Cooleemee's Old Square

Cooleemee's Old Square. . From its inception, Cooleemee was planned as a modern turn-of-the-century town. Its center stood 130 yards north of here on Main Street., While the cotton mill was the focus of most family's working life, Cooleemee's Old Square was the hub of its public life. The main anchors of the Square were constructed by 1902., On the west side stood the J.N. Ledford Department Store which was Davie County's first modern shopping center. Also known as The Company Store, it had departments for clothes, dry goods, hardware and groceries, everything from fine ladies hats to coffins. Credit was liberal, with no interest charged. Most families had accounts there. Above the Company Store was a library, a band hall, an auditorium, and eventually Davie County's first beauty shop. At various stages, the basement floor of the store had the barber shop, a men's public shower, and a pool room. These businesses faced Bridge Street. In Cooleemee's early days a silent moving picture show stood across Bridge Street (then N.C. Highway 801)., In December 1899 citizens petitioned Washington for a post office at "Cooleemee Falls". Their wish was granted in February, 1900 but the town's official name was shortened to Cooleemee. The Post Office was housed in wooden structures until the brick building was built in the early 1930s. At the same time a new "talking" movie theater was built between the bank and the post office. The Bank of Cooleemee stood on the west side of the Square just below Ledford's Store. Opening in 1905, it later became Durham Bank and Trust., On the Square's east side stood a commercial complex which housed both the Cooleemee Drug Store and its Cafe and Meat Market. The Drug Store opened in 1903. Above the Drug Store were the offices of Dr. A.B. Byerly, the town's doctor, and also at various times a dentist office and a beauty shop. Upstairs from the Cafe and Meat Market was the Fraternal Hall, later home to Local 251 of the Textile Workers Union. At the back of the building the basement housed a shoe repair shop and later a dry cleaners., At the north side of the Square there was a service station, a telephone office, a taxi stand, and later a payroll office for the cotton mill., Except on Sunday and in the dead of night, there were always crowds of people at Cooleemee's Old Square. During the mill's shift change, hundreds would gather to talk before work. Men would perch on the old iron rails next to the Cafe and solve all the problems of the world., The town's heart and soul was demolished by the mill company in 1963, during the transition of ownership from Erwin Mills to Burlington Industries., A mural depicting the Old Square stands across the street on the wall of the present Stokes Co. Yarn Company. The mural was created by artist Jeremy Sams and was commissioned for Cooleemee's Centennial Celebration in 1998.