101 W. ROSEMARY ST. / SOUTHLAND MOTOR COMPANY / CAROLINA CAB STAND / CAROLINA COACH BUS STATION

101

West Rosemary Street

Chapel Hill

Cross street:

North Columbia Street

Built in

1920-1927

/ Modified in

1928

1935

/ Demolished in

1955-1966

People:

Architectural style:

Construction type:

Neighborhood:

Chapel Hill - Franklin-Rosemary

Type:

Use:

Bus Service Headquarters

Bus Station

Bus Terminal

Taxi stand

Comments

Submitted by SteveR on Tuesday, July 25, 2023 - 10:40am

The Freedom riders' 1947 convictions have been vacated: https://www.wral.com/righting-a-wrong-orange-county-judge-vacates-freedo...
Submitted by SteveR on Tuesday, July 25, 2023 - 11:18am

A State Highway Marker was place near the site in 2008: http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx?MarkerId=G-127

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In tours

CIVIL RIGHTS TOUR by SteveR, Tue, 07/25/2023 - 10:43am

Last updated

Tue, 07/25/2023 - 2:55pm by SteveR

Comments

101

West Rosemary Street

Chapel Hill

Cross street:

North Columbia Street

Built in

1920-1927

/ Modified in

1928

1935

/ Demolished in

1955-1966

People:

Architectural style:

Construction type:

Neighborhood:

Chapel Hill - Franklin-Rosemary

Type:

Use:

Bus Service Headquarters

Bus Station

Bus Terminal

Taxi stand

There once was a wood frame structure housing a blacksmith shop and wood shop on this site, but by 1915 it was demolished [1]. The lot was part of the William Lloyd property, but was sold to Claude Cates by Lueco Lloyd in June 1927 [2]. Cates sold it via trust to S. Carl Forrest in November 1935 [3]. Forrest sold it to Albert Poe in January 1936 [4]. Poe sold it to John M. Foushee in January 1956 [5].

The initial service station structure was built circa 1927; initially owned/operated by E. G. and/or J. E. Burroughs as a Texaco station. In 1928 it became The Southland Motor Company, selling Studebaker and Erskine automobiles; the garage to the structure's rear was likely built then.

By 1936 this was a taxi stand for Carolina Cab (the Carolina Cab Company was owned by Charles Bartlett; he started it in 1935 and closed the business in 1955). In April 1936, the bus station was moved from 136 East Franklin Street to this location (until May 1947, when it moved into a new structure) [6].

On April 9, 1947, eight African American and eight white members of CORE (known as the Freedom Riders) set out from Washington, D.C. on Greyhound and Trailways buses; on April 12, both buses arrived in Chapel Hill at this bus station. As the buses departed Chapel Hill for Greensboro on April 13, four of the riders were arrested. The commotion aboard the buses drew a large crowd of spectators, including several white taxi drivers. The men were taken to the police station, with a fifty dollar bond placed on each man. As white rider James Peck got off the bus to pay their bonds, a taxi driver struck him in the head. In May 1947, those members who had been arrested went on trial and were sentenced. The riders unsuccessfully appealed their sentences. On March 21, 1949, they surrendered at the courthouse in Hillsborough and were sent to segregated chain gangs.[7] (For the 1947 report on the incident by Bayard Rustin and George Houser, see: We Challenged Jim Crow; also Bayard Rustin's A Report on Twenty-Two Days on the Chain Gang at Roxboro, North Carolina.)

By 1966 the structure was demolished for a parking lot, owned/operated by the Chapel Hill Parking Association. [8]