Chapel Hill, NC

Chapel Hill is a town located in the southeast corner of Orange County, about 10 miles from Durham and 32 miles from Raleigh.  It is world-famous as the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the nations oldest public university and considered one of the best in academics and affordability. The town of Hillsborough lies to the north, nearby Carrboro to the west, and Chatham County to the south. People in Chapel Hill refer to their hometown as "the Southern part of Heaven".                                                                                      

The town hosts a variety of corporations headquartered in Chapel Hill. Health insurance provider Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is one of the town's ten largest employers at its Chapel Hill headquarters. Technology companies USAT Corp and Realtime Ops have made Chapel Hill their headquarters location. New companies are selecting the town as their base of operations such as the service company Alpha Install.

Chapel Hill, or at least the town center, indeed sits atop a hill which was originally occupied by a small Anglican "chapel of ease", built in 1752, known as New Hope Chapel. The Carolina Inn now occupies the site of the original chapel. In 1819, the town was founded to serve the University of North Carolina and grew up around it. The town was chartered in 1851, and its main street, Franklin Street, was named in memory of Benjamin Franklin.

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.

Hailed as "America's Foodiest Small Town", by Bon Appétit Magazine,Chapel Hill is rapidly becoming a hot spot for pop American cuisine. Among the restaurants noted nationally are A Southern Season, Foster’s Market (Martha Stewart’s Living), Mama Dip's, Breadmens, Crook's Corner, Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen, Caffé Driade (Food Network’s “$40 A Day With Rachael Ray”), The Barbecue Joint (Food Network’s “$40 A Day With Rachael Ray”), and The Lantern Restaurant (Food & Wine Magazine, Southern Living Magazine, etc.)

The town also shares with Carrboro a vibrant music scene. Cat's Cradle in Carrboro a nationally recognized live music club,Local 506 and other Chapel Hill bars (such as the Cave, and Reservoir) often host local, national, and international acts in all genres. Among the notable musical acts whose careers began in Chapel Hill. Archers of Loaf, Squirrel Nut Zippers, James Taylor, George Hamilton IV, Southern Culture on the Skids, SuperChunk, Polvo and Ben Folds Five.

Explore Chapel Hill Links:

Town of Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce

Wikipedia Statistics-Chapel Hill

Ask Joann Samelko for a personal tour of Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill Neighborhoods.