Fearrington

In 1974, R.B. Fitch of Chapel Hill bought 632 acres in Chatham County, North Carolina, just outside Chapel Hill, with a vision of creating a community in the style of the English villages he admired when serving as a U.S. Air Force pilot in the United Kingdom in the 1950s. With his wife Jenny, he began constructing the project and today, 50 years later, Fearrington Village is a major development in the region with some 1,600 houses, a nationally known luxury inn, a five-star restaurant, a bookstore, and a spa, drawing tourists and residents from all over.
Fearrington Village was the first Planned Unit Development in Chatham County and one of the first in the state. It has influenced other developments and Fearrington residents have had an effect on the state’s economy and politics. The Chapel Hill–Carrboro Business Hall of Fame has called Fearrington Village “an example of an exquisitely planned and executed community.” This first comprehensive history of the village includes excerpts from R.B. Fitch’s interviews in 2011 with the Southern Oral History Project at UNC, which are published here for the first time.

Bill Arthur is a former reporter for The Charlotte Observer and a reporter and editor at Bloomberg News in Washington. His writing has appeared in Washingtonian Magazine, The Nation, and other publications. He lives in Fearrington Village.

Bill Arthur
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 200
Bibliographic Info: 93 photos, appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2024
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9461-0
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5273-3
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments ix
Preface 1
Timeline 7
Introduction 11
One. The Beginning 15
Two. Family and Leadership 27
Three. Partnership 42
Four. Open for Business 55
Five. The New Yorker 69
Six. Growth and Change 76
Seven. The Village, the Inn, and More 96
Eight. Gardens and Friendships 126
Nine. Getting Booze to Fearrington: Legislative Legerdemain 136
Ten. Problems, Threats, Tensions, Good Works 141
Eleven. The Future 150
Appendix: Documents Related to Fearrington Village 161
Author’s Note on Sources 173
Chapter Notes 177
Bibliography 183
Index 185

• “Veteran journalist Bill Arthur has written a thorough and insightful history of the origins and growth of Fearrington Village, a unique English-style development now numbering some 1,600 homes, in rural North Carolina but within an easy drive of the cities of the Research Triangle. As the long-time representative of the community in the U.S. House, I can attest to its nationwide attraction and the remarkable civic engagement of its citizens. I learned a great deal from Arthur’s study and expect even long-time Fearrington residents will as well.”—David Price, former U.S. Representative

• “History is vital to the fabric of North Carolina, and Bill Arthur has not only preserved a rich corner of it on the printed page but embroidered it with colorful texture and fine detail. The story of Fearrington Village is, in many ways, a microcosm of the state itself—hardscrabble roots that grew into a place of immense pride and beauty.”—Scott Mason, WRAL-TV’s Tar Heel Traveler and author of the Tar Heel Traveler book series