Read about our tours and then, please go to the REGISTRATION page to sign up….
1. Sunday, September 11, 3 PM: Franklin Street Facts & Findings. Tour guide Susan Worley moved to Chapel Hill when she was six and has been a devoted fan ever since! With both undergrad and graduate degrees from Carolina, Susan has been the Executive Director of Volunteers for Youth since 1988. Susan will lead you on a fun, informative insiders’ tour of downtown & campus to learn more about this town we call Home.
2. Friday, September 23, 3:30 PM: Hometown Ambassador / Walk with a Local Tour. Guided by Missy Julian-Fox.
SEPTEMBER 25: CHAPEL HILL HISTORICAL SOCIETY MONTHLY PROGRAM: “A Better Life for Their Children – Julius Rosenwald, Booker T; Washington, and 4978 Schools That Changed America.” A Zoom presentation with author/expert Andrew Feiler. Presented in collaboration with Preservation Chapel Hill.
3. Sunday, October 2, 3 PM: Campus Architecture. Guided by JJ Bauer, UNC Professor of Art and Art History. Our UNC campus is like an illustrated history book of architecture with its various styles, features and flourishes – all working in concert to bring character, substance and beauty to our built environment. Professor Bauer wrote the addendum to the revised edition of John Allcott’s “The Campus at Chapel Hill,” published by the Chapel Hill Historical Society, available for sale at the Historical Society’s website and at local bookstores.
4. Friday, October 7, 3:30 PM: Hometown Ambassadors Walk with a Local Tour.
OCTOBER 16: CHAPEL HILL HISTORICAL SOCIETY MONTHLY PROGRAM: “Local History Through Vintage Postcards‘ with local historian John Schelp.
5. Friday, October 21, 3:30 PM: Hometown Ambassadors Walk with a Local Tour.
6. Sunday, October 23, 3 PM: Walk This Way! with Stephen and Sandra Rich. In ninety minutes you will walk up one side of Franklin Street and down the other in Chapel Hill’s first historic district. Learn about the history of the old village and America’s first public university through the stories, impact and influence of the people that lived along the street. Stephen and Sandra Rich are seasoned tour guides for Preservation Chapel Hill and active volunteers around town and campus since their return in 2003. ONLY 2 SPACES REMAIN (9/30/2022)
7. Sunday, October 30, 3 PM : The Noble Grove: A Walking Tour of Trees. Chapel Hill has always had a love affair with trees! “As I saw Franklin Street in 1912, it was a dusty red avenue cut through a forest of magnificent trees… My first impression of Chapel Hill was trees; my last impression is trees… It is no wonder that Chapel Hillians are ardent tree worshippers and the symbol of the place is Davie Poplar,” said Robert B. House, Chancellor of the University of North Carolina from 1945-1957, in 1964. (Source: Robert B. House. The Light that Shines, Chapel Hill, 1912-1916. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1964.) Explore the history, care-taking and future of our iconic and heritage trees, in town and on campus, with UNC Arborist Tom Bythell.
8. Sunday, November 6, 3 PM: Beneath Our Feet: An Archeological Look at Chapel Hill’s Earliest Days. Over the past 80 years, virtually all of the major discoveries in the understanding of North Carolina’s ancient past can be attributed to the Research Labs of Archeology (RLA) or to researchers trained there. Steve Davis, associate director of RLA and professor of archeology (recently retired), will lead us to several former archaeological sites nearby and share artifacts and found objects of the people here in the early days of Chapel Hill – and before.
9. Sunday, November 13, 3 PM: Angels on Campus to Carolina Tar Heels: the History of Women at UNC-Chapel Hill. Guided by Sarah Carrier, Research and Instruction Librarian at UNC’s Wilson Special Collections Library.
November 20th: CHAPEL HILL HISTORICAL SOCIETY MONTHLY PROGRAM. “Everything You Should Have Learned in High School About the Declaration of Independence” with Courtney Smith, Exhibits & Programs Coordinator at the Orange County Historical Museum.
Please email heartofthehilltours@gmail.com to be added to our mailing list. Hometown Ambassadors is a new collaboration with the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau.
Tour details of meeting place, suggested parking, etc is emailed to participants close to tour dates.
In-person walking tours are typically 60 – 90 minutes in length. Tours are free. We heartily encourage you to make a donation to our organizations, or, even better, become a member with us! chapel hill historical society and/or https://www.preservationchapelhill.org/membership.
HEARToftheHILL 