One rainy Sunday afternoon I began searching the web for any old photos of Fairmont that I might find. In the UNC online library I found nine postcards pertaining to Fairmont. The postcard shown here dates back to the late 1910’s or early 1920’s. Notice that this was before the Capitol Theater was built. Many buildings are recognizable even today.
Do you have any downtown photographs that you would like to share? Leave us a note in the Comments section below.
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In the early 1930’s photographers traveled about making photographs and printing them as penny postcards. The above photo was such a postcard. We have about 1/3 of these school kids identified (I will post the names later). How many are you able to name?
These gentlemen sold tobacco on the Fairmont Tobacco Market for fifty years. The 1952 photograph was made on the front steps of the Fairmont Hotel, now the municipal building. How many can you name? Click on “Comments” to communicate with us and we will acknowledge your contribution.
Here’s another Farmer’s Day Parade photo of the local Girl Scout troop in 1952. Click on “Comments” below the post and tell us who you recognize. We will be happy to credit you as an addendum to the post and make your comment visible for all to read.
In the 1920’s and 1930’s there was quite a bit of cotton grown in the Fairmont area. Mr. A. N. Mitchell was the local cotton broker. Shown here is cotton being unloaded and readied for shipment at the depot. The house in the background was the home of Addie Thompson. It has since been moved west about 50 yards and rotated 90 degrees to face Railroad Street.
Many thanks to Jack Mitchell for contributing this photograph.
Here is Mrs. Grace Hales’ first grade class in September 1956. How many can you name? Click on Comments below this post to identify any of the kids. We will credit your contributions in an addendum.
There has been one state championship football team at Fairmont High School – the 1949 team shown above. Coached by Cameron West, Bill Brown and Bob Laudermilk, they defeated Walnut Cove for the North Carolina Class B state title. Many of these men remained in the area to live and raise families.
Please help us name each of these players by completing the contact form below. List the player’s number, then his name. Don’t guess. It will only confuse us more than we are already!
Here are those whom we can identify:
31 John Fulton Floyd
23 Edgar (Tiny) Johnson
40 Walter Perry w/ football
33 Bobby Jones
21 Shot Griffin
44 Michael Finnegan
25 David Musselwhite
47 James (Rusty) Perry
49 Jimmy Oliver
46 Alton Parker
30 Hayes Lewis
This photograph is from December 1957 and was made in the sanctuary of Trinity United Methodist Church. Those in the picture are:
(front, l/r) Marvin Page, Woody Floyd, Luther Floyd, Adrian Whichard, Steve Teal, Nancy Taylor, Cindy Hodges, Libby Stanfield; (second, l/r) Jay Capps, Robbie Taylor, Curtis McGirt, Carol Faulk, Anne Pittman, Jessica Floyd, Susan Floyd, Dawn Mathis; (back, l/r) Mrs. Grace Hales, Charles Pearce, William Oscar Floyd, Marilyn Ashley, Ada Ruth Andrews, Nan Nance, Caroline Scott, Linda Pate Floyd, Mrs. Julia Taylor.
This is the earliest know photograph of downtown Fairmont. These buildings are located on the west side of Main Street and are the five buildings south of the barber shop.
Please contact this web site if you have any old photographs of our downtown area that you would be willing to share.
For many years Charlie Stafford was the sales supervisor of the Fairmont Tobacco Market and functioned as a one-man chamber of commerce. Mr. Charlie is pictured above broadcasting from WFMO, the local AM radio station.
During tobacco season he had a radio show during the noon hour. He would open it something like this:
“Mr. and Mrs. Tobacco Grower, and all you little tobacco growers out there in tobacco land, the news is good! Fairmont — the Old Reliable — has had another outstanding sale on the Border Belt today.”
Mr. Charlie would then give some of the individual sales figures from that morning’s sale. At some point in his show, he would tell everyone what he wanted for dinner that day, and it was always a large, homemade country meal.
Beginning in 1950 the Fairmont Civitan Club presented Farmers Day, one aspect of which was a parade through downtown Fairmont. Pictured above is the Rosenwald High School band in the 1952 parade. Look closely — you may see someone you know!
To view more parade photos, click on “Galleries” above, then click view in PicLens to see the slideshow.
An integral part of Fairmont’s history, the tobacco sales season was the culmination of a year’s effort by farmers. The sale pictured above is believed to have taken place in Chambers and Reaves Warehouse in the late 1930’s.
Should you be able to identify any appearing in the photo, please use the comment form to pass along the information. We will update this post and credit you for your contribution.
The success of the 2009 Fairmont High School baseball team brings back memories of FHS’s run during the 1967 NCHSAA 2A Baseball playoffs. Pictured above is that team prior to a game.
Members are (kneeling, l/r) Ben Brady, Kenneth Barnes, Mike Davis, Braxton Freeman, Tommy Purvis, Bob Capps; (standing, l/r) Mike Walters (scorekeeper), Wesley Freeman, Joe Frye, Johnny Bare, Charles Adams, Bill Brady, Jay Capps, Roger Ivey, Terry Grier, Larry Walters, Coach LeRoy Vaughn, Gene Ivey.
This team lost in the state finals to North Davidson after winning the first game of that series. Joe Frye went on to play college baseball at NC State and Larry Walters played at East Carolina, then played several years professionally.
This photo was contributed by Bill Lewis who played on this team. We believe that this was the first organized interscholastic football team at Fairmont High School.
The photograph was made by Cecil Ashley, longtime Fairmont resident and “character.”
Ashpole Institute was a private boarding school established in 1878 by the Cape Fear Baptist Association. It preceded the incorporation of Fairmont by twenty years. The founder and headmaster was Rev. Stinceon Ivey, pastor of Fairmont First Baptist Church. Shown above is an 1899 photograph of the school, its teachers and students. It was located on the site of the present-day Fairmont Municipal Building.
Thanks to Paul Thompson for making this photograph available.
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