Curious about Franklin Street?
Franklin Street is always changing. Businesses come and go. I love to see the small local business in town. So many cities are all the same with the same national shops and restaurants, you could be anywhere. Chapel Hill is different. The town has a real identity and Franklin Street is the heart of Chapel Hill. At the intersection of Franklin and Columbia Streets, the Campus of UNC joins with the Town of Chapel Hill .
Take a drive with me down Franklin Street into Carrboro and I’ll show you around.
Here is a transcript of the video if you would rather read about Chapel Hill and Franklin Street.
Hi. I’m Marianne Howell Wright from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Spring’s
early this year, and I thought it would be fun to take a drive down
Franklin Street and see how the trees are all coming out and I wanted to
show you how Chapel Hill really kind of blends right into Carrboro. There’s
not a huge distinction where one starts and the other stops, although
Carrboro and Chapel Hill do have kind of distinct personalities. So let’s
take a drive, and I’ll tell you a little bit about it as we are going
along.
We’re driving up Franklin Street, looking to the north, heading west
towards Carrboro. We’re passing a few of the beautiful old, historic homes,
and then we get into the area with some fraternity and sorority houses.
That was the Tri Delt house that we just passed. Usually, there are people
out on the porches and parties going on. It’s a fun place to be if you’re
in school. Some more university fraternity houses, but those are some
condominiums we just passed.
We’re headed into the commercial blocks of Franklin Street right now. Oh,
that’s the post office and courthouse, more shops, Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe.
This is the area of Franklin Street that’s sometimes considered more of the
student’s side of Franklin Street. There’s Sutton’s Drug Store, with more
bars, T-shirt shops, and more commerce focused towards the students. It’s
still fun though.
We have the old Varsity Theater and Pepper’s Pizza is up here, which is
excellent. The Frank is a great new gallery. It has local art. Starbucks,
of course, and then Spanky’s here on the corner of Franklin and Columbia.
This is considered sort of the main intersection of Chapel Hill.
We’re driving west now on towards Carrboro, and there is some construction
going on in Chapel Hill. That one’s going to be a huge condominium
building.
Driving on down the street. Vespa Restaurant is down here next to the
Noodle Company. One of my favorite restaurants is down here. It’s called
Mediterranean Deli, although it’s really not a deli, it just has great
Mediterranean food and you kind of go up and order at the counter.
More little shops and some university buildings we just passed. Carolina
Brewery, that’s a very popular place.
We’re headed, getting closer to Carrboro. Up here on the corner we’re going
to pass Crook’s Corner with the pig on top. That was one of Chapel Hill’s
favorite restaurants. It’s been there probably for 30 years. There it is,
as we go by, see the pig?
Right, going right into Carrboro right now. There are some galleries, the
back of Carrborito’s.
Carrboro was a mill town, and it built up around the railroad tracks that
we’re going to be passing in a minute. We have an old train depot and rail
cars that have been turned into a restaurant and bar. It’s right up the
street. Coming up to the tracks.
I’ll do another video on Carrboro. We’re going to drive up to the Weaver
Street Market, and I’ll show you that and then we’ll wrap it up for this
tour. There’s Weaver Street Market. It’s a really local hangout, sort of
the center of Carrboro.
Make sure you watch my next video on Carrboro and the west side of Franklin
Street.
This is Marianne Howell Wright from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
By Marianne Howell Wright
