201 East Franklin Street
Text
COMMERCIAL BUILDING
c. 1930, 1992
This two-story, brick commercial building has storefronts on both East Franklin and Henderson streets. The building was heavily renovated in 1992, but retains its original window pattern and storefront configuration with brick soldier-course lintels and a corbelled brick parapet. The façade has an inset entrance on the left end (southwest corner) with concrete steps leading to paired one-light doors. The inset entry has a multi-light transom above and is supported by a full-height brick pier at the corner. To the right (east) are two replacement display windows with operable hopper windows below and a multi-light transom above, all on a brick bulkhead and sheltered by a fabric awning. Second-floor windows are fixed twelve-light windows with cast-stone sills. The left (west) elevation is nine bays deep with a basketweave pattern and concrete coping at the corbelled parapet. Brick pilasters divide the bays on this elevation, which alternate between having one and three windows each at the second-floor level. The elevation matches the façade in detail with replacement storefront windows throughout the first floor, a multi-light door with single-light sidelights and transom, and fixed twelve-light windows at the second floor. Original six-over-six and eight-over-eight wood-sash windows remain in the rear five bays. The site slopes to the rear and a modern concrete ramp provides access to the rear bays of this elevation with steps accessing the basement level. Window openings on the rear elevation have all been bricked in. According to Sanborn maps, the building was constructed between 1925 and 1932.
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.
