William “Smitty” Smith - Builders Gateway (clip)

William Smith: What I would suggest at least when they decide to do it and have a design, that they specify to use some of the old masons. They could specify that and see how it works. And even now being retired, I could put something together and put something together. But they would have to have a designer to bid on.

Danielle Dulken: I think that is an excellent point. What should all Chapel Hill residents know about the history of Black builders?

William Smith: I don’t know because I don’t know how it got started. But if you remember I told you that because there were so many rocks on the University campus, that they decided to do rock walls. And that may have been that there were a few masons around at that time and they got people who had a very little knowledge and they got started and then they started and made a profession of it. That is probably how it happened, but I can’t verify that.