Inside the glass doors, under the orange and white striped awning on Franklin Street, there’s a place with pleather bar stools and mustard-colored booths that are older than many UNC students and employees.
Signed retired jerseys hang from the ceiling next to photographs of locals and celebrities who dined there. History is captured by photographed moments at Sutton’s Drug Store.
Owner John Woodard started taking customers’ pictures in 1983 and began hanging them on the wall to decorate the restaurant, while also advertising the business itself.
“When we started hanging pictures up on the wall, people would come in for lunch, and they started asking, ‘How do we get our picture on the wall?’” Woodard said.
People started to come into Sutton’s in crazy outfits and Carolina gear, among other outfits on special occasions to get photographed.
“It really just depends," manager Don Pinney said. "We are more likely to photograph people who come in often or athletes because people who come to visit Chapel Hill like to see pictures of them in here.”
Since then over 12,000 pictures have been taken. With 2,000 pictures on display, and 10,000 in storage, there’s a lot of photos for Woodard and Pinney to choose from.
The photos cover every surface available in the store. When the wall space began to fill up, they hung poster boards from the ceiling with more pictures.
“Unfortunately we aren't allowed to put up any more pictures than we have because the fire marshal limited us because the photos are flammable," he said. "That's why we swap some out."
