Fun Facts About Chapel Hill and UNC

  • Chapel Hill derives it name from the highest point where a church (of England) was located in the late 1700s. Called New Hope Chapel hill (where The Carolina Inn stands today), the name was shortened to Chapel Hill.
  • Chapel Hill has been referred to as the “Southern Part of Heaven,” after the title of the book by William Meade Prince, which was published in 1950.
  • Franklin Street, the main street through downtown Chapel Hill was named after Benjamin Franklin. Rosemary Street, a parallel street, was named after residents who lived at its opposite ends—Rose and Mary.
  • Franklin Street’s Carolina Coffee Shop was established in 1922 as the Carolina Confectionery, making it one of the oldest original restaurants in the area.
  • Traditionally, fire engines are red. In Chapel Hill, however, Engines 31, 32, 33, 34 and 35 (one for each station) are Carolina blue, like the color of the Carolina Tar Heel sports teams.
  • The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the oldest public university in the U.S., founded in 1793. UNC was the only public university in the U.S. to award degrees to students in the 18th Century. Today students at UNC come from every one of North Carolina’s 100 counties, all of the other 49 states and more than 100 countries worldwide.
  • Hinton James was the first student on the UNC campus. He enrolled at the University on February 12, 1795. According to legend, he walked to Chapel Hill from Wilmington and for two weeks he was the entire student body. By the end of the term, there were 41 students and two professors.
  • The cornerstone of Old East (the first state university building in the United States was laid on October 12, 1793. Sometime after the Civil War, the cornerstone was vandalized and the commemorative plate was stolen. Lost until 1916, it was spotted in a pile of scrap brass destined for melting at a foundry in Tennessee. The foundry’s owner, a UNC alumnus, recognized the Davie name and had the plate cleaned and returned. Today, it can be seen in the North Carolina Collection Gallery on campus, which holds the largest collection of documents and artifacts on a single state.
  • The Old Well was the primary source of campus water for more than a century. In 1897, Pres. Edwin A. Alderman had the ramshackle shelter over the well rebuilt in Greek Revival style, and it became the unofficial symbol of the University.
  • The Morehead Planetarium and Science Center on the UNC campus, which opened in 1950, was a NASA training facility from 1960 to 1975. It was the first planetarium in the south.
  • The Ackland Art Museum was founded with a $1.5-million bequest by Washington, DC, attorney William Hayes Ackland, who had no connection with the University, and he was unknown to it. As part of his bequest, he was to be interred within the museum, which he was (and is).
  • UNC’s Finley Golf Course, designed by Tom Fazio, was selected the 11th best collegiate course in the country by Golfweek magazine in September 2004. The poll took into account the quality of the golf course and whether students have easy access to it.

Did You Know?

Fun Facts illustrate the unique history and characteristics of our area.