Walk Carrboro

In 1989, local band Superchunk began to attract interest from major labels like Atlantic Records. But instead of signing with an already established label, members Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance started their own: Merge Records.

Twenty years later, Carrboro will join Merge in celebrating their birthday on July 22-26 as a part of XX-Merge, a five-night extravaganza created to honor the label’s 20th anniversary. XX Merge will consist of four nights at Carrboro’s Cat’s Cradle and a final show, headlined by folk duo She & Him (including Zooey Deschanel), American Music Club and Wye Oak at Memorial Hall. Visit Merge Records for details:

http://www.mergerecords.com/xxmerge/

Come walk downtown Carrboro and spot Alt Rock’s superstars!

Also, I am told there will be a fan-organized kickball game at Wilson Park on Friday July 24th at noon.  Saturday is the day with the most going on, as there is an additional show at the Orange County Social Club Saturday afternoon.

The 2ndFriday Artwalk is this coming Friday, July 10th from 6 to 9 pm! Come on out with me and check out the artwork and enjoy downtown Carrboro. Many of the galleries will have live music and other art related entertainment. Admission is free and some of the places will probably have live music and hors d’oeuvres.

You can start at one end of downtown and walk to the other stopping in at Artwalk shows all along the way. If you start at Town Hall, and walk toward Chapel Hill, here is what you will encounter:

Carrboro Town Hall- 301 W. Main St Suite A, Carrboro, 919.942.8541. Carrboro Greenways: Today and Tomorrow - Dave Otto photography. This exhibit helps the community visualize the emerging greenway system and appreciate the natural beauty and historic significance of proposed greenways in Carrboro.

NC Crafts Gallery - 212 W. Main St., Carrboro, NC 27510, 919.942.4048. Summer Flowers - Watercolor paintings by Durham artist Lois Bronstein. Meet the artist during the Second Friday Artwalk, 6-9pm.

Moving to Better Health - 309 West Weaver Street (behind Great Clips), Carrboro, NC 27510, 919.960.2994. Anne Gregory - In her paintings she explores shifting patterns of light that suggest a lifting of spirit and the release that comes with ascension. Layers of color create a space that could be a view off in the distance or just below the surface of water.

Carrboro Century Center- 100 N. Greensboro St. Carrboro, NC 27510, 919.918.7385. The Artist and the Model - New work by Steven Silverleaf. The show is comprised of oil paintings and drawings in mixed media. The work concerns his ongoing investigation of the seated figure. The show is suitable for all ages.

Creative Connections at the Cybrary - Century Center lower level, 100 N. Greensboro St., Carrboro, 919.918.7387. Our summer reading theme is “Be Creative.” Discover the many creative talents of Cybrary patrons while enjoying light refreshments and music. A variety of items from a variety of artists will be displayed and available for sale.

Open Eye Café- 101 South Greensboro St., Carrboro, 919.968.9410. Duncan Morgan - Spray painted stencil portraits on canvas. Hikage Parallel - The masculine is abstract and surreal… The feminine is reality skewed, fantasy…

Weaver St. Realty- 116 E. Main Street, Carrboro, 919.929.5658. Katherine Ladd - Summertime Art. My paintings are interpretations of places I have lived, of my garden which I love, and of places in my imagination that I want to share. I hope that my paintings bring joy into other peoples lives.

The Beehive Salon- 102 E. Weaver Street, 919.932.4483. Miss Bee-havin’ - Currently showing works by the Beehive employees - Alison Nickles, Emma Cabrera, Kim Martin, Meredith-Gray Lipscomb, and Tonya Sink.
Jesse Kalisher Gallery – 209 East Main Street, Carrboro 919.967.4300. Showing photographic works from Jesse Kalisher.

The ArtsCenter- 300-G East Main Street, Carrboro, 919.929.2787.Center Gallery: Pastel Society of NC. East End Gallery: Don’t You Hear What I’m Not Telling You, line paintings by Mandey Brown and Pottery by Jason Abide. Mandey uses mixed media with a focus on acrylics. Jason’s pottery offers creative, non-traditional pieces.

The Merch - 101 Lloyd St., Carrboro, NC 27510, 919.933.6037. Call for info.

You will commonly hear it said that Carrboro grew up where it did because that is where the railhead was - that is, the rail lines didn’t used to continue south of Main Street. UNC chose the site of the railhead because they didn’t want the pernicious influence of alcohol etc. to be brought too close to the students of the University.

So a railroad station was built and a grist mill and other industries grew up around the railhead. That area came to be called West End (of Chapel Hill) and was eventually incorporated into the Town of Venable, soon renamed Carrboro after the owner of the big hosiery mill, Julian Shakespeare Carr.

Just recently I uncovered some evidence of how and why UNC owned the spot where the rail line ended.

UNC’s original property was donated to the University in 1792 by Chapel Hill area land owners who thought that having a University around here would bring property values up (a point upon which they have been suitably vindicated). One of the original donors was James Patterson, who gave (among other things) a tract of land some distance west of what became the main campus.

I got to wondering just where the Patterson Donation was. So, I made a bit of a mash up of some old and new maps of this area that I found on the internet (the 1817 Plan of Chapel Hill, the 1792 Daniel Map of UNC, and the 2009 Orange County GIS tax maps), tying together the dog leg western boundary of the campus, the lots at the corner of Franklin and Columbia Street and the position of the Patterson Donation shown on the Daniel map. The result is very interesting.

The Patterson Donation was what would later become Downtown Carrboro:

The tract appears to have run from the rail line on the east to Oak Avenue on the west and from Weaver Street south to the south edge of the lots along Main Street. In other words, some pretty nice real estate by modern standards.

Of course, back in 1792, there was not that much there in terms of development. Two roads ran through the property. The north fork was essentially what is now Weaver Street, turning northward and following Main Street, and then Hillsborough Road to Hillsborough. The south fork led to McCauley’s Mill, a grist mill that stood about where University Lake dam is now; no modern road really tracks this course.