Chapel Hill is a town in North Carolina and the home of the University of North Carolina (UNC), the oldest state 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.

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, Cary, near Raleigh, has grown to be more than twice the size of Chapel Hill.

Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Franklin Street 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 19.8 mi².

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 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 student fees.

Links:

Town of Chapel Hill - official site.