On Saturday, November 7, the historic site at 319 North Churton Street will host its first Hillsborough Harvest Festival. It will do so under a public name that is only ten weeks old. On the same morning, the Orange County Artists Guild opens its Open Studio Tour, and that tour's preview show is already hanging a short walk south on the same street. The festival runs from noon to 4 p.m., and the studios are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. That leaves time on both ends of the festival for studio visits, so the day can start and end on Churton Street and still include some of the tour.
The site everyone calls Burwell has a longer name now
Chapelboro reported that as of August 27, the Burwell School is publicly known as "The Elizabeth Keckley Center at the Burwell School." Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was enslaved at the house, where she lived from 1835 until 1841. She later bought her freedom, moved to Washington, D.C., and built the dressmaking business that made her dressmaker and confidant to Mary Todd Lincoln. Her 1868 book "Behind the Scenes" tells that story.
The older name still applies to the place. Anna Burwell and her husband founded the school at that address, and from 1837 to 1857 she taught more than 200 young women there. In the same Chapelboro article, site director Elizabeth Hays explained the reasoning:
"The goal is not to exchange one history for another, but to hold these histories together. The Burwell School is the place. Elizabeth Keckley's life gives that place a remarkable connection to the national story."
So the grounds are the same, and the lawn the festival will fill is the same lawn. The renaming happened just before the site's first big fall fundraiser.
What the Harvest Festival actually is
Hillsborough Community Media, the nonprofit behind WHUP 104.7 FM, is the organizer, and its ticket page bills the afternoon as "A New Hillsborough Fall Tradition." Proceeds go to the radio station and the historic site. The basics:
- When: Saturday, November 7, noon to 4 p.m., with entry starting at 11:30 a.m. It happens rain or shine.
- Music: Pickard Mountain Bluegrass and Sugaree String Society.
- Food and drink: Local food trucks, with beer and wine for sale.
- Also on the grounds: Local artists and makers.
- Seating: Bring your own lawn chair or blanket.
- Tickets in advance: $20 for adults, $10 for ages 13 to 17, free for children 12 and under. Tickets cost $5 more at the door.
WHUP's own announcement and the ticket page both point festivalgoers to the downtown parking garage and say street parking nearby is limited. Some event calendars list a different lot and a single $25 price. The organizer's pages are the ones to follow for parking and pricing.
The site has smaller programming on regular weeks, too. The Keckly Burwell Makers Club, a free handicraft meetup, gathers on the front porch on Thursdays from 2 to 4 p.m., according to the site's events page.
The studio tour shares the same Saturday, and its preview is already up
The Orange County Artists Guild runs its free Open Studio Tour on two weekends, November 7 and 8 and November 14 and 15. Studios are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
The way into the tour starts on North Churton Street. Hillsborough Gallery of Arts at 121 N. Churton St. is one of the tour's three preview locations. Its preview exhibit opened October 27 and runs through November 15. The opening reception is Friday, October 30, from 6 to 9 p.m. this Friday. The preview is the easiest way to pick which studios to drive to.
The 2026 tour brochure lists several Hillsborough stops:
| Artist | Medium | Hillsborough address |
|---|---|---|
| Jason Smith | Sculpture | 1709 NC Hwy 86 N |
| Suzan Scribner-Reed | Mixed media | 808 Bartlett Circle |
| Ryann Carey | Watercolor | 509 Terrell Road |
| Bernadette Januska | See brochure | 2926 Ode Turner Road |
| Ellie Snow | See brochure | 4720 Silver Apples Road |
None of these studios is on Churton Street. The festival keeps you downtown for four hours in the middle of the day, so a full plan for November 7 has to set aside some driving before or after it.
How the hours line up on November 7
The Eno River Farmers Market is open Saturdays year-round, from 8 a.m. to noon April through November, at the David Price Farmers Market Pavilion, 144 E. Margaret Lane. With that added, the opening Saturday looks like this:
| Time | Where | What's open |
|---|---|---|
| 8 a.m. | 144 E. Margaret Lane | Eno River Farmers Market opens |
| 10 a.m. | Studios countywide | Open Studio Tour opens |
| 11:30 a.m. | 319 N. Churton St. | Festival entry begins |
| Noon | Margaret Lane / N. Churton | Market closes, festival music starts |
| 4 p.m. | 319 N. Churton St. | Festival ends |
| 5 p.m. | Studios countywide | Saturday studio hours end |
The tight window is the morning. Between 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., there's time to stop by the market and visit one nearby studio before heading to the festival grounds. The afternoon is roomier. The festival lets out at 4 p.m., and studios stay open another hour, so a stop at a studio close to town fits after the music. Jason Smith's studio on NC Hwy 86 N is one example.
The second weekend is the quieter version
November 14 and 15 bring back the same studio hours without the festival. The Gallery of Arts preview stays up through that Sunday, November 15. The farmers market holds its usual Saturday morning hours on the 14th. If you'd rather spend a full day on studios instead of an afternoon on a lawn, the second weekend leaves all of Saturday open for the brochure, and Sunday adds five more hours starting at noon. One option is to attend the festival on the 7th and save the countryside studios for the 14th.
What has changed downtown since summer
A few storefronts along the way look different this fall. At 107 N. Churton St., Curated opened in early September. It sells Moroccan goods and art and hosts arts-and-crafts classes, according to The News of Orange County. Curated sits between the gallery preview and the festival grounds.
Around the corner, Dual Supply Co. at 115 W. King St. announced a going-out-of-business sale and planned to close at the end of September, as reported by The News & Observer. Chapelboro's quarterly business roundup on October 1 described the shop as in its final days.
Farther out, Al's Burger Shack is planning its sixth location at 115 Oakdale Drive, in a former Pizza Hut space. As of October 13 the project was in architectural design and permitting, and the owner hopes to open around the start of 2027, Chapelboro reported.
After November
The next full weekend on the downtown calendar is the Hillsborough Holiday Weekend. Visit Hillsborough lists Saturday, December 5 for photos with Santa and a Multicultural Holidays Fair at the Visitor Center, followed by the tree lighting at the Historic Orange County Courthouse. The Chamber of Commerce Holiday Parade follows on Sunday, December 6. That puts four weeks between the Harvest Festival and the tree lighting, with the studio tour's second weekend early in that stretch.
At Keith O'Hare, we keep track of how a town's calendar changes, such as a historic site getting a new name and its first fall festival. If you're near North Churton Street and wondering what a home like yours is worth this fall, get your free home valuation and we'll show you the current numbers.
