tinker with radios, and his sisters helped him scavenge for components at the town incinerator down at today's University Mall. The Greens kept a cow for milk and a pony that plowed the two-acre vegetable garden; it fell to the children to clean the large chicken coop.

In developing their land, the Greens envisioned a community in direct touch with nature. With engineers from NC State College, Paul mapped lots of up to 5 acres, shaping them on both aesthetic and practical lines. The price per acre was about $250 in the early '40s. The covenant that guided most of the development assured that a new house would not obstruct the view from existing homes, and the cost in 1944 should be a substantial "minimum of $10,000." The Greens had borrowed from the Bank of Chapel Hill and taken advances on royalties to build their own house. The first lots, all on Greenwood Road, were sold to academic and literary friends—Louis Katzoff (908) of the Philosophy Department, the writer Noel Houston (801), James Tippett 704) who edited science texts in the Education Department, Palmer Hudson (710), Clifford Lyons (716), and Harry Russell (712) of the English Department, Bill Lang (708), the popular head basketball coach, William Meade Prince (707), the famous illustrator who came to chair the Art Department, Phil Schinhan (700) of the Music Department.

Phil Schinhan, with his wife Mary Frances, moved to Greenwood in 1947. Phil and Mary Frances had met in 1936 at Watts Hospital, where she went to have her appendix removed and he his tonsils. Mary Frances was the daughter of Howard Odum who pioneered both the Department of Sociology and the School of Social Work at UNC, the man for whom Odum Village was named

700 Greenwood Road in Chapel Hill - The Schinhan House

Greenwood in the 1950s

In the 1950s a post-war building boom swept the country. This was the period of greatest development in Greenwood. Mortgage companies grew up to do some of the work previously handled by banks: credit history, title search, closing. It wasn’t hard to get a mortgage if you had a steady job.

It was a new idea to build and live on one level. Many Greenwood houses are ranch-style or one-story contemporaries. A local architect or contractor adapted a plan offered in Better Homes & Gardens or a book from a hardware store. The home of Earl and Rhoda Wynn at 900 Stagecoach Road, built in 1950, was the first of many houses in Chapel Hill designed by Jim Webb in the California Style. His firm also created the master plan for RTP and designed the old public library, now the Chapel Hill Museum. Artist Didi Dunphey Hudson drew her own graceful plan for 619 Greenwood Road. A number of homes were built with a rental apartment having a separate entrance, and the tenants—graduate students or young teachers—blended into the neighborhood.

William Meade Prince was an illustrator much like Norman Rockwell. He did many magazine covers in the 1930s and 40s. He lived with his wife Lillian at 707 Greenwood Road in Chapel Hill. He also wrote the book The Southern Part of Heaven which describes growing up in Chapel Hill at the beginning of the 20th century. He commited suicide at his house on November 10th, 1951. He was only 51.

Old Mill, Stagecoach, Arrowhead and Christopher Roads were laid with one-acre lots for $1250 - $1500. Green declined a realtor's suggestion of $3000 because he wished not to exclude young faculty on small salaries. By 1960 there were some 75 homes and many children. "Wild Bill," who operated the road grader, allowed children to ride up there on his machine with him as he worked. Greenwood Road is said to have been named by Chapel Hill newspaper editor Louis Graves. Arrowhead was named for the great number of Indian arrowheads found in this area, Christopher for Christopher Barbee who had owned the land in the 18th century, and Stagecoach for ruts that showed the old stage route. Sugarberry and Houston Roads were opened later. (Paul Green named Houston Road in memory of his friend Noel Houston, who died in 1957.) The covenant committee, chaired by Maurice Newton, the dentist, who built at 814 Old Mill Road, reviewed all building plans until the covenant lapsed in the '70s.

In the early years the dirt roads had been at times a horror of bumps and potholes, for which the Greens were held responsible as owners. The pathetic maintenance department was the cantankerous pony Billy, who was hitched to a sledge piled with rocks to plow the snow or level the roadbed as best he might; the neighbors together would hire an oil truck to settle the awful dust. The Town of Chapel Hill annexed the Greenwood neighborhood in 1956 and paved the streets around that time.

Some Who Have Lived in Chapel Hill's Greenwood Neigborhood

A number of writers, as Paul Green hoped, have come to live on Greenwood Road. James Tippett, who gardened at 704 from a wheelchair, wrote poems for children like:

My Dog

I do not love my dog because
He's good at doing tricks
Like standing on his two hind feet
Or fetching balls and sticks.
I do not love my dog because
He's gentle and polite
And barks to drive away the things
That prowl around at night.
I do not love my dog because
He really is quite fine.
But oh! I love my dog because
I'm his and he is mine.

704 Greenwood Road Chapel Hill, The Tippett House

William Meade Prince wrote The Southern Part of Heaven, the rich memoir of his childhood here at the turn of the century, in his home at 707. (Chapel Hill has been basking in this title ever since.) His wife Lillian played Queen Elizabeth for many years in The Lost Colony, which was first performed in 1937. Paul Green invented the genre that he called 'symphonic drama,' and wrote eighteen historical plays, to be presented outdoors, in which music, dance, and special lighting effects all 'sounded together' with the action and dialogue. Robert Frost stayed with his friend Clifford Lyons on his way to and from Florida, and they were seen strolling together after a reading or a party. Lambert Davis, a talking encyclopedia popping out all the time, directed the UNC Press 1948-70 and built 701. His wife Isabella was a walker and dressed in dramatic, strong colors, gloves and a wide hat, swinging a cane in her later years. They were famous for their comfortable, stimulating and intellectual hospitality. The poet Charles Eaton lives at 808; he began the Creative Writing Program at UNC in 1946 with Paul Green’s support. Noel Houston (801) wrote fiction and pieces for The New Yorker, and his home was a regular gathering place for Chapel Hill writers to toss around ideas. Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, bought a large parcel in 1948 at the head of Greenwood with her literary earnings but never built on it; still undeveloped, it is now owned by UNC.

In the '50s and '60s Sandy McClamroch, mayor of Chapel Hill 1961-69 and founder of the radio station WCHL, lived at 815 Greenwood. He also guided the whole development of the Carol Woods Retirement Community as president of the Association from 1972-82. Further up the road, at 714, lived Adelaide Walters, who in 1948 helped establish the local League of Women Voters and was the first woman elected to public office in North Carolina. She is described as attractive, vivacious, and informal, also progressive, selfless, devoted to good works, respected and well liked by everyone. She had no children and her husband was a traveling salesman for Hushpuppy shoes. She served for three terms on the Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen and worked tirelessly for civil rights, improved conditions for the poor, political power for women, urban and regional planning, and good government. Vermont Connecticut Royster, winner in 1953 of the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing, upon retiring from the Wall Street Journal in 1971, came to teach journalism at his alma mater UNC and lived at 905 Arrowhead Road. How many neighborhoods in America have been home to two winners of the Pulitzer Prize?

Baucom House on Stagecoach Road  Chapel Hill shortly after being built - early 1950s

Bill and Claire Newman built their home at 808 Old Mill Road, the first house on this street, in 1950. He taught music 1945-77 at UNC, and he had a passion for motorcycles. He helped and taught his students to fix anything. He also made a cross-country piano tour by motorcycle in 1953, Claire having wrapped his concert clothing in tissue paper to limit wrinkling! Wherever he stopped overnight, he was able by inquiry to locate a Steinway to practice on. His AJS bike died as he ended the trip and turned into his own driveway. The Newmans landscaped their acre for entertaining and maintained, by themselves, a large lawn with a tractor mower. They hosted frequent receptions for faculty or following a concert. Bill ran a clinic every summer 1950-70 for up to 200 piano teachers from around the state and beyond, and invited them all over for a home-cooked dinner. In addition to the preparation of food and decorations, loaner chairs had to be brought from and returned to Walker's Funeral Home in the back of a car. If it rained, they just took everything over to Hill Hall. Claire edited Bill's scholarly works, as well as teaching typing and later computer skills to many children. And she painted the outside of the house four times by herself. A senior UNC student who was majoring in voice asked Dr, Newman his advice for launching a nightclub act after college. Bill replied that piano tuning would be a more reliable career. Within a few weeks Andy Griffith instead stepped into his dazzling career with “What it was was football.”

At 907 Greenwood Road lived Bill and Lena Cherry. A banker, Bill volunteered for almost 40 years as treasurer of the UNC Educational Foundation. It became a family tradition to host a picnic in the backyard, the Saturday before football practice began in August, for the families of UNC coaches, UNC administration, and the Bank of Chapel Hill—200-300 people, and then to go off to the beach for a week.

In 1950 the future UNC chancellor Bill Aycock, during his first year of teaching law, built a cement-block house at 902 Arrowhead Road, laying many of the blocks himself, while his brother was the electrician. Maynard Adams, an assistant professor of philosophy, excavated a full basement below his ranch at 813 Old Mill Road; "Maynard's Folly" occupied him from 1959 until 1965. First he dug out of the clay a 3' crawlspace with a mattock, shovel & wheelbarrow. He learned what he needed to know about carpentry, electricity and plumbing from manuals sold in the hardware store and created a space 77' x 26' with 8' steel columns and windows; it had a study with working fireplace, a bathroom and a darkroom.

813 Old Mill Road,The Maynard Adams House

Helen Peacock, famous CHHS librarian, wore a sweatshirt that read, "Old librarians never die; they just get checked out." Her husband Bill never drove a car but for 30 years rode his 3-speed bike from 901 Stagecoach Road up the long Raleigh Road hill to his office at the UNC Physical Education department. Their teenage daughter Margaret Ann, as a voracious reader, diagnosed her own appendicitis!

Didi Dunphey, at 616 Sugarberry Road, is an artist and commercially successful illustrator in the fields of fashion, medicine and science. She conceived and helped create the Women's Center Art Show in 1985. Thirty years earlier, as a woman and young artist, she had missed the support of a forum and a venue for her art in Chapel Hill.

Married women who held jobs in the '40s and '50s were usually schoolteachers, secretaries, or nurses. Rhoda Wynn taught radio production and programming at UNC until ‘excused’ by her marriage in 1951 to Earl Wynn. He was the founder and chair of the department, but no one escaped the University's nepotism rule! This rule fell away with the growth of the medical school and the hospital in the 1950s. Candidates for medical positions were often married to other medical professionals, and they could demand jobs for both. Through the '50s and '60s Lena Cherry and Rhoda both worked at Collier Cobb's insurance company, handling the new area of homeowner's insurance. Previously separate property, contents, and liability policies were being consolidated to cut cost and improve service.

Fred Ellis House at 805 Old Mill Road, Chapel Hill. Childhood home of Francie, Barbara, Marybeth, and Frieda Ellis.

In 1965 Paul and Elizabeth Green sold their house with four acres to Watts and Mary Hill and moved out to the country. Watts' father, George Watts Hill, had built the current Chancellor's house across Raleigh Road, and some quipped that Greenwood was the valley of humility between two Hills! The Greens' property was sixteen acres, and Watts suggested to Paul that he would do better developing most of it than selling it as a whole. Paul later thanked Watts for this advice!

At 908 Greenwood Road in the '60s lived Mary Walker Randolph, a professor of nursing who understood the mathematics that Jefferson used to build a serpentine wall one brick thick. When she retired, she bought a cement mixer and hired a mason to help her surround her large garden with such a wall, a memory from her childhood in Charlottesville. Her yellow primroses, peonies, and a Cecile Brunner rose are flourishing still in this garden 35 years later.

817 Old Mill Road, The William Robert Mann House

Bob Hardison, UNC Purchasing Agent, spent two years improving the soil before building at 811 Old Mill in 1956. After cutting the woods, he loosened the clay 30" deep and repeatedly incorporated organic material and sand; he added irrigation in the '70s. In 1982 he was a finalist in the PBS Victory Garden contest. Incidentally, Bob had worked his way through UNC in the '30s by washing dishes at his boarding house and selling peanuts at football games. His dad sent them down every week from the farm; Bob picked them up at the bus station and roasted them in a barrel turned by a handle. He hired a few fellow-students to help him, and helped his brother do the same. They had no competition in this enterprise.

The triangular islands at the top and bottom of Old Mill Road were Paul Green's design to provide open space for meeting and play areas. Mr. McGowan fitted a wire between two trees with a pulley for a long swing. Kickball and rollabat were popular, and the Prillamans provided pony rides here—as well as turns on the street in their restored Model T. Mrs. Prillaman started the Bluebirds Club for little girls to cook or sew or put on a play or talent show.

Summer heat meant picnics in the woods, where wild strawberries and other berries were abundant. It meant swimming out at Hogan's Lake—which offered a concession stand and had a float in the middle, away from the cows. Many families paid something for their children to spend a week at the Hogan farm, where they learned to milk a cow, gathered eggs, and took part in all sides of ordinary farm life; it was the best of summer camps for one family at a time. At home the Houstons dug a 4’ x 10’ swimming pool which they emptied and scrubbed every week, because they didn't use chlorine. In 1967 the YMCA and Community Center pools opened. Summer also meant walking or biking up for free lessons at the university pool, drinking iced tea, opening windows, pulling down the shades at 10 am, walking with your friends over to the Dairy Bar at Glen Lennox for a delicious cone, playing baseball in your front yard during the worst of the heat and loving every minute. When someone remarked that his grass took a beating, Bill Aycock answered that he was growing children now, would grow grass later.

Glenwood Grammar School, as it was called, became Chapel Hill's second elementary school in 1953 and served grades 1-7. Greenwood children walked there, even first graders, or biked, in pairs or groups, crossing the Bypass with no traffic light because there wasn't much traffic. The school library was created largely from private donations, and some dining tables were stacked with books waiting for a card envelope before going in. The principal was scared of dogs and once let the children out of class to empty the schoolyard of them. Before Glenwood opened, children were carpooled to school on West Franklin Street. There were several pools at once in one family, and mothers bonded that way both with each other and with other children.

The popular Wednesday morning coffee, at different homes, brought mothers and young children together until the population became just too large and the custom was abandoned. Greenwood children knew all the local mothers. The Tippetts were childless but welcomed the young at any time of day to swing on their porch hammock and enjoy some homemade cookies with lemonade and a few stories. Children flocked to these two gentle and unhurried people, she neat and handsome and soft, he avuncular in his wheelchair.

The Schinhan children had every possible pet. For the guinea pig installation in the back yard Phil rigged an outdoor heat lamp for winter because the indoors was full of cats and dogs. The Schinhans were night owls, and when Paul Green drove by one night he commented, "Even the Schinhan guinea pigs stay up all night." There was no leash law, and Lambert Davis's fine German shepherd Colgate Jones occasionally visited a bitch in heat on the other side of East Franklin Street. Once, since Colgate stayed with the Schinhan dogs when the Davises traveled, Mary Frances was called to retrieve him. In Martha Tippett's 1965 Christmas card two sad events are noted: first, that the Greens moved away and second, that "Colgate, self-appointed guardian of the neighborhood and dean of dogs, died."

The woods both within and around Greenwood were much more extensive 40 years ago than they are today. They held whippoorwills, bats, beautiful moths and owls (there are still some owls). Mary Frances used to count whippoorwill calls instead of sheep—whereas little Susan Prillaman, who lived closer to the Bypass, listened excitedly for a big rig on her way to sleep! Two children on a swing set one day watched a huge cat emerge from, and retreat back to, the leafy shadows. "We were old enough and wise enough to know that this was no pet cat!"

Halloween in the '50s was a central highlight for families, with makeup, costumes, parties featuring cobwebs and witches' brew, blindfolding, and mischief. Daddies and dogs escorted the little ones along the dark streets. The old slave cemetery now owned by the town, at the end of Greenwood Road, was a center of spooking. Older Glen Lennox children were "discouraged" in Greenwood, but Greenwood children were in heaven with the number of doorbells to ring at Glen Lennox. At Christmas time many families cut their own tree among the cedars planted by birds on open land, although it belonged to Paul Green. Children went caroling on Christmas Eve, singing out all the verses from little books distributed by the Chapel Hill Insurance Company. George Prillaman drove his Model T around town and wowed the children as Santa in a sea of presents; it was his daughter's chore at home to wrap those many empty boxes!

Every Thursday morning since 1966, 20-40 wives of foreign students have been meeting to practice their English at Betsy Chamberlin's home, 1001Arrowhead Road. The program was the idea of Mary Helen Hayman, who noticed in the late '50s that international students—all men previously—were beginning to bring their families along. The Chamberlin garage was remodeled into a play space. With the financial support of Churchwomen United, and with a staff of volunteer teachers and child care givers, English conversation classes are conducted at three levels, following coffee and a discussion of upcoming local events. Arrowhead has been chock full of cars on Thursday mornings, except in the summer, for 37 years!

Paul Green's cabin which stood behind his house at the end of Greenwood Road

Paul Green's cabin, his writing room for 26 years, stood some distance behind his house in the woods and overlooking the pastoral scene of the Conner dairy farm, complete with red barn, that preceded University Mall. The cabin came from Hillsborough in 1939, log by log, was rechinked, and gained a chimney. It was moved in 1991 for preservation to the nearby NC Botanical Garden, thanks to the efforts of Rhoda Wynn and Sally Vilas. The transport of the cabin on a flatbed truck down Greenwood Road was an impressive maneuver, with many stops to adjust it on the truck bed. I am told that the spectacle did not lose by comparison with a hurricane.

This is the second in a series of detailed histories Bea Witten has contributed on Chapel Hill's neighborhoods. Growing up in Greenwood in the 1950s and 60s and knowing most of the people and houses that she has profiled in this piece, I can unequivocally say she has captured the essence of this neighborhood better than any former or current resident could.

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by Charly Mann

Brady's was one of Chapel Hill’s most popular restaurants for more than forty years. It opened in 1941 and closed in the early 1980s when commercial property values skyrocketed and it was sold and torn down to be replaced by the Siena Hotel. Today, that location is in what is considered central Chapel Hill, and is designated as being on East Franklin Street, but until the late 1960s it was a mile out of town on the Durham Highway.

This is the first ad for Brady's Restaurant in Chapel Hill. It is from early 1942, when it was also a gas station.

For much of Chapel Hill's history there has been a strong cultural division between "town and gown". People who grew up in Chapel Hill and were not assiciated in an educational capacity at the University had significantly different tastes in food, clothing, church membership, and politics than those who "immigrated" to Chapel Hill to teach or be administrators. Brady's was the most popular eating establishment for townies as well as anyone who enjoyed traditional home-style southern food. It had the best fried chicken ever served in a restaurant and they made incredible thick and long french fried potatoes to compliment it. For those looking for a way to blackmail me, my favorite dish at Brady's was their southern fried chicken gizzards. While the taste and texture of their gizzards are difficult to describe, they were definitely chewy with a delightful flavor. (I've been a vegetarian for most of the last twenty-five years, so chicken gizzards are no longer part of my diet.)

Brady's Restaurant ad from 1950 when Southern Pork Barbecue was also a specialty

Bradys Restaurant Carry-Out and Brady's Frozen Custard, Chapel Hill, NC from 1963

Other favorites at Brady’s were their pork chops and mouthwatering authentic Red Snapper. Meals at Brady’s were large and consistently good, and their menu prices were at least 1/3 less of most other local restaurants. The manager of Brady's for as long as I can recall was Louis Taylor. Brady's also owned and operated Chapel Hill's first drive-in restaurant directly across the street. It was particularly popular for having the only soft serve ice cream in town. Behind Brady's was a cinder block building which was used by local farmers to sell their produce.

Brady's opened their very popular Frozen Custard drive-in in 1952. This was Chapel Hill's first drive-in and fast food restaurant. (Ad from 1955)

During the civil rights struggle in Chapel Hill, from 1961 to 1964, Brady's like most other restaurants that catered to townies, remained segregated despite numerous protests and sit-ins. On the same day the Beatles were revolutionizing the music world with their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, 26 people were arrested at a sit-in at Brady’s and hauled away in the back of a paddy wagon. 

Ad from the then integrated Brady's Restaurant Chapel Hill, NC (1966)

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by Charly Mann

UNC Wins it All for Dean Smith's first NCAA Basketball Championship March 30th, 1982

The pinnacle of UNC’s basketball greatness was its national championship game against Pat Ewing and the Hoyas of Georgetown in the packed New Orleans Superdome. At that time Dean Smith had been coach of the Tar Heels for twenty-one seasons, but had yet to win a national championship. The Carolina starting five was probably the best team in college history, including Michael Jordan, unquestionably the greatest basketball player of all time, James Worthy, the best player on that team, and now ranked as one of the fifty greatest basketball players of all time, and Sam Perkins, who contributed even more to the Carolina in scoring and defense during his college career than the other two men.

From left to right Sam Pekins, Jimmy Black, Michael Jordan, Matt Doherty, and James Worthy, UNC's NCAA 1982 basketball national champions starting five

Despite this abundance of talent North Carolina was far from dominate in most of its game during that season, losing twice, including once to unranked Wake Forest 55 - 48. To win the ACC tournament championship game against Virginia UNC had to resort to the four corner stall for the last eight minutes, and then be fortunate enough to have Matt Doherty make three free throws in the last thirty seconds for the 47-45 victory. Even in its first game of the NCAA tournament Carolina barely eked out a victory over the much less talented James Madison team 52-50.

In the NCAA championship game UNC needed every bit of luck it could muster. Georgetown's center Patrick Ewing blocked five Carolina shots in the first half, but all  were ruled goaltending, giving the Heels nearly one third of their first half points. Even so Georgetown held a 32 to 31 lead a halftime. For the entire second half the game stayed close, and with 32 seconds left Georgetown had a 62 – 61 lead. At this time Carolina called a time out that set up the most remembered shot in UNC history. Jimmy Black got the incoming ball and with 16 seconds left passed it to freshman Michael Jordan who was wide open, and made an incredible 17 foot jump shot giving the Tar Heels a one point lead at 63 – 62. Still with more than ten seconds left, and in possession of the ball, Georgetown seemed poised to win the game with a final shot until Fortuna the Roman Goddess of Luck intervened. For some inexplicable reason Georgetown guard Fred Brown who had to choose which of his four team mates to pass the ball to for the final shot, instead passed the ball to North Carolina’s James Worthy thus giving the Tar Heels their first basketball NCAA title since 1957.

Remembered as "The Shot", freshman Michael Jordan's 17 foot jump shot against Georgetown for NCAA title

James Worthy, not Michael Jordan, was the key player in the game scoring 28 points, and was named the most outstanding player of the NCAA Tournament. The mystery to me was how this Carolina team was not more dominant in the championship and throughout the season. It is rare for a team to have even one truly great player on its roster, and Carolina that season had three of the greatest in history. While it is true that some of their opponents had great players that year, including Ralph Sampson at Virginia and Ewing at Georgetown, UNC had three, and the two other Carolina starters that year Jimmy Black and Matt Doherty, one of Carolina’s best outside shooters, were outstanding. I’ve always believed Dean Smith was a great coach and exceptional recruiter, but that his coaching style which emphasized a slow moving and low scoring offense designed to get the ball as close to the basket as possible before a shot was taken, was not suited for the talents and athletic ability for most of this team. In those days there was no thirty-five second clock or three-point shot for long range baskets. The 1982 team had the ability to play a fast paced offense, and had a great defense led by Carolina’s all time leading shot blocker Sam Perkins. Finally Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, and Matt Doherty were among the best long range shooters ever to play the game, yet it was very unusual for any Tar Heel to take a shot from what is now considered three-point range.

Another view of Michael Jordan's gaming winning shot in 1982 UNC National Championship game 

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