Granville County, North Carolina

Today, Labor Day 2008, George and I took a short trip up to Granville County, North Carolina. I've driven through Granville County on numerous occasions, on I-85 heading to locations north of North Carolina, but I don't recall ever having a reason to stop and explore before. I must say that it's a very pretty county, and I look forward to returning!

I noticed on a North Carolina map that the community of Hester lies in Granville County, so I had to stop and check it out. My great-great-great-grandmother was a Hester, and who knows, maybe I'm kin to Henry M. Hester, the town's namesake. (According to The North Carolina Gazetteer: A Dictionary of Tar Heel Places, he donated the site for the railroad right-of-way and station.)



At the intersection of US 15 and Hester Road, we saw this house for sale.








I decided to ride to the end of Hester Road, and saw that I could get to Stem or to Creedmoor from there. (We passed through Creedmoor on the way up to Hester, but decided not to stop this time.)






This tobacco field was at the end of Hester Road.






Along the way, we saw several signs for horses for sale, so we knew we were in North Carolina horse country when we saw this sign!






Here's one of the horses we saw along the highway.








Once in Oxford, the county seat, we enjoyed walking around and exploring. We found it easy enough to just park and walk around Oxford, which added to its charm! This is a shot of the Granville County Courthouse, which was built in 1838 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.





Here's George in front of the wooden courthouse doors.






Near the courthouse was this marker commemorating John Penn, who died in Granville County. He signed the Declaration of Independence as a representative of North Carolina. He was a distant relative of William Penn, who founded Pennsylvania.






We passed by the Union Bank & Trust in downtown Oxford, and I was charmed by the analog clock in this age of digital clocks.







Other than this sign, I wouldn't have known this was a church on Williamsboro Street.






We asked a mother and son walking downtown where we should have some lunch, since we passed one restaurant that was closed because of the Labor Day holiday. We got a good recommendation for Milano's on Williamsboro Street, and enjoyed it a lot. I had a veggie wrap that was tasty, and George got a roastbeef sandwich, which he enjoyed. We were both impressed by what was showing on the restaurant's big screen TV: the National Georgraphic Channel.


While in town, we heard about the 2nd Annual Hot Sauce Contest, which will be going on in Oxford next weekend. We just might go back for that!






I was impressed by the columns on this building, which happens to be the educational building of the Oxford Baptist Church.









Here's the sanctuary building for the church.








Here's the Richard H. Thornton Library in Oxford. As I was taking this picture, George asked me who'd be interested in seeing this picture of Oxford's library. Since I work in a library, you can imagine the look I gave him. ;-)

Near the library, someone asked if we were tourists.





Down the road from the library was this statue commemorating the area's Confederate soldiers.










Here's a nearby plaque commemorating the area's Revolutionary War soldiers.





One of the neat little downtown places we spotted was a memorial garden/park for Hugh Currin, who served as mayor of Oxford for 25 years and died in 2000.











I was intrigued by this house, which I believe is on Main Street. It's just the kind of house I'd love to see bought and restored. George said it looks like a haunted house, which may be part of the charm for me. (Now, as I write this, I can say that Halloween is next month!)






For more of my Granville County pictures, click here.