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Old Orange County Courthouse
The Old Orange County Courthouse stands at the corner of Hillsborough’s Churton and King streets, the site of three previous courthouses. The building was designed and built by Hillsborough native John Berry over the course of 1844 and 1845. The Greek Revival structure is considered to be Berry’s masterpiece and received immediate praise, the Hillsborough…
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Speaker Ban Law Protest at UNC-Chapel Hill
“An Act to Regulate Visiting Speakers at State Supported Colleges and Universities,” more commonly known as the Speaker Ban law, was passed on June 25, 1963. It prohibited state-sponsored colleges from hosting speeches by known members of the communist party, people known to advocate for the overthrow of the Constitution, and people who pleaded the…
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Wildlife on Morgan Creek
Morgan Creek is an approximately 17-mile-long tributary of the New Hope River running through Orange, Durham, and Chatham counties. The creek is named after Mark Morgan, an early white settler in the area who lived along its banks. Morgan Creek begins at Pickards Mountain, flows past Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and becomes part of Jordan…
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William C. Coker and the Coker Arboretum
William C. Coker was born October 24, 1872, in Hartsville, South Carolina. The Coker family was prosperous, with his father, Major James Lide Coker, being one of South Carolina’s most successful businessmen. Coker’s youthful interest in nature was encouraged by his family. Coker graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1894 and proceeded to…
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Dean Smith Student Activities Center
Dean E. Smith, a white basketball coach, was born on February 28, 1931, in Emporia, Kansas. He graduated from the University of Kansas in 1953, having been a member of the Jayhawks basketball team that won the national championship in 1952 and finished second in 1953. After graduation, he acted as an assistant basketball coach…
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Dr. Kenneth Brinkhous
Kenneth M. Brinkhous, a white doctor and medical researcher, was born in 1908 in a rural community in Iowa. Influenced by his principal, he began thinking of a career in science during his freshman year of high school. After a brief stint at West Point, where he realized military science was not for him, Brinkhous…
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George Moses Horton
George Moses Horton was a Black poet born around 1797 in Northampton County, North Carolina. He, his mother, five half-sisters, brother, and three sisters were enslaved by William Horton. Early in his life, Horton and his family were moved to Chatham County. As a child, he taught himself to read and began composing poetry in…
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James Hogg
James Hogg was born in 1729 in East Lothian, Scotland. He and his wife immigrated to North Carolina in roughly 1774, following his brother who had been in the state for some time. Hogg first settled in Wilmington, where he became a partner in a mercantile company operated by his brother and Samuel Campbell. He…
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Mark Morgan
Mark Morgan was born in approximately 1715, likely in Essex County, Virginia. He was one of the first white settlers in the Chapel Hill area and was one of the biggest landowners, ultimately owning many thousands of acres of land in early Orange and Chatham counties. He is the namesake of Morgan Creek, where, according…
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UNC Law School
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