Making History In
The Land of Eden
The sometimes stormy story of how
North Carolina's newest city was
born may point the way for future
consolidations.
By ALVA W. STEWART
Less than 15 months ago the voters
of three North Carolina municipali¬
ties — Leaksvilie, Spray, and Draper,
and residents of an unincorporated
area between the three towns — pledged
to each other their lives, their fortunes,
and their sacred honor. On that signal
day — September 12, 1967 — these
voters created a new city with a popu¬
lation of 18,000, They named the new
creature "Eden.”
Their action was unique in the an¬
nals of Tar Heel municipal govern¬
ment. The consolidation of the three
municipalities and one sanitary dis¬
trict marked the first time in Tar Heel
history that more than three units of
government had merged.
It was a development which did not
go unheeded in other North Carolina
cities. Authorities foresee the possi¬
bility of a dozen or more municipal
consolidations in this state during the
next 30 years, and the precedents es¬
tablished in Rockingham County are
sure to have their effect.
Early Attempts
Leaksvilie, Spray and Draper have
long been regarded as a tri-city area;
but the stage for actual consolidation
was set by major urban development,
since about 1950, in the “Central
Area” — the sizable unincorporated
territory which separated the three
municipalities.
Fieldcresl Mills, which employs
4,700, moved its general offices from
Spray to a new building in the Central
Area. A new hospital, country club,
two schools, and shopping center have
been built in the last 15 years in this
area, and accompanying residential
development has been heavy. Organi¬
zation of the Meadow Greens Sanitary
District in 1959 opened the way for a
higher level of urban development
than was possible in other parts of
the Tri-Cities fringe area.
The initial effort to consolidate the
municipalities came in 1959. On
March 3 1 of that year voters of Leaks¬
vilie and Spray went to the polls to cast
ballots on the question of consolidation
of the two towns to form the proposed
municipality of Leaksville-Spray, Vo¬
ters in both towns rejected consolida¬
tion.
The day following the referendum,
which ironically was April Fool’s Day,
several opponents of consolidation
erected a wreath-entwined tombstone
in a prominent place, inscribed on the
tombstone were the words “Consolida¬
tion is Dead.”
A Preliminary Step
For several years the question lay
dormant. Early in 1963 business
leaders from each of the three munici¬
palities revived the issue and were
bold enough to ask Ernest Ball,
counsel for the. N. C. League of
Municipalities, to draft an enabling
act authorizing consolidation of the
three towns and Meadow Greens
Sanitary District (the special-purpose
The stage wos set for consolidation by urban
development of the "Central Area" which sepa¬
rated Leaksvilie, Spray and Draper, and forma¬
tion of the Meadow Greens Sanitary District
there. Location af massive Fieldcrest Mills fa¬
cilities in this areo — and their endorsement of
consolidation was a significant factor. This is
the largest of 1 1 plonts operated by Fieldcrest in
Rockingham County,
Virginia planter and author William Byrd un¬
wittingly provided the name far Rockingham
County's new city when he wos in this area,
working with a survey team fa establish the
North Carol! no -Virginia line, in 1728. Byrd called
this the "Wonderful Land ol Eden . , . rich even
fa the fabled londs about Bobylon."
But it took
о
vote of the citizens in 1967 to
make the name official.
The State historical marker (above), located
in
о
section of the new town which wos formerly
Leaksvilie, commemorates Byrd's description and
his 20,000-ocre estate. — {''Eden News" photos.!
district created to furnish water and
sewer service to the area outside the
corporate, limits of the towns). The
act was drafted and presented to the
three governing boards for their re¬
view.
A few months later, officials of the
three towns applied for Federal funds
to plan for additional sewage treat¬
ment facilities. They were advised that
their application would probably be
favorably considered if the proposal
included plans for sewage improve¬
ments in a large area, rather than in
one or two cities. Acting upon this
advice, officials of the three towns
revised their application to include the
territory embracing the city limits of
Leaksvilie, Spray, and Draper.
The application was approved, and
funds were granted to establish the
Eden Metropolitan Sewerage District,
which became a separate govern¬
mental entity in August, 1963. Be¬
cause of this preliminary step, pro¬
ponents of consolidation dropped their
plans to introduce an act authorizing
a referendum on the question in the
1963 session of the General Assembly.
Another Try
Once again the issue was shelved
for several years. In the fall of 1966
consolidation advocates decided to
move again. This time they were
spurred on by the report of a com¬
munity facilities study of the Tri-Cities
area prepared by the N. C. Division
of Community Planning which noted,
the multiplicity of jurisdictions in the.
THE STATE, NOVEMBER 15, 1S6S
