UNC-Chapel Hill's 'front door'

CHAPEL HILL -- When Alessandra Maklakoff moved to the Triangle from Hong Kong this past spring, she and her husband chose downtown Chapel Hill in part because they could walk to McCorkle Place.

The five-acre, tree-canopied quad is a grassy, shady pathway from Franklin Street to the university's seat of power in South Building.

It is also home to history: the Davie poplar, where legend says William Davie chose the spot for the university in 1792; Silent Sam, a Civil War soldier; and the Unsung Founders Memorial honoring the black workers who built the university.

"I think the way it is is perfect," Maklakoff said, finishing a lunch of sliced fruit in Silent Sam's shadow. "It's natural. I think anything else would just make it built-up and would ruin it."

But some say McCorkle Place could be more than a cut-through with the occasional picnicker. As Chapel Hillians gaze westward at the vibrant social scene at Weaver Street Market in Carrboro, some lament the lack of a public gathering space on Franklin Street and wonder why McCorkle Place isn't it.

"It's underutilized," said Cam Hill, a Town Council member who grew up in Chapel Hill. He remembers political rallies and rock music festivals that brought thousands to McCorkle Place in the 1960s and '70s.

"It had a lot more to do, I'd say, with the students being more active," Hill said. "It was certainly ... the front door of the university and the back door of the town. Since you can eat lunch on campus, nobody comes to town anymore."

It's not Weaver Street

Will Raymond, among four challengers for Hill's and three other seats on the council this fall, remembers carrying Greek grilled cheese sandwiches and egg rolls from Hector's grill -- back in the '80s when it was on the ground level -- and eating them under a tree across the street at McCorkle Place.

"I would be one of many people doing that," said Raymond, who has criticized the current council for pursuing a condo development, rather than a public park, on a downtown parking lot farther west on Franklin Street.

People such as Maklakoff do picnic at McCorkle Place, but even those who would like to see it become more active don't envision something like the Weaver Street Market lawn.

"The likelihood you'll run into people you know is probably slim and none," said Robert Humphreys, who organized summer concerts at McCorkle Place in the early part of this decade. "It's not the kind of place you go where everybody knows your name, so that's really the difference."

For one thing, there are no picnic tables or well-advertised restrooms, though Raymond says the coldest drinking water on campus is in the basement of the nearby Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.

University spokeswoman Linda Convissor echoed Hill's and Raymond's lament for another missing ingredient: "We're not allowed to serve alcohol," she said, "and I think that's one reason why Weaver Street is successful and [Durham's] American Tobacco Campus are successful, and we're at a disadvantage in that."

'So much space'

Since at least the early 1960s, concerts have been held sporadically on the west side of Graham Memorial facing into McCorkle Place, and guests have been known to bring picnic dinners and beer or wine.

"I don't know that there was a police officer walking around checking everybody's picnic basket," Convissor said.

Humphreys organized those concerts from 2000 to 2003, when he worked as executive director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Commission. And back in the early 1960s, when they were called "street dances," the shows inspired Humphreys to form his own swing band, The Nomads.

They dreamed of playing at McCorkle Place, and they finally did almost 40 years later. They will celebrate their 45th anniversary this year.

"Seeing that you could actually do it, that people would actually pay you to come to a party and have a good time, that was an inspiration," Humphreys said.

But there has been no attempt to revive the tradition since the commission morphed into the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership in 2003.

Carolyn Elfland, UNC-Chapel Hill's associate vice chancellor for campus services, said the reasons for that may be new rules limiting large gatherings to protect trees, along with a new approach by the Downtown Partnership.

Executive Director Liz Parham said her organization is focused on smaller venues, such as a university-owned pocket park at 440 W. Franklin St. and a garden at the University Baptist Church at Franklin and Columbia streets.

"If you get 100 people in a venue like [McCorkle], it looks really empty," Parham said. "With a space that big, I want to get 2,000 people there, not 100 or 150 people there."

But for Mary Crews, the mother of two young daughters, the large expanse of grass far from traffic is an advantage over a place like Weaver Street Market. She loved coming to concerts at McCorkle Place.

"I was sorry they didn't do it here again this year," she said. "There's so much space here for the kids to run."