A long time ago, I asked y'all how long you had lived here in Orange County. Almost half (49%) have been here for 5 to 20 years, and another 34% have lived here for more than 20 years. In the paper I recently saw some grumbling that the newer residents of Chapel Hill don't share the values of those of us who lived here in the "halcyon days" of outspoken progressive activism.  I don't think this is necessarily true.

From http://www.historichillsborough.org/calendar :

From http://www.historichillsborough.org/calendar/ :

2nd Saturday Hillsborough Guided Walking Tour, 10am & 2pm, The Alexander Dickson House, 150 E. King St., Hillsborough. Explore Hillsborough's history on a 90-minute guided walking tour through its historic district. $2-$6, More Information at 732-7741

Welcome to Chapel Hill President Polk!

The Preservation Society of Chapel Hill will be recreating the 1847 visit of President James K. Polk to Chapel Hill on Saturday, May 3, 2008. The event will be from 10 am to 4 pm at the Horace Williams House at 610 E. Rosemary Street. Costumed reenactors will be preparing for the President’s arrival while Mexican War soldiers drill on the historic lawn of the 1840s Horace Williams House. Children’s games, period music, and demonstrations will also be part of the day’s activities. The event is free and open to the community.

I just saw a clip on the noon news with former President Bill Clinton reflecting on the Death of Martin Luther King, Jr. on this day, 40 years ago. ("Clinton remembers King during visit to N.C."). The night of April 4, 1968 and the days that followed are hard to forget.

From a CHCCS press release:

This just in from Orange County:

I just saw the 10:00 AM performance of Because We're Still Here (And Moving) at the ArtsCenter. If you're not familiar with the show yet, it's a theatrical retelling of 140 years of Chapel Hill and Carrboro's African-American History. The fine people at Hidden Voices have spent two years working in the community to collect hundreds of stories and photographs.

The production was wonderful. It uses an authentic style of African-American multi-generational storytelling to make connections between the past and present. I most enjoyed the stories of Ruth Stroud, especially her recollections of her grandparents' story about being freed from slavery. I also picked up a copy of the accompanying neighborhood walking tour guide, and I learned so much about what was here (long) before I arrived in 1998.

Yesterday, I was going some historical research on the Chapel Hill Iron Mountain Railroad, the original name of the rail line that ran from the Carolina campus through what is now Carrboro on to University Station between Hillsborough and Durham.

I found the original 1873 Charter, and wonderful narrative on the coming of the railroad in Kemp Plummer Battle's 1912 tome the History of the University of North Carolina. The initial 1873 attempt failed, and the 1879 legislative session rechartered the railroad with the new name "State University Railroad", in place of the earlier name "Chapel Hill Iron Mountain Railroad".