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Town of Chapel Hill
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Carrboro
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Carrboro
Life in
Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill is a town in
North Carolina and the home of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), the oldest
state-supported university in the United States. As of the 2000 census,
it had a population of 48,715. As of 2004 its estimated population was
52,440
[Fast Facts].
The 2004 Metropolitan Population was: 1,467,434, for
The US Office of Management and Budget's Metropolitan Combined
Statistical Area known as Raleigh-Durham-Cary
(formerly known as the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Metropolitan
Statistical Area).
Chapel Hill,
Durham and
Raleigh make up the three corners of the
Research Triangle, so named in 1959 with the creation of the
Research Triangle Park, a research park between Durham and Raleigh.
Geography
Chapel Hill is located in the southeast corner of
Orange County, with municipal boundaries extending slightly into
Durham County to the east and almost to
Chatham County to the south. It is coterminous to the west with the
town of
Carrboro, and to the east with the city of
Durham.
Demographics
Chapel Hill is North Carolina's best educated city,
proportionately, with 77.0% of adult residents (25 and older) holding an
associate degree or higher, and 73.7% of adults possessing a
baccalaureate degree or higher (2000 Census).
There were 17,808 households out of which 22.4% had
children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.2% were married
couples living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband
present, and 54.3% were non-families. 31.2% of all households were made
up of individuals and 6.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of
age or older. The average household size was 2.22 and the average family
size was 2.88.
In the town the population was spread out with 15.1%
under the age of 18, 37.1% from 18 to 24, 24.5% from 25 to 44, 15.3%
from 45 to 64, and 8.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median
age was 24 years. For every 100 females there were 82.1 males. For every
100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.5 males.
The home ownership rate (owner-occupied housing units
to total units) is 42.9%.
A view of Franklin Street in Downtown Chapel
Hill
Culture
As is typical of college towns, Chapel Hill has
historically tended to be politically liberal. In fact, disgruntled
conservatives have referred to the town as "The People's Republic of
Chapel Hill."
In addition to the high per capita income and highly
educated adult population, residents of Chapel Hill have made public
education a priority; resulting in Chapel Hill being widely recognized
for the quality of its school system, which it shares with
Carrboro. Chapel Hill's two high schools, East Chapel Hill High and
Chapel Hill High, are rated as the 38th and 74th best high schools in
the U.S. by Newsweek, respectively.
The town also shares with Carrboro a vibrant music
scene. Cat's Cradle in Carrboro is often rated as one of the best clubs
in the country for live music, and Local 506 and other Chapel Hill bars
(such as the Cave, and Reservoir) often host local, national, and
international acts in all genres. The Squirrel Nut Zippers, Superchunk
(who founded the extremely successful indie label Merge Records),
Archers of Loaf, James Taylor, Southern Culture on the Skids, and Ben
Folds Five are among the notable musical acts whose careers began in
Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill has also been a center for the modern revival
of old-time music with such bands as the Hollow Rock String band, the
Fuzzy Mountain String band and the acclaimed Red Clay Ramblers. Chapel
Hill was also the founding home of now defunct indie label, Mammoth
Records and is also the founding home of another top indie label, Yep
Roc Records which is owned by Redeye Distribution. Bruce Springsteen has
also made a point to visit the town on several tours. His most recent
appearance was on September 14, 2003 at Kenan Stadium with the E Street
Band, and his fourth appearance overall. U2 also played at Kenan on the
first date of their 1983 "War Tour" where Bono infamously climbed up to
the top of the stage, during pouring rain and lightening, holding up a
white flag for peace.
Also, Chapel Hill is rapidly becoming somewhat of a
hot spot for pop American cuisine which is likely due to the college
town's entrepreneur-friendly business startup environment and national
media attention surrounding a few local culinary notables, like Fosters
Market (Martha Stewart Living), Caff Driade (Food Network $40 A
Day With Rachael Ray), The Cackalacky Classic Condiment Company (Food
Network's "BBQ With Bobby Flay" and "Rachael Ray's Ball Park Cafe
Special," Comedy Central's "Insomniac, "OLN's "BBQ All Star
Showdown, "Associated Press, Public Radio International, etc.), and The
Lantern Restaurant (Food & Wine Magazine, Southern Living Magazine,
etc.)
The area of Chapel Hill and Carrboro combined is home
to many hip, independently owned coffee shops (such as Open Eye Cafe, 3
Cups, Caffe Driade, and Padgett Station) and bars.
The Morehead Planetarium was, when it opened in 1949,
one of only a handful of planetariums in the nation, and it has remained
an important town landmark. During the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo
programs, astronauts were trained there. One of the town hallmark
features is the giant sundial, located in the rose gardens in front of
the planetarium on Franklin Street.
UNC-CH has been very successful at college basketball
and womens soccer (Mia Hamm played as an undergraduate at UNC) and an
obsession with the sport has been one of the most distinctive features
of the town's culture, fueled by the rivalry among North Carolina's four
ACC teams: the UNC Tar Heels, the
Duke Blue Devils, the
NC State Wolfpack, and the
Wake Forest Demon Deacons. More recently, the town has received
regional notice as the site of a large annual Halloween street party,
with an attendance regularly exceeding 70,000.
The colorful brick wall of an alley: one of many
murals in Chapel Hill by artist Michael J. Brown
[Murals]
For more than thirty years Chapel Hill has sponsored
two annual street fairs. The fairs offer booths to artists, craftsmen,
nonprofits, and food vendors. Performance space is also available for
musicians, martial artists and other groups. Both fairs are attended
annually by tens of thousands.
Like many college towns, Chapel Hill has some unique
retail opportunities. A Southern Season is based in Chapel Hill,
although it also serves a wider audience through its mail-order
business.
Chapel Hill also has some village communities, such as
Meadowmont Village and Southern Village. Meadowmont and Southern Village
both have shopping centers and green space where concerts and movies
take place. The two communities also have community pools. They also
have schools located within the neighborhoods.
History
Chapel Hill, or at least the town center, indeed sits
atop a hill--originally called New Hope Chapel Hill after the chapel
once located there. The Carolina Inn now occupies the site of the
original chapel. The town was founded, in 1819, to serve the University
of North Carolina and grew up around it. The town was chartered in 1851.
In 1968, only a year after its schools became fully
integrated, Chapel Hill became the first predominantly white
municipality in the country to elect an African American mayor, Howard
Lee. Lee served from 1969 until 1975 and, among other things, helped
establish Chapel Hill Transit, the town's bus system. Some 30 years
later, in 2002, legislation was passed to make the local buses free of
fares to residents and visitors alike, leading to a large increase in
ridership; the buses are financed through Chapel Hill and Carrboro city
taxes as well as UNC-CH student fees.
The intersection of Franklin Street and Columbia
Street
In the latter part of the 20th century, the town grew
considerably and became wealthier, with affordable housing and combating
urban sprawl emerging as major local issues. By the late 20th century,
higher proportions of the local population worked at jobs unrelated to
the university; town surveys indicated that a majority of people working
in the town were no longer able to afford in-town housing, and so many
people working for the university itself weren't able to afford to live
in Chapel Hill, or even Carrboro, that charter bus lines were doing a
brisk business in almost nothing but bringing in from nearby counties a
workforce of secretaries and others on which the university depended.
Government
Chapel Hill uses a council-manager form of government.
The community elects a mayor and 8 council members. Mayors serve 2-year
terms, and council members serve staggered 4-year terms.
The town adopted its flag in 1990. According to flag
designer Spring Davis, the blue represents the town and the University
of North Carolina (whose colors are blue and white); the green
represents "environmental awareness"; and the "townscape" in the
inverted chevron represents "a sense of home, friends, and community."
The current version of the town's seal, adopted in
1989, is in the process of being replaced with a similar but simpler
version. All versions of the seal, dating back to the 1930s, depict
Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and protector of cities.
UNC's wooded campus buffers the town center
Who's who in Chapel Hill
-
James Taylor, popular
musician
-
Elizabeth Cotton, folk singer
-
Howard Lee, pioneering
politician
-
Charles Kuralt, editor of
The Daily Tar Heel
-
Fred Brooks, computer science
pioneer
-
John Edwards,
United States senator
-
Paul Green, playwright
-
Elisha Mitchell, geologist
-
Frank Porter Graham,
-
Dean Smith, former basketball
coach
-
Michael Jordan, basketball
player
-
Mia Hamm, soccer player
-
Thomas Wolfe, novelist
-
Lewis Black, comedian
-
Kent Williams, painter,
illustrator and comics artist
-
Terry Sanford,
United States senator
-
Sarah Dessen, author
-
Mary Pope Osborne, author
-
Chris Stamey, musician
-
William Carter Love -
U.S. Representative from North Carolina
-
Ben Folds, musician
-
Roy Williams, basketball
coach
Points of interest
-
Coker Arboretum
-
North Carolina Botanical Garden
-
A Southern Season
-
farmers market
-
North Carolina Children's Symphony
MORE .
. . Life in Chapel Hill
External links
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Sports
Illustrated has said that Chapel Hill is the best college town in
America, and Franklin Street (named after Benjamin Franklin) is one
reason why. With more than 300 diverse businesses, Franklin Street is
the heart of town, where the famous have walked, the famous and
not-so-famous have celebrated great sports victories and many more have
been entertained simply by strolling its length to see and be seen.
Hillsborough,
just fifteen miles from Chapel Hill, has more than 100 late 18th century
and early 19th century buildings including the beautifully restored Ayr
Mount Historic Site (c.1815); the Old County Courthouse (1844), cited by
the Library of Congress as one of the finest Greek Revival structures;
and the Orange County Historical Museum. Hillsborough was the scene of
many important events during the Revolutionary and Civil War periods,
and home to a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Today,
Hillsborough is a writers colony that boasts many award winners. Here
you also find flea market treasures, unique jewelry and home goods
stores, gourmet restaurants, coffee shops and pastoral views.
The
Tar Heel basketball team has produced famous players and garnered
numerous championships and awards over the years while playing under the
roofs of Carmichael Auditorium and the Dean E. Smith Center, completed
in 1986. The structure is only one of 14 facilities that make up the Tar
Heel athletics program, comprised of 26 separate sports.
Founded
in 1919, PlayMakers is North Carolina premier not-for-profit
professional theatre company, performing five different plays from
October to May in its intimate Paul Green Theatre on the UNC campus. In
addition, the new Memorial Hall, built in 1885, rebuilt in 1931 and
renovated in 2005 at a cost of $18-million, hosts world-renowned
performers, events and elegant ceremonies. Other popular performance
venues include the Cats Cradle and The Arts Center in Carrboro, plus
many small nightclubs. In fact, the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Superchunk,
Archers of Loaf, James Taylor, Southern Culture on the Skids and Ben
Folds Five are among the notable musical acts whose careers began in
Chapel Hill.
The
largest botanical garden in the southeast, established in 1966, consists
of nearly 700 acres of preserved land with nature trails, carnivorous
plant collections, aquatics and herb gardens, and revolving exhibits of
artwork with a horticultural theme. The garden also administers the
historic Coker Arboretum, established in 1903, and the recently upgraded
93-acre Battle Park, established in the late 1800s by University
President Kemp Plummer Battle, known as the Southern Thoreau.
The
museum has a collection of more than 15,000 objects that broadly covers
the history of European painting and sculpture, including masters such
as Rubens, Delacroix, Degas and Pissarro, and is strong in Asian art and
works on paper, with some North Carolina pottery and folk art.
