North Carolina
Old country store on the Haw River keeps NC traditions alive
There was a time when old-fashioned general stores carried the memories and stores of rural North Carolina — locals sitting in rocking chairs on the front porch, somebody picking a guitar while the older folks swap stories and kids run in and out buying penny candy and bubblegum.
Today, many of those old country stores can be found decaying along rural North Carolina roadsides. With antique paint curling on fading storefronts, their drooping wooden porches are only fit for ghosts – and no one can hear their stories.
But tucked away down the winding rural roads of NC, there’s a place not far from the Triangle where the old traditions continue – where you can sit in a rocking chair and listen to local music on the front porch on a balmy summer evening. Or, in the fall, you can bundle up with cider on a crisp afternoon and listen to authentic storytellers keep our state’s country lore alive.
Almost a century old, stepping into Bynum’s general store is like stepping back in time. It’s one of the few remaining original stores from the historic mill village, which sits on the bank of the Haw River.
On a summer evening, you might see people dancing barefoot in the grass while a musician strums the guitar, or families running down to play near the river. There’s a food truck on-site, and several locals sitting on the front porch in rocking chairs.
Many of the dozen or so original stores in the unincorporated community of Bynum have closed their doors over the decades. In fact, Bynum itself has faded from the maps, losing its zip code, post office, movie theater and central cotton mill over the decades after a bypass funneled traffic away from the town.
However, the vibrant community refuses to let their way of life – or their history – just fade away.
Bynum Front Porch: Step back in time in Chatham County
Fueled by volunteers and community members, these old store keeps the Old North State’s legacy of storytelling, music and community alive.
“I was born within a stone’s throw of the store,” said Ted Williams, a native of Bynum.
Williams’ parents built the general store, now known as Bynum Front Porch, in the mid-1930s. Before that, both his parents worked at the cotton mill, which was central to Bynum’s existence. Families lived in traditional mill houses, and kept entertained by visiting the five or six stores in downtown. There was also a movie theater and a school.
“It was a vibrant community,” says Williams. “There was a lot of traffic through here at the time.”
As a kid, Williams recalls sitting on the porch, where people gathered to tell stores, swap jokes and laugh and talk with each other.
“I remember sitting down here and just listening to the grown folks talk,” he said. “It was really special.”
In those days, the town had around 60 or 70 kids, according to his memory, and the bus had two stops:
“One at this store and the other at a store down the street,” he said.
The highway went right through Bynum, bringing plenty of visitors and money to the town. However, when a bypass was built around the little mill town in the 1950s, the town began to struggle. It was the beginning of the end.
Soon, locals began going to nearby towns to shop. Eventually, stores began closing down and even the post office decided there weren’t enough residents to stay in town. Bynum lost its zip code and became incorporated.
The mill stopped running in the 1980s, and a fire destroyed it a few decades later.
But despite the setbacks, the people of Bymum refused to let their little town’s history just fade away. Bynum was a vibrant community — and would fight to stay that way.
Keeping Bynum’s history alive
Many waterways across North Carolina are dotted with overgrown stone foundations of mills and surrounding villages that washed away, burned down or were otherwise lost to time. Some communities became ghost towns; others were swallowed by the development of rapidly-growing cities nearby. In the mountains, the ghost of an old mill town provides a glimpse of what can happen when history is lost. Not far away, the community of Merry Oaks – whose general store is abandoned, but for sale – is under pressure by large nearby developments.
Instead of letting the tide of history wash Bynum away, Ron Hatley, chair of the board for Bynum Front Porch, wants to ensure Bynum’s history is preserved.
“It’s a constant struggle,” he said.
There are efforts in place to preserve the old water tower, as well Bynum Bridge – an abandoned bridge closed to vehicle traffic that currently serves as a popular walking path for locals, as well as a ‘freedom of expression’ canvas for painters. Colorful and vibrant, the bridge provides sweeping views of the Haw River. Every Halloween, hundreds of people come from around the region to see the bridge lined with glowing, carved pumpkins.
“One of the things we’re doing is an SOS, Save our Store. The Bynum Front Porch building is over a creek, and it’s 90 years old,” he said. “We’re trying to raise money to shore up the foundation. Back then, they just laid down some rocks and built right on top!”
Just as it always has, Bynum Front Porch serves as the beating heart of the community. It may no longer sell groceries, but it you can still trade a story or two and keep those old NC memories alive.
“It’s stayed open as a community center,” said Hatley. “Summer music, storytelling, yoga, morning coffee, scout troop meetings, gatherings for local organizations and leaders.”
Every Friday in summer, Bynum Front Porch hosts a summer music series in the grassy lawn beside the store. Then, starting in September, guests can come sit and listen to a storyteller at the old country store – just like kids listening to the older folks swap tales on the front porch.
North Carolina
North Carolina man accused of shooting and killing another tourist inside of a Broward Airbnb, police say
A Fourth of July trip to South Florida ended in tragedy after a 21-year-old North Carolina man was shot and killed inside a Hollywood Airbnb, according to police.
Investigators say Jaydon Williams, 21, was shot multiple times early Saturday morning at a vacation rental in the 1900 block of Funston Street. Hollywood police have arrested 21-year-old Devian Blount, also of North Carolina, and charged him with first-degree murder.
Officers responded to the home around 1 a.m. Saturday, following reports of a shooting. They arrived to find Williams suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was transported to Memorial Regional Hospital, where he died.
According to the arrest report, Williams was on a FaceTime call with his girlfriend at the time of the shooting. She told investigators she heard someone accuse Williams of stealing, followed by a verbal argument and several gunshots.
The incident has left neighbors shaken in the typically quiet Hollywood community. While some residents noted they were aware that the home operated as a short-term rental, others expressed concerns about the property’s transient nature.
“That’s a bad idea to me to have an Airbnb in this neighborhood where so many people and kids live,” said neighbor Dorell Green. “Different types of people come and go. You don’t know who is coming or leaving.”
Ivette Santana, another resident, said her primary concern is the violence. “I don’t care about the Airbnb,” Santana said. “My problem is the shooting over there.”
Blount is being held without bond at the Broward County Jail.
CBS News Miami has contacted Airbnb to determine if the property remains in operation. We are also working to contact the property’s owners.
The video above is a live stream of WBTV and affiliated programming, and may not be directly related to the article below.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – A sickness causing explosive diarrhea across the United States has been reported in North Carolina.
State health officials confirmed on Tuesday, July 7, that at least 145 cases of cyclosporiasis had been reported in North Carolina since May 1.
According to the state’s health website, cyclosporiasis is an intestinal illness caused by a parasite known as cyclospora. Sickness is often brought on by consuming food or water that is contaminated with the parasite.
The state’s website says it usually takes a week for symptoms to show up after consuming the contaminated food or water.
Among the symptoms are:
- Watery diarrhea with frequent, sometimes explosive bowel movements
- Loss of appetite
- Weight loss
- Stomach cramps/pain
- Bloating
- Increased gas
- Nausea
- Fatigue
Health officials said cyclospora is often associated with fresh herbs and produce that are served uncooked. They said because those items often go uncooked, it is imperative for them to be cleaned prior to eating.
According to the CDC, healthy people who contract cyclosporiasis usually recover without treatment but may have symptoms for a few days to a month or longer. In other cases, the sickness can be treated with antibiotics.
As of mid-June, the CDC reported cyclosporiasis cases in 17 states. At that point, no deaths had been reported.
Also Read: One US state is now reporting 700+ cases of ‘explosive’ diarrhea linked to parasite
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As the Manns Harbor Bridge over the Croatan Sound nears its 70th birthday, it’s getting what North Carolina Department of Transportation Resident Engineer Pablo Hernandez recently called “the first major renovation that I’m aware of in my 28-, almost 29-year career here in Dare County.”
The bridge, he added quickly, needs work, but overall, “the fact is that we got almost 70 years out of it without a tremendous amount of maintenance investing.”
Hernandez also added that the work that had been done, mainly minor concrete repairs and a paint job about every 25 to 30 years, “but the current project seems to be the most complete.”
When the William B. Umstead Bridge, as it is officially known, opened to traffic in December 1956, Outer Banks newspaper the Coastland Times described it as “a fine Christmas present for the Southern Albemarle region,” adding that it “will make possible a lot of holiday visiting, particularly on the Dare County mainland.”
The bridge connects mainland Dare County with Roanoke Island and the Outer Banks. This delivered 20th century amenities to the isolated hamlets and towns of mainland Dare County that had yet to be electrified. With the bridge carrying connections for electric power and telephones, “some eight families will have electric lights for the first time” in the sleepy fishing village of Mashoes. And in the longstanding, unincorporated Manns Harbor community, “the bridge makes possible modern telephone,” the Coastland Times reported.
Although the bridge may appear to be in surprisingly good shape, it is a solid 40 years beyond its expected lifespan, and when the $33.75 million project began in summer 2023, uncertainty remained about the extent of repairs needed.
The original price tag has risen: “Estimated projections of total costs are currently around $45 million,” Hernandez wrote in an email. “We are doing what we can to control the costs but not to the detriment of the structure.”
“Until you’re there, you don’t know what you’re going to find, just like with an old house,” Hernandez said, “you start renovating it, and things need attention.”
The project is a blend of modern materials and traditional, often hands-on applications. Resurfacing the deck, for example, was completed using an epoxy that included an aggregate material to provide a textured surface. During the application process, the bridge was closed for nine months.
“All of those layers of the epoxy, as well as the aggregate to provide the textured surface, were all applied by hand, so over 300,000 square feet of bridge deck was rolled and squeegeed with these four separate layers of epoxy,” Hernandez explained.
The decision to apply the new surface in this way, instead of using “specialty trucks and pavers,” was in part because of the bridge’s 70-year-old design and the weight of the materials. “We don’t put a lot of what we call dead load on the bridge,” said Hernandez.
Other factors were also considered. “The deck was in surprisingly solid, good condition,” Hernandez said, “so there was no need to remove an inch just to put back another inch.”
The epoxy used is a viscous material that seals any cracks that may have developed.
Hernandez said the bridge design has a “certain robustness to begin with. It’s kind of like building a a deck on your house when you use a six-by-six post or an eight-by-eight or four-by-four post.”
Home to purple martins, pre-dedication damage
The bridge has for years been home to thousands of purple martins during summer. Hernandez, in response to Coastal Review’s query, was emphatic that the birds’ droppings had not damaged the bridge. He pointed out that the aerobatic birds roost on the bridges steel beams and atop the caps, concrete members that support the steel beams and are only there at night.
“From my experience, we have not seen a tremendous amount of bird droppings,” he said. Hernandez cited as evidence one night when he was with the Purple Martin Society conducting bird surveys. “We provided a boat and there were hundreds of thousands flying around. I don’t think anybody got nailed (with droppings).”
The most recent work has been below the bridge deck and the view down there is concerning. On the north side of the bridge, toward the mainland side, an entire piling is missing. In its place, iron girders support this part of the bridge. A March 1957 storm took out the piling before the bridge was officially dedicated the following month.
A grain barge, the C. W. Curlett “struck the bridge when it got out of control, said to have been due to the failure of one of the two motors. It swung down and struck the North side of bridge, shattering one of the huge concrete piles, so that the reinforcing steel inside it was exposed and bent,” the Coastland Times reported.
Just to the east of the bridge’s center rise, workers have been lowered to assess its condition. One worker taps the concrete with a hammer while another makes notes of their observations.
“They are listening for a hollow or dull sound,” Hernandez explained. “This indicates a deteriorated concrete layer. If it is solid, it will have a distinct sharp, pinging sound.”
Repairs to the concrete pilings are now the project’s focus. The concrete is showing its age, largely because of the limited materials available in 1956, as compared to current designs. The bridge pilings, Hernandez said, were only “mildly” reinforced. “It just has reinforcing bars in it.”
The reinforcing bars, or rebar, is exposed through cracks in the concrete. Repairs involve removing any rust from the iron and replacing the concrete. Although there is visible rust on the rebar, the one-inch bars are still in good shape with only basic maintenance needed to clean the rust and repack the concrete.
Hernandez compared the Manns Harbor Bridge pilings to those supporting the nearby new Lindsay C. Warren Bridge, aka the Alligator River Bridge, a project to replace the early 1960s-era structure that Hernandez also supervises. The pilings there are prestressed, by “basically taking a very dense and durable cable and stretching it, pouring concrete around it, and then letting that elastic force come back in (and) help squeeze the concrete together, so you get a denser piling that can go through a lot more cycles without any kind of cracking.”
Looking back: State awards $450M deal to build new Alligator River bridge
The cracks in the Umstead Bridge were not unexpected after seven decades. Temperature variations and cycles of freezing and thawing in a marine environment will cause the material to develop small fissures. Once air reaches the rebar, the iron begins to rust. Conversely, below the surface of the water, in what is considered anaerobic conditions, “the concrete is dense and sound, and the rebar is protected from water and oxygen,” Hernandez replied in an follow-up email. “The majority of the deterioration of the concrete and rebar is in the splash zone where there his ample oxygen to facilitate the corrosion process of ferrous metals.”
Repacking the piling concrete is one of the most labor-intensive, hands-on parts of the project. After removing the damaged concrete and cleaning the rebar of rust, barges form a protected area around the work zone under the bridge. On a barge deck, workers mix Speed Crete Blue Line, a product described by Hernandez as a “rapid-setting underwater concrete repair mortar.” According the manufacturer, Euclid Chemical, the product will set in three to five minutes after coming in contact with water.
Three divers are also employed in the repairs, reaching into buckets of mortar, pulling out a handful and pushing it into the voids and continuing the process until the piling is back to its original specs.
The mortar creates an airtight seal, protecting the rebar inside the piling. Then the pilings get an additional layer of protection.
“After we do the concrete piling, we come back with an epoxy-saturated carbon-fiber sheet of fabric and wrap that around the piling shell,” Hernandez said.
The bridge is considered one of the state’s “high-value bridges,” Hernandez said, referring to bridges within a $50 to $70 million range replacement cost.
Hernandez noted an NCDOT assessment of the bridge that asked, “Could we invest in a significant bridge preservation effort to get another 20, 30 or 40 years of life out of those structures?”
The repairs, Hernandez said, are going well, but the work originally slated for a Nov. 26 completion date that is “around the corner,” is unlikely to wrap up as scheduled. “Unfortunately we’re not going to be complete with the concrete repairs.”
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