What is your reaction to the various businesses you see that were once an integral part of Franklin Street’s energy in 1977? And look at the long list still contributing to the Franklin Street experience!

MAS is located in the former Carolina Theater. Originally, the Carolina Theater was across the street in the current space of the Varsity. 

In March of 1942, the Carolina Theatre opened here with 1,145 seats.  Although the war effort stopped new construction across the nation unless it was specifically military related, the building was finished because it was to be used for entertaining the cadets in the  U.S. Navy Pre-Flight School on campus.

In 1961, due to its racial segregation policies, the theater was heavily picketed until finally, due to community pressure, on March 10, 1962, the theater was fully integrated - one of the first in the South. See more: Chapel Hill Civil Rights Timeline 1960 - 1969.

The Carolina Theater hosted a World Premiere, Hollywood-style, on a lovely May evening in 1965.  Hollywood stars Richard Chamberlain and Yvette Mimieux walked the red carpet, complete with classic roving searchlights and screaming teenage fans, to celebrate their movie, “Joy in the Morning.”  The movie was filmed in Chapel Hill and based on the book by local author Betty Smith - whose home still stands at 315 East Rosemary Street.  (She also wrote “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” a runaway best seller in 1943.)  Chapel Hill has been the background for several big stars’ films over the years, including Robin Williams’ “Patch Adams” and Lola Tung, Christopher Briney and Gavin Casalegno in the Amazon Prime streaming hit, “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” in 2024.

In 1994, the theater moved to the corner of Franklin and Columbia under Top of the Hill. It eventually closed in 2005 and its last movie was March of the Penguins. The building housed The Gap and a Walgreens before MAS, UNC’s Media Art Space, moved here in 2022.

Raising Cane opened on Franklin Street in the Spring of 2023, after two years of extensive renovation to the building that has been part of the downtown landscape for centuries. Built by Samuel Brockwell in 1902, it has housed grocery stores, dry goods, an ice skating rink, pharmacy and restaurants.

In the words of Mickey’s daughter-in-law: 

“Spanky’s stayed on that corner for over 40 years and was (and will always be in my book!) a Chapel Hill institution. Spanky’s was Mickey’s baby. He poured so much love and dedication into that little Chapel Hill corner and cultivated the kind of culture that kept staff and guests coming back for literal decades after they had left Chapel Hill.

In 2018, Mickey retired and the Chapel Hill Restaurant Group decided it was a good time to retire Spanky’s as well. But even though Spanky’s is no longer physically on Franklin Street, it’s hard to compete with the lasting impression it made on so many people during its 40+ years in business. Spanky’s meant so much to so many of us. It was your college hangout spot. It was your first stop after a Carolina win. It was the college job that introduced you to your best friends. It was your first date with your spouse. It was the place to celebrate milestones - anniversaries, graduations, birthdays, engagements, rehearsal dinners, pregnancies. It was the place to go for any occasion, good or bad….”  

Ewell founded Chapel Hill Restaurant group with current owner Greg Overbeck, Pete Dorrance and others. The group now owns and operates Chapel Hill favorites, 411 West and Squid's in Chapel Hill, as well as three other restaurants in the Triangle area. Spanky's was rebranded as Lula's in 2018 before closing in 2020. Mickey passed away in 2020. 

In July, 2024, Raising Cane expanded into the space next door (former site of Bob Rosenbacher’s The Hub, a men’s clothing store 1959-1997) and Starbucks Coffee moved across the street into a larger space.