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Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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Chapel Hill
Flag of Chapel Hill
Flag
Official seal of Chapel Hill
Seal
Nickname: 
The Southern Part of Heaven
Location in North Carolina
Location in North Carolina
CountryUnited States
StateNorth Carolina
CountiesOrange, Durham, and Chatham
Founded1793
Government
 • MayorKevin C. Foy (D)
Population
 (2000)
 • City48,715
 • Metro
1,079,873
Time zoneUTC-5 (EST)
WebsiteTown of 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[2].

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. Since the early 1980s, the bedroom community of Cary, near Raleigh, has grown to be more than twice the size of Chapel Hill.

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.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 51.3 km² (19.8 mi²). 51.2 km² (19.8 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.35%) is water.

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 48,715 people, 17,808 households, and 8,138 families residing in the town. The population density was 952.4/km² (2,466.0/mi²). There were 18,976 housing units at an average density of 371.0/km² (960.6/mi²). The racial makeup of the town was 77.95% White, 11.42% Black or African American, 0.42% Native American, 7.18% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.16% from other races, and 1.85% from two or more races. 3.21% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

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 median income for a household in the town was $39,140, and the median income for a family was $73,483. Males had a median income of $50,258 versus $32,917 for females. The per capita income for the town was $24,133. About 6.4% of families and 21.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.6% of those under age 18 and 5.6% of those age 65 or over.

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." Former U.S. Senator Jesse Helms once called the town a "zoo" and suggested it be "walled off" from the rest of North Carolina.[3]

Residents of Chapel Hill have made public education a priority, with the result that Chapel Hill is widely recognized for the quality of its school system, which it shares with Carrboro.

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 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. 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.

Also, Chapel Hill is rapidly becoming somewhat of a hot spot for pop American cuisine, too – 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 Foster’s Market (Martha Stewart’s Living), Caffé Driade (Food Network’s “$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 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.

UNC-CH has been very successful at college basketball, and an obsession with the sport has been one of the most distinctive features of the town's culture, fueled by the rivalry among the area's three teams: the UNC Tar Heels, the Duke Blue Devils, and the NC State Wolfpack. 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.

File:Alley-chapel hill.jpg
The colorful brick wall of an alley: one of several murals in Chapel Hill by artist Michael J. Brown [1]

For more than thirty years Chapel Hill has sponsored two annual street fairs, Apple Chill (which was cancelled in 2006 due to increasing violence [4]) in April and Festifall in October. 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 [5] and Southern Village [6]. 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.

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. [7]

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." [8]

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. [9]

See also: List of mayors of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and List of town council members of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.



Who's who in Chapel Hill

File:Trees-chapel hill.jpg
UNC's wooded campus buffers the town center

See also: List of alumni from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Points of interest

See also

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