Chatham County’s historic architecture was the subject of an intensive survey that began in 1975 and resulted in the publication of The Architectural Heritage of Chatham County, NC, in 1991. Most of the comprehensive inventory took place between 1980 and 1986. That’s more than 30 years ago and much has changed. Some of the structures included in the Architectural Heritage inventory are gone. Others may have deteriorated or have been restored. Still others were missed in the original survey.

In 2019, CCHA volunteer Kimberly Steiner indicated an interest in the historic structures she had observed in the county and proposed to photograph Chatham structures in four townships--Baldwin, Center, Williams, and New Hope--as well as within the town of Pittsboro and community of Bynum, to provide an updated inventory. When she contacted CCHA about her proposal, she had already driven those parts of the county to list structures of interest and compared those to the structures listed in the Architectural Heritage book, as well as those on the State Historic Preservation Office map of historic places.

From 2019 to 2021 Kimberly photographed the exteriors of structures built prior to 1930 (with some exceptions) and produced a data sheet on each one that includes her photos. Those data sheets are posted here on the CCHA website to make the information easily available to anyone interested. We have referenced State Historic Preservation files, where available, and the relevant page in the Architectural Heritage book for each structure. You can view the information now available from the links at right.

If you own a pre-1930 structure in any of these townships that has not been documented, we don't want to miss it!  Please let us know and Kimberly will schedule a time to come photograph it and add it to this collection.

We also welcome contributions of photographs and information—historical and current—about other historic Chatham County structures from any part of the county, from anyone who wishes to contribute. Please contact us at Preservation@chathamhistory.org if you are interested in sharing that kind of information with us for inclusion on our website.

We greatly appreciate Kimberly's many hours of volunteer work on this project. The result is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in Chatham's architectural history.

Links to Architectural Updates

Baldwin Township

Bynum

Center Township and Pittsboro

New Hope Township 

Williams Township 

Chatham Township Map