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Chapel Hill is a town in North Carolina and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), the oldest state-supported university in the United States. As of the 2000 census, it had a population of 48,715. As of 2004 its estimated population was 52,440*.

The 2004 Metropolitan Population was: 1,467,434, for The US Office of Management and Budget's Metropolitan Combined Statistical Area known as Raleigh-Durham-Cary (formerly known as the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area).

Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh make up the three corners of the Research Triangle, so named in 1959 with the creation of the Research Triangle Park, a research park between Durham and Raleigh. Since the early 1980s, the bedroom community of Cary, near Raleigh, has grown to be more than twice the size of Chapel Hill.

Geography

Chapel Hill is located in the southeast corner of Orange County, with municipal boundaries extending slightly into Durham County to the east and almost to Chatham County to the south. It is coterminous to the west with the town of Carrboro, and to the east with the city of Durham.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 51.3 km² (19.8 mi²). 51.2 km² (19.8 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.35%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 48,715 people, 17,808 households, and 8,138 families residing in the town. The population density was 952.4/km² (2,466.0/mi²). There were 18,976 housing units at an average density of 371.0/km² (960.6/mi²). The racial makeup of the town was 77.95% White, 11.42% Black or African American, 0.42% Native American, 7.18% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.16% from other races, and 1.85% from two or more races. 3.21% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 17,808 households out of which 22.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.2% were married couples living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 54.3% were non-families. 31.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.22 and the average family size was 2.88.

In the town the population was spread out with 15.1% under the age of 18, 37.1% from 18 to 24, 24.5% from 25 to 44, 15.3% from 45 to 64, and 8.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 24 years. For every 100 females there were 82.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.5 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $39,140, and the median income for a family was $73,483. Males had a median income of $50,258 versus $32,917 for females. The per capita income for the town was $24,133. About 6.4% of families and 21.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.6% of those under age 18 and 5.6% of those age 65 or over.

Culture

As is typical of college towns, Chapel Hill has historically tended to be politically liberal. In fact, disgruntled conservatives have referred to the town as "The People's Republic of Chapel Hill." Former U.S. Senator Jesse Helms once called the town a "zoo" and suggested it be "walled off" from the rest of North Carolina.*

Residents of Chapel Hill have made public education a priority, with the result that Chapel Hill is widely recognized for the quality of its school system, which it shares with Carrboro.

There is a music scene that the town shares with Carrboro. Cat's Cradle in Carrboro is often rated as one of the best clubs in the country for live music. The Squirrel Nut Zippers, Superchunk, Archers of Loaf, James Taylor, Southern Culture on the Skids and Ben Folds Five are among the notable musical acts whose careers began in Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill has also been a center for the modern revival of old-time music with such bands as the Hollow Rock String band, the Fuzzy Mountain String band and the acclaimed Red Clay Ramblers.

The Morehead Planetarium was, when it opened in 1949, one of only a handful of planetariums in the nation, and it has remained an important town landmark. During the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, astronauts were trained there.

UNC-CH has been very successful at college basketball, and an obsession with the sport has been one of the most distinctive features of the town's culture, fueled by the rivalry among the area's three teams: the North Carolina Tar Heels, the Duke Blue Devils, and the NC State Wolfpack. More recently, the town has received regional notice as the site of a large annual Halloween street party, with an attendance regularly exceeding 70,000.

Chapel Hill was home to the Carolina Courage of the Women's United Soccer Association for the league's inagural season. The Courage played at Fetzer Field on the UNC-CH campus during the 2001 season while their permanent home, SAS Stadium in Cary, was being built.

For more than thirty years Chapel Hill has sponsored two annual street fairs, Apple Chill (which was cancelled in 2006 due to increasing violence *) in April and Festifall in October. The fairs offer booths to artists, craftsmen, nonprofits, and food vendors. Performance space is also available for musicians, martial artists and other groups. Both fairs are attended annually by tens of thousands.

Like many college towns, Chapel Hill has some unique retail opportunities. A Southern Season is based in Chapel Hill, although it also serves a wider audience through its mail-order business.

History

Chapel Hill, or at least the town center, indeed sits atop a hill--originally called New Hope Chapel Hill after the chapel once located there. The Carolina Inn now occupies the site of the original chapel. The town was founded to serve the University of North Carolina and grew up around it.

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. Some 30 years later, in 2002, legislation was passed to make the local buses free of fares to residents and visitors alike, leading to a large increase in ridership; the buses are financed through Chapel Hill and Carrboro city taxes as well as UNC-CH student fees.

In the latter part of the 20th century, the town grew considerably and became wealthier, with affordable housing and combating urban sprawl emerging as major local issues. By the late 20th century, higher proportions of the local population worked at jobs unrelated to the university; town surveys indicated that a majority of people working in the town were no longer able to afford in-town housing, and so many people working for the university itself weren't able to afford to live in Chapel Hill, or even Carrboro, that charter bus lines were doing a brisk business in almost nothing but bringing in from nearby counties a workforce of secretaries and others on which the university depended.

Government

Chapel Hill uses a council-manager form of government. The community elects a mayor and 8 council members. Mayors serve 2-year terms, and council members serve staggered 4-year terms.

See also: List of mayors of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and List of town council members of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Who's who in Chapel Hill

See also: List of alumni from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Points of interest

See also

External links

Towns in North Carolina | Orange County, North Carolina | Durham County, North Carolina | University towns

Chapel Hill (North Carolina) | Chapel Hill | Chapel Hill, North Carolina | Chapel Hill | Chapel Hill

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Chapel Hill, North Carolina".

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