by Charly Mann

In the late 1930's and early 40's UNC students spent many evenings at the castle-crowned height of Battle Seat near Gimghoul Castle that overlooked the coastal plain that stretches to the ocean. Giant oaks and large maple trees shaded the walks and lawns of the UNC campus. Students were a regular site on these paths trudging or pedaling to class, lounging on the benches or entry stairs of buildings, or loafing on the wide lawns. On many Saturdays in the Fall they would march to Kenan Stadium to enjoy a football game.

UNC Coeds in front of the Playmaker's Theater 1941

Every day everyone would pass the Confederate Soldier, who we now refer to as Silent Sam, who never fired a shot as a coed walked by.  Most of the buildings on campus were ivory covered, and the sight everyone most remembered was the moon rising over the Bell Tower.

G.B. Lamm (the photographer of all these photos) on left studying in Magnum Dormitory

Students in those days recall their dorm and fraternity rooms being strewn with papers, books, chairs, and bottles and that sleep was an elusive commodity. This was because of campus overcrowding which forced three students to a  room.

Attentive UNC students in Geography class 

Years after these students left Carolina their most vivid recollections were of "Spring on the Hill," during which time the grass was green and most inviting to be lolled upon. At the same time one would always hear the sound of marching feet as many of the men on campus were in a military training program preparing to go off and fight in World War II. These men would soon be risking their lives to ensure that the peace and beauty of Chapel Hill would not be threatened.

UNC Coeds under Dogwood Spring of 1942

UNC student catching up on sleep in 1941 in Wilson Library

During the war the Navy took over the UNC cafeteria for its students, and everyone else had to stand in long lines at downtown restaurants for meals. Students also could not travel home on weekends or enjoy your their usual evening treks to Durham and Raleigh because buses and trains to and from Chapel Hill were always overcrowded with servicemen.

UNC Coeds in pajamas at Spencer Dorm studying in 1942

One amazing tradition at this time was that male students not enrolled in the military would not date in order to give those in the armed forces a better chance of finding a girl to spend time with. 

UNC Male cheerleaders at Fetzer Field 1939 

UNC female cheerleaders putting on makeup 1941

All photographs by G.B. Lamm. Please see the following article for more information on this very talented former UNC student:
The Essence of UNC in Photographs

 by Charly Mann

The Carolina Coffee Shop has been a cerebral eating institution in Chapel Hill for 87 years. It is the restaurant where people go as much to create new friendships as to dine. Within its walls are daily discussions of literary, intellectual, and social topics. For nine decades it has been the cultural center of Chapel Hill. The clientele has always been colorful, but its wait staff has often been more interesting, consisting of the most gifted artists, writers, and musicians in the community.

Carolina Coffee Shop 1963 meal specials

George Livas opened  the Carolina Coffee Shop in 1922 and created the charm and style that continue to this day, but the heyday of the restaurant was from 1959 to 2001 when it was owned by Byron Freeman.  In 1959, Freeman recalls the space rented for a very reasonable $400 a month. When he sold the business it had increased  to $6,700 a month.

I have had more than three dozen emails from former Carolina Coffee Shop devotees recalling the great food served during Freeman's tenure, but most remembered are their cinnamon rolls which many swear were the most delectable morsels they ever tasted. Byron has graciously shared the secret of this treasure. It begins with his great recipe for yeast rolls. Like the nearby Porthole, the Carolina Coffee shop made almost identical mouth-watering and highly addictive rolls. The cinnamon rolls used the same dough. They became Carolina Coffee Shop cinnamon rolls when cinnamon and nutmeg was folded into the dough, and icing containing confectioners' sugar and lemon was added to the top. His dough was mixed in a sixty quart mixer, but he says the most important part of the success was the cooking time. So for those of you looking to replicate this delicacy you can get the recipe for the Porthole yeast rolls here: The Porthole, Their Rolls, and The Recipe

We have tried this formula at home and recommend drizzling the icing over the rolls as soon as they are out of the oven and then letting it harden for about six minutes before serving.

What follows are three stories which convey what has made the Carolina Coffee Shop such a special place.

This first piece is by David Massengill, one of best and most respected singer-songwriters in America. For almost 40 years he has been living in Greenwich Village and is a disciple of folk legend Dave Van Ronk. In the early 1970s he was a student at UNC and worked at the Carolina Coffee Shop.

Carolina Coffee Shop 1935 - Lunch 35 cents - Dinner for 40 cents 

Waiter was the top position or the position with the best money at the Carolina Cofffee Shop. Nobody started as a waiter. First you worked the kitchen or bused tables etc. Byron Freeman was the owner and he possessed a calm and a fury at the same time. As owners go I give him good marks. I'm old fashioned in that when I played football or worked as a swordfisherman or any other really tough physical labor I adjusted to the boss or coach instead of expecting them to adjust to me. So if somebody yelled at me I didn't take it personal I just tried to not do what I got yelled at for again. That worked well for me. Byron was not a yeller, but he did not suffer fools and he had standards that MUST be met. Make Byron happy and the job atmosphere was cool. Byron liked to drink a bit and when things were going good he'd sit at a back booth and play Pachelbel's Canon in D over the sound system. A pretty piece. Many a customer asked about it and I'd go back to Byron and ask who wrote it and see his eyes a touch glassy and decided to commit to memory so I didn't continually bug him in his happy state. I had the record store stock up on it too and would inform customers they could buy it on record for $2.99 at Record And Tape Center. When Pachelbel was on we all knew Byron was happy and we could relax a bit.

Carolina Coffee Shop Shop late in the evening

My friend Steve Levitas was a waiter at the Carolina Coffee Shop and introduced me to Byron asking him if there was a position I could take. Byron was in foul mood because the chop steaks went bad the day before. Chop steak was hamburger meat basically, and Byron never wanted to let the meat go bad again. He made me head chop man. Every day I came in to make the chop steak and hamburger patties FRESH, never let them go more than 3 days he said. Byron himself showed me how to weigh each chop and pattie, slap it around then pounce it down on the wooden cutting board and form it into a nice circle or parabola. The chop steaks were very popular and had different toppings like mushrooms. Hamburgers were also popular. Breakfasts were of course a mainstay and there were often lines of customers waiting to get in. Hashbrowns were good. The rolls and cinnamon buns were made fresh every day in this big ass oven. Byron took special pride in those rolls and if someone forgot about time and burned a batch of rolls, Byron would dress them down like a drill sergeant. We tried to keep Byron happy so everyone did their job well. I learned to mop up efficiently and quickly. I don't know where Byron got his recipes but they had people coming back for sure.

Ad for the Carolina Confectionery & Coffee Shop 1929. Many businesses in Chapel Hill were known as confectioneries in the 1920s and 30s. Only Jeff's retained that title throughout its existence.

I liked being head chop man. I came in every day for an hour or 2, got a meal too. I did a few dishwashing shifts and liked that too. There was a Zen to dishwashing I found and years later in NYC I found another dishwashing job which allowed me to continue my folk singing quest and eat several times a week. I moved up to busing tables and the waiters shared their tips with us. Most of the waiters were students but there were full time workers who had a less cavalier attitude than the students. I particularly remember a very proud-to-not-be-a-student waitress that had worked there for years and she was a bull in instructing the host to guide the best customers to her tables. Very bullyboy though she wasn't butch. Occasionally someone would stand up to her and a good show that always was.

Inside the Carolina Coffee Shop in the early 1960s 

I remember passing on my chop man job to a kid I had seen as up and coming. Didn't know him well but he seemed a smart one and not too cynical. I took him in to meet Byron and told Byron he'd be an excellent head chop man and that I would show him the ropes. Byron nodded his head with a weary ok. I took the kid in the kitchen, showed him the meat, grabbed the meat and I said slap it around weigh it make sure it's not underweight; pounce it down and don't be afraid of the meat... I told him how important it was that the meat ALWAYS be fresh.

The Carolina Coffee Shop, a place for friends, good food, and comfort from 1936

Bob Jurgensen's father managed the Carolina Coffee Shop for much of the 1950s. He remembers this classic tale:

Andy Griffith attended UNC when my father was the manager of the Carolina Coffee Shop. Andy apparently was very much a real country boy then and he wore bib overalls with no shirt. My dad had a policy of no shoes, no shirt, no service. My dad often threw Andy out when he came in barefoot and shirtless, wearing those bib overalls. He'd argue with my father, who was quite stubborn and fussy about cleanliness and being barefoot was not his idea of good sanitation. Apparently it once escalated right out onto the sidewalk and Andy stormed away, only to try again and again.

The Carolina Coffee Shop great meal for between $1.00 and $1.35 in 1965

Finally Tom Scism who with James Vickers coauthored An Illustrated History of Chapel Hill recently relayed the following stories, one of which received national attention.

A Lehigh professor of statistics and great poker player was in town one Sunday in the 1970s for a game and volunteered to run the cash register for Byron because the cashier called in sick. Byron slipped up to the register and surreptitiously stuck a sign on it that read:

GUEST CASHIER: DR. JOHN ADAMS,
PROFESSOR OF STATISTICS, LEHIGH UNIVERSITY.
Please count your change.

Roy Carlton, who managed the Coffee Shop for Byron for many years, wrote up this incident and sold it to Reader's Digest, who published it on one of their joke pages, and Roy got a $100 payment from them.

This is from1938. During the depths of the Depression the Carolina Coffee Shop gave free meals to students and other Chapel Hillians who could not afford food. 

In the late 60s, most Carolina Coffee Shop employees were musicians in Chapel Hill bands, and there was a constant banter about whose band and whose guitar picker was the best. One day Byron posted a sign on the kitchen door that read: "There's too much bickering over musicianship back here and it's interfering with kitchen operation. From now on the only topics you are allowed to discuss are politics and religion."

by Charly Mann

  
Martha Mullen                                                      Steve Mayberry

The 1968 Chapel Hill High School Class was the first fully integrated class that had attended all three years of high school together. The class was made up of an array of exceptional individuals who had endured and enjoyed one of most turbulent and revolutionary years in history.

  
Bill Bischoff                                                          Donna Huff

Just months before the graduation, Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis. In the Vietnam War, which every male attending CHHS graduated faced serving in, North Vietnam had launched the Tet Offensive in January which turned the tide of the war for the North.

  
Rodney McFarling                                               Dockery Roberts

1968 also marked the beginning of something called the Generation Gap. Never before had there been such a wide difference of tastes in music, politics, fashion, and culture between the youth and their parents. This diversity was magnified because this was also the largest generation in American History, known as the baby boomers. A significant part of these baby boomers rebelled against the social norms of the previous generation, and that was seen on a daily basis on the streets of Chapel Hill.

  
Saundra Farrington                                              Ron Mayse

1968 was personified by The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album which was released in the early summer of 1967, and became the must revolutionary and influential album in history. It was the top selling album in Chapel Hill for the rest of 1967 and early 1968.

  
West Mattis                                                         Macneil Poteat

by Charly Mann

It was not very long ago when almost half the stores in downtown Chapel Hill included the name of the owner, and every store and restaurant offered extraordinary personal service to their customers. For me, 1973 marked the beginning of the decline of this epoch. Today there are few locally owned and managed businesses on Franklin Street. While the downtown used to attract almost everyone who lived in Chapel Hill, it is now catering primarily to UNC students with an array of  t-shirt stores and many bars and restaurants oriented to college students.

Downtown Chapel Hill 1973

Franklin Street, 1965

There was a time when Chapel Hill had the best downtown in America. There were hardware stores, clothing stores for women and men of all ages, a wide spectrum of dining choices for every taste ranging from semi-elegant to fast-food. It was the best place you could imagine to find books, records, appliances, gifts, stationary, jewelry, toys, and magazines. The best part of it was wherever you went you saw your friends and neighbors, or people who you did not know by name but who were very familiar because you had seen them dozens of times before. It was more authentically American than Route 66 or the Grand Canyon.  Nowhere in the world was there another downtown so quaint and charming and also so accommodating to such a wide diversity of  individuals.

Bank of Chapel Hill 1965 (current site of NCNB Plaza)

Thanks to Wayne Spransy for supplying the 1973 Chapel Hill Coloring Book from which this was created (additional coloring to be completed later). His late father was the manager of Huggins' Hardware.

Chapel Hill 1 Hour Cleaners and Laundry, 1968

Every evening in 1973 after most stores closed you could find Jim Kuppers selling records along Franklin Street. As of a few years ago Jim still had a business selling used records.

Old or young we all enjoy the circus. One hundred years ago circus wagons drawn by teams of horses were a yearly sight on Franklin Street, signaling that the circus was coming to Chapel Hill. Fifty years later, William Meade Prince and Carl Boettcher created the Circus Parade carvings that were originally placed in the Circus Room snack bar on the UNC campus to commemorate this event. These exquisite carvings now adorn a hallway in the alumni center on the north side of Kenan Stadium.

 
Closeup of Charly Mann in Circus Parade Animals Under the Big Top. See the full version of this work of art.

One of my earliest memories was being in the Circus Room and imagining how it would be to be the first person to spot the circus wagons heading into Chapel Hill. I would see myself running up and down Franklin Street crying out, "The circus is coming to town again!" Then I would shout "Tigers, Clowns, and Elephants" as the parade drew closer.

Detail of the white tiger from painting inspired by William Meade Prince's Circus Parade.

What excited me the most after looking at the carvings was the idea of the circus being set up the next day and going by to see all the animals. "Wouldn't it be fun to ride on an elephant?" I thought.

The original wood carving of this elephant is in the UNC Alumni Center on Stadium Drive.

This year I took my daughter to see the Circus Parade carvings and she created this painting as she imagined William Meade Prince would have painted the animals with me today as the ringmaster.

To see the full version of this painting, which is 42" by 24", see the following article: Chapel Hill's Newest Work Of Art

   
Closeups of giraffe and seal from Circus Parade Animals Under the Big Top, by Kathryn Mann.

To see some of the original carvings from this painting and more information on the Circus Parade history, see The Circus Room and The Circus Parade

by Charly Mann

Chapel Hill became a town because General William Davie considered the place he found to build the university and its accompanying community the most beautiful spot he had ever encountered. Since that time generations of architects, artists, and landscapers have added to this magnificence. William Meade Prince, Chapel Hill's most beloved and inspiring artist, called the town the Southern Part of Heaven, and helped create a theme of life affirmation and joy that has endured for more than sixty years.

William Meade Prince painting in Chapel Hill

Carl Boettcher carving the Circus Parade in 1948 from William Meade Prince illustration

In 1948 Prince decided to create a permanent piece of art for Chapel Hill that would capture forever the magic and spectacle of the circus. After sketching out the idea in a pen and ink drawing, his friend and fellow Chapel Hillian, master wood carver Carl Boettcher took his design and carved The Circus Parade and the accompanying circus animals. If you have not seen it, you owe it to yourself to go the UNC Alumni Center on Stadium Drive next to Kenan Stadium to view this work of art in person.

Part of the PARADE mural by Michael Brown on the wall of the Carolina Coffee Shop in Porthole Alley

This is a typical William Meade Prince painting. Like his friend Norman Rockwell, he did many magazine covers in the 1930s and 1940s.

Michael Brown, a UNC art school graduate, has continued the tradition of these two men in recent decades by painting whimsical murals on the sides of buildings throughout both Chapel Hill and Carrboro. His best mural is on Porthole Alley and is called Parade. It was directly inspired by the piece of art that Prince and Boettcher created.

This is Circus Parade Animals Under the Big Top by Kathryn Mann from 2009. 

This week my favorite artist, who coincidently happens to be my daughter, has completed the next chapter in the saga of the Circus Parade. After hearing from me for years about how much I loved this work, she has created a new piece of art which takes the original designs of Prince's animals and has placed them into a circus tent with yours truly as the ringmaster. Since Prince did not color his original sketch she has finished that job for him as well.