Salisbury
China Grove
Landis
Rockwell
Cleveland
Wood leaf
Barber
Spencer
E. Spencer
Gold Hill
Faith
«!/
LL'TIIER IIOLSIIOCSER
Two interesting houses — the old Stone House (see Granite Falls), and the
Octagon House (see Rockwell) in the accompanying story.
1 Big Town; 10 Small Ones
For a small city (20.102) Salisbury
is surprisingly worldly. That’s because
from the beginning, it has been a
main line town. The main line when
the town was settled about 1753 was
just a trail — the famous Trading
Path which led to the wilderness. But
it was the liig Stem, and Salisbury
knew the cosmopolites of the day. Ex¬
plorers headquartered here and were
outfitted for adventure, just as they
were at Dodge City. Nome, and Rio
later. Men in coonskin caps walked
its streets, and they met in the ordi¬
naries with lawyers in frock coats and
beaver hats, merchants, king's officers.
Indian fighters and craftsmen speak¬
ing a half dozen languages. Here
Richard Henderson and his associates
pored over vague but enchanting
maps with their hired scout. Daniel
Boone. A tired Washington slept here
while his constituents danced across
the street. Sooner or later, the leading
men of North Carolina's most exciting
day had business to do with Salisbury’.
Later came "Christian Reid" author of
Land of the Sky and 50 other books.
Hinton Helper {The Impending
Crisis), Lee Overman. "Pete" Mur¬
phy. all in an unending kaleidoscope.
If the prevailing architectural style
for a long time was the log house, they
were as good as any on the frontier.
Salisburians like to recall that people
in Charlotte once had to come to their
town to buy hard-to-get luxuries, and
Spencer Murphy vows that Washing¬
ton hurried on to Salisbury from Char¬
lotte so he could enjoy a hot bath.
Washington in 1791 guessed there
were only 300 inhabitants of Salisbury,
including "tradesmen of different
kinds." Nevertheless. Governor Tryon
a quarter of century before was able
to buy there over $800 worth of trad¬
ing goods for his visit to the Indians.
When the tide of immigration swept
on toward the west. Salisbury had a
period of doldrums. Good roads and
the railway came — the main lines,
of course — and Salisbury grew as a
commercial, financial and industrial
center. For a long time its opera house
attracted the best road shows, because
it was a convenient overnight jump
from Atlanta and Baltimore.
But its interesting antiquity has done
nothing to harden Salisbury's arteries
or brittle her bones. Few towns of any
size arc so busy house-cleaning and
expanding, with a $60 million pro¬
gram in progress or planned. One of
the most immediate and gratifying is
the new- $2 1 .000.000 veterans hospital
to be activated this summer. Aside
from its primary purposes, the hospital
means adding almost a thousand per¬
sons to the city's wage earners, an "in¬
dustrial" factor any city would covet.
Other projects completed or. under¬
way include building of the enormous
Buck Plant of Duke Power Company
on the Yadkin nearby; a $1,260,000
expansion of Rowan Memorial Hos¬
pital; a handsome new $150,000 li¬
brary; a $ 1 00.000 Negro library and
agricultural building; a new county
health and agricultural building; ex¬
pansion of Catawba and Livingstone
Colleges; an $800,000 expansion in the
city water and sewer facilities; a
$750,000 school building program,
and a multimillion church-building
program.
Although Spencer and East Spencer
arc separate corporations, the town
lines are contiguous, and a good por¬
tion of Salisbury's income is from the
Southern's shops in these towns. But
in and around Salisbury arc a variety
of enterprises, ranging from the fa¬
mous Stanback headache powder to
textile plants and granite quarries.
Both the importance of the place as a
trade center and the diversity of the
people’s way of making a living arc
shown in census figures. Over 1,600
arc in retail establishments, around
I,-
000 in railway transportation, and
about 1.400 in textile manufacture.
The city is served by three banks:
Wachovia Bank & Trust Co.. Security
National Bank and Scottish Bank of
Salisbury. It has one daily The Salis¬
bury Posi (evening) and two radio
stations — WSTP and WSAT.
Salisbury, at an altitude of 764 feet,
is a busy-looking town, but everywhere
there is the mellowing presence of
its past. On the west, two blocks of
old homes march right to the edge oi
the retail center, and its historic down¬
town churches and public buildings
give the town charm and character
which the Salisburian loves and the
visitor admires. The old courthouse,
erected in 1854, now used as a com¬
munity building, is a Greek revival
edifice, with six Doric columns on the
THE STATE, APRIL II. 1953
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