Campus Map

Click on a marker to learn more about it! Happy Exploring!

WXYC

Student-run FM radio station WXYC began broadcasting in March 1977 at 89.3 FM. WXYC was preceded by WCAR and other smaller stations, many of them based in dorms. Beginning in the early 1970s, Carolina students began the process of applying for an FM license, which would enable them to broadcast over the air (earlier efforts were "carrier current" stations, which used low-power signals transmitted through electric wires and were typically available only in small areas). The university initially supported the…

WUNC 91.5

WUNC 91.5 is a National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate station at UNC—Chapel Hill. The station made its first broadcast in the early 1940s on AM and in 1952 began broadcasting on FM. Charles Kuralt and Carl Kasell, both of whom would have long and prominent careers in broadcasting, were involved with the station as students in the early 1950s. Staffed by students and volunteers, the station lasted until the early 1970s, when equipment problems forced it off the air. WUNC…

Woollen Gym

Woollen Gym opened in March 1938 to serve as a replacement for Bynum Gymnasium, which the university had long outgrown. In addition to more space for games and exercises, the most exciting feature of the new gym was the Bowman Gray Memorial Pool, which was said to be the largest pool in the South when it opened. In December 1938 the gym hosted a speech by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The men's basketball team began playing its home games in…

Winston Residence Hall

Winston Residence Hall opened in 1948 as a dormitory for men students, along with Connor and Joyner. It is named in honor of UNC president George Tayloe Winston. In the late 1960s the hall was renovated for women students. In 1973 the dorm became the first room-by-room coed residence hall at UNC, and it was the location for a sleepover by then chancellor Nelson Ferebee Taylor and other administrators who wanted to bring attention to overcrowded conditions in student housing….

Winston House

The location of the Honors Carolina Center for European Study in London, Winston House is an eighteenth-century townhouse located on Bedford Square, near the British Museum, the University of London, and London School of Economics. Purchased with private donations, Winston House is a hub for UNC's study abroad programs and research initiatives across Europe. It is available to University of North Carolina students, faculty, staff, and alumni and is used by other educational institutions in London and the United States….

Wilson Library

The Carnegie Library (now Hill Hall) had been in use for only a couple of decades before university officials began talking about the need for a new library building. University president Harry Woodburn Chase described the Carnegie Library as built to serve the needs of a small college. As the university continued on a path of ambitious growth and transformation into a major research university, it would need a new library. The new building would be not just a home…

Wilson Hall

Opened in 1940, Wilson is located on a hill near the corner of South Road and Columbia Street, described as "one of the most beautiful natural grounds for a building" on campus. It was built to house classrooms, laboratories, and offices for the Department of Biology and was expanded in 1965. The building is named for Henry Van Peters Wilson, hired in 1891 as the first biology professor at UNC, who later became chair of the Department of Zoology. He…

Whitehead Hall

Located next to the Carolina Inn, Whitehead was completed in 1938 as a dormitory for students in the medical school. Funded in part by money from the Public Works Administration, the dorm was part of a major expansion of on-campus housing for students. It is named for Richard Henry Whitehead, dean of the medical school and a professor of anatomy.

Victory Village

After World War II the university experienced a rapid increase in enrollment, especially among married students attending college on the GI Bill. Faced with a housing shortage, the university obtained former army barracks that were no longer needed by the military. These metal, prefabricated houses, installed in 1946, were intended as a temporary solution but would remain on campus for more than twenty years. The new housing community was named Victory Village. Future UNC System president William C. Friday and…

Venable and Murray Halls

Venable and Murray Halls are home to the Departments of Chemistry and Marine Science. The conjoined buildings opened in 2010 as the final phase of the Carolina Physical Science Complex, the largest construction project in university history. From 2004 to 2010 the university completed Chapman Hall, Caudill Labs, the Brooks Computer Science Building, and then Venable and Murray Halls to complete the complex. Venable and Murray Halls replaced the first Venable Hall, built in 1925 as a home for the…

Vance Hall

Vance Hall was built in 1912 as part of a three-part dormitory for men students, along with Battle and Pettigrew. It is on the northwest corner of McCorkle Place on Franklin Street . The buildings were converted to offices in the 1960s. In excavations related to building construction near the Pettigrew and Vance Hall sites, UNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology staff have uncovered artifacts from prehistoric American Indian occupation. Vance was named in honor of Zebulon Baird Vance, who studied…

Van Hecke-Wettach Hall

Van Hecke-Wettach Hall, the current home of the UNC School of Law, sits on Ridge Road on the eastern edge of campus. The building was completed in 1968 to give more space for the law school, which had outgrown its home in Manning Hall. The building is named for two law school deans, Maurice Taylor Van Hecke and Robert H. Wettach, both of whom joined the law school faculty in 1921. The building also houses the Katherine Robinson Everett Law…

Utilities

A major theme for the early twentieth-century history of the university and Chapel Hill —as it was for much of the United States —was the development of utilities. Both university and village grew steadily from the 1880s to 1930, adding students, faculty and staff, a new railroad line, and new residents and businesses. UNC made the transition from a liberal arts college focused on undergraduate education to a multipurpose university by adding graduate and professional study, research, publications, extension, and…

Upendo Lounge

In 1972 the Black Student Movement (BSM) was allocated a meeting and event space on the first floor of Chase Hall. They named it the Upendo Lounge, after the Swahili word for love. Upendo quickly became a hub for African American students on campus. It was used for meetings, practices, lectures, and church services and as a general gathering space and community center. It was the first space on the campus dedicated to and controlled by African American students. The…

Unsung Founders Memorial

The Unsung Founders Memorial is an art installation located on McCorkle Place, dedicated to the African American people who helped build the university. The piece, created by artist Do Ho Suh, features bronze figures holding up a black stone table, surround by five stone seats. Inscribed on the top is, "The Class of 2002 honors the university's unsung founders, the people of color bond and free, who helped build the Carolina that we cherish today." The senior gift of the…

University Railroad

The eighteenth-century choice to locate UNC in a relatively sparsely populated area left the university and town stranded in the 1840s when railroad lines began to crisscross the state. The east-west line between Goldsboro and Greensboro bypassed Chapel Hill some eight miles to the north, which encouraged the later growth of Durham but isolated Chapel Hill. In 1873, while the university was closed, local iron mine owner Robert F. Hoke obtained a charter for the Chapel Hill Iron Mountain Railroad…

University of North Carolina Press

In 1922 a group of faculty established UNC Press, primarily with the goal of publishing faculty research, under the direction of university librarian Louis Round Wilson. The first title published, in 1923, was The Saprolegniaceae, with Notes on Other Water Molds, by William Chambers Coker. The UNC Press initially served as a printing operation. The staff did not comment on editorial content, especially if it came from a UNC faculty member. In 1932 William T. Couch took over as director….

Tin Can

As Carolina expanded in the 1920s, and as interest picked up in college sports, including the still relatively new basketball team, the campus needed a new indoor athletic facility (basketball games were previously held in the small gym in Bynum Hall). The new building was completed in 1923. It was big enough for multiple basketball courts and an indoor track and had enough seats to hold 4,000 spectators. Before the university had a chance to give the structure a proper…

Thurston-Bowles Building

Opened in 1995, these two adjoining buildings house research centers at the School of Medicine. They are named in recognition of D. Jones "Doc" Thurston Jr. and Hargrove "Skipper" Bowles Jr. Thurston was a graduate of UNC's School of Engineering in the 1930s (before the program closed) and built a successful trucking company. He donated funds in support of arthritis research at Carolina. "Skipper" Bowles was a prominent business leader and politician and was the father of UNC System president…

The Pit

The beloved gathering space at the heart of the campus, the Pit was created, possibly unintentionally, during construction projects in 1967 and 1968. Formerly the site of Emerson Field, the area was cleared to make way for three new student services buildings: Graham Student Union, Student Stores building, and House Undergraduate Library. During the construction, crews left a large dirt depression in front of the new bookstore. The hole remained while work continued during the fall and winter of 1968—69,…

The Cube

The Cube, a large wooden display located between the Pit and the Graham Student Union, is used as a space for students to announce campus programs and events. The colorful, hand-painted box was first built in the early 1970s and became known as the graffiti cube. While it has grown and been rebuilt many times since it first appeared, the Cube has been a consistent part of the campus landscape ever since. The public display has occasionally been the site…

Teague Residence Hall

Teague Residence Hall opened on Stadium Drive as a men's dormitory in 1958, around the same time as nearby Parker and Avery dorms. In the 1970s and 1980s Teague was one of the most notorious dorms on campus. With a strong focus on fellowship and tradition, Teague was often compared to a fraternity. Teague residents were known for their rowdy behavior and for their emphasis on intramural sports (teams from Teague were frequent winners of intramural sports championships). In 1983…

Taylor Residence Hall

Opened in 2006, the new apartment-style dorm is part of the Ram Village Community on South Campus. The building is named for former chancellor Nelson Ferebee Taylor (class of 1942), who joined the School of Law faculty in 1968, soon moved into administration, and was named chancellor in 1972. It was a challenging era as UNC, along with many universities nationwide, was still reeling from widespread protests over the Vietnam War and struggling to adapt to an increasingly vocal and…

Taylor Hall

When it first opened in 1969, this building was known as Swing Building. It housed classrooms, a lecture hall, and labs for the School of Medicine. In 1989 the building was renamed for Isaac M. Taylor, an alumnus (class of 1942) who joined the faculty of the School of Medicine in 1952 and served as dean from 1964 to 1971. In his brief tenure leading the school, Taylor oversaw a period of growth and expansion, spearheading the construction of several…

Taylor Campus Health Services Building

The student infirmary is named for James A. Taylor (class of 1939), a member of the student health service staff beginning in 1949. When Taylor took over as director of student health in 1971, he began advocating for a new facility, as well as the expansion of student health services. Under Taylor's leadership, UNC—Chapel Hill established its first sports medicine program and greatly expanded women's health services. The new Campus Health Services Building was completed in 1980 and was named…

Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building

Opened in 1995 to house the School of Social Work, the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building is named for three different people. Jack Tate was an early supporter of the school and was effective in gaining state support for teaching social work at Carolina. John Turner had a long career in social work, was hired as Kenan Professor in 1974, and became the first African American dean at Carolina in 1981. And journalist Charles Kuralt, whose father was a social worker in Charlotte,…

Tarrson Hall

Adjacent to Brauer Hall, Tarrson opened in 2000 to serve as a teaching facility for the School of Dentistry. The building is named for E. B. "Bud" Tarrson, an executive in a Chicago company that sold dental hygiene products. Tarrson donated to dental schools around the country. Even though he did not attend Carolina, he gave $2 million to support dental education at the university.

Swain Hall

Swain Hall was opened in 1914 for use as a cafeteria. Built on the former site of the university president's house, Swain provided a much-needed expansion of dining space for the campus, which had long outgrown the limited seating capacity in Commons Hall. The novelty of the new space appeared to wear off quickly, for only a few years after it opened students were routinely referring to it as "Swine Hall," in reference to the quality of food served there….

Sutton's Drug Store

Sutton's Drug Store opened on Franklin Street in 1923 and quickly became a vital part of student life. It is now one of the few remaining links to the past in the rapidly changing downtown. In its early days, when the store was known as Sutton and Alderman's, students went to the drugstore to buy a wide variety of goods and services beyond the traditional medicines and soda fountain drinks: clothing, concert tickets, record players —students could even get their…

Study abroad

One of the earliest study abroad opportunities for students was a UNC System "Year at Lyons" program, which enabled a select group of students from UNC—Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, and UNC-Greensboro to spend their junior year at the University of Lyon in France. Sponsored by the French department, the program began in 1964 and was repeated annually through the early 1970s. The Romance language departments continued to be the primary sponsors of study abroad programs through the 1970s…

Student Television

In 1983 a small group of UNC—Chapel Hill students interested in television production formed Student Television. They received a loan from the university and borrowed equipment from the Department of Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures to get started. The initial shows were feature stories broadcast on a local cable channel and were viewable only by students living in Granville Towers or in fraternity and sorority houses, as the dorms did not yet have cable. Within a year Student Television membership…

Student Recreation Center

In 1989 students voted to increase fees in order to support construction of a new gym on campus. In contrast to Woollen and Fetzer Gyms, which were controlled by the athletic department, the Student Recreation Center would be managed by student-led organizations. The new facility, located adjacent to Fetzer, opened in 1993.

Student Body Sculpture

The Student Body sculpture was installed in front of Davis Library in October 1990. A gift of the UNC—Chapel Hill class of 1985, the collection of seven bronze statues by artist Julia Balk was said to represent different aspects of student life. The sculpture was controversial immediately after it was installed. It was criticized as portraying stereotypical images of students, particularly a figure of an African American student spinning a basketball on his finger. Other statues drew criticism as well,…

Streaking

In the mid-1970s streaking (running naked through campus buildings and grounds) was more than just a way of letting off steam on campus: it was a source of pride. UNC students founded the American Streaker Society (ASS), and competed with other schools to see who could have the largest group streak. The fad peaked in the spring of 1974 as groups of naked students streaked across campuses around the country. On the night of March 7 of that year, 924…

Stone Center

The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History is home to Carolina's research, outreach, cultural, and service programs related to the study of the African American, diaspora, and African experiences. Designed by award-winning African American architect Philip Freelon, the building, which opened in 2004, is situated in a wooded area near the bell tower. It includes a gallery and museum exhibit space, a library, and an auditorium, as well as office and seminar spaces. Its existence is a…

Steward's Hall

Constructed for the care and boarding of students, this wooden structure was located just north of present-day Carr Building where Cameron Avenue now runs, facing west. Completed in 1795, it was the second building completed on campus. For many years the trustees fixed the price of board and hired a steward to run the operation. There are multiple accounts of student complaints about bad food and poor care throughout the early 1800s, such as the charge of "invariable service of…

Steele Building

Opened in 1921 as a dormitory, Steele housed students until the late 1950s, when it was renovated and converted to office space. Beginning in 1951, Steele was the home of UNC's first African American students. After court rulings forced the university to admit African American graduate students in 1951 and undergraduates in 1955, these pioneering students found a campus that was still largely segregated. In an arrangement that continued for several years, all African American students were assigned dorms on…

Stacy Residence Hall

Stacy Residence Hall was completed as a men's dormitory in 1938, one of several new dorms built at the time using funds from the Public Works Administration. It is named for Marvin Hendrix Stacy, a math professor at Carolina who served briefly as acting president of the school after the death of Edward Kidder Graham in 1918, until he too succumbed to the flu epidemic.

St. Anthony Hall

The Xi Chapter of Delta Psi, known as St. Anthony Hall, was active for a few years before the Civil War and then returned in the 1920s. Like the other chapters around the country, St. Anthony Hall at Carolina has a distinctive literary focus. The chapter has long hosted readings and a regular "Pancakes and Poetry" event. St. Anthony Hall has been a trailblazer among campus fraternities: in 1967 it was the first social fraternity to accept an African American…

Springfest

Following the cancellation of the annual Jubilee concerts, UNC—Chapel Hill students started a new tradition in 1974 known as Springfest. Originally envisioned as a multiday arts and music festival, Springfest turned into a day-long concert by local bands on "Connor Beach," the lawn in front of Connor dorm. By the mid-1980s Springfest crowds ranged from 3,000 to 5,000 people. Students brought kegs and coolers to the increasingly alcohol-fueled event. The size of the crowds and the amount of beer consumed…

Spencer Residence Hall

Located at the southwest corner of East Franklin Street and Raleigh Street, Spencer opened in 1924 as the first residence hall for women at Carolina. The building included parlors and a dining room and kitchen facilities. In 1930 the third floor was finished, adding nine rooms. In 1958 an addition provided room for an additional seventy students. In the 1960s the kitchen and dining room were replaced with a study room and an apartment for the residence director. Spencer is…

Speaker Ban Law

In 1963 the North Carolina General Assembly passed the Act to Regulate Visiting Speakers, which prohibited from speaking at a state-supported college campus anyone who was a known member of the Communist Party, had advocated the overthrow of the state or federal constitution, or had ever invoked the Fifth Amendment before any judicial tribunal with respect to subversive activities. Passed without warning in the last hours of the legislative session in June, the bill seemed to be about anticommunism but…

Southern Historical Collection

In the early twentieth century, led by faculty and students in history and social sciences, UNC began to emerge as a center for research on the American South. To support and encourage this work, history professor Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton created the Southern Historical Collection in 1930. Hamilton's legendary collecting trips took him around the Southeast as he gathered family papers, plantation records, and more, bringing it all back to Chapel Hill. His work earned him the nickname "Ransack"…

Southen Oral History Program

Founded in 1973, the Southern Oral History Program (SOHP) conducts oral histories and provides training for future oral historians. Under the leadership of history professor Jacquelyn Down Hall, it grew into a nationally recognized program. While the program interviewed some prominent and well-known people, a major focus was on capturing voices that would otherwise be marginalized or simply absent from the historical record. In 1987 Hall and several of her colleagues published Like a Family: The Making of a Southern…

South Campus

While there is no official definition of the area known familiarly as South Campus, students and alumni generally know it as the section of the campus south of Kenan Stadium. The name most often refers to the high-rise dorms that were first constructed in the 1960s. However, as the campus has expanded, the definition of South Campus has shifted. In the 1920s, newspaper reports referred to the area now known as Polk Place as the south campus.

South Building

Construction on South Building, known originally as Main Building, began in 1798, but lack of funds delayed its completion until 1814. Students reportedly built rough cabins inside the unfinished structure to escape crowded conditions in Old East. When it finally opened, South contained dormitory rooms for eighty students, halls for the debating societies, a library space, and a public hall. Unlike Old East, which has remained a dormitory space throughout its history, South Building's configuration changed on a regular basis…

Social Work, School of

The School of Social Work was founded in 1920 as a professional graduate school, offering master's and doctoral degrees and educating social workers for research and advanced practice. The school, known first as the School of Public Welfare, was created to train professionals for a newly formed state agency to oversee county-level welfare offices. The school's mission also included research on social problems, which led to the creation of the Institute for Social Sciences in 1924. It was the first…

Soccer

Carolina students began playing soccer after World War I. The first references to it in the Tar Heel were in 1917, with the first intramural games played in 1919. The first intercollegiate game was played in 1937, when a group of students organized a scrimmage against Duke (the UNC team lost, 2—1). Soccer became a varsity sport in 1947 and was soon successful, winning the Southern Conference championship in 1948. In 1963 Edwin Okoroma, from Nigeria, became the first black…

Smith Building

Built in 1901 as a men's dormitory with space for sixty-five students, the Mary Ann Smith Building was one of the first to be equipped with heat, lighting, and indoor plumbing. It was designed by architect Frank Milburn, who designed all of the campus buildings from 1901 to 1915, and has a Flemish influence to its style, including rounded gables. It has the distinction of being the first building named for a woman at the university. Smith Building became a…

Sitterson Hall

Sitterson Hall opened in 1987 to house the Department of Computer Science. In contrast to computer science buildings at other universities, many of which featured a distinctly modern design, Sitterson was built in a more traditional style. A staff member in the department explained to the Daily Tar Heel that they didn't want a "Darth Vader building" because "computers are already intimidating." The building is named for former chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson, who had a long career at Carolina. Beginning…

Senior Walk

The path that runs on the north side of the Coker Arboretum behind Spencer Residence Hall and Chapel of the Cross, the Episcopal church on Franklin Street, is what remains of Senior Walk, a popular campus landmark well into the 1960s. It began as an informal path some time in the 1890s and became a formal designation with the Senior Class Gift of 1928, which placed a sandstone tablet designating the path and flowering cherry trees on each side of…

Seal

The UNC Board of Trustees first adopted a school seal in 1791. The seal featured the face of the god Apollo and his symbol of the rising sun as being "expressive of the dawn of higher education in our State." It also included the Latin words "Sigal Universitat Carol Septent," translated as "Seal of the University of North Carolina." The Apollo seal was used on official documents for the next century. It was changed slightly in 1895, showing Apollo's face…

Scuttlebutt

The Scuttlebutt was a popular snack bar located at the corner of Cameron and Columbia Streets, near Swain Hall. The small white building was built as a canteen for U.S. Navy cadets on campus while attending pre-flight school. Given to the university after the war, it was later operated by Student Stores. It was a popular stop for many students on campus, especially for fraternity members living nearby at the houses on Fraternity Court. By the early 1970s the manager…

Ruffin Residence Hall

Ruffin Residence Hall was opened in 1922, at the same time as nearby Grimes, Mangum, and Manly dorms. Originally housing only men, Ruffin was converted to a women's dorm by 1976. It is named for two members of the Ruffin family: Thomas Ruffin and Thomas Ruffin Jr. Both were lawyers, served on the state supreme court, and were members of the UNC Board of Trustees. Ruffin Sr. enslaved many people on his plantations in Alamance and Orange Counties and was…

ROTC

The university began a Reserve Officer Training Program on campus in fall 1940, when the U.S. Navy placed a ROTC unit on campus. The new unit came at a time when, faced with the possibility of the United States entering World War II, the university took a more direct role in military preparation, including the establishment of compulsory physical education. The Navy ROTC began with 100 students enrolled and was active through the war. Initially housed in Woollen Gym, the…

Rosenau Hall

Rosenau Hall opened in 1962 to serve as the home of the School of Public Health. The additional space was much needed: at the time it opened, public health classes had been offered in fourteen different buildings around campus. In 1965 it was named for Milton Rosenau, founder of the school and a public health pioneer. Rosenau worked in public health positions in the federal government and then went to Harvard, where he established the nation's first school of public…

Research Labs in Archaeology

The university began offering courses in archaeology as early as the 1920s. These were primarily lecture classes focused on historical archaeology, with an emphasis on ancient Greece and Rome. In the mid-1930s, following an increased interest in the archaeology of North Carolina, the university began supporting efforts to study early civilizations in the state. Using funding from the WPA (Works Progress Administration), the university started the Laboratory of Archaeology in 1939. Work at the lab was halted during World War…

Rathskellar

The Ram's Head Rathskeller, opened in Amber Alley off of Franklin Street in 1948, was beloved by generations of Carolina students. It was run by the Danziger family, owner of several successful restaurants in Chapel Hill. It was a combination of a formal restaurant and beer hall but turned into a college town classic, with dishes that remained on the menu for decades and carved initials from students over many years in the walls. "The Rat" was the first restaurant…

Prisoners of war

A small group of prisoners of war worked briefly at the university during World War II. Camp Butner, located in Granville County about thirty miles northeast of Chapel Hill, began receiving German prisoners of war in the spring of 1944. By the summer some of the prisoners were working as dining hall attendants on campus. They worked in Lenoir Hall, which was used exclusively by the U.S. Navy cadets for the navy pre-flight school located on campus. It is not…

Presidents of UNC

Carolina's early history is marked by long presidential tenures. The campus leader was at first designated as presiding professor. Four men served under that title, from 1794 to 1804, when the trustees opted to promote Joseph Caldwell to president. He served until 1812 and stepped in again four years later to serve another twenty-three years. Caldwell was followed by David Lowry Swain, whose thirty-three-year tenure remains a record. In the political turmoil of Reconstruction, mathematics professor Solomon Pool attempted to…

Polk Place

The quad that stretches from South Building to Wilson Library is named for James K. Polk, the only university alumnus to date to become president of the United States. If McCorkle Place, to the north of South Building, represents the nineteenth-century campus, then Polk Place represents the early twentieth century and the beginning of the modern research university. The quad was planned to accommodate dramatic growth in the student body. Most of its classroom buildings, along with Wilson Library, were…

Playmakers Theater (Smith Hall)

Designed by architect Alexander Jackson Davis, Playmakers Theatre is a National Historic Landmark and one of the most significant architectural works on campus. Built in 1850 as a combination library and ballroom, the building was named for its benefactor, Benjamin Smith. A significant architectural feature is the use of wheat and corn decorations on the column capitals instead of the traditional acanthus leaves. Over the years the building housed a chemistry laboratory, and in 1893 it became the university bath…

Playmakers Repertory Company

PlayMakers Repertory Company is a professional regional theater company in residence at UNC—Chapel Hill. Resident and visiting professional artists work in conjunction with graduate students in acting, costume production, and technical production from the Department of Dramatic Art. It is a member of the League of Resident Theatres in the United States and one of the oldest professional theater companies in North Carolina. The company produces a full season of classical and regional plays, staged in the Paul Green Theatre…

Pit preachers

The promise of a ready audience and a tolerance for free speech on campus has long made the Pit a popular location for preaching. The "pit preachers" are usually evangelical Christians seeking to educate, chastise, or convert passing students. Many are noted for their fiery rhetoric, not to mention their powerful voices. Arguing with the preacher is a favorite pastime of students, and a crowd often gathers to mock, dispute, or simply listen. While there have been many different preachers…

Piney Prospect

Piney Prospect is a promontory on the east edge of campus and the site of Gimghoul Castle. In his first description of the site, William Richardson Davie called it Prospect Point, a place from which one could view the land to the east, including the high points near the Eno, Little, and Flat Rivers. According to Kemp Plummer Battle, the name became "Piney" through the common practice of pronouncing "point" as "pi'nt," which eventually just became "piney." Battle grew up…

Physical education

While early Carolina students often participated in outdoor games, the university did not require physical education until 1891. To encourage physical fitness among the student body, students were required to take part in exercises at the gymnasium (then located in Commons Hall) three times a week. These early classes were organized by the campus YMCA. The requirements have changed many times over the years. In 1896 all students had to exercise at the gym for thirty minutes a day. By…

Phillips Hall

Phillips Hall opened in 1919 to house many of the university's science departments, which had been scattered around the campus. The Departments of Math, Physics, and Engineering were the first occupants. As Phillips was being built, the Tar Heel boasted that the new building would be the "best equipped of its kind in the South" and that it would "equal those at Harvard and Yale." In addition to modern scientific facilities (including a "dynamo room"), it contained reinforced steel and…

Pettigrew Hall

Pettigrew Hall, part of the three-part Battle-Vance-Pettigrew building, opened in 1912 as a dormitory. Built on northwest corner of McCorkle Place on Franklin Street, the modern dorm featured steam heat, water, and shower baths on every floor. The building served as a dorm until the late 1960s, when it was converted to office space, used most recently by the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid. The building is named for alumnus and Civil War general James Johnston Pettigrew. Valedictorian of…

Person Hall

Person Hall was the third building completed after Old East and Steward's Hall. Completed in 1797, Person served as the College Chapel and village church for almost forty years. In 1877 the building was renovated to house the Departments of Physics and Chemistry. Shortly after they moved in, the building caught fire and the interior was destroyed. Trustee Julian Carr paid for its rebuilding, and in 1886 and 1892 the building was enlarged to better accommodate chemistry labs and instruction….

Peabody Hall

Peabody Hall has always served as the home for the School of Education. It opened in 1913 and received a major renovation and expansion in 1960. It is named for philanthropist George Peabody, who established the Peabody Education Fund, after the Civil War to support teacher training, primarily in the South. The fund provided support for the university's first Summer Normal School for teachers in 1877 and in 1911 contributed $40,000 toward the construction of a new building for the…

Parker Residence Hall

Parker Residence Hall opened 1958, at the same time as nearby Avery and Teague dorms. Originally all male, Parker became a women's dorm starting in 1968. It is named for John J. Parker, a lawyer and judge. Parker graduated from UNC in 1907 and went on to a long and successful legal career. In 1930 Parker was nominated by President Herbert Hoover to fill an empty Supreme Court seat. His nomination was narrowly defeated, due in large part to opposition…

Old West

Completed in 1823 as a companion to Old East, located to the west of the Old Well. Construction was under the direction of architect William Nichols, who also designed a third floor for Old East at the same time to make the buildings match. Nichols and architect Alexander Jackson Davis, who oversaw an addition and renovation in 1848, used enslaved laborers on this construction. In the 1880s Old West was home to the North Carolina Historical Society for a brief…

Old Well

Early UNC students and faculty relied on wells and nearby springs and creeks for water. The Old Well is probably one of the original wells dug in the 1790s. Located near Old East, the well was at the center of the small campus following the construction of South Building and Old West. Photos from the 1890s show the well surrounded by a rough wooden structure that would have been built to cover the open well and provide shelter for students….

Old East

Old East is the first building at the university and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the first building on a public university campus in the United States. The original structure, located just to the east of the Old Well, was designed to be the north wing of a larger building. It was built by James Patterson and remodeled in 1822 by William Nichols, adding a third floor, and in 1848 by Alexander Jackson Davis, all…

Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, located at the corner of South and Country Club Roads, is as old as UNC itself. The first recorded burial was a white student, George Clarke of Bertie County, who died unexpectedly in 1798. He was buried in the woods at the top of a knoll that was then well east of campus and town. The earliest known African American person buried there was Ellington Burnett in 1853. A low rock wall near the center of…

Odum Village

In 1960 the university opened new housing for married students in order to replace the ramshackle Victory Village units. The new community, eventually named Odum Village after UNC faculty member Howard W. Odum, included brick buildings (a big improvement from the prefabricated metal Victory Village units) and modern amenities, including a large television antenna. The two complexes continued side by side on South Campus for several years before demolition began on the Victory Village buildings. Odum Village served as the…

Odum Institute for Research in Social Science

The Institute for Social Sciences was established in 1924 with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and encouragement from university president Harry Woodburn Chase. It was the first program of its kind in the country. Led by sociologist Howard Odum, the institute focused most of its research on social and economic problems facing the American South, including poverty and race relations. The early work of the institute helped raise the academic reputation of the university, especially among other regional schools, but…

Nursing, School of

The School of Nursing was founded in 1950 as the first four-year school of nursing in the state to offer a bachelor's degree. (Duke University already had a three-year degree program.) UNC had offered summer extension classes for nurses beginning in the mid-1930s and a bachelor's degree in public health nursing in the School of Public Health starting in 1941. A nursing program was part of a major effort by the state legislature in the late 1940s to improve health…

North Carolina Collection

The North Carolina Collection, part of the Wilson Special Collections Library, traces its origins back to 1844, when university president David Lowry Swain created the North Carolina Historical Society and began collecting books and other materials about North Carolina history. Mary Lindsay Thornton was hired as the first curator of the collection in 1917 and remained in the job for more than forty years, helping grow the collection into one of the largest state historical libraries in the country. In…

North Carolina Botanical Garden

The UNC Board of Trustees first approved the use of university-owned land for a botanical garden in 1952. The original land was supplemented by private gifts, and the North Carolina Botanical Garden now manages more than 1,000 acres. The garden, overseen by the university's botany department, first opened to the public in 1966. It was designed as a conservation garden, cultivating and maintaining thousands of different native plant species. The garden supports both education and research, attracting a large number…

New West

New West was built in the late 1850s as a dorm to house the expanding population of students. It was designed by architect William Percival to match New East, except that it is one story shorter. In what was an innovation at the time, the building did not include fireplaces in each room. Instead, they would be heated by a basement furnace and a system of pipes. It didn't work —the rooms on the bottom floor were much too hot…

New East

With enrollment increasing in the 1850s, the university built two new dorms to house the additional students. They were placed on either side of the east and west buildings and were called New East and New West. As New East was on a downhill slope, architect William Percival designed it with an additional story to balance the height of the buildings on the landscape. New East was not without its critics. The supposedly modern heating system failed to work as…

Navy Field

Navy Field was located along Ridge Road behind Fetzer Field and across from Boshamer Stadium. It was originally used for military exercises when the U.S. Navy pre-flight school was on campus during World War II. The field was later adapted for use by UNC athletics, serving as a practice field for the football team and hosting home games for the field hockey and lacrosse teams for many years. Use of the field was discontinued in the 2010s to make way…

Naval Armory

As the campus ramped up military training facilities during World War II, the U.S. Navy funded the construction of an armory. Initially used by the navy for the campus pre-flight school, the building has housed the campus Navy ROTC since 1943. It was built to support the training needs of navy cadets and included classrooms, a drill floor, and an indoor rifle range. The armory currently houses UNC—Chapel Hill Navy, Air Force, and Army ROTC programs. Beginning in the early…

National Pan-Hellenic Council

The National Pan-Hellenic Council is composed of the nine historically African American Greek lettered fraternities and sororities. The organizations are popularly known as the Divine Nine. Established when the United States was racially segregated, the organizations no longer restrict membership but continue to commemorate and celebrate their origins in African American history and culture. Planning is currently underway for an NPHC Garden, in the courtyard of the Student and Academic Service Building. The Garden, intended to evoke traditional fraternity and…

Nash Hall

Nash Hall opened in 1942, one of several new buildings used for the U.S. Navy's pre-flight school on campus during World War II. Located near the corner of McCauley and Pittsboro Streets across from the Carolina Inn, it housed cadets and later students before being converted to office and lab space in the early 1950s. The building was demolished in 2006 to facilitate work on underground steam pipes and the space was converted to a parking lot. Nash Hall was…

Murphey Hall

Murphey Hall was completed in 1923 for use as classrooms and offices. The building originally housed the Departments of English, German, Greek, Latin, and Romance Languages. As the academic departments grew, most eventually moved to new homes: languages to Dey Hall and English to Greenlaw Hall. The Department of Classics, which has been in the building since the 1930s, has been the primary resident of Murphey since the 1970s. The building is named for Archibald DeBow Murphey, an early graduate…

Morrison Residence Hall

Completed in 1965, Morrison continued the expansion of the campus to the south. It was built in the style of nearby Craige and Ehringhaus dorms, which opened a few years earlier. Morehead is a little larger than these other two dorms, housing around 900 students. In 1970 Morrison became the first permanent coed dorm on campus, and the first in which men and women lived on the same floor. The dorm is named after former governor and U.S. senator Cameron…

Morehead Planetarium and Science Center

John Motley Morehead III was interested in providing a "silk hat" for the university —a landmark building that was unlikely to be built using taxpayer funds. When a Harvard professor told Morehead, "Your state needs cosmic awakening," Morehead made the decision to build a planetarium. When it opened in 1949, the Morehead Planetarium was the first in the South and one of only six in the United States. From 1959 to 1975 the planetarium hosted training programs for U.S. astronauts,…

Morehead Chemistry Labs

Completed in 1985 as undergraduate lab and classroom space for the Department of Chemistry, the lab was built with a legislative appropriation and named in honor of John Motley Morehead III (UNC class of 1891). He became a chemical engineer, working with a company cofounded by his father. There he helped develop the large-scale manufacture of calcium carbide and acetylene gas. The company eventually became part of Union Carbide. In addition to supporting chemistry and the University of North Carolina…

Monogram Club

In 1908 a group of current and former Carolina varsity athletes organized the "North Carolina Club" as a social organization and to promote sports at the university. The name was changed in the early 1920s to the Monogram Club, a popular name for student-athlete groups used by several other universities. Club members advocated for athletic teams and facilities and for a while oversaw the cheerleading squads. The club also hosted social events that were open to everyone. In the mid-1940s…

Mitchell Hall

Mitchell Hall opened in 1964 to serve as the home for the Department of Geology and has remained so for more than fifty years. The building is named for Elisha Mitchell, a native of Connecticut and graduate of Yale who was hired in 1818 as chair of mathematics at UNC. Mitchell would remain at Carolina for nearly forty years, serving at various times as bursar, superintendent of property, and acting president. Despite coming from New England, Mitchell joined the practice…

Miller Hall

Opened as 1942, Miller was one of several new buildings constructed for the U.S. Navy pre-flight school on campus during World War II. Miller housed navy cadets and later UNC students before being converted to office space in 1950. In 2010 the building was demolished to facilitate repairs to underground steam tunnels. The site was then used to expand the parking lot of the Carolina Inn. Miller Hall was named for William Miller (1783—1825), who was the first North Carolina…

Memorial Hall

Memorial Hall is Carolina's main performing arts venue and the second building to bear the name and the marble tablets inside. The first Memorial Hall was built in 1885 as a new assembly space for a growing university. It was a combination memorial to the late UNC president David Lowry Swain, alumni who died fighting for the Confederacy, and notable men (and, later, women) of the state. University leaders raised money to build the hall through the sale of marble…

Meeting of the Waters Creek

Meeting of the Waters Creek passes through and, in some cases, under the university campus. The creek has been channeled into tunnels passing underneath several campus buildings, including Kenan Stadium. It emerges in the Coker Pinetum, south of Ehringhaus dorm, and flows into the North Carolina Botanical Garden, where it joins Morgan Creek. Coker Pinetum is a twenty-five-acre area that connects the campus with the Botanical Garden. Botany professor William C. Coker gave the property to the university to be…

Medicine, School of

The university first established a School of Medicine in 1879. It was a two-year program, designed to provide students with the fundamentals of medical education, with the understanding that they would continue their education elsewhere. This first effort was short-lived, with the school closing in 1885 after the first dean resigned. It reopened in 1890 as a "special school of medicine and pharmacy." The School of Medicine moved around campus, housed at different times in New East and Person Hall…

Media and Journalism, School of

The English department began courses in journalism in 1909, and UNC set up a separate Department of Journalism in 1924. Gerald W. Johnson, who went on to a distinguished journalism and writing career, served as the first department chair. The department became a School of Journalism in 1950, expanded to School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1990, and adopted its current name in 2015. The school's first dean was Oscar J. Coffin, a Daily Tar Heel editor and Carolina…

McIver Residence Hall

McIver Residence Hall was part of a late-1930s rush to provide more on-campus housing for women students. It was completed in 1939, at the same time as neighboring Kenan Residence Hall, also built as a dormitory for women. The building is named for alumnus Charles Duncan McIver (class of 1881), who was the founder and the first president of the State Normal and Industrial School for Girls, the institution that is now UNC-Greensboro.

McGavran-Greenberg Hall

McGavran-Greenberg Hall, completed in 1990, is part of the complex of buildings that house the Gillings School of Global Public Health. The building houses administrative offices, teaching areas, and laboratories. It was named in honor of two early deans of the School of Public Health. Edward G. McGavran, who led the school from 1947 to 1963, oversaw a major expansion that added three departments. Bernard George Greenberg was the founded and first chair of the school's biostatistics department and dean…

McCorkle Place

McCorkle Place, the forested quad stretching from Franklin Street to Cameron Avenue, is the center of the university's original campus. This space holds some of the university's iconic emblems and monuments, including Old East, the Old Well, the Davie Poplar, Caldwell Monument, Unsung Founders Memorial, and Confederate Monument (removed in 2018—19). The quad is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is named in honor of Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, farmer, slave owner, Presbyterian minister, and educator. McCorkle, along with…

McColl Building

Located on a hill above the Smith Center, the McColl Building is the home of the Kenan-Flagler Business School. It was completed in 1997 and named for alumnus and Charlotte businessman Hugh McColl, retired chairman and CEO of Bank of America. McColl has offices, classrooms, and a 400-seat auditorium.

Marsico Hall

Marsico Hall was dedicated in 2014, serving primarily to house imaging facilities for the School of Medicine and other health affairs programs. Built using state appropriations, it was the only new building to receive state support in 2009. The building is named for Thomas F. Marsico, an investment manager, father of two UNC—Chapel Hill alumni, and donor to the School of Medicine.

Marching band

The tradition of music at Tar Heel sporting events goes back to 1903, when the University Brass Band played at a baseball game on campus. The band played occasionally at games in subsequent years but did not become a fixture at sporting events until the 1920s, especially after the opening of Kenan Stadium. By the 1940s marching band performances were common at halftime of home football games and featured creative formations by the band members. The Marching Tar Heels prospered…

Manning Hall

Manning Hall opened in 1923 as the home of the UNC School of Law. The modern building, built as part of the expansion of the campus around what is now known as Polk Place, included classrooms and a library. It was expanded beginning in the late 1940s, adding a new wing containing more classrooms, a library reading room, and a courtroom. However, within a few decades the law school had outgrown the building again and in 1968 moved into Van…

Manly Residence Hall

Opened in 1922, Manly was one of several new dorms built in the early 1920s (nearby Grimes, Ruffin, and Mangum opened around the same time). It is named for brothers Charles and Mathias Manly, from Chatham County. Charles Manly, an 1814 graduate of UNC, was a lawyer and politician, serving as governor of North Carolina from 1849 to 1851. Matthias Manly, class of 1824, was also a lawyer and served for many years as a judge. Both brothers were long-serving…

Mangum Residence Hall

Mangum Residence Hall opened in 1922, around the same time as nearby Grimes, Ruffin, and Manly dorms. It is named in honor of three members of the Mangum family. Willie Person Mangum, UNC class of 1815, was a prominent politician, representing the state in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and also serving for decades as a member of the UNC Board of Trustees. Adolphus Williamson Mangum, a Methodist minister, served as a chaplain in the Confederate army and…

MacNider Hall

MacNider Hall opened in 1939, built in part with funds from the Public Works Administration. The new building had long been desired by the Schools of Medicine and Public Health, which had outgrown their space in Caldwell Hall. The location helped establish a new home for the university's health affairs programs on South Campus. In 1951 the building was named for former dean William de Berniere MacNider. MacNider was a native of Chapel Hill and graduated with the first class…

Love House and Hutchins Forum

Located at 410 East Franklin Street next to the President's House, this has been the home of the Center for the Study of the American South since 2007. The house was built in 1887 by university mathematics professor James Lee Love, who lived there with his wife, Julia Spencer Love, and her mother, Cornelia Phillips Spencer. Mrs. Spencer was a well-known writer and university booster. The university bought the house in 1890 and used it to house faculty. In 2003…

LGBTQ Center

In the early 2000s, citing concerns over a campus climate that was not supportive of and often hostile to LGBTQ students, the provost's office convened a Committee on LGBTQ Life. Among the recommendations was the creation of a center to provide services and support and to foster a sense of community for LGBTQ students and staff at Carolina. The center was established in 2003 with a full-time director. The LGBTQ Center holds events and programs, leads Safe Zone training for…

Lewis Residence Hall

Lewis Residence Hall opened in 1924, around the same time as nearby Aycock and Graham dorms. The dorm houses around 100 students. It remained an all-male dorm (one of the last remaining on campus) until 1985. In 1987 it underwent an extensive renovation, which included the installation of central air conditioning. It is named for Richard Henry Lewis, a Pitt County native who attended UNC from 1866 until the school closed in 1868. He finished his education in Virginia and…

Lenoir Hall

As the university enrollment grew in the 1920 and 1930s, the main campus cafeteria in Swain Hall could not keep up with demand. Lenoir Hall was built using Public Works Administration funds during a boom in campus construction in the late 1930s. When the new dining hall opened in January 1940, it was able to seat more than 1,000 students at a time and serve as many as 10,000 meals a day. According to the Daily Tar Heel it was…

Law, School of

Carolina's oldest professional school, and the oldest law school in the state, began in 1845 with the hiring of William Horn Battle. A North Carolina Superior Court judge, Battle led the program during its formative years. The program became a school in 1899. It was a charter member of the American Association of Law Schools in 1920 and has been approved by the American Bar Association since 1928. The program at first had rooms in various buildings, including Old West…

Latinx Center

The UNC Latinx Center, which opened in new quarters in Abernethy Hall in late 2019, coordinates a number of educational and outreach programs for the Carolina community, including a Latinx Mentoring Program, Latinx Heritage Month, Exitos graduation ceremony, and a Latinx Alumni Reunion. The center was the culmination of an initiative launched by the Carolina Latino/a Collaborative in 2013, although the efforts began in 2007 with a small group of students who began the conversation to provide a space for…

Late Night With Roy

Late Night with Roy is a celebration of the opening of the college basketball season. First held in 2002 by head coach Roy Williams, it follows in the tradition of "midnight madness" events held by other universities on the first day of basketball practice. The celebration usually features prepared skits, dances, and an introduction to that year's basketball team.

Koury Residence Hall

Koury Residence Hall was completed in 2002, one of four new dorms finished around the same time (Craige North, Hardin, and Horton are the others). The new dorms, in high demand with students, featured modern technology, single-sex suites, and coed floors. Originally named Ehringhaus South for its proximity to the nearby larger dorm, the building was renamed in 2008 for alumnus Maurice J. Koury. A 1949 graduate of UNC, Koury was president of Carolina Hosiery Mills. He was active in…

Koury Oral Health Sciences Building

Koury Oral Health Sciences Building opened in 2012 as a teaching and research facility for the School of Dentistry. The building is one of several spaces on campus named for alumnus Maurice J. Koury. A successful business leader in the textile industry, Koury first became involved with the School of Dentistry as a patient. Built with a number of environmentally friendly features, the Koury building has earned Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification.

Koury Natatorium

The Maurice J. Koury Natatorium is the home of the Tar Heel swimming and diving teams. Located on South Campus, adjacent to the Dean Smith Center, the natatorium hosted its first competition on October 31, 1986. The modern facility was a significant improvement for the Tar Heel swim teams over Bowman Gray Memorial Pool, which was built in the 1930s. The state-of-the-art natatorium featured a 1,700-seat grandstand and held over a million gallons of water. The new pool received national…

Knapp-Sanders Building

Located on the eastern edge of campus at Country Club and Raleigh Roads, Knapp-Sanders the home of the School of Government. The building was completed in 1956, funded through a gift from the Knapp Foundation and from a legislative appropriation. The building is home to a series of large historic murals by artist Frances Vandeveer Kughle. Painted in the style of earlier WPA (Works Progress Administration) murals, the fourteen works, installed in 1960, depict scenes from North Carolina history. After…

Kessing Pool

Kessing Pool is the university's outdoor swimming pool. It was originally built for use by navy cadets attending the pre-flight school at UNC, one of five U.S. Navy pre-flight schools established across the country during World War II. The pool is named for Oliver Owen Kessing, who was the first commanding officer of the campus pre-flight school. The swimming pools on campus were among many spaces on campus that remained segregated when the first African American students enrolled in the…

Kerr Hall

Kerr Hall was dedicated in 2002 as a teaching and research building at the School of Pharmacy. The building is named for School of Pharmacy alumnus Banks Kerr, who donated $2 million toward its construction. After graduating from UNC, Kerr opened a drugstore in Raleigh, the beginning of a successful statewide chain of stores. At its peak, there were ninety-seven Kerr Drug stores.

Kenan-Flagler Business School

UNC first established a School of Commerce in 1919 to train students to "meet the more complex and changing conditions of modern commercial and industrial life," according to the Tar Heel. Housed originally in Alumni Hall, the school held classes Saunders and then Bingham Hall. The early 1950s was a period of growth and change for the school: the name was changed to the School of Business Administration, the program moved into larger facilities in the newly built Carroll Hall,…

Kenan Stadium

As college football grew rapidly in popularity in the early twentieth century, the Tar Heels soon began attracting more fans than could fit in Emerson Field, which could hold only around 3,000 people. A group of alumni led an effort to build a new stadium and began raising money. The fund-raising effort reached William Rand Kenan Jr., a graduate of the class of 1894 and a member of one of Carolina's earliest football teams. Kenan initially gave $1,000 and eventually…

Kenan Residence Hall

Kenan Residence Hall was completed in 1939, at the same time as McIver Residence Hall, both of which would serve as women's dormitories for the rapidly expanding population of female students at Carolina. The building is named in honor of Mary Lily Kenan Flagler Bingham, whose bequest to the university in 1917 helped establish the Kenan Professorships.

Kenan Music Building

Opened in 2008, the Kenan Music Building was a part of the Arts Commons envisioned under Chancellor James Moeser, who led efforts to expand and upgrade facilities for the arts at UNC—Chapel Hill. The effort received substantial support from the Kenan Charitable Trust, which earned naming rights to the new building. The trust also provided funding for sixteen full scholarships for students studying music. According to Moeser, the facility provided students and faculty with first-class teaching and rehearsal spaces for…

Kenan Laboratory

Kenan Laboratory was completed in 1971 as laboratory and office space for the Department of Chemistry. It was funded by legislative appropriation and named in honor of William Rand Kenan Jr., UNC class of 1894. As a student Kenan assisted in experiments that helped identify calcium carbide and acetylene, work that helped lead to the development of the Union Carbide Company. Kenan worked on the development of acetylene production and later became business partners with oil executive Henry Morrison Flagler….

Julian's

In 1942 alumnus Maurice Julian opened a men's clothing store on Franklin Street to cater to the cadets in the U.S. Navy pre-flight school on campus. After the war Julian's College Shop catered to students and faculty in an era when most of the people on the still predominantly male campus wore a suit and tie every day. At the time, the 100 block of Franklin Street had nine men's stores, including Varley's, Town and Campus, and Milton's Clothing Cupboard,…

Joyner Residence Hall

Completed in 1948, Joyner was one of several new dorms built in response to the post—World War II increase in enrollment. Originally housing only men, the building was converted to a women's dorm in the early 1960s. It is named for James Y. Joyner, UNC class of 1881. Joyner had a long career in education, first as a school teacher and then as a faculty member and administrator at the North Carolina College for Women (now UNC-Greensboro). He was a…

Jackson Hall

The building now known as Blyden and Roberta H. Jackson Hall was originally built in 1942 to house the campus's U.S. Navy pre-flight school. After World War II a kitchen and dining room were added and it housed the Monogram Club, an organization of current and former varsity athletes. The building became known as the Monogram Club and contained the popular Circus Room soda fountain and snack bar. After a brief stint as a faculty club, the Monogram Club building…

Intramural Sports

UNC students began participating in organized intramural sports in the 1920s. These casual but competitive activities have been popular with students ever since, though the games have changed over the years. Some sports, like tennis, basketball, and softball, have been popular for decades, but other sports have come and gone depending on the interests of the students. In the 1920s and 1930s indoor track, water polo, boxing, and horseshoes were among the sports offered. Whiffle ball and ultimate Frisbee were…

Intimate Bookshop

Although it no longer exists, the Intimate Bookshop lives on in Chapel Hill's reputation for creative writing and independent thinking, both of which were nurtured throughout the twentieth century at the Intimate by Carolina faculty and students. The bookshop began in 1931 when Carolina student Milton "Ab" Abernethy set up shop in his boarding house room and invited people to explore the world of books and literature. Abernethy had also just started a literary magazine called Contempo with his fellow…

Institute of Marine Sciences

Founded in 1947 as the University Institute of Fisheries Research, the institute was established to give Carolina students and faculty an opportunity to learn and conduct hands-on research on coastal issues, and to advise local and state government. Located along the coast near Morehead City, the institute includes research labs and teaching facilities.

Information and Library Science, School of

The university began offering courses in library science as early as 1904, as part of the summer school, and added them to the regular curriculum a few years later. Librarian Louis Round Wilson was an early proponent of professional library training and spoke often about the need for a library school on campus. Wilson's advocacy increased in the 1920s, and the university agreed to add the new program. In 1931, supported by a grant from the Carnegie Foundation, UNC began…

Infirmary

The university did not have a campus infirmary until 1895. The Tar Heel described it as a place where "the indisposed, the drooping, the lame and the halting may retreat." In an era when transportation was slow and unreliable and the nearest hospital was in Durham, the college infirmary often handled serious illnesses, including a case of smallpox in 1900 that had the whole campus on high alert. As student health needs increased, a new infirmary was built in 1900,…

Hyde Hall

Hyde Hall is home to the Institute for Arts and Humanities, which provides support and training for faculty through a variety of programs. The decision to place a new building for the institute in McCorkle Place, the oldest part of campus, symbolized the institute's centrality to nurturing the historical commitment to the arts and humanities at Carolina. Completed in 2002, Hyde Hall was funded entirely through private donations. Conversation, a sculpture by North Carolina artist and Carolina alumnus Thomas Sayre,…

Howell Hall

Completed in 1906 to house the Department of Chemistry (which had been in Person Hall), this building was the first on campus to be funded by a direct appropriation from the state. When the chemistry department moved to Venable Hall in 1925, the building, which had been known as the Chemistry Building, became home to the School of Pharmacy and was renamed for the pharmacy dean. When the pharmacy school moved to a new home in Beard Hall in 1960,…

House Undergraduate Library

As early as 1960, library and university administrators began discussing the need for a library space devoted to the needs of undergraduate students. The Robert B. House Undergraduate Library opened in 1968, around the same time as the new Student Stores and Graham Student Union buildings. The three buildings, designed by the Charlotte architectural firm Cameron Associates, marked a major expansion of the campus and a new commitment to student services. The House Undergraduate Library has focused on the needs…

Hospitals

The North Carolina legislature appropriated funds for a teaching hospital at the university as part of the plan to create a four-year school of medicine at UNC. The hospital opened in 1952 and was named North Carolina Memorial Hospital in honor of North Carolinians who had given their lives in military service. The hospital was heavily used, welcoming its 100,000th patient in 1960. It expanded rapidly, adding new programs and expanding the facilities. In 1965 the hospital was the subject…

Horton Residence Hall

Horton Residence Hall opened in 2002, one of four new dorms completed around the same time (Craige North, Koury, and Hardin were the others). The smaller dorms were an effort to bring more of a traditional campus feel to South Campus, which had been dominated by the high-rise dorms built in the 1960s and 1970s. The dorms, which included seminar rooms to bring residence and academic life closer together, were in high demand among students when they first opened. Originally…

Horney, Giles F., Building

Located on Airport Road, the Horney Building and its annex house physical plant and facilities support shops, offices, and work areas. Completed in 1962, it was named in honor of Giles Foushee Horney (1908—1986) in 1981. Horney, who worked for the university for forty-four years, served for twenty-nine years as superintendent of buildings and grounds. Horney was a champion for campus beautification and oversaw the installation of brick sidewalks in the 1950s.

Horace Williams Airport

The university-owned Horace Williams Airport closed in 2018 after eighty years of operation. It opened in 1928 when local contractor Charlie Lee Martindale purchased fifty acres from UNC professor Horace Williams and built a small airfield that came to be called the Chapel Hill Airport. Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s Carolina and Duke student pilots could be seen flying over Chapel Hill in Piper Cubs and other trainers, under a program sponsored by the federal Civil Aeronautics Agency. UNC…

Hooker Fields

The university's intramural fields have been located along South Road across from the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery since the 1930s. The fields are used by students participating in intramural and club sports. To accommodate increasing demand for use of the fields, lights were added in the 1960s and artificial turf was installed in 2000. The fields are named in honor of former chancellor Michael Hooker, who graduated from UNC—Chapel Hill in 1969 (a semester later than many of his classmates,…

Honors Carolina

Honors Carolina is a program of the College of Arts and Sciences for qualified undergraduate students that features courses, special events, and learning opportunities to enhance a student's degree work. Some students enter the program when they enter the university, and others apply at the end of their first year. Honors students must maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.000 or higher and complete a minimum number of honors credit hours by graduation in order to receive the "Honors…

Hinton James Residence Hall

Completed in time for the fall 1967 semester, Hinton James was (and remains) UNC—Chapel Hill's largest residence hall. Housing close to 1,000 students, "HoJo" continued the 1960s trend of building high-rise dorms on South Campus. The dorm was the first to house both women and men when, in the fall of 1969, UNC began "Project Hinton," an experiment in coed living, with women occupying the top two floors of the dorm. By the 1970s Hinton James housed more African American…

Hillel

The first Jewish student organization at UNC was the Menorah Society, active in the 1910s and 1920s. The group was the center of a minor controversy when university president Frank Porter Graham offered the group space in the campus YMCA, despite objections from the YMCA national organization. The Menorah Society and its successor, the Carolina Jewish Society, were short-lived, most likely due to lack of interest from students. In 1935 students began advocating to open a chapter of the Hillel…

Hill Hall

Hill Hall was completed in 1907 as a new library, replacing separate spaces for the libraries of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, and a small university collection. Its construction marked a step in the university's evolution into a research institution, based on the model of German universities that trained specialists as faculty and emphasized the discovery of new knowledge. Industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie provided the funds, with the requirement that the university match his gift to provide for upkeep…

High Noon

In the early 1970s small groups of Carolina students began gathering at the bell tower at noon to smoke marijuana —they called it High Noon. The location was likely selected because of its central location and also due to the tall hedges that used to surround the bell tower. Their meetings were an open secret on campus and a source of concern for university officials. After the Daily Tar Heel and other statewide newspapers began writing about the gatherings, parents…

Hickerson House

The two-story historic house on Battle Lane is the home of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies. The house was built between 1915 and 1925 by Thomas Felix Hickerson, a Carolina alumnus and longtime faculty member. He deeded the house to the university in 1952, but it was not used by the university until he died in 1968. The Center for Urban and Regional Studies, created in 1957, is one of the oldest university-based research centers of its kind….

Health Sciences Library

In 1971 UNC—Chapel Hill dedicated a new Health Sciences Library, bringing together the separate departmental libraries from the five health affairs schools: medicine, dentistry, nursing, public health, and pharmacy. At first many services were available only to graduate students; in 1976 the Health Sciences Library began circulating its collection to undergraduate students. The original three-story building was expanded in the early 1980s.

He's Not Here

He's Not Here opened in 1972 in a courtyard between Franklin and Rosemary Streets. By the late 1970s it was described by the Daily Tar Heel as one of the two most popular bars in town (Troll's was the other). He's Not Here is known for its balcony, outdoor seating, and legendary plastic blue cups holding thirty-two ounces of beer that have been offered at the bar since at least the mid-1980s. There is no consensus on where the bar…

Hardin Residence Hall

Hardin Residence Hall opened in 2002, one of four new dorms completed around the same time (along with Craige North, Koury, and Horton). The new dorms were smaller than their high-rise counterparts, an intentional decision to help foster more of a sense of community in UNC—Chapel Hill residence halls. The new dorms were situated in a way that would create open, outdoor quad areas in an attempt to duplicate the popular spaces on the old campus. Originally named Morrison South…

Hanes Hall

Hanes Hall was dedicated in 1953 as one of three new buildings for the School of Business Administration (Gardner and Carroll were the others). For several decades Hanes Hall was also the home of the university registrar and career services offices. The building is named for Robert March Hanes, UNC class of 1912 and veteran of World War I. The Winston-Salem native had a very successful career in business, most notably as president of Wachovia Bank. He served in the…

Hanes Art Center

The Frank Borden and Barbara Lasater Hanes Art Center is the home of the Department of Art and Art History. Completed in 1982, the building allowed the department to centralize all of its activities. The center includes classrooms, offices, studio spaces, and the Joseph Curtis Sloane Art Library, named in honor of a former department chair. Frank Borden Hanes and Barbara Lasater Hanes were active arts and civic supporters at Carolina and in their hometown of Winston-Salem. Frank was the…

Hamilton Hall

Hamilton Hall was built in 1972 to house the departments of history, political science, and sociology. The Research Laboratories of Archaeology occupies the basement. When it opened the university celebrated the fact that they had managed to preserve an old oak, located on the building's southeast side, throughout the construction process. That tree still shades Hamilton's entrance. The building is named in honor of Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton. Hamilton chaired the history department from 1908 to 1930 and then…

Halloween

Carolina students began celebrating Halloween with an informal gathering on Franklin Street in the 1980s. Town police closed off the main blocks of Franklin Street for an informal parade of costumed students. Within a decade it was the biggest party of the year. By the early 1990s attendance was growing as students from other universities flocked to Chapel Hill. Word spread, and it quickly grew into a very big event. By the late 1990s Chapel Hill Police were estimating crowds…

Grimes Residence Hall

Grimes Residence Hall opened in 1922, along with Mangum, Ruffin, and Manly dorms. During World War II the four dorms housed U.S. Navy cadets. There is some question as to whom this naming honored. The UNC Board of Trustees minutes record that the honoree was Bryan Grimes (1828—1880), while later accounts note that the honoree was his, son J. Bryan Grimes (1868—1923). The elder Grimes was a university alumnus and trustee and UNC's second-highest-ranking Confederate officer (Leonidas Polk was the…

Greenlaw Hall

In the mid-1960s construction began on a new building for the English department, which was the largest on campus and had long outgrown its home in Bingham Hall. Opened in 1970, Greenlaw Hall contained over 100 faculty offices, classrooms, and an auditorium. The original plans also called for a second-floor bridge connecting Greenlaw to Bingham, but it was abandoned due to lack of funds. The building is named for former faculty member and administrator Edwin A. Greenlaw. Although he spent…

Granville Towers

Granville Towers opened in 1966 as an experiment in a new type of campus housing. The two high-rise buildings on Franklin Street, built on the site of the old Chapel Hill High School, would house more than 1,000 students in the country's first example of a private dorm. Granville Towers was built by a private company in cooperation with the university. While students enjoyed more amenities than those in traditional dorms, they still had to follow university rules about drinking…

Graham Student Union

Carolina students began advocating for a new student union as early as the 1950s. The Graham Memorial Building, dedicated in 1931, was ill-suited for the needs of the postWorld War II generation of students. The new union was part of an effort to expand and modernize student services at the university, built at the same time as the new Student Stores building and House Undergraduate Library. The modern architectural style of the new buildings was not popular with everyone, as…

Graham Residence Hall

Graham Residence Hall opened in 1924, alongside two other new dorms (Aycock and Lewis). It was named in 1928 for John Washington Graham, the son of former governor and U.S. senator William A. Graham. After graduating from UNC in 1857 and serving in the Confederate army, where he was wounded twice, he had a successful career as a lawyer. Graham was an active member of the conservative party that sought to overturn Reconstruction-era reforms in the state. As a member…

Graham Memorial Hall

Not long after the death of beloved university president Edward Kidder Graham in 1918, alumni announced a plan to raise money to build a student union, which would be named in honor of Graham. The Campus Y had served as the center of student activities since 1907 and was running out of space. Construction on the union began in 1922 but took nearly a decade, delayed in part by lack of funds. Students eventually decided to pay for the finishing…

Government, School of

Now located in the Knapp-Sanders Building on the eastern edge of campus, the School of Government is the oldest program of its kind in the nation. It was created to train and support local officials at all levels of government in North Carolina. Since its inception it has been the destination for generations of new mayors, legislators, city managers, county attorneys, judges, budget directors, tax supervisors, planning and zoning personnel, and more. More than 12,000 public officials participate annually in…

Gore Cogeneration Facility

Located near the intersection of West Cameron Avenue and Merritt Mill Road, the so-called Cogen Facility is the fourth power plant at UNC—Chapel Hill, completed in 1992. The plant, which is coal powered, provides about 20 percent of campus electricity needs, including the hospitals. It also generates steam as a by-product, which is used for heating and other uses, thus the term "cogeneration." While the facility is recognized as efficient and clean for this type of energy production, it is…

Golden Fleece

The Order of the Golden Fleece was founded in 1904 at the suggestion of philosophy professor Horace Williams, who was worried that the university was becoming too factional. Williams, along with faculty members Edward Kidder Graham and Eben Alexander, wanted to promote service to the university. The order was open to all students, faculty, and alumni, though new members were primarily rising seniors. Women began to be admitted starting in 1972. The name comes from the story of Jason and…

Gimghoul

In 1889 a small group of UNC students founded a club called the Order of Dromgoole. They were likely inspired by the example of secret societies at other colleges, such as the well-known Skull and Bones at Yale. The name came from a former student named Peter Dromgoole, who disappeared from campus mysteriously in the 1830s and was never heard from again. The name was soon changed to the Order of the Gimghoul, "in accord with midnight and graves and…

Gillings, Joan H., Center for Dramatic Art.

This facility, located on Country Club Road adjacent to the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, is the home of the Department of Dramatic Art and PlayMakers Repertory Company. The building has offices, classrooms, rehearsal spaces, production shops, and two theaters. The Paul Green Theatre, which seats 500, is named in memory of Paul Green, the Pulitzer Prize—winning playwright and human rights activist who was a UNC alumnus and professor. The theater features an innovative thrust stage designed by renowned scenic artist…

Gillings School of Global Public Health

Public health programs at UNC began in the 1920s as part of the university's efforts to address the needs of the state. It set up training programs for county health officers and public health nurses in collaboration with the State Board of Health. These programs were part of the School of Medicine, eventually becoming a separate school and awarding its first degrees in 1940. Graduate and research programs helped the school grow exponentially in the decades after World War II….

Gerrard Hall (New Chapel)

This modest building is now little noticed on Cameron Avenue between South Building, the Campus Y, and Memorial Hall. Construction took place between 1822 and 1837, halted by the lack of funds. It was the university's second chapel, replacing Person Hall for that purpose, in an era when students began each day with mandatory religious services. Gerrard was also used for commencement and other official functions. President James K. Polk (UNC class of 1818) spoke there for commencement in 1841,…

George Watts Hill Alumni Center

In 1993, after several years of construction, the General Alumni Association dedicated the George Watts Hill Alumni Center, located on Stadium Drive. The center was designed to be used both as a gathering place for alumni and as an event center. It houses the offices for the Alumni Association, including the Alumni Review, and alumni records. The building includes a library, meeting rooms, and the Carolina Club, a private membership club with dining and event spaces established in 1993 for…

Genome Sciences Building

This building was a major component of a campus-wide effort initiated in 2004 to expand research facilities at UNC—Chapel Hill. Completed in 2012, the building houses the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences, which brings together faculty from across campus working on genomics research. It contains auditoriums, classrooms, and laboratories. Built to be more environmentally friendly than older campus buildings, it includes several innovative features, including rooftop greenhouses used by researchers working on plant genomics.

Genetic Medicine Building

This multidisciplinary research facility opened in 2008 to house scientists and laboratories from the School of Medicine's Departments of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Genetics, and Pharmacology, and from the Eshelman School of Pharmacy's Institute of Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy, the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, and the Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery. At seven stories and some 330,000 square feet, it is one of the largest buildings on campus.

Gardner Hall

Opened in 1953, Gardner was one of three new buildings built for the School of Business Administration (Carroll and Hanes were the others). The new buildings were designed to match the older buildings directly across Polk Place (Saunders, Manning, and Murphey). It has served as the home for several academic departments. Since the 1970s the Department of Economics has been based in Gardner Hall. The building is named for former North Carolina governor O. Max Gardner. A native of Shelby,…

Friday Center

The William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education opened in 1991 to serve as a conference facility for the university. Located a few miles from campus and convenient to Interstate 40, the site offers an expansive space and plenty of parking, features increasingly hard to find on the crowded main campus. The Friday Center also serves as the home of UNC—Chapel Hill's continuing education efforts, offering programs and classes to anyone interested in learning, regardless of their affiliation with…

Franklin Street

The main street of Chapel Hill is named in honor of Benjamin Franklin for his promotion of education. Students and townspeople famously take over the street to celebrate basketball championships and Halloween. It has been the site for parades and protests, as well as for annual street fairs, including Festifall and Apple Chill. Franklin Street has been there from the beginning of the town in 1793. It grew from a modest path to a tree-lined and often muddy thruway lined…

Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute

Established in 1966, the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute was founded to encourage and facilitate research that would improve the lives of children. The institute supports the work of more than 200 researchers from a variety of disciplines. Major projects have included work on developmental disabilities, early childcare and education, and public policy. The institute operated on on-site daycare facility for more than forty years. It is named for former UNC president Frank Porter Graham.

Forest Theater

Nestled in a natural bowl alongside Country Club Road in Battle Park, this outdoor theater space is defined by stone walls and light towers. It came into official use as a performing space in 1918, when the founder of the Carolina Playmakers, Frederick H. "Proff" Koch, came to Chapel Hill. The first theatrical performance there, William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, was presented by summer school students in July 1919. Those first audiences sat on a sloping lawn; the…

Fordham Hall

Opened in 1988, Fordham Hall was built behind Mitchell Hall to house biology and biotechnology programs, with faculty offices and research laboratories. The building is named for Christopher C. Fordham III, chancellor of UNC—Chapel Hill from 1980 to 1988. Fordham was an alumnus (class of 1947) who returned to Chapel Hill in 1971 as dean of the School of Medicine. His tenure as chancellor was marked by a major revision of the undergraduate curriculum; by continued expansion of the university,…

Football

Football as an organized sport at UNC began in 1888. The university's first football game —and the first college football game played in North Carolina —was a loss to Wake Forest in a game played at the state fair. Many university traditions are tied to the growth of football and other sports at UNC in the 1890s: to share news about the team, the Athletic Association began publishing a weekly newspaper called the Tar Heel, the predecessor to the Daily…

Flower Ladies

The flower ladies were a Franklin Street institution for most of the twentieth century. A group of local African American women began selling homegrown flowers on Franklin Street as early as the 1920s. They were popular with students and local residents. By the late 1960s more street vendors joined the flower ladies. The new "hippie vendors," selling albums, handmade goods, and drug paraphernalia, soon drew the anger of the Franklin Street store owners, who helped pass an ordinance prohibiting street…

First State University

UNC—Chapel Hill and the University of Georgia compete for the claim of first state university. Each has a fair case to make: Georgia was the first to be chartered, and UNC the first to open. The practice of public support for higher education predates both schools, and even the formation of the United States. Many of the earliest colleges in the country, including Harvard and William & Mary, received at least some direct support from their colonial governments. With the…

Finley Golf Course

Designed by George Cobb and opened in 1949, the Finley Golf Course was built to be used by Carolina students and faculty. The university established an intramural golf program shortly after the course opened. In the 1990s golf course designer Tom Fazio oversaw a major renovation of the course. The redesigned course opened for use in 1999. The golf course was named for businessman and entrepreneur Albert Earle "A.E." Finley when it opened in 1949. Finley was the founder of…

Field hockey

UNC students experimented with field hockey early in the twentieth century. A 1902 Tar Heel article describes a group of male students playing using an "ordinary cricket ball." The sport apparently did not catch on, as it was not mentioned again until the 1930s, when women students began playing it regularly as a club sport. Field hockey became a varsity sport in 1971, along with seven other women's sports as the university joined the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women….

Fetzer Gymnasium

After four years of construction, Fetzer Gymnasium opened in 1981 on the site once occupied by the Tin Can. The new facility included three separate gyms, as well as offices and classrooms. It is named for Robert Fetzer, who came to UNC in the 1921 to coach football and track. He later served as both director of the athletic department and chair of the Department of Physical Education. Fetzer remained as athletic director until 1952, overseeing a period of substantial…

Fetzer Field

Fetzer Field was completed in 1935 as part of a Works Progress Administration project. The new athletic field was home to UNC's track-and-field team and featured a cinder track. The UNC soccer and lacrosse teams also played their home games at Fetzer Field. As the women's soccer team grew in national prominence, the attendance at home soccer games was one of the best in the NCAA. The field is named for Robert Fetzer, UNC athletic director from 1922 to 1947….

Fedex Global Education Center

UNC—Chapel Hill emphasized its growing focus on international studies and programs with the opening of the FedEx Global Education Center in 2007. The modern building at the corner of McCauley Street and Pittsboro Street houses many of the university's centers with an international focus, offices, an auditorium, and classrooms. The building's construction was funded primarily from the North Carolina Higher Education Improvement Bonds Referendum, passed in 2000, but it received its name in recognition of a $5 million gift from…

Everett Residence Hall

Everett Residence Hall was opened in 1928, one of several new dorms built around the same time. It has been popular with students over the years: the Men's Residence Council named it the best dorm for the 1963—64 school year. Everett remained an all-male dorm until 1984. It is named for William Nash Everett, class of 1886 and a longtime member of the UNC Board of Trustees. Everett, a businessman from Richmond County, served in the North Carolina state legislature,…

Eve Carson Memorial Garden

Dedicated in 2010 in memory of students who have died while enrolled, the garden is named for Eve Carson, student body president when she was murdered in March 2008. The space is on Polk Place behind the Campus Y. It features a seating area and a curved marble slab inscribed with a quote from Carson: "Learn from every single being, experience, and moment. What joy it is to search for lessons and goodness and enthusiasm in others." Nearby is a…

Eshelman School of Pharmacy

Eshelman School of Pharmacy is the only public school of pharmacy in North Carolina and one of the oldest in the nation. It began in 1897 with the hiring of Edward Vernon Howell as a professor of pharmacy. An earlier training program existed from 1880 as part of the first School of Medicine. The pharmacy school was in New West at first, moving to Person Hall in 1912 and to the old chemistry building, now named Howell Hall, in 1925….

Emerson Field

Emerson Field was completed in 1916 and used as the university's main athletic field for football, baseball, and track. It was named in honor of alumnus Isaac Emerson (class of 1879), who donated funds for the field. Emerson, who studied chemistry at UNC, made a fortune when he invented and sold a new headache remedy called Bromo-Seltzer. Emerson Field was hailed as a state-of-the-art athletic facility when it was opened, boasting concrete bleachers holding up to 3,000 spectators, modern locker…

Ehringhaus Residence Hall

Ehringhaus Residence Hall was one of two high-rise dorms completed in 1962, as the university campus continued to move south in order to find a home for its expanding student body. The initial residents of the dorm were all first-year men students. Ehringhaus remained all men until 1972. In the 1970s the dorm developed the reputation as a "jock dorm." Explaining that the dorm was not as wild as some stories suggested, a resident told the Daily Tar Heel in…

Education, School of

The School of Education traces its origins back to 1877, when the university established a Summer Normal School to provide training for teachers in North Carolina. Teacher training was offered only during the summer until 1885, when the Department of Normal Instruction was established. A graduate program was established in 1896. The name was changed to the Department of Education in 1903 and became the School of Education in 1913. That same year the school moved into Peabody Hall, a…

Eddie Smith Field House

Completed in 2001, the Field House was built to serve as the indoor home for UNC—Chapel Hill's track and field teams. It was also used an indoor practice facility for the Tar Heel football team for many years before the team decided to build a dedicated indoor practice field. The Field House is named in honor of Eddie Smith Sr., whose son, Eddie Smith Jr., a 1965 graduate of Carolina, made a significant contribution to support its construction. The building…

Eagle Hotel

Eagle Hotel once stood on the present site of Graham Memorial Hall on the east side of McCorkle Place. The university's first steward, John "Buck" Taylor, opened a tavern on the site in 1796, which he and his son operated until the 1820s. It was known simply as the Tavern House and, like most such places at the time, was also an inn and gathering place. The property became a hotel in 1823. Sometime in the 1830s Ann Segur Hilliard,…

Dunce Cap

When viewing Wilson Library from South Building, the top of the bell tower is visible, aligned with the center of the dome and looking like an old-fashioned dunce cap atop a student's head. One of the persistent rumors around campus is that this was done deliberately by John Motley Morehead, who was angry when Louis Round Wilson wouldn't let him put the bell tower on top of the library. In fact, Morehead's first suggestion was to put a bell tower…

Dixie Classic

Dixie Classic was a popular basketball tournament held from 1949 to 1960 in Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh. Started by N.C. State basketball coach Everett Case, the tournament featured North Carolina's "Big Four" teams (UNC, Duke, N.C. State, and Wake Forest) against top teams from around the country. It was popular with students and alumni and attracted a wide following statewide. The tournament ended in scandal when multiple players —including a couple from UNC —were caught fixing games in exchange for…

Dining

Campus dining halls have been a part of campus life —and students have complained about them —since the earliest days of the university. The second building built on campus, after Old East, was Steward's Hall, which opened in 1795. From the beginning students were unhappy with the food. In petitions to the faculty in 1809, students complained about the quality of food at Steward's Hall, citing "an insufficiency of butter," and beef that is "sometimes tainted, and impregnated with fly-blows."…

Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies

Commonly known as the "Di" and "Phi," the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies are the oldest student organizations at Carolina and were at the heart of student life throughout the university's early history. Students founded a debating society in 1795, less than a year after the university opened. A rival society was founded shortly after, and the groups soon changed their names to the Dialectic Society and Philanthropic Society. They competed for students for several years before agreeing to divide incoming…

Dey Hall

Dey Hall was completed in 1962 for the use of the university's foreign language departments. The building was praised for being fully air conditioned and for its language lab, which had 200 stations in which students could study languages using tape-recorded lessons and conversations. It is named for faculty member William Morton Dey, who led the department for more than forty years. He joined the faculty in 1909 and was named a Kenan Professor in 1934. He retired in 1950….

Dean Smith Center

As Carolina basketball continued its long run of success in the 1970s, many fans and alumni clamored for a new venue that would seat more people than Carmichael Arena. Fund-raising began as early as 1980 and would result in more than $34 million in private contributions. The building was to be named for coach Dean Smith, who initially resisted the idea until he was convinced that having his name on the arena would help with fund-raising. The Dean E. Smith…

Davis Library

Following decades of rapid growth at the university, by the 1970s it became clear that the library collections and services were outgrowing the iconic Wilson Library building. In October 1975 the board of trustees approved the construction of a new central library on campus, using funds available from the sale of campus utilities. Built on the site of a former parking lot next to the Graham Student Union, construction began in 1979, and the new Walter Royal Davis Library opened…

Davie Poplar

The legendary tulip poplar at the heart of the UNC—Chapel Hill campus is older than the university. The earliest known reference to it is in the reminiscences of a member of the class of 1818. In his recollections of campus, he talks about the "old poplar," which shows that even in the university's first decades the tree was a landmark (and already considered old). The name Davie Poplar first began to be used in the 1890s, in honor of William…

Davie Hall

Davie Hall was completed in 1908 to house the Departments of Botany and Zoology. Located at what was then the eastern edge of the campus, it was said to have all necessary modern conveniences, including elevators, a dark room, and rooms suitable for plants and animals. A new wing for botany was built in 1925, and underground lab space was added in 1940. The building did not age well and received a major renovation and addition in the 1960s: parts…

Danziger's

Danziger's was a legendary Franklin Street candy shop and restaurant. It was opened in 1939 by Edward G. Danziger, a confectioner from Vienna who a few years earlier had fled his native Austria ahead of the Nazi occupation. The candy shop and cafe at 153 East Franklin Street soon became a popular date spot with students. The success of the candy shop enabled Danziger and his family to open several other restaurants in town, including the Zoom Zoom Room and…

Daniels Building

In 1963 the UNC Board of Trustees approved construction of a new building to house the campus bookstore, a relief to students who had complained about crowded conditions in the Book Exchange, located in the basement of Steele Building. The new bookstore was one of three new student services buildings built on the former site of Emerson Field. It was flanked on either side by the new House Undergraduate Library and Graham Student Union and faced the newly built sunken…

Dance Marathon

In February 1999 a group of around seventy-five UNC—Chapel Hill students danced for twenty-four hours to raise money for the North Carolina Children's Hospital. The Dance Marathon, inspired by a long-running student fund-raiser at Penn State, became an annual tradition. The number of student participants steadily increased, as did the amount of money raised. In 2014 the name of the program was officially changed to "Carolina for the Kids" and began to include other fund-raising activities.

Daily Tar Heel

First published in 1893 as the Tar Heel, the Daily Tar Heel has been a vital part of the Carolina student experience for more than a century. It was first published by the Athletic Association, a fact that drew criticism and an early competitor, the White and Blue. The White and Blue did not last long and the Tar Heel expanded its coverage on other aspects of student and university life. In 1923 the paper separated from the Athletic Association…

Cyprett's Bridge

After the University of North Carolina received its charter, the board of trustees had to find a location for the university. Wanting a site near the center of the state, they considered several locations before settling on an area within a fifteen-mile radius of Cyprett's Bridge in northern Chatham County, a few miles south of Chapel Hill. Cyprett's Bridge crossed New Hope Creek and was located on the road between Raleigh and Pittsboro. The location of Cyprett's Bridge is now…

Creative writing

Carolina students were writing and publishing creative works long before creative writing became part of the curriculum. Beginning in the late nineteenth century with the Carolina Magazine, students published poetry and short stories in campus publications. Dramatic writing became a focal point at Carolina when Frederick Koch started the Carolina Playmakers in 1918 and his students —including future novelist Thomas Wolfe —wrote original "folk plays." In the 1940s Jesse Rehder, a faculty member in English, taught creative writing. Her classes…

Craige Residence Hall

One of the new high-rise dorms built on South Campus in the 1960s, Craige was completed in 1962. The six-story building was designed to house around 700 students —all men when it first opened. Nicknamed "Maverick House" by early residents, Craige was home to the "Victory Gong," which was apparently given to the dorm by a former marine who got it in Japan. In 1965 the gong was stolen by students from Morrison dorm, an event that attracted significant coverage…

Craige North Residence Hall

Craige North Residence Hall opened in the fall of 2002, one of four new dorms completed at the same time (Hardin, Horton, and Koury are the others). The new dorms were built near existing high-rise dorms and given temporary names borrowing from the names of the older dorms. Craige North's temporary name has lasted longer than any of the others. The new dorms were in high demand when they opened, with students camping out to reserve a space. They also…

Connor Residence Hall

Connor Residence Hall was one of three new dorms opened in 1948 to accommodate the expanding student population entering the university following World War II. The other two built at the same time are Winston and Alexander, now known collectively as the Connor Community. The lawn framed by the dorms, known as "Connor Beach," was home to the popular Springfest music festival in the 1980s, and its successor, Connorstock, which began in the 2000s. Known informally as B Dorm when…

Confederate Monument (Silent Sam)

In 1908 the board of trustees approved a request from the North Carolina division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) to build a Confederate monument on campus. University president Francis Venable was actively involved in planning and fund-raising for the monument and committed university funds to the effort when money from the UDC and alumni fell short. The university and the UDC chose Boston sculptor John Wilson to create the monument. It was dedicated in June 1913 to…

Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center

Located near the Friday Center and Finley Golf Course, the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center opened in 1992 to serve as a home for the UNC—Chapel Hill men's and women's tennis teams. It is named for Caesar Cone II, a tennis player at Carolina in the 1920s and son of a prominent textile industry leader. The Cone family contributed significantly toward the construction of the facility. The name also honors John Kenfield, Carolina's first tennis coach and one of the most successful…

Common Hall

In 1885 students were eager to have a new ballroom to host dances. When the university was unable to provide one, a group of students formed a private association and had one built on campus on the current site of Phillips Hall. When it wasn't used for dances, the building was leased to the university for use as a gymnasium. In 1898, following the opening of Bynum Gymnasium, the building was converted into a dining hall. It served as the…

Coker Hall

Coker Hall opened in 1963 as classroom and laboratory space for the Department of Botany. After the Departments of Botany and Zoology combined to create the new Department of Biology, Coker Hall was the departmental home. It is named for William C. Coker, professor of botany at the university for more than four decades. A South Carolina native, Coker came to Chapel Hill to teach in 1902 and remained until his retirement in 1945. He was a prolific author and…

Coker Arboretum

In 1903 William C. Coker, a professor of botany at the university, proposed turning a large area on the east edge of campus into an arboretum. The five-acre space once housed university president David Lowry Swain's cattle. By the time Coker started work, it was described as an "uninviting crayfish bog." Coker supervised the draining of the area, the laying of walkways, and the planting of hundreds of different species. Some of the plants in the arboretum had a practical…

Cobb Residential Hall

When it opened in 1952, Cobb was the university's largest dorm, constructed at a cost of nearly $1 million and housing more than 400 students. The building is named for Collier Cobb, professor of geology for more than forty years. Cobb joined the faculty in 1892 and taught until shortly before his death in the 1934. When the building was named, Cobb's son, Collier Cobb Jr., was on the Board of Trustees Building Committee.

Coates Building

The Coates Building, located on Franklin Street across from McCorkle Place, was built to house the Institute of Government in 1939. After the institute moved to a new building on the other side of campus, the space was used for academic offices and centers, including the Center for International Studies and the Department of Geography. In 1997 it was renamed in honor of Albert and Gladys Coates. Albert Coates was the founder and first director of the Institute of Government….

Circus Room

Located in the Monogram Club building (now Jackson Hall), the Circus Room was a popular soda fountain and snack bar. The Circus Room opened following World War II. It was decorated with dark wood paneling and a twenty-five-foot-long wooden carving of circus animals. The Circus Parade was carved by hand by university employee Carl Boettcher, based on drawings by illustrator William Meade Prince. After renovations in the 1970s the Circus Parade moved to the Carolina Inn cafeteria. It now hangs…

Cherry trees

A feature of McCorkle Place that is especially evident in early spring is the cherry trees that line the east and west sides of the quad. The original trees were the senior gift of the class of 1929. A sandstone tablet set into the stone wall on Franklin Street recognizes that fact. Because the average lifespan of flowering cherry trees is only about twenty to thirty years, none of the original trees are still there. But because students, alumni, and…

Chemistry, Department of

Part of the College of Arts and Sciences, the chemistry department is one of the oldest on campus and has produced a number of academic leaders and major donors to the university in addition to distinguished graduates in the discipline. Chemistry dates its founding to 1818, when UNC hired Denison Olmsted (1791—1859) from Yale to teach the subject. A formal department was organized around 1890 under Francis P. Venable (1856—1934), first department chair and the university's first faculty member to…

Cheek/Clark Building (University Laundry)

Located on West Cameron Avenue next to the chiller plant, this building currently houses offices and meeting rooms for Carolina's grounds, housekeeping, and building services operations. Employees in these units maintain and operate Carolina's 300-plus academic buildings, research facilities, and residence halls, more than 700 acres of campus grounds and landscapes, and 4,000 total acres throughout Orange County. The building's original purpose is illustrated by the name that still adorns the front entrance: University Laundry. The university opened the building…

Chase Hall

Chase Hall opened in fall 1965 to serve as a dining hall for the growing population of students on South Campus. With a modern design and bright furnishings, the building was impressive, but the cafeteria service was plagued with problems from the start. Despite plans to serve up to 5,000 students per meal, customers complained of long lines and food that was inadequate in both quality and quantity. After the cafeteria received a "C" sanitation rating in 1967, students formed…

Chapman Hall

Dedicated in 2006, Chapman was built as part of the Carolina Physical Science Complex, one of the largest construction projects in the university's history. When it opened, Chapman Hall included classroom and laboratory space for several departments, including physics, astronomy, math, and marine sciences. It also included a rooftop observatory and control room for telescopes operated by UNC—Chapel Hill in Chile and South Africa. The building is named for Max C. Chapman Jr., a 1966 graduate of Carolina who went…

Chapel Hill

In 1792, when trustees selected this site for the university, locals called the area New Hope Chapel hill, for a deserted Anglican chapel that had once stood on a high ridge near a crossroads. In 1793, when university trustees sold lots to create a town, its name became Chapel Hill. It was a small village in its early years and began to grow only in the early 1900s, along with the university. A typical college town that, along with Raleigh…

Chancellors

The chancellor is the administrative and executive head of each institution within the UNC System. The president is the leader of the UNC System. This structure came about in 1971, when the North Carolina General Assembly established a single sixteen-university system, with a chancellor and a board of trustees for each institution, and a board of governors for the system. The first step toward this idea came in 1931, when the General Assembly decided to consolidate administrative operations of three…

Chancellor's residence

Quail Hill, the current official residence of the university chancellor, is located adjacent to campus, off Raleigh Road. It was built by George Watts Hill (class of 1922), a Durham banker and philanthropist who served on the UNC Board of Trustees and later on the UNC System Board of Governors. The university purchased Quail Hill in 1993 from his widow, Anne Gibson Hill. Before 1993, the chancellor's residence was a house on Country Club Road. Hill was interested in architecture…

Cellar Door

Cellar Door is the long-running undergraduate art and literary journal at UNC—Chapel Hill. Published continuously since 1974, Cellar Door contains short stories and poetry, as well as student art and photography. Notable writers who published in Cellar Door as undergraduates include poet and creative writing faculty member Michael McFee, novelist Jill McCorkle, and singer-songwriter Tift Merritt.

Caudill Labs

Caudill Labs opened in 2007 next to Wilson Library to provide expanded and improved space for the study of chemistry at UNC—Chapel Hill. The building was part of an effort in the 2000s to build new physical science facilities to replace the long-outdated Venable Hall. The building is named for alums and donors W. Lowry and Susan S. Caudill.

Carroll Hall

Carroll Hall opened in the spring of 1953, one of three new buildings to house the university's growing School of Business Administration (along with Hanes and Gardner). The building was named for Dudley Dewitt Carroll, the dean of the school; he took over as dean in 1919, when it was known as the School of Commerce, and stayed in the position for thirty-one years. The building was expanded in 1970, but it wasn't long before the business school began looking…

Carrington Hall

Carrington Hall is home to the School of Nursing, located on Columbia Street and Medical Drive. Before it was completed in 1969, nursing programs were housed in parts of the medical school that have since been demolished. An eight-story addition in 2005 doubled the building's size, adding new classrooms, laboratories, and research spaces, including a human patient simulator laboratory. The addition was the first campus structure to earn LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification by the U.S. Green…

Carr Building

Opened in 1900 as a dormitory, the Carr Building was funded in its entirety by Julian Shakespeare Carr, an alumnus and frequent donor to the university. The dorm was built with all the modern (for 1900) conveniences, including electricity and indoor plumbing. It housed students through the 1970s and was converted to office space in the 1980s. It currently serves as the home of several departments, including faculty governance and student affairs. Carr, who attended the university in the 1860s,…

Carolina Women's Center

Established in 1997, the Women's Center is the home for information and programs related to women and gender equity at Carolina. Center staff work with the campus and community to educate and advocate for gender equity and women's empowerment. The proposal for such a center came from a recommendation made by a student organization called the Women's Issues Network, which was further supported by a Task Force on Women at Carolina, convened in 1995. Regular programs sponsored by the Women's…

Carolina Population Center

With a worldwide population boom in the decades following World War II, UNC, along with other universities, was interested in starting a program to study population growth and change. With support from the Ford Foundation and federal grants, the Carolina Population Center was established in 1966. The research projects and programs offered by the center involved organizations and communities in North Carolina and around the world and have included such topics as family planning, adolescent sexual behavior, and health and…

Carolina Playmakers

The Carolina Playmakers was the name for the drama program and the faculty, staff, students, and community members who staged plays at the university. The Playmakers started in 1918 with the arrival of Frederick Henry Koch, a professor from the University of North Dakota. Koch had developed a type of playwriting he called "folk drama" that focused on local themes and ordinary people. The Carolina Playmakers staged original plays on campus and on tour, traveling as far as New York…

Carolina North

Carolina North is a planned research and mixed-use academic campus on 250 acres on land the university owns that includes the Horace Williams Airport. The satellite campus has been discussed for more than twenty years and is modeled in part on similar expansions at other schools, such as the Centennial Campus at North Carolina State University. In 2009 the university completed a development agreement with the town of Chapel Hill that will guide development of the site and began plans…

Carolina Inn

In 1921, following an uncomfortable night at a dilapidated Franklin Street boarding house, alumnus John Sprunt Hill decided to build a proper hotel near the university. Hill, already a frequent donor, initially tried to raise money from alumni. When those efforts fell short, he decided to pay for the whole thing himself. Built on land Hill owned near campus, the Carolina Inn opened in late 1924. It was designed by Arthur Nash, the architect responsible for many of the buildings…

Carolina Hall

The building now known as Carolina Hall was named Saunders Hall from 1922 to 2015. Completed as part of the campus expansion in the early 1920s, Saunders was built as a classroom building, originally housing the Departments of History, Economics, and Commerce. It was named for William L. Saunders, an 1854 graduate of UNC who served in the Confederate army during the Civil War. After the war he worked as a newspaper editor, North Carolina secretary of state, and historian,…

Carolina Coffee Shop

Carolina Coffee Shop is the oldest continuously operating business in Chapel Hill, operating at 138 East Franklin Street since 1922. It opened as a soda fountain called the Carolina Confectionary. It later added full meals and "Coffee Shop" to the name. By the mid-1930s it was known simply as the Carolina Coffee Shop. The restaurant has long been known for its booths (described as "cozy alcoves" in a 1937 ad), dark wood interior, and classical music.

Carolina Center for Public Service

Carolina Center for Public Service was established in 1999 to help connect the university's students, faculty, and staff with communities through teaching, research, and service. The idea came from an earlier Public Service Roundtable, a grassroots group of faculty and staff leaders who were interested in building on the university's tradition of public service. The center has programs for students, faculty, and staff to learn more about engagement, to learn new skills, and to connect academic endeavors with communities throughout…

Carmichael Residence Hall

When Carmichael Residence Hall opened for the fall 1986 semester, it was the first new dorm on campus since the 1960s. More important for students, it was the first dorm with air conditioning. The coed dorm also included four new "living-learning" programs, giving students from the same major the opportunity to live together. Carmichael now houses students with similar academic interests, as well as a makerspace, a design and fabrication facility operated as part of UNC—Chapel Hill's Innovate Carolina program….

Carmichael Arena

With basketball growing in popularity following the 1957 national championship, UNC decided in the early 1960s to build a new arena. Completed in 1965, Carmichael Auditorium, as it was then named, was the home of the Tar Heel basketball team for more than twenty years. Originally seating 8,000 fans (later expanded to more than 10,000), the notoriously loud venue played host to many of Coach Dean Smith's greatest teams, including the 1981—82 national champions. Built along South Road next to…

Cardboard Club

In 1948 home football games got a lot more colorful when cheerleader Norm Sper founded the Cardboard Club. The club made creative displays out of squares of painted cardboard that students held up during football games to make composite pictures. Requiring careful organization and coordination, the sometimes elaborate displays were a highlight of football games in the 1950s and 1960s. The displays contained pictures and sayings, the most popular of which was "GO TO HELL STATE." By the late 1960s…

Campus Y

The campus chapter of the Young Men's Christian Organization was founded in 1859 as a religious organization for students and was initially housed in South Building. The Y was a popular gathering place and by the late nineteenth century began to administer nonreligious programs. Many student services were run through the Y, including the campus bookstore. For a brief period the Y even ran student athletics. The YMCA Building, designed by Frank Milburn, opened in 1907 and quickly earned a…

Cameron Avenue

Built on an old carriage path that led west from the campus, the street now known as Cameron Avenue was originally called College Avenue. In the early 1880s it was named for Paul Cameron, in appreciation his many contributions to the university as a trustee and donor, and for the sugar maple trees he donated to plant along the road. Cameron, born into a wealthy family in Orange County, attended UNC briefly in the 1820s before being expelled for fighting….

Caldwell monuments

The Joseph Caldwell Monument is an obelisk that sits in the middle of McCorkle Place. It is dedicated to Joseph Caldwell, UNC's first president from 1804 to 1812 and again from 1817 to 1835. Caldwell and his family are interred beneath this monument. There is another, similar-looking obelisk in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. It marks the grave of Wilson Caldwell, a university employee born into slavery on campus, who was an educator and became one of the first African…

Caldwell Hall

Dedicated in 1912, Caldwell was built to house the UNC School of Medicine. It is named for Joseph Caldwell, the university's first president. Designed as a state-of-the-art medical facility, it included laboratories and classrooms. In the basement it also contained pens for animals, including dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, and mice, that students used for experiments. Known informally as Carolina's Zoo, the animal pens were a source of controversy. Students in nearby dorms complained about the noise, and the facilities hastened…

Cafeteria workers' strikes

In the fall of 1968, dining hall workers at UNC—Chapel Hill presented Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson with a list of suggestions for improved working conditions. They lobbied for pay raises, shorter workdays, and better treatment from supervisors. Their cause was soon joined by members of the Black Student Movement, who listed improved treatment for African American staff at the university in their list of twenty-three demands to the chancellor in December 1968. In February 1969, still waiting for a response…

Bynum Hall

Bynum Hall was originally built as a gymnasium. It was completed in 1905 and named in honor of William Preston Bynum Jr., a student in the 1890s who died of typhoid fever after his sophomore year. Bynum's grandfather provided the funding for the building. It is one of only two on campus named for students solely in honor of their experiences as students (Hinton James Residence Hall is the other). The gym was fully equipped with early-twentieth-century fitness equipment. The…

Burnett-Womack Clinical Sciences Building

Opened in 1975 to house administrative and research space for the Departments of Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Dermatology, Ophthalmology, Neurology, and Anesthesiology, the building is nine stories tall. It accommodated the medical school's principal clinical research labs and an animal facility. In 2004—6 the building had a complete renovation to accommodate growth and new technology and to relocate the animal facility elsewhere. It now houses the Department of Surgery and the Divisions of Cardiology, Endocrinology, and Nephrology for the Department of…

Bull's Head Bookshop

In 1927 English professor Howard Mumford Jones set up the Bull's Head Bookshop in his office in Murphey Hall. Jones wanted to bring a different kind of bookstore to campus: one with modern books and comfortable chairs that could serve as a sort of informal gathering place for reading and discussion. While it sounds a lot like a contemporary bookstore (though without a coffee shop), there was nothing else like it on campus or in Chapel Hill at the time….

Brooks Hall

The home of the University of North Carolina Press since 1980, Brooks Hall is a two-story building at the corner of Boundary Street and Hooper Lane. The building is named for North Carolina attorney, politician, and author Aubrey Lee Brooks and his sons Thornton H. Brooks and James T. Brooks. The elder Brooks, an 1893 graduate of the UNC School of Law, established the Brooks Scholarship Fund at Carolina and an endowment for UNC Press. UNC—Chapel Hill first proposed this…

Brooks Computer Science Building

The Frederick R. Brooks Jr. Computer Science Building was dedicated in 2008. It adjoins Sitterson Hall and is home to UNC—Chapel Hill's Department of Computer Science. Brooks, a North Carolina native, was working at IBM in 1963 when he came to campus to deliver a lecture on computer science. He caught the attention of campus administrators, who hired Brooks the following year to begin a computer science department at the university, only the second in the country. Already renowned for…

Brinkhous-Bullitt Building

The towering Brinkhous-Bullitt Building was completed in 1973 to house research facilities for the School of Medicine. Originally known as the Preclinical Education Building, it received its current name in 1983 in honor of two former faculty members and chairs of the Department of Pathology: James B. Bullitt and his successor, Kenneth M. Brinkhous. For many years, the Caduceus, the health sciences bookstore, was located in Brinkhous-Bullitt.

Brauer Hall

Brauer Hall has been the home of the School of Dentistry since it opened in 1969. Originally known simply as the Dental Education Building, it was renamed in 1972 for John C. Brauer, the founding dean of the School of Dentistry. Brauer was dean of the dental school at the University of Southern California when he was hired in 1950 to start the program at UNC. He designed the curriculum, hired staff, and welcomed the first students within a year….

Bowman Gray Memorial Pool

Carolina students were excited when the Bowman Gray Memorial Pool opened on April 15, 1938. There had been no pool on campus since the closing of the pool in Bynum Gymnasium in 1924. The new pool was built as part of Woollen Gym. When it opened, the Daily Tar Heel proclaimed it to be the "largest indoor swimming pool south of Philadelphia." While primarily built for recreational swimming, the pool was also used by the UNC swimming teams. While the…

Boshamer Stadium

Boshamer Stadium is the home of the Carolina baseball team. Opened in 1972, Boshamer replaced Emerson Field, the longtime home of Tar Heel baseball and other sports. The stadium is named for Cary C. Boshamer, an alumnus and former football player who had a successful career in the textile industry in Gastonia, North Carolina. He was an active supporter of the university, funding an endowed professorship in his name and a scholarship. The UNC baseball team moved to the site…

Book Exchange

The Book Exchange was a university-operated campus store that opened in 1915 after students and faculty complained about textbook prices in local stores. Housed in the Campus Y building, the store focused primarily on textbooks but also sold school supplies. Store offerings and services changed over the years. In the 1930s the Book Exchange offered typewriter cleaning and repair services. The fact that the store was run by the university appeared to do little to alleviate complaints over prices. Stories…

Bondurant Hall

Bondurant Hall was known for several decades as the Medical Sciences Research Building. Completed in 1962, it was the first building at the School of Medicine devoted primarily to research. In 2003 the building closed for extensive renovations. It was rededicated in 2006 and named for Dr. Stuart Bondurant, who served as dean of the School of Medicine from 1979 to 1994. Bondurant Hall contains classrooms and administrative offices. With a new facade modeled after the School of Medicine's first…

Bingham Hall

Bingham Hall was completed in 1929 for use by the School of Commerce. It shared the same architectural style as nearby Murphey and Saunders Halls. Bingham housed the Department of English from the 1950s through the early 1970s, followed by the Department of Speech (now the Department of Communication). The building is named for Robert Hall Bingham, an 1857 graduate of UNC. Bingham was a Civil War veteran and an educator, serving as headmaster of the Bingham School in Hillsborough,…

Berryhill Hall

Berryhill Hall opened in 1971 to provide much-needed classroom and laboratory space for the growing School of Medicine. It was named in 1973 for W. Reece Berryhill, longtime dean of the school. Berryhill, from Charlotte, graduated from UNC in 1921. He practiced medicine for several years before returning to Chapel Hill as director of student health. He served as dean of the School of Medicine from 1941 to 1964, a period that saw the school grow from a two-year to…

Bell tower

The university's iconic bell tower was dedicated on November 26, 1931. The official name —Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower —recognizes the families of the two men who donated the funds to build it in the heart of campus. John Motley Morehead, UNC class of 1891, and his cousin Rufus Lenoir Patterson II first tried to place a bell tower on top of South Building but were turned down. They then suggested the center of Polk Place, where the flagpole now stands, but…

Beat Dook Parade

The practice of misspelling the name of UNC—Chapel Hill's rival as "Dook" probably began in the 1930s, when "Beat Dook" banners were common at pep rallies. The annual Beat Dook Parade, sponsored by Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, began in 1948 with a procession of twenty-eight cars and floats. The parade, held on the weekend of the UNC-Duke football game, traveled down the main block of Franklin Street. The number of floats grew steadily, as did the number of spectators, with…

Beard Hall

Beard Hall has been the home of the School of Pharmacy since its dedication in 1960. The Daily Tar Heel reported that approximately 1,000 people attended the dedication, including a large number of pharmacists. The building is named for John Grover Beard, a native of Kernersville who came to Chapel Hill as an undergraduate and never left. He earned a degree in pharmacy in 1909 and was hired as an assistant instructor right after graduation. He was a full professor…

Battle Park

Battle Park is the wooded area on the east side of campus extending from the Forest Theatre and encompassing the Order of the Gimghoul's Hippol Castle. The park is named for former university president Kemp Plummer Battle, who was fond of walking in the woods and who forged many of the trails that are still used today. Battle named many of the notable trees and overlooks in the park. Names like Trysting Poplar and Flirtation Knoll hint at the use…

Battle Hall

Built in 1912 as a dormitory, Battle Hall was one of the three buildings on the northwest corner of McCorkle Place on Franklin Street (Vance and Pettigrew Halls are attached). Converted to office space in the late 1960s, Battle Hall housed the university's personnel department for many years. It is one of only a few examples of a building named for a living person. Kemp Plummer Battle, who served as university president from 1876 to 1891, was still on the…

Basketball

Basketball was first organized as a varsity sport at the university in late 1910, with the team playing its first game on January 27, 1911, a victory over Virginia Christian College. The team played its home games in Bynum Gymnasium. Though basketball initially was not as popular as football and basketball, the university developed a successful basketball program in the 1920s, winning the Southern Conference several times and completing an undefeated season in 1924. It was during this era that…

Baseball

Baseball was one of the earliest sports in which UNC played against other schools. In December 1866, as baseball was catching on across the Southeast following the Civil War, a group from Carolina known as the University Club of Chapel Hill defeated the Pioneer Team in Raleigh. The university team played again, against another Raleigh club, in early 1867. This early interest in baseball appears to have faded as the student population dwindled prior to the university's closing in 1870….

Baity Hill Graduate and Family Housing

This housing complex, completed in 2005, sits on land once owned by Herman G. and Elizabeth Chesley Baity. Their family home now serves as the student center there. Over a number of years the Baitys sold more than fifty acres to the university, including the areas now occupied by the Dean Smith Center, Koury Natatorium, and part of the Kenan-Flagler Business School. The university purchased the home and surrounding nine acres in 1991. The complex was designed to replace Odum…

Aycock Residence Hall

Completed in 1924, Aycock was one of three new dorms built on the east side of campus (Graham and Lewis are the others). It was named in 1928 for Charles Brantley Aycock. At the time Aycock was one of the most revered men in the state. A member of the UNC class of 1880, Aycock was a successful lawyer and served as North Carolina governor from 1901 to 1905. He was known as the education governor for his work to…

Aycock Family Medicine Center

Located on Manning Drive adjacent to Fordham Boulevard, the center is home to the Department of Family Medicine and its clinics. UNC—Chapel Hill has one of the top-ranked programs in the country for training family physicians. The state legislature funded the building, which was named in honor of William Brantley Aycock, alumnus, long-time faculty member, law school dean, and chancellor from 1957 to 1964. As chancellor, Aycock presided over a landmark expansion period, bringing significant growth in the numbers of…

Avery Residence Hall

Opened in the fall of 1958, Avery was built at the same time as Parker and Teague Residence Halls. Avery, located at the end of Stadium Drive, was a first step in expanding campus housing toward South Campus. The building is named for William Waightstill Avery, a Burke County native who graduated from Carolina in 1837. Avery was a lawyer, an occupation that led to trouble in 1851 when he was attacked by a man involved in one of his…

Astronomy

Education in astronomy was on the minds of the university's founders even before the first brick was laid on the campus. In his 1792 "Plan of Education" for the newly established university, Samuel McCorkle wrote of the need for "the procurement of apparatus for Experimental Philosophy and Astronomy." It would take a few decades for his suggestion to be heeded. Joseph Caldwell, the first president of UNC, was also interested in astronomy and persuaded the trustees to appropriate money for…

Astronaut Training

In 1959 the university welcomed a different type of student to campus when a group of astronauts arrived to learn celestial navigation at the Morehead Planetarium. The state-of-the-art planetarium was used to teach future astronauts to find their way using the stars, in case of equipment failure (which they needed for the Apollo 12 and Apollo 13 missions). Nearly every American astronaut between 1959 and 1975 —including John Glenn and Neil Armstrong —trained at the planetarium.

Asian American Students Association

Founded in 1989 as the Asian Students Association, the student group is a social and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting the interests and needs of UNC—Chapel Hill's Asian and Asian American students. The group was formed during a period when the university's Asian and Asian American student population was increasing rapidly. Early activities of the group included social gatherings and promotion of Asian culture on campus. Since the 2010s the Asian Students Association has been active in advocacy for an…

Anderson Stadium

Opened in 2002 to serve as a home for the UNC women's softball team, Anderson Stadium is located off of Raleigh Road near the UNC System office. The stadium and its field (Williams Field) are named in honor of donors Eugene A. Anderson and Ken and Cheryl Williams.

American Indian Center

The American Indian Center was established in 2006 to promote and support American Indian scholarship and scholars and to incorporate Native American issues into the intellectual life of the university. The state of North Carolina has the largest American Indian population east of the Mississippi River, and Carolina committed itself to expanding its research, educational, and service efforts in this area. The center is a campus home for scholars and students, hosting programs such as the annual Michael D. Green…

Alumni Hall

Located on McCorkle Place, Alumni Hall was a gift from Carolina alumni. The Alumni Association launched a campaign for the building in 1895, the centennial of Carolina's first entering class 100 years earlier. When completed in 1901, the building, designed by architect Frank Wilburn and modeled on the neoclassical Boston Public Library, housed the offices of the president, other university officials, and the Alumni Association, as well as lecture rooms and laboratories. For many years, Commencement Day and University Day…

Alumni Association

The UNC Alumni Association (now the General Alumni Association) was formed in May 1843 with thirty-one members, the oldest from the class of 1801. Its first president was North Carolina governor John Motley Morehead (1796—1866), UNC class of 1817. The alumni often gathered at commencement and participated in the ceremonies. One of the earliest projects of the association was the erection of a memorial to former UNC president Joseph Caldwell in 1847. Alumni also played an active role in lobbying…

Alexander Residence Hall

Completed in 1939, Alexander was one of three new dormitories for men built using Public Works Administration funds. The building is named for Eben Alexander, a faculty member who taught Greek at Carolina in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He served for several years as U.S. ambassador to Greece, Serbia, and Romania under President Grover Cleveland. Alexander was in Greece for the revival of the modern Olympic games in 1896 and was instrumental in getting American athletes to…

Alderman Residence Hall

Located on Raleigh Street behind the university president's house, Alderman was completed in 1937 as a dormitory for women, providing much-needed on-campus housing for the rapidly expanding population of female students. At first known simply as the Graduate Women's Dormitory, the dorm was named for former university president Edwin Anderson Alderman in 1941, probably in recognition of the role he played in arguing for the admission of the first women students at Carolina in 1897. A native of Goldsboro, North…

African, African American, and Diaspora Studies, Department of

This department has its roots in the 1960s-era activism of African American students at predominantly white universities. Still within the first decade of integration, such institutions faced increasing criticism from students about admissions policies, campus life, and academic programs. In December 1968, UNC's Black Student Movement presented a list of twenty-three demands to the chancellor that included a call for a department of African and Afro-American studies. In 1969 the faculty council endorsed such a curriculum and approved a major…

Adams School of Dentistry

The idea of dental education at UNC was discussed as early as 1921. Medical professionals around the state continued to advocate for a school of dentistry, successfully lobbying university administrators, who agreed to add the new program to the campus at Chapel Hill. In 1949 the North Carolina state legislature voted unanimously to establish and fund a school of dentistry at UNC. John Brauer, dean of the dental school at the University of Southern California, was hired to start the…

Activism

UNC—Chapel Hill students have often worked together to advocate for issues or push for change. Early in the university's history, students collectively petitioned the administration, for example, to complain about food on campus. In 1861 a group of students wrote to the university administration to ask that classes be canceled so that they could leave to join the Confederate army; the president and board denied their petition. One of the earliest examples of students working together to protest national issues…

Ackland Art Museum

The Ackland Art Museum has one of the most complicated origin stories of any building on campus. When William Hayes Ackland, a lawyer and art collector from Tennessee, died in 1940, he left his estate to establish an art museum at a southern university. Ackland was an heir through his mother to the vast fortune of Isaac Franklin, a plantation owner and partner in Franklin and Armfield, the largest slave-trading operation in the United States. Ackland's mother inherited six Louisiana…

Abernethy Hall

Located on South Columbia Street across from Fraternity Court, Abernethy Hall was originally built as a campus infirmary. Completed in 1907, the building was expanded in the 1930s to house additional beds and serve as a teaching facility for students in the medical school. Known for decades as the Infirmary, the name was changed to Abernethy Hall in 1945 in honor of alumnus Dr. Eric Abernethy, who served as the university physician from 1919 to 1933. The campus infirmary moved…