108 Battle Lane

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THOMAS FELIX HICKERSON HOUSE
c. 1915, c. 1990
This two-story, hip-roofed Craftsman-style house is five bays wide and double-pile with plain weatherboards, deep eaves, and two interior brick chimneys. It has six-over-one windows on the façade, and six-over-six wood-sash windows on the side and rear elevations with a number of replacement fixed nine-light windows on that façade and rear elevation, installed between 1974 and 1992 to accommodate window air conditioning units. The entrance, located near the right (north) end of the façade, has a six-panel door flanked by three-light-over-one-panel sidelights and is sheltered by a truncated-hip-roofed porch supported by paneled square columns. A one-story, projecting, hip-roofed bay near the left end of the façade has a group of three six-over-one windows and a similar projecting bay on the right elevation has a later metal-framed pictures window flanked by operable casements. There are hip-roofed dormers on the façade and right elevation, three and two nine-light windows respectively. A two-story, hip-roofed wing on the left (south) elevation has an open porch at the first-floor level with the second floor supported by paneled square columns matching those on the front porch. The porch is accessed by two pairs of ten-light French doors and is encircled by a matchstick railing. The second-floor level is fully enclosed with groups of three six-over-six windows on all elevations. The rear of the building features a two-story hip-roofed wing at the right rear (northwest) and a one-story, hip-roofed, porch at the left rear (southwest) that has been enclosed with four-over-four windows on a knee wall. A small projecting, gabled room raised on brick piers, near the center of the rear elevation has a single six-light window in the gable and a sloping roof that shelters a first-floor door on the rear enclosed porch. There is a low stone wall and stone steps at the front and left elevations. According to Sanborn maps, the house was constructed between 1915 and 1925. It was constructed by Thomas Felix Hickerson, a member of the UNC faculty beginning in 1909 who taught engineering and mathematics. It was deeded to the university in 1952 but was not used by the school until Hickerson’s death in 1968. Since 1971 it has been occupied by the Center of Urban and Regional Studies.

In the 2015 survey, this was deemed a Contributing Building.

SOURCE: Heather Wagner Slane, National Register of Historic Places Nomination: Chapel Hill Historic District Boundary Increase and Additional Documentation, Orange County, OR1750 (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, 2015), courtesy of the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office.