The new public building under construction at 203 S. Greensboro St. will be named the Drakeford Library Complex in honor of former Carrboro Mayor Robert Drakeford.
The Orange County Board of County Commissioners voted in favor of the new name on Thursday, Nov. 7 while the Carrboro Town Council approved the new building name on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
The $42 million development is the future home of the Orange County Southern Branch Library. The facility also provides a permanent home for the Carrboro Recreation, Parks and Cultural Resources Department; Orange County Skills Development Center; WCOM Radio; and performance/multipurpose uses.
The elected bodies supported the recommendation of a Naming Committee comprised of members from the Orange County Board of County Commissioners, Carrboro Town Council, and Friends of the Library. The committee met in the spring of 2024 to develop a community engagement process to name the public building, which will be jointly operated by the Town of Carrboro and Orange County. A grand opening of the public complex is set for February 2025 on a date to be broadly announced throughout the community.
The committee members from Town of Carrboro are Council Member Catherine Fray and Council Member Eliazar Posada. The Orange County committee members are Commissioner Sally Greene and Commissioner Anna Richards. Also on the committee were two members from the Friends of the Library, Alexandra Brown and Nerys Levy.
The committee reviewed results from a communitywide survey that received more than 200 responses and subsequently took a formal vote on Sept. 24, 2024, to recommend that the building be named the Drakeford Library Complex.
Robert “Bob” Drakeford made history as Carrboro’s first Black mayor, elected in 1977 and serving until 1983. The resolution presented to the Council includes the following information:
Drakeford served as alderman from 1975 to 1977 before being elected as mayor in 1977. A graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill’s city and regional planning program, he was an advocate for public transit and cycling, and he developed valuable collaborations with other progressive Black mayors in the South during his tenure.
Drakeford held public office when the Council (then Board of Aldermen) hired Richard Knight as the town’s first Black town manager, employed from 1976-1980. And he served as mayor during the hiring of the Town’s first professional planner, who was Black. This decision helped set high standards that eventually made Carrboro more accessible to pedestrians and cyclists. He also established a loan program to encourage business entrepreneurs and created the Carrboro Community Park, later renamed the Hank Anderson Community Park. The biggest issue during his tenure was planning the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Bus System.
Drakeford was a veteran who proudly served our country in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1968. Following his time in service, he received a bachelor’s degree from Quinnipiac University, and a master’s degree at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, going on to further his education by receiving his Doctorate of Philosophy from the University North Carolina at Greensboro. He was a political science professor, serving with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and 4-H Development at Auburn University.
Drakeford was born on April 25, 1945 in New York City, N.Y., son of the late Robert and Elizabeth McLeod Drakeford, and died on May 16, 2022 (buried at the Sandhills State Veterans Cemetery).