The young and “less young” who used to hang out at the local teen center gathered there in celebration of the organization’s 25th anniversary on Sunday.
“It is the safest place for kids to hang out,” said Rachel Upchurch, a Durham resident who used to go to the Street Scene Teen Center under the Chapel Hill post office in the late ’80s. “It keeps the kids out of trouble.”
Robert Humphreys, the president of the board of directors, helped create the center in 1985. He had a dry cleaners business in Chapel Hill and often heard complaints from other business owners because the teenagers had nowhere to hang out.
“You know how kids can be. They were being obnoxious, hanging out in front of the shops. Sometimes the owners will call the cops,” Humphreys said. “So we thought, rather than figure out a way to keep the kids from coming downtown, let’s build a place so they can hang out.”
The center is open to 12- to 18-year-olds every day but Sunday. On weekdays, about 15 to 25 teenagers come to the center, which is decked out with televisions, computers, two pool tables and a recording studio.
Sometimes hundreds come on weekends when the center organizes parties, concerts and other activities.
A group of adults who used the center between 2002 and 2004 stood around reminiscing on their times in the center.
“It used to be rowdy here,” said Jake Horan.
He and his friends told stories about the trouble they caused there.
“I met all my friends here,” said Taylor Mescall. “We all got tattoos together.”
Horan said his times in the center were therapeutic.
“All the different kids were there,” he said. “You know, the kids who don’t dress the same way, who don’t speak the same way. … We were a real team.”
The center is financed by donations and a poster sale at the beginning of UNC’s fall semester.
Adults are always present at the center, and teenagers do not have to check in or pay fees. They can come to the center as often as they want.
“What is interesting is that the teens, the program and the place don’t change so much. What changes is the kind of music they are into,” said Carol Walborn, the center’s director between 1996 and 2001 and a current member of the board of directors.
Walborn said because there are between 8,000 and 11,000 area teens, there can’t be a single program that interests all of them.
“There are the sports programs, YMCA programs, but some of them would say ‘Chapel Hill is so boring. There is nothing to do here,’” she said.
“It is because they haven’t found their niche yet.”
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
