Local historians Mark Pace and WIZS’s Bill Harris are “of an age” now that things they remember when they were youngsters are now being considered as parts of local history that, with the benefit of hindsight, are proving to be noteworthy and important to the area.
The two history buffs usually discuss people, places and events from the very beginnings of the formation of what they refer to as Old Granville County, but this week they talked about several events that have found their way into the headlines since 1960.
Depending on your perspective, some of these events functioned much like the proverbial double-edged sword.
Henderson was where Paul H. Rose founded Rose’s, which at its peak, had something like 175 stores across the region. But Henderson had the first one, and it was located on Garnett Street, right in the heart of downtown.
That was back in 1915, when downtowns were where shopping happened. Needed shoes? Downtown. Wanted a piece of jewelry for a special gift? Downtown. Groceries? A&P on one end of Garnett, Colonial on the other. Clothing, sporting goods and more all were found downtown.
Rose’s stood its ground when Kmart and Mammoth Mart came to town, Pace said. But it had difficulty competing with Walmart, and Rose’s emerged from two years of bankruptcy in 1995 and then sold to Variety Wholesalers in 1997.
But Rose’s took a chance back in the late 1960’s when developers constructed the Henderson Mall.
The mall, all 185,000 square feet of it, opened in July 1969. Pace remembers that he and his brother pestered their mother until she took them there for the first time.
Harris said the mall drew patrons from nearby counties, too. People could park their cars, go inside the mall and get all their shopping done.
“It was a big deal,” Harris said, adding that the mall had “a huge impact on the entire region.”
With those benefits, however, came consequences – especially for the downtown area. The mall “changed the focus of the entire community,” Pace said.
Of course, what happened in Henderson was happening all over the place with malls and suburban retail spaces luring business away from downtowns
People still went downtown for staples like the post office, the library and the courthouse, but the mall was where folks went to shop, eat and where young people could hang out with friends.
Just as malls shaped people’s shopping habits, so did the nation’s growing interstate system shape how people got from one place to another way back in the 20th century.
It was in 1960 that the first stretch of I-85 in the area was completed – 18 miles from Henderson to about Wise in Warren County.
And finally, in 1972, the final bit – dubbed “the Missing Link” connected Oxford and Butner. Pace said John K. Nelms was instrumental in completion of the Granville County section.
The original plans had the interstate going around Henderson to the east, hitting Gillburg and Kittrell before heading to Wilson and ultimately linking with Durham.
“The powers that be lobbied long and hard (and it was) with quite a great deal of effort that Oxford got included in the 85 path,” Pace said.
In close proximity to I-85 in Warren County was where Floyd McKissick planted the seed for Soul City, a planned city that, had it taken hold, was supposed to have 55,000 inhabitants by the year 2000.
The idea never really took off, but McKissick is someone locals point to as the person who helped bring a regional water system to the area.
McKissick, a Republican, was very influential in the political arena and he knew Richard Nixon.
After Nixon was elected president, Pace said McKissick “called in a marker” with his pal and said he wanted a regional water system.
Those efforts resulted in the creation of the Kerr Lake Regional Water System in 1976.
Listen back to the complete story at wizs.com to learn about other events that helped shape local history around Old Granville.
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