The History of the University of North Carolina
The University of North Carolina was the first state University in America to begin construction and the only one to grant degrees in the 18th century. It was authorized by the State Constitution of 1776 and was chartered in 1789. In 1792, a state committee selected its site on New Hope Chapel Hill in Orange County. The site was rural, wooded andremoved from town distractions. Local landowners donated a total of 1,299 acres of land and enough cash to get construction under way.
The cornerstone of the first building, Old East, the oldest public university building, was laid on October 12, 1793. It was finished in time to serve the first students in February, 1795. By March of that year, there were 41 students and two professors. By 1859, several other buildings had been added and the student body was second only to Yale University.
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The History of the Town
The town of Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina began on the same day. Just as workers started putting up the first UNC building on Oct. 12, 1793, 30 lots were auctioned off to create a village to serve the University needs. The village name Chapel Hill was a shortened version of New Hope Chapel Hill, the name of a Church of England Chapel that stood on a small hill near the present location of the Carolina Inn.
By 1820 the small village had 13 small wooden houses, four stores, two hotels, a blacksmith shop and a town government. There were two streets: Main Street, now Franklin Street; and Hillsborough-Raleigh Street, now called variously Columbia Street, Raleigh Road, NC 54 and NC 86. >>more
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