One of the first impressions I had of Carrboro was in 2005, when I made a trip down here to house hunt. In one of those wonderful accidents that can change a life, I turned a corner and walked right into the Carrboro Music Festival. Everywhere I looked there were bands, colorful crowds, beautiful music, and people…
Seafood Destiny, a Greensboro-based business that serves made-to-order crab legs, lobster, shrimp, and more is opening on the corner of Columbia and Franklin Street in the site formerly operated by Lotsa Pizza, announced the Downtown Chapel Hill Partnership. The owner of Seafood Destiny, Anthony Knotts, said he and his son, Jalen, hope to be operational…
Old houses tell a story. They have a history. How many, over the course of the last two and a half centuries, have walked these floors before you? Soldiers, artists, men and women in elegant finery contradancing across the ballroom floor. In an old house we have sense of place, of time, a perspective on…
Orange County is beginning to feel like its former self. Restaurants and bars are open, buzzing with students, visitors, and townies. The simplest things – a drink, a meal, a walk downtown – feel celebratory. Our fare-free buses are filling up with vaccinated riders. It’s a return to what we think of around here as…
Affectionately known as “The Paris of the Piedmont,” Carrboro was first settled in the late-1800s along a University of North Carolina railroad spur and quickly became a mill town. Today, 20,000 people call it home. The town’s railroad depot, first textile mill, and a former grist mill, all listed in the National Register of Historic…
LGBT Pride Month occurs in the United States to commemorate the Stonewall riots, which occurred at the end of June 1969. As a result, many pride events are held during this month to recognize the impact LGBT people have had in the world. Leaders and influencers who lived the history of LGBTQ rights in Chapel Hill,…
Chapel Hill, meet Dame Moore and Randy Wadsworth; Dame and Randy, Chapel Hill. They are the founders and owners of Dame’s Chicken and Waffles. Dame’s has opened in the heart of Chapel Hill in the location that formerly housed Biski’s Restaurant, and our only question is why it has taken so long. Dame’s is a…
Juneteenth commemorates the day the enslaved people in Galveston, Texas finally received the news that they were free. The news came two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, on June 19, 1865. Flash-forward almost exactly 100 years, to Chapel Hill in 1969. That’s when Howard N. Lee was elected mayor of this town. In so…
There’s a shopping center in Chapel Hill that’s fun to visit because many longtime Chapel Hill retailers are at the helm and their experience adds to the feeling of community. University Place (formerly known as University Mall) is anchored by SilverSpot Cinema. The mall originally opened with Ivey’s and Belk (Belk-Leggett Horton) in 1973, and Roses Stores as a junior anchor. It was developed…
Historic preservation has been around forever. In one form or another, people have always wanted to maintain the past – the old homeplace – while at the same time inviting in the new. The new takes many forms: a road, a store, a building. But the world is finite, and once the old is gone…