Chapel Hill

… town in SE Orange County, seat of the University of North Carolina, which opened January 16, 1795. A committee to lay out the town was authorized by the trustees of the university on December 8, 1792, and lots were first sold on October 12, 1793. Appears on the Samuel Lewis map published in Carey's atlas in 1795. Inc. 1819. Named for the Church of England New Hope Chapel, which once stood at the crossroads on the wooded hill. Alt. 501.