Downtown Mount Airy

Unique stores, restaraunts, venues, specialty shops, and activities.

When you visit Downtown, you'll experience "one of a kind" shopping and dining all in the friendly atmosphere of Historic Downtown Mount Airy!

Mission Statement

"The mission statement of the Downtown Business Association is to unite downtown businesses, Promoting one another's business and Downtown as a whole."

The Mount Airy Downtown Business Association is a non-profit mutual-benefit corporation governed by a Board of Directors. The Board, in turn, is responsible for the management, marketing, promotions, business development and beautification in our downtown area.

Mount Airy's Downtown History

The City of Mount Airy is a beautiful serene community located at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Mount Airy won the All-America City Award in 1994 and was the first City in the nation to win the STAR award for its superb safety program. Mount Airy is also proud to be the home of a favorite son, Andy Griffith.

The town of Mount Airy, NC was settled before 1747, and became the center and trading post of the surrounding area known as The Hollows. A "wagon road" to what is now Forsyth County was opened in 1762, which US Highway 52 closely follows today. The "Hollows Road", the road from Forsyth County, through Surry County and across the mountain, was the connection between North Carolina and Virginia. For many years it was the only graded road along this section of the mountains for a distance of 75 miles. Mount Airy became a favorite stopping off place for travelers and traders, to enjoy the fresh mountain air and natural beauty of the area.

Mount Airy continued to grow and prosper. In the first half of the 1800's, there was an influx of permanent residents, consisting of professionals and land-owners, who went on to become town leaders. From a population of 400 in 1850, it increased to nearly 3,000 by 1892.

Industry entered in the 1840's, when the town's first cotton factory opened. Mount Airy was incorporated in 1885, and the railroad came in June 1888. These events brought fire and police protection, electricity in 1892, telephone in 1893 or 1894, the water works in 1895, and trash collection in 1899. The granite quarry began large-scale production in 1889; the first furniture factory began work in 1895. Tobacco factories were all over town, until the tobacco trust forced them out of business toward the end of the 19TH century.

Paved streets appeared in 1912; a new hospital was built in 1914, and a new high school opened in 1916. After Word War I, the lucrative textile industry revived in 1921. The end of World War II brought more diversified industries: plastics, electrical appliances, concrete works, paper products, and construction companies.

Education has always been important to the citizens of Mount Airy. Private boys' academies were present from the early 1800's, and private girls' schools since the close of the Civil War. Graded schools came in 1895, and in 1897 Mount Airy passed the first public school tax in Surry County.

On July 15, 1976, Mount Airy's name was changed from the Town of Mount Airy to the City of Mount Airy.

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