snippets ~ chatham history BLOG

In 1917 George Walker Blair, a local businessman, horse trader and livestock dealer, saw the need for up-dated accommodations for visitors to Pittsboro, and built the Blair Hotel on the court house circle where the old Central Hotel, which burned several years earlier, had stood. The new Blair Hotel offered modern facilities for its time. These included a steam bath, electric lights, hot and cold running water, and indoor baths and toilets.

The hotel was built in the “California Mission Style” with a low, overhanging tile roof and open balconies. The hotel facilities were located on the second floor, and the first floor consisted of commercial store-fronts. This seemingly up-to-date design was carried out before the paving of the town streets--when horses and carts were the predominant means of transportation.

An early commercial tenant was Hall’s Department Store, established in 1922 and which operated continuously into the 1960’s. Hall's was Pittsboro’s oldest retail business, and sold clothing for men, women and children; a line of general merchandise, and what was described as “a ten cent store department.”

Phreddie Popp says that she remembers her father having coffee with other men in the mid-1940s at a restaurant in the hotel. She also notes that Hall's Department store was a stopping off point for children walking home from school. It was the place to get 1-cent candy.

Even before the building was completed, it was put to use by the town to house newly-recruited troops on their way to WWI.

Adapted from Fred Vatter's March 2012 article in Chatham County Line and The Architectural Heritage of Chatham County, NC.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #PittsboroHistory #PittsboroNC #HallsDepartmentStore #BlairHotel #CaliforniaMissionStyle #1910s

1970 -- new assistant principals at Pittsboro High School -- Gene Brooks and Bishop Leach.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #PHS #PittsboroHighSchool #PittsboroNC #schools #GeneBrooks #BishopLeach #1970s

Aaron Honeycutt shared this fascinating history about the geology of the area.

"Rhyolite, the chosen material for stone tools by The Early Ones was quarried all along the Haw River in what is now North Carolina. Rhyolite is a volcanic rock that has a somewhat glassy texture. Though not as fine a stone for tools as some, within the borders of what is now North Carolina rhyolite was much sought after and is the material that many fine artifacts found today are made of. There are many quarry sites that can be seen in the rivers across North Carolina. This one is in the Haw River in Chatham County a bit up river from Bynum NC. When breaking out a chunk of stone for tool making a heavy harder rock was used to chip off a piece. The pieces that were harvested in this manor would have been reduced there on the river bank to smaller and lighter to carry pieces. Certainly the ground around this place holds MANY flakes from this reduction process. Preforms were made, blades of beauty that might later be taken down to smaller more refined spear points, knives, scrapers and other types of tools. When I visit a quarry site like this one I think about The People, clad in loin cloth (skins) and living on the land in such a natural way. They had no thoughts of accumulating wealth or even planning for old age. Their days were about finding some food, preparing for weather/season change and making the things that made life easier for whatever they planned to do. I love that we can see and touch the evidence of those who lived here before us. We can't see much to remind us of them as they left few scars upon the land but here in the rock we can clearly see the results of the visits by them."

Thanks Aaron!

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #ChathamNCGeology #Geology #rocks #fossils #NativeAmericanHistory #BynumNC

Old house inspires a Chatham Christmas tradition.

According to Strowd familly tradition, the 1830s house shown here was the home of John Snipes Strowd (1809-1891). It was occupied and added to by generations of Strowds until the 20th century, when it was partially dismantled and the older section was moved to its present location a short distance away on Crawford Dairy Road. Doris Snipes describes how the manger scene came about:

"I started making the manger scene around 1985. I remember looking at the old house one cold rainy day in the early winter and thought how it sort of reminded me of the stable Jesus was born in. I thought - what could I do with that? I first thought it would be impossible to do anything with it to create a manger because I did not have manikins - nor just the head of a manikin. I finally thought about using some of my old dresses. I had to find enough dresses that had long sleeves. I only had 4. I tied a bailer twine around the bottom of each dress and tied the sleeves closed at the wrist level. I buttoned or zipped the garment and stuffed it with balled up newspaper. I needed one more 'person' but had nothing to work with - so I happened to see a leather bag that we used to carry baseball helmets in and low and behold there were 4 helmets in it! I draped material around the bag, turned one helmet upside down and used it for the head. I found 5-gallon buckets to sit some people in and a wooden chair with the back broken off. I still needed something to make Joseph look taller, so I got one of my husband's microphone stands and put it through the back of the dress (to be a backbone) and he worked out great."

"I scrambled through closets and the Thrift shop to find bath robes of a plain dark color. I dressed each person and used plastic grocery bags stuffed with newspaper for the heads. They had to be stapled to the bath robes to keep them in place. I used old pillowcases and old neck ties to make the head gear. It just so happened that the first year I made the manger scene a movie came out that had a big white buffalo in it. It was so popular for kids that they made them and put them for sale in stores. He became my sheep! We brought hay over from the barn and scattered it about. Many times my "people" get knocked down with deer sleeping out there. My shepherd uses a 'staff' which was my great grandpa's walking cane."

"Making the manger scene became something that my three boys, my husband and I all took some part in. Each year as we started decorating the house, they would ask when we were going to put up the manger scene. It just became our family tradition. As the boys grew and went to college, got married and moved away, Joe and I continued with the manger scene. It reminds me of our time when we were all a family at home together. Each year I kept thinking that it would be my last year of doing it, but I just kept going possibly because each year I would always have a note in my mailbox of how it had affected someone in a special way. We never know what the smallest of things that we do can have an effect on others."

"I am so thankful for the neighbors and friends that have taken an interest in seeing that we try to keep this old house standing so that this manger scene can bring special meaning to the passersby that she greets each Christmas season."

Doris Snipes

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #OldHouse #MangerScene #ChristmasTradition #Strowd #CrawfordDairyRd

This photo shows detail of a beautiful stained-glass window located in Pittsboro's St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church. It was designed by Frank Marsden London, who was born and raised in Pittsboro, though he left North Carolina as a young man. This window is one of three in Pittsboro--two in St. Bartholomew's and one in the Pittsboro United Methodist Church.

Learn more about Frank Marsden London and his art on our website:

https://chathamhistory.org/.../PDFs/Journal/CHJvol5num2.pdf

and

https://chathamhistory.org/.../PDFs/Journal/CHJvol5num3.pdf

Photo by Gary Simpson.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #FrankMarsdenLondon #art #stainedglass #painting #ChathamCountyArtist #PittsboroUnitedMethodistChurch #StBartholomewsEpiscopalChurch #PittsboroNC

Siler City High School's 1939 football team was undefeated and un-scored on until a fluke play in the last game of the season. Robert Hughes wrote about this special team in the April 1990 issue of the Chatham Historical Journal.

Because of the hardships of the Depression, SCHS had had no football team in the previous three years, despite football's popularity at the time. It was student Dick Huddleston who went before the school board to request that a team be formed.

As Hughs tells the story, "The game was a far cry from its modern version, and it is no small wonder why Huddleston would have instigated the return of the sport to his native Siler City after going through what he described the previous year on a team in Roxboro, 'I hadn't gone out for the team because I was told they didn't have any more suits [uniforms]. But one day I was in the coach's office, and he told me to come out the next day.'"

Huddleston said that what happened that next day almost made him quit the team. "What they did, they used me as a blocking dummy. I would just stand there and they would come full-speed and knock me all over the place. I kept getting up and another one would come back at me. I don't know why I stayed on the team after that, but I did."

Thanks to Huddleston's dedication to the game, football returned to Siler City High School and remarkable season resulted. 

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #SilerCityNC #SilerCityHighSchool #schools #sports #football #1930s

Historic Columbus Lodge #102 AF & AM in Pittsboro. Built in 1838, modified in 1849, it has many interesting features, including a "lean" of about nine inches.

Siler City High School Cheerleaders, 1952.

Front row: Susan Patman, Frances Fitts, Judy Clapp, Dorothy Paschal

Back row: Dot Elder, Blanche Williams, Rosa Ruth Frazier

See our entire collection of Chatham County High School Yearbooks.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #SilerCityNC #SilerCityHighSchool #cheerleaders #1950s

Silk Hope, 1959.

When we previously posted this photo, several people chimed in with info--a surprising amount. Turns out that some folks see a lot of history in this simple photo!

David Hobson talked with some lifelong Silk Hope residents about the photo and shared the following: "Bing" Buckner operated a Blacksmith Shop on the right side of photo near a Shell station not visible in the photo. Newton Woody had previously (not in 1959) operated a radio repair shop somewhere along the buildings on the right side. One resident remembered first seeing a tv with a small round screen in that shop. Someone thought there was a grain storage building somewhere along that side sometime. The Woody Cotton Gin was off to the right beyond this picture on now Silk Hope-Gum Springs Rd opposite the intersection of Mt Vernon-Hickory Mtn Rd - in today's SH VFD Station 7 parking area. Diesel engines or belt pulley from a tractor powered the cotton gin.

There's a lot of history in Silk Hope! Keep sharing it with us!

Thanks to David Hobson for his research. Photo from the CCHA collection.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #SilkHopeNC #CCHAcollection #1950s

Movie Star in Siler City!

This photo shows movie star Don "Red" Barry on a visit to the Elder Theater in Siler City. 21 May 1948

Donald Barry de Acosta, known as Red Barry, was an American film and television actor. He was nicknamed "Red" after appearing as the first Red Ryder in the highly successful 1940 film Adventures of Red Ryder. By the 1950s, Barry was a supporting actor in a number of western films and tv series.

See anyone you know among the fans?

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #DonRedBarry #1940s #ElderTheater #SilerCityNC #movies #moviestars