419 W. FRANKLIN ST. / YATES BUILDING

Originally Lot 14 of the Allen Edwards Estate Property. The property was purchased by Julian R. Caston in 1946.

The structure was built in 1947. The Caston Motor Company was the first occupant of this structure. The Yates Motor Company bought the business (and building) in 1955. It became University Motors/University Chrysler in 1993.

1962 ad

1946 plat map (OCRDO, book 62, page 64)

1948 ad

1949 ad

Circa 1960 aerial photo excerpt (via UNC)

1963 (photo by Richard A. Lamanna via UNC)

Occupado, 2011 (photo by Stephen Webster?)

In November 2011 the building made local and state headlines when it was "raided" by Chapel Hill Police Department's Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) in order to remove "anarchist" squatters aka members of the movement Occupy Chapel Hill.

After a long period of being vacant (beginning in 2003), and after over $12,000 in property taxes being owed by the property owner (Joseph P. Riddle) were paid, the Carolina Ale House renovated and moved into the structure in 2014 (note that CAH added one of their characteristic square "turrets" to the structure, which IMHO isn't appropriate to the character of the building).

June 2019, view south (via Google Streetview)

Since late 2019 it has been the operations and corporate center for Well, a company that "provides a consumer engagement platform that helps individuals navigate and improve their health." As an incentive for the company to relocate here, the Town of Chapel Hill offered "a performance-based incentives package that includes $450,000 tied to job creation and $450,000 in parking credits [!] over a period of eight years."

View south east, May 2020 (photo via WRAL and the Town of Chapel Hill)