120 W. ROSEMARY ST. / THE SHACK

120 W. ROSEMARY ST. / THE SHACK

120
,
Chapel Hill
NC
Built in
circa 1930
/ Demolished in
1979
Construction type: 
,
Local Historic District: 
Type: 

The site of the one time oldest bar in Chapel Hill, The Shack (1945-1979)

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Last updated

  • Fri, 02/12/2021 - 5:44pm by SteveR

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120
,
Chapel Hill
NC
Built in
circa 1930
/ Demolished in
1979
Construction type: 
,
Local Historic District: 
Type: 

 

View north west, 1960s

Interior, 1960s

View north west, circa 1978 (photo credit unknown)

View north west, 1979 (via the Daily Tar Heel)

Interior and "Wheaties," October 1977 (photo via the Daily Tar Heel)

Interior, 1979 (photo by L. C. Barbour, via the Daily Tar Heel)

1967 ad (via the Daily Tar Heel)

 

Built in the 1930s as a garage for jitneys (i.e. large touring cars used as public transportation) that took UNC students to and from the train station in Durham. Then was the Carolina Cycle Company starting in early 1946.

1946 ad (via the Daily Tar Heel)

 

In late 1947, Thomas Braxton "Brack" Creel rented the property and remodeled it into The Shack, a beer and snack bar. In early 1955, Creel retired and his son-in-law Walter T. Harville took over the lease and business. In the 1960s Harville sold the business to Bill Sparrow. Then Berkley Tulloch co-owned/operated the establishment until 1971 when John L. "Wheaties" Richardson took it over.

The Shack was a segregated establishment, and there were calls for a boycott of the place in 1963.

It closed at 5:00 a.m. (after an all-night party) on April 3, 1979, and was demolished a few months later. It is now a parking lot.

The site today, view north, August 2019 (via Google Streetview)

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