About Open Orange

Open Orange is based on the Contributing Structure platform, a Drupal-based website created by Gary Kueber and several Drupal developers. Its first iteration was Open Durham, a crowdsourced (think Wikipedia) inventory of buildings, people, and places in Durham, NC, which Gary donated to Preservation Durham in May 2016.

Open Orange aims to be a county-wide inventory for Orange County, North Carolina. It's easy to create a login and begin adding information and stories to the site - see the support page. The best information and most compelling stories about our history and our built environment comes from people like you.

The site is not a non-profit, because of the headache of maintaining a non-profit - but it is not-for-profit. Its purpose is to create easier access to historical and architectural information for busy 21st century folks - with a focus on a very local and granual history of the places people might encounter on a daily basis.

Site Credits:

Conception / Keeping things running: Gary Kueber

Authorship: Gary Kueber and Steve Rankin

Initial Design: QuickBrownFox Design

Developers: Christina Dulude, Alisa Herr, Chris Russo, Cuberis, Carlos Valdivia, Barb Baranski

Resources:

History of the Town of Hillsborough 1754-1966

Orange County: 1754-1954

Hillsborough, Images of America

History of the Churches of Hillsborough, NC, 1766-1962; Lloyd, Pauline and Lloyd, Allen.

Library of Congress (HABS, FSA)

UNC - Chapel Hill (Postcard Collection, Maps)

North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office

Orange County, NC Historic Information Cache (by Steve Rankin) : http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~orangecountync/

Orange County Trio - Histories and Tour Guides. Elizabeth Shreve Ryan, Chapel Hill Press, Chapel Hill, NC, 2004.

Pelican Guide to Hillsborough, Lucille Dula.

National Register of Historic Places Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation: 01/22/2014. Prepared by Heather Slane.

Photocensus: A Photographic Survey of Buildings in the Hillsborough , N.C. Historic District Built Prior to 1950.  Susan McArtor Bellinger.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, ProQuest. 1888, 1894, 1900, 1905, 1911, 1924, 1943

Hillsborough, North Carolina General Development Plan 1968-1988

Colonial Inn Cookbook

A Sketch of the School of Miss Nash and Miss Kollock

History of the Churches of Hillsborough

Gardens of Historic Hillsborough

Silhouette: Hillsbrough High Yearbook (1958, 1940, 1938)

Blue Flame: Central High Yearbook (1957)

People sources:

Steve Rankin

Tom Campanella

David Southern