Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill's live music history is anchored by Cat's Cradle, which Marcia Wilson opened in 1969 with two early partners, Mike Cross and Larry Reynolds, in a small basement space near the UNC campus under what is now Mediterranean Deli. The idea was specific: create a place for live music in Chapel Hill. [chapelhillhistoricalsociety.org] The first room was defined by its close quarters, and its programme did not hold to one genre — folk one night, rock the next — with students, locals, musicians and listeners gathered in the same space. [chapelhillhistoricalsociety.org] Bill Smith, an early participant who went on to help run the club, later became a well-known figure in Chapel Hill's food and music scene as the longtime chef of Crook's Corner. [chapelhillhistoricalsociety.org] By 1973, after ongoing noise complaints and the realities of operating a live music venue in a growing college town, the Cradle moved to a West Rosemary Street location. [chapelhillhistoricalsociety.org] Marcia Wilson was killed in a car accident in 1979. Ownership and management shifted over the next few years, and the club filed for bankruptcy in 1983. [chapelhillhistoricalsociety.org] In the mid-1980s the club operated for a time at 320 West Franklin Street, in a narrow space nicknamed the 'shoebox', and from 1989 spent a stretch at 206 West Franklin Street. [chapelhillhistoricalsociety.org] The club left Chapel Hill in 1993, settling at 300 East Main Street in Carrboro — closing a twenty-four-year run across four Chapel Hill addresses. [chapelhillhistoricalsociety.org]