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. 

by Bob Jurgensen and Charly Mann

From 1948 until about 1974 Sloan's was Chapel Hill's corner drugstore. It sat at the corner of Franklin and Columbia where Spanky's is today. The business was owned and run by druggist Bill Sloan.

Sloan's had the closest soda fountain to Chapel Hill Junior and Senior High Schools, located where University Square is today. During the school year there was a steady stream of high school students getting fountain cokes at Sloan's. In 1962 they even sold top 45 rpm records from a small box on the counter.  Bob Jurgensen tells a great story of one of Sloan's most unusual customers, Frisky, a wire haired terrier, who was a trained circus dog, adopted by Jo Bissell in the 1950's. Frisky was a rather independent dog who, while obedient to a point, would often walk off and roam the streets of Chapel Hill. Back then dogs roamed freely and no one ever really challenged them. Frisky loved ice cream and he knew where to find it. Sloan's, during the 1950s, operated an ice cream bar near the front of the store (later moved to the back in the 1960s) and back then, in the age of no air conditioning, the doors stood wide open with a ceiling fan running overhead to keep out the flies.

Frisky was a regular customer at Sloan's and would walk in and stand around until someone took mercy on him and gave him a small cup of vanilla. Then Frisky would prance back to his home on Rosemary Street (about a block and a half), waiting patiently for the traffic to stop at Rosemary and Columbia stop light, and cross with the green light to the other side, all the while with this small cup of ice cream firmly in his teeth's grip, having never taken even so much as a lick. Nonnie Bissell, who was Bob Jurgensen's grandmother, owned and operated Nonnie's Beauty Nook out of her home on the west side of Franklin Street across from where La Residence is today. Frisky would curl up in the front yard and eat the ice cream.

Frisky the former Circus Dog who was a regular customer of Sloan's Drug Store in Chapel Hill during the 1950s

The first of every month Nonnie would head down to pay Bill Sloan her monthly tab for medications and other drug store items she would have had delivered to her home throughout the month. One time when Bob was five he went with his grandmother to Sloan's when she paid her bill. That day she got very upset because Mr. Sloan had charged her for several 5 cent ice creams Frisky had "bought". Five cents was a lot of money to Nonnie in those days, and there were quite a few charges for ice cream on the bill. Fortunately Bill Sloan had a sense of humor and removed the charges from her bill, but you can bet Frisky heard about it later that evening.

 by Charly Mann

The 1939 UNC Cheerleaders

G. B. Lamm (Greyard Byrne) was a man who had the eye and talent for capturing the beauty and spirit that resided on the University of North Carolina campus between 1936 to 1940. He came from the small town of Maxton, NC not far from the South Carolina border at the height of the Depression with just enough money from his family to pay tuition. He paid for everything else, including room and board, as a photographer, selling photos to both the Charlotte Observer and Greensboro News-Record. He also contributed his pictures to the following UNC publications: The Daily Tar Heel, the Yackety-Yack, the fabulous humor magazine Tar 'an Feathers, and the short-lived and controversial parody magazine The Buccaneer.

UNC coeds prepare for biggest dance of 1939 with Glenn Miller Orchestra

As you can see from this sampling of his photographs Lamm's skill rivals that of many of most highly regarded 20th century's professional photographers and is certainly the best to come out of Chapel Hill in that era.

UNC men's track and field members jump over hurdles from 1941. This would be a difficult shot even for an experienced photographer today with the best equipment.

G.B. Lamm died at the age 89 on Jan. 3, 2008. He was a devoted Tarheel throughout his life, and proudly attended meeting of the alumni who had graduated from the University at least 50 years earlier.

He served as a photographer in the Army during World War II recording aerial bombing missions in the South Pacific, and the horrors of war in Europe.

G.B. Lamm's favorite UNC coed model "Frenchie" at Battle Seat in front of Gimghoul Castle 1939. This photo was taken on a very cold winter day.

Quintessential male UNC students in front of Graham Memorial 1939. It is hard to believe this was standard student attire at one time, and this was at the height of the Depression.

Lamm planned to become a professional photographer, but soon after returning from the war in 1945 he married his high-school sweetheart Virginia Todd, and he began a 37 year career as a principal. He was a principal in Lilesville, Peachland, Creedmore, Biscoe, and 24 years at the Ellerbe School.

Photography continued to be a hobby and passion for Lamm for the rest of life.

UNC coeds at Old West Dorm in 1941. I thought Spencer was the only female dorm at that time, but perhaps Old West went coed at the beginning of World War II.

UNC students in front of Mangum Dorm 1939. This is where G.B. Lamm stayed during most of his years at Carolina. 

All of these photos have been provided by Beth Lamm Richardson, G.B. Lamm's daughter.

To enjoy more of G.B. Lamm's incredible photographs of the University of North Carolina between 1937 and 1941 go to the following website maintained by Terry Richardson.

http://nicebigman.com/lamm.htm

In the next few months we plan to do at least two more pieces featuring the works of this very gifted photographer.