Siler City, North Carolina.

This week, Patti Moed challenges us to “highlight Street Art in any form, such as posters, graffiti, prints, stencils, sculptures, or installations.” You can read her entire challenge post here. I don’t have many photos of graffiti, but I immediately thought of buskers performing their specific artistic talents on the streets of our country. Then I remembered Siler City, North Carolina. With the small town’s downtown area suffering the malaise afflicting most cities in this day of Amazon and “free shipping”, a group of concerned citizens put together the Siler City Mural Society. In 2001, the group commissioned three murals to be painted on the blank walls of downtown buildings. A small sample of the murals added since then are featured in my challenge response this week. If you want to learn more and see a few more of the murals, you can check out my original Travel Tuesday post here. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite examples.

This mural on the outside of Ace Hardware depicts the inside of the store at an earlier time.

This mural depicts Siler City’s downtown sometime near the turn of the 20th century. It’s painted on the building that is depicted in the mural at the far left. Obviously that building is still standing. The two buildings at the near right are now gone, and except for the paved street and a traffic light, the intersection view hasn’t changed much.

An homage to those early Coca-Cola ads is featured on one brick facade. When you visit Siler City, stop at the downtown coffee shop and pick up a map. It features the locations and descriptions of the many murals. Get some exercise and take a leisurely walking tour.

John Steiner

Siler City, North Carolina.

A visit to North Carolina in 2015 prompted a trip to the largest town in Chatham County. Our visit to North Carolina in 2018 brought us back to this town of a bit over 8000 residents in the western part of the county. For more background on our 2015 visit to Siler City, you can check out my post and gallery of photos here, and a guest post from my son, Joshua, who provided a much more detailed story here. In the opening photo above, this post features one of the murals that since 2001 have proliferated throughout the city’s downtown area. This image depicts Siler City very early in the 20th century.

In the photo above, if you look at the left edge, you’ll see the mural’s location on the side of a building. The view of the intersection is the same intersection as depicted in the mural. These two photos were captured in 2015. I used them again here as the day we visited in 2018, the mural happened to be obscured by parked vehicles.

The Siler City Mural Society consisted of townspeople who were interested in bringing an attraction to the downtown area that was then suffering from the loss of workers. As their first act in 2001, they commissioned three murals, the first of which featuring the early Chatham Avenue street scene, followed by a mural titled “Our Hardware Heritage” shown above, and the third mural featuring Siler City’s original hospital. After a hiatus between 2007 and 2014, the project was revitalized by a local artist, Roger Person. New murals were added and on the day of our visit, we even met a local businessman who decided to paint some on his own building. At that moment, he was getting a fresh section of building prepped to add another mural. All of the images I captured that morning are depicted in the gallery at the end of this post. I didn’t include every mural in the city so that when you get a chance to visit, you can be surprised at what you find. Ask around and you can pick up a brochure that shows you where to find the murals as you explore the downtown area.

But what about those burgers? In 2015, we happened to visit Siler City on a Monday. Josh was disappointed that he couldn’t show off his favorite burger joint as they are closed on Sunday and Monday. This year, we made it a point to visit on a day they were open. Everything Josh said about the burger joint proved to be true. Their prime burgers are not just figurative, they are USDA Prime grade. As Josh said in the original article, come early for lunch. When they run out of prime burgers, they close for the day. Burgers and fries are about all they serve with style and southern hospitality and charm. Josh’s blogging stock and trade is food. Josh writes under the moniker “Pot & Pan Handler” You can check out his site here.

So, I promised you a small gallery of mural images. Here they are. In most browsers, you can click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.

Siler City, North Carolina.

In recent posts about a couple of small towns in North Carolina, we discover that the town of Siler City became the retirement home of Frances Bavier, the character actor who played Aunt Bee on the Andy Griffith Show from 1960 to 1968. As we learned in Josh Steiner’s guest post (here) for this week’s Travel Tuesday, Siler City no longer feels “like fictional Mayberry, but more like suburban anywhere, USA.”

Upon her retirement, however, Siler City seemed to be much like the Mayberry that Frances Bavier imagined. At least so it seemed as she chose to purchase a larger home in the town to live out her retirement years. First appearing on Broadway in 1925, Miss Bavier was a successful Broadway actress. But Hollywood and the siren call of the movies called her west where in 1951, she appeared in her first motion picture, “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

Prior to her role in The Andy Griffith Show, she appeared in many television series episodes in the 1950s. Her tenure on The Andy Griffith Show, however, is what she is best remembered for, and no doubt a source of frustration in her career. After Andy Griffith called it quits for the popular TV show, CBS brought in Ken Berry, who along with George Lindsey and Frances Bavier soldiered on in Mayberry R.F.D.  Suffering from that dreaded malady that befalls many television actors… Miss Bavier became type-cast. Abruptly, at age 70, she called it quits and left Hollywood for the small town goodness she apparently came to believe she would find in Siler City, the real-life analog for the “Mayberry”  that she appeared to come to despise.

Her celebrity followed her there. She could be found driving the city streets in her beloved 1966 Studebaker Daytona, the same green two-door sedan she drove on Mayberry R.F.D. She was Grand Marshall in parades and pretty much had all the “celebrity” she could stand. Interaction with the town folk and tourists who would drive by became less than neighborly. The often-mentioned pickles and well-meaning references to other specific episodes, eventually drove her to reclusiveness. She became the celebrity cat lady of Siler City. To this day, visitors leave a jar of pickles at her headstone in the city’s cemetery.

Having grown up on a steady diet of 1960s sitcoms, with The Andy Griffith Show being one of my favorites, I am surprised I don’t personally remember “The Pickle Story” episode from the original run, or even from the many years of syndication that I watched. Coincidently, for the 2015 holiday season, CBS featured a one-hour holiday presentation of The Andy Griffith Show on December 25. Since the original show was only 30 minutes, the one-hour block was composed of two episodes, a holiday-themed episode followed by “The Pickle Story” where Aunt Bee’s less-than-perfect pickles were substituted with store-bought pickles by Barney and Andy. Of course, as they say in Hollywood, the scheme backfires and hilarity ensues.

Miss Bavier and Mr. Griffith had a well-known reputation for not getting along on set. A visit to Siler City by Mr. Griffith and Ron Howard famously ended abruptly when she refused to open the door when they came to call, speaking to them only for a few minutes before she sent them packing. So much for her appearance on an Andy Griffith Reunion Show.

Another Andy Griffith Show regular, Betty Lynn found her way to Mount Airy, North Carolina. She moved there in 2007 and at age 88 was still signing autographs every third Friday of the month at the Andy Griffith Museum. For those who don’t remember, Betty Lynn played Barney’s girlfriend, Thelma Lou.

In one of the episodes, Aunt Bee said to Emma, “We can’t hold a candle to some of the stories that’ve come out of Floyd’s Barber Shop!” I beg to differ. Aunt Bee’s retirement in Siler City certainly qualifies as candle-worthy.

Background for this article came from:

http://imdb.com

http://wikipedia.com

http://www.fayobserver.com/living/with-a-heart-as-big-as-aunt-bee-s-frances/article_398c01f5-38e6-5a72-9b89-bddb0bfad29c.html

http://articles.latimes.com/1990-01-17/entertainment/ca-368_1_aunt-bee

http://greatentertainersarchives.blogspot.com/2012/08/what-character-frances-bavier.html

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/dbc98546768c417ebf2ba9bde422f996/thelma-lou-transforms-mayberry-local-legend

John Steiner

Siler City, North Carolina.

For this week’s Travel Tuesday, I have the distinct pleasure of hosting a guest post from the Pot and Pan Handler, Josh Steiner. Last fall, he and I had the opportunity to travel to small town, North Carolina. The photo above features a mural depicting Siler City’s main street in an earlier time. Known for its murals, Siler City has another claim to fame, a tie to Hollywood… but, wait!!! Why am I telling you this? Read on to learn about the little town that is “Balanced for Progress.” Don’t forget to check out the Handler’s blog here.

Welcome travel readers to a surprise Pot and Pan Handler’s guest post benevolently hosted by the travel minded Photo by Johnbo. Today we’ll take a page out of Andy Griffith Show’s Mayberry and take a trip to the American South just a stone’s throw west of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. That is where we’ll find the real life equivalent of the Fictional Mayberry, the quaint and ever evolving Siler City, North Carolina. While there, we’ll put forth the effort to understand the history, culture, food and growing pains of a modern, if rustic, Southern city.

Early Ancient History

Located in Chatham County the small town of Siler City, NC started life like most rural southern towns, as a plantation farm in 1750 this one in particular was owned by wait for it… Plikard Dedrick and Elizabeth Hartzoe Siler, imaginative, I know. Shortly thereafter in an attempt to justify their slave ownership the good southern folk of Siler City erected a Baptist church, where they could learn to be more judgmental while hosting fundraisers and potlucks for fellowship and oh yeah, Jesus.

In 1861 as America descended into the throes of the Civil War, the religious minded folks of Siler City threw their chips in with the confederacy because slavery is noble or as they say in the south: state’s rights. It is still called the war of northern oppression after all, at least south of the Mason Dixon Line. A company of volunteers calling themselves the Chatham Boys drilled there until they eventually became the more formal sounding Company G of the North Carolina Regiment. Would a confederacy by any other name be as hateful?

Connecting the divide

By 1884, Siler City became a hub on the railroad; the land of which it was built was of course generously donated by the Silers. That railroad attracted a large tobacco warehouse and made possible the move of the post office to the now more lucrative Siler station. Soon followed by the building of a grist mill, merchandise store, hotel and blacksmith shop. Siler City was growing up.

1887 would see the first school built in Siler City, which is apparently the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back, as the North Carolina General assembly then incorporated the small town of Siler City. By 1890 Siler City’s growth was notable as the town was inhabited at that time by 254 people.

Architecture, porches and growth

With the exploding population came industry, including manufacturing, milling, a bank and more importantly the telephone arrived in 1902. The prosperity enjoyed by Siler City continued into the twentieth century and by 1910 the population had swelled to 440. This growth would continue as the train depot and phone service made the little city that could a premiere destination that attracted Doctors, lawyers, real estate developers, bankers, builders, and businessmen. This influx of people would result in Siler City’s population again doubling to 895 by 1910.

With the population came wealth and with the wealth came architecture. Not just Colonial, but Colonial Revival, Gothic, Queen Anne, Tudor Revival, Four Square; basically anything with a large and or wrap around front porch.

Although the depression slowed the growth of Siler City, the city’s popularity resurged in the 1930’s. Cars and infrastructure such as roads, sewers and plumbing made it possible for the residents to move farther away from the city center and begin building Craftsman bungalow homes that remained popular until the Ranch style homes became the go-to style after world war II.

Industrialization was rampant and by 1937 there was furniture manufacturing, meat and poultry processing, hosiery, lingerie, and textiles all within the city limits. With industrialization came more people. The rapid growth of Siler City continued after WWII again doubling the population from 2,501 to 4,455 by 1940.

What’s your beef?

Like all Americans the good folks of Siler City, like to eat and love to drive. With this in mind in 1946 the Johnsons opened up Johnson’s hamburgers with a young Claxton Johnson standing outside to take curbside orders from people in cars. You can still find Claxton Johnson there today as he carries on the legacy of his father before him, slanging prime beef burgers topped with murderous amounts of Velveeta on a cheap industrial bun.

It is an unexplainable mystery as to how Johnsons manage to get fresh prime beef every day, beef that otherwise all gets scooped up by trendy steak houses, not tiny roadside burger dives. However they manage to get prime beef, the locals are appreciative and are prepared to wait in a daily line to get them.

If you want to get one, you better go early, because they close as soon as they sell out of burgers and that can happen pretty quickly. Hell they’re so successful they don’t even bother opening on Sundays or Mondays, not too shabby for a burger dive.

Siler City’s respect for beef could not be contained in one burger dive however, so in 1948 the Carolina Stockyards was established. Henry and Howard Lee Horney bought the stockyard in 1950 and built it into the largest stockyard in the state and eventually the third largest stockyard on the East coast. Home to weekly cattle auctions, they move as much as 86,000 head of cattle a year at a street value of 40 million dollars.

The Horneys realized that all that beef demanded a restaurant be opened, ranchers had to eat after all and the cattle auction takes up a good chunk of a day. So they opened a restaurant on the premises, where they get their own cattle from the auction, process it next door and serve it to hungry ranchers and whoever else braves the smell.

Like Claxton Johnson’s Burger dive, Carolina Restaurant at the Stockyards is still serving burgers today. And again much like Johnson’s burgers, Carolina Stockyard Burgers are topped with an artery clogging amount of processed Velveeta and again served on a cheap industrial bun. Like hot dogs and Philly cheese steaks, burgers are one of the few foods that can get away with processed cheese and cheap bread and still come out delectable, especially when served with hand cut fries or onion rings.

Do yourself a favor and order your fries with their homemade ranch, like Chef Vivian Howard says, “If there is one thing the new Southerner likes more than pork it’s ranch dressing.” That’s the kind of respect the Carolina Stockyards, treats their ranch with, and I for one appreciate the effort.

Meanwhile back at the ranch

Siler City’s growth continued which prompted the Horneys to move the stockyard and restaurant to their current location slightly outside of Siler City in 1972. The same year that Frances Bavier who played Aunt Bee on The Andy Griffith Show retired and moved to Siler City. She once told a reporter “I fell in love with North Carolina, all the pretty roads and trees.” The honeymoon was short lived however, and she lived a reclusive life, until she died in 1989 and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, follow the pickle jars to her final resting place.

By 1997, work at the chicken processing plants located in Siler City had caused a major influx of Spanish speaking workers. With them came the big box stores, fast food burger joints, fried chicken, BBQ chains and Taqueiras which now dot the outskirts of Siler City, making it feel less like fictional Mayberry but more like suburban anywhere, USA.

In 2004, the Stockyard was purchased by Ray and Robert Crab with the help of several investors and they continued the proud tradition of owning the largest stockyard (as well as hand cut fries). 10 years later in 2014, tiny Siler City, is still the biggest city in Chatham County with more than 50% of the population speaking Spanish in the home. You can’t hide from diversity not even in Siler City, that dear readers is the changing face of the American South. I wonder how Andy Griffith and peers would’ve tackled immigration in Mayberry? I’d like to think that they’d embrace the change, much like they did in Siler City, the real life Mayberry.

Included at no extra charge! Siler City Galleries. Click on an image in a gallery to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.

Gallery 1 – Architecture

Gallery 2 – Johnson’s burger dive

Gallery 3 – Carolina Stockyards Restaurant

Gallery 4 – Siler City Murals