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 William “Smitty” Smith - Good Masonry (clip)

William Smith: That’s the very difficult question because masons, I’ll give you an example, we had a mason one time come to work with a pair of white shoes. He worked all day and when he left his shoes were still white. No mortar on them at all and the quality of his work was superb. Okay now you…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Learning the Basics (clip)

William Smith: Well, when you do projects, you do a project over and over and over, and then progress it. You start out with a six-break lead, then you’ll do a pier, then you’ll do something else, then you’ll do a fireplace. But then once, these are just basics that you learn. You don’t really learn…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Class Description (clip)

William Smith: Well, it was a room that had a pile of bricks, a pile of sand, and bags of lye. Just an open space. Then we had a project, and the projects began with a 6-brick lead. 6-brick lead being you lay out 6 bricks and the next course is 5, the next course is 4, the next one is 3 and that’s…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Mentors (clip)

William Smith: The secret is developing an eye you know. One guy can see a rock and find a place to put it. Another guy would have something and have a problem placing the rock. It all determines in how you see that rock and how it fits in your design. Danielle: It definitely seems like a talent as…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Self Taught (clip)

William Smith: After I married, I decided to go into business for myself, and we did that and then we began to try to do that. I only did bricks. After then, I was approached on a job at the Carolina Inn by my boss and he asked if you could lay rocks, and I only had one answer and that was “yes.”…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Arts and Science (clip)

William Smith: The art form is designing a project and having a finished project. The science is whether you are going to use S type model or pouring the cement. In some cases, you can do a rock wall that has neither mortar mix or concrete. It has no mortar at all, so there is a difference. So, if…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Differences between Rock Masonry and Stone Masonry (clip)

William Smith: The term, “stone mason” is misunderstood. Sometimes, basically what we did in the local area is we were rock masons. Stone masons are different. Being a stone mason, you have to cut, shape, and make the stones fit. Rock mason is not that way. You just take a rock as it is and lay it…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Developing an Eye (clip)

William Smith: With brick and blocks everything is straight, it is dimensional. With stone it is not dimensional. You have to develop an eye and when we say eye, that means you can pick up a rock and find a place in the wall for it. You know? So, that is an ongoing thing. So, if you were, we’d never…

 William “Smitty” Smith - Learning Brick and Stone Masonry (clip)

William Smith: I had a masonry class in high school for one year and that was being a brick mason. Actually, I was trained as a brick mason, and I became a stone mason in the later years. Enjoyed doing stonework because it was very creative and that was the part that really interested me.

 William “Smitty” Smith - Pride in His Work (clip)

William Smith: I was not an academic person so building was something that I could do and I could look at it after it was finished and brag about it because it was hands on and I enjoyed doing things with my hands. Danielle Dulken: And when you say brag about it, you must have been very good at…

William Smith

"I’m not a book person […] I like to build things, and then brag about it." - William Smith

 William Smith - Speaking about his masonry career and business

William E. Smith, also known as Smitty, grew up in Durham with his parents and seven brothers. His strongest influence growing up was his grandfather, who he spent a great deal of time with – including helping out on his farm in Orange County. He graduated from Hillside High School, which he…

 Robert Smith - On his childhood, education, and school integration

This interview is part of an oral history project called Southern Communities: Listening for a Change: Mighty Tigers--Oral HIstories of Chapel Hill's Lincoln High School. The interviewes were conducted from 2000-2001, by Bob Gilgor, with former teachers, staff, and students from Chapel Hill, N.C.'s…

Robert Smith

"You were in the neighborhood, so sure, you always felt like somebody was sort of looking after you. You were basically in somebody else's yard." - Robert Smith

Reginald D. Smith II

Reginald D. Smith II, goes by Reggie, raised in Northside with his three siblings by Euzelle and R.D. Smith, both of whom were prominent educators in the area. Reggie Smith still lives in North Carolina and has two adult children.

 R.D. and Euzelle Smith - On working while at Hampton (clip)

Euzelle Smith (ES): Both of us were what is now called Self-Help students. We used to call them working students at Hampton. One year you had more work hours than class hours, but you started building up your account. And then after that you would have work…part-time work. And you never got cash or…

 R.D. Smith - On his mother caring for their children (clip)

 R.D. and Euzelle Smith - On awards and diplomas (clip)

 R.D. and Euzelle Smith - On the fireplace (clip)

 R.D. and Euzelle Smith - On their house and family photos (clip)

 R.D. and Euzelle Smith - On Smith Middle School (clip)

Euzelle Smith (ES): Smith Middle School, and this is an aerial view of the school here. This is Sewell Elementary School and Smith Middle School and that path right there goes up to Chapel Hill High School. And over here, right in this area here, the university has built a building they call the UNC…

 R.D. and Euzelle Smith - On the neighbourhood now (clip)

 R.D. and Euzelle Smith - On the neighbourhood when they moved in (clip)

 R.D. and Euzelle Smith - On their neighbours (clip)

Alex Biggers (AB): Are you guys close with a lot of your neighbors? Euzelle Smith (ES): Hm? AB: Are you guys close with a lot of your neighbors? ES: No, no, not many. Most of them are tenants. Alexander Stephens (AS): What is your relationship with them? Is it a lot of students now? ES: Yeah a lot…