300-blk South Boundary Street

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BATTLE PARK
1796, c. 1880
The forty-five-acre tract of forested land is a wooded refuge nestled between the University of North Carolina campus and the Gimghoul neighborhood with street frontage along South Boundary Street, Country Club Road, Raleigh Road, Park Place Lane, and Glandon Drive. The wooded area has pea-gravel paths, a modern kiosk with maps of the park, and several clearings with modern wood benches. The only structure within the park is the Forest Theater at 300 South Boundary. At the intersection of South Boundary and Country Club Road, a plaque affixed to a large stone provides the name and history of the park.

Battle Park is the last remaining portion of the original forest that surrounded the town and university. Most, if not all, of the land included in Battle Park is part of the land donated by Hardy Morgan to the university in 1796. Through a complicated chain of transfers, part of the land now within the park was held by other parties, being known as the Cameron property, but in 1909 it returned to university possession. At several points the forested area has been threatened. In 1832 President Caldwell, “outraged by the depredation of the villagers in the woodlands of the university…recommended, but without avail, the employment of a forest ranger to put a stop to the abuse”. In 1880 a sale of university lands was held to satisfy claims of Mildred Cameron and D. L. Swain (loans that had been made to enable the completion of New East and New West in the 1850s). After an appeal by Cornelia Spencer, Paul Cameron of Hillsborough took over the lands, much of which lay in the present Battle Park area, saving the woodlands from possible destruction. The only part of the park not owned by the University is a small tract of land acquired by the Junior Order of Gimghouls to afford the site for Gimghoul Castle. Battle Park is named in honor of Dr. Kemp Battle, who put considerable time and care into the maintenance of the park during his presidency (1876-1891) and afterwards. Dr. Kemp Battle loved these woods and spent long hours there, clearing paths with his hatchet, “making bridges and seats and introducing his friends and students to his favorite spots” to which he gave names like “Vale of Ione,” “Dogwood Dingle,” and “Anemone Spring.”

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

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.