America 250 – Guilford County

Early on Mar. 15, 1781, the British and American forces skirmished near the New Garden Meeting House before the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.

Founded in 1902 by Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Palmer Memorial Institute, an African American boarding school, evolved into a fully accredited, nationally recognized college preparatory and social finishing school.

Now known as Oak Ridge Military Academy, Oak Ridge Institute opened in a small classroom building on two acres in Guilford County.  

George Stephens of UNC Chapel Hill, a Summerfield native and 1891 Oak Ridge Institute (now Oak Ridge Military Academy), caught the first forward pass ever thrown in college football. It was an illegal pass.

The Old Mill was founded on Beaver Creek in 1767 to grind grain for the early settlers of what is now Guilford County. The water-powered Grist Mill is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Blacksmith Shop at the High Point Museum dates to around 1841 in neighboring Davidson County. The shop was relocated to the Museum’s Historical Park in 1970 to demonstrate John Haley’s trade as a blacksmith.

The Carolina Theatre, opened in 1927, is one of the oldest still-operating movie palaces in the state. Known as the Showplace of the Carolinas when she opened in 1927, she was one of the first commercial buildings in NC with air conditioning.

Fire destroys most of Greensboro’s business district. It begins in a large frame dwelling not far from the courthouse, and three more buildings quickly go up in flames as the fire sweeps from one to another with nothing to stop its progress. City officials will soon purchase the city’s first fire engine, install two water-supply cisterns, and organize volunteers to staff the system.

Astronaut Ronald McNair was killed in the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle. The 35-year-old NC A&T State University graduate was the second African-American in space and the first from a historically black institution. He held a Ph.D. in laser physics from MIT and was one of 35 astronauts selected from 8,000 applicants.

Four NC A&T State University students, after purchasing some items at Woolworth’s on South Elm Street in Greensboro, NC, sit at the store’s lunch counter and place an order. They are not served, and sit-ins and negotiations will continue until July, when the lunch counter will finally be opened to all races. Eventually, 54 cities in nine states will have similar sit-ins.

Following the successful sit-in at the Greensboro Woolworth’s store on February 1, high school students from William Penn High School in High Point did the same. It is believed to be the first sit-in initiated by high school students.

Henry E. Frye of Greensboro, an NC A&T Alum, the first African American elected to the NC General Assembly, a successful businessman and attorney, became the first African American justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court. In 1999, Frye became the first black Chief Justice of the court.

The Greensboro Public Library opened to the public on February 5, 1902, a day after its formal opening ceremony. The library houed 1,490 books and occupied three rooms on the third floor of City Hall.

World War II flying ace George Preddy was born in Greensboro. After three failures with the Navy, he passed the Army exams and became the top P-51 Mustang ace of WWII.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at Bennett College’s chapel to an overflow crowd, urging members of his audience, “Don’t get ready to compete with colored people but with all people.” He declared, “We must learn to live together as brothers or we will certainly die together as fools.”

The average monthly wage for City of Greensboro employees is $224.80, higher than the national average for state and local government workers. Homes listed in the classifieds are selling for $8,000 or less. Ham costs about 50 cents a pound.

The North Carolina General Assembly issued a charter establishing the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial School to educate women. Greensboro was selected after a successful bond campaign for the school’s first buildings. It opened on October 5, 1892 with 198 students and 15 faculty members.

Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital opened. Among the patients is a boy celebrating his first birthday. The cost for a patient in a four-bed room is $8.00 a day.

The first troops arrive for training at the new 650-acre Army Air Force base in northeast Greensboro. This is the only World War II Army camp in the United States located entirely within a city.

The Guilford Courthouse National Military Park was established to preserve the site of one of the major battles of the Revolutionary War. This is the first Revolutionary War battlefield to become part of the National Park Service.

The state General Assembly officially establishes the Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race in Raleigh. A group of Greensboro citizens will give $11,000 in cash and 14 acres of land to move the college to Greensboro. Its first class of seven students graduated in 1899. It will eventually be known as NC A&T State University.

Greensboro native and Dudley High School graduate Joey Cheek wins speed skating gold and silver at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. He previously won bronze at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, UT.

North Carolina State University wins the NCAA basketball title at Greensboro’s only Final Four Tournament. The Wolfpack defeated UCLA two days prior to advance to the championship game, ending the Bruins’ seven consecutive national championship streak.

A new weekly newspaper, The Carolina Peacemaker, begins publication by John Marshall Kilimanjaro, a professor at NC A&T State University. The paper was established to serve the African American community, focusing on civil rights, local news, and community issues.

First Horizon Park hosts its first baseball game, a match between the minor league Greensboro Grasshoppers and its major league opponents, the Florida Marlins. About 8,540 fans see the Marlins defeat the Hoppers, 21 to 2. In 2008, the stadium was renamed NewBridge Bank Park. It’s now known as First National Bank Field.

Grammy Award-winning singer and 2004  American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino was born in High Point. In 2024, the city named a street after her. Fantasia also received a key to the city and a key to Guilford County.

The first of a chain of 27 dinner theatres, known as The Barn Dinner Theatre, opened in Greensboro. The Greensboro location is the only remaining location of the original chain and the oldest continuously running dinner theatre in the US.

The International Civil Rights Center & Museum opened on the 50th anniversary of the start of the 1960 sit-in that helped spark the Civil Rights Movement, in the original F.W. Woolworth’s store where the sit-in happened. In late 2024, just months ahead of the sit-in’s 65th anniversary, the site was officially designated a National Historic Landmark, the highest federal recognition a property can receive.

Completed in 1846, it is considered the oldest standing example of Italianate architecture in the United States. Today, Blandwood tours offer visitors a thorough collection of mid-19th-century architecture, decorative arts, landscape paintings, and portraiture.

After a decade as a firefighter, Temak Brown became the Greensboro Fire Department’s first female African American fire captain. At the time, Brown told WFMY News 2 that she hoped her accomplishment would inspire young girls.

The Mount Hecla Steam Cotton Mill in Greensboro was North Carolina’s first cotton mill powered by steam. The four-story building, located at the corner of Bellemeade and Greene Streets, had a basement, 2,500 working spindles, and 75 looms.

L. Richardson Memorial Hospital was the first modern African American hospital in Greensboro. The hospital was created to meet the needs of Greensboro’s African American citizens during segregation.

The Greensboro Coliseum, now First Horizon Coliseum, hosted its first-ever event, a Holiday on Ice show. When it opened, the complex consisted of the Greensboro Coliseum, War Memorial Auditorium, Town Hall Auditorium, and Blue Room. The Coliseum was one of the largest arenas on the East Coast with a seating capacity of 7,100.

William Sydney Porter, best known by his pseudonym O. Henry, was born in Guilford County and moved to Greensboro three years later. His first documented use of the name “O. Henry” was in 1886. He sold his first short story, “The Miracle of Lava Canyon,” in 1897. He wrote 14 of his best-known stories while in prison.