Spotlight: Pittsboro

For those of you who have no history, so to speak, with North Carolina or Pittsboro, NC in particular (my mother grew up there) then you wouldn't truly understand the transformation: from small, off-the beaten-path crossroads to growing Chapel Hill suburb; from small gas stations and storefronts to trendy restaurants and arts displays.

It's true. Pittsboro is now one of the places to be in the Triangle are of NC (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel-Hill).

A must stop: The General Store Cafe, 39 West Street.

In the unlikeliest of places lies one of the most happening hot spots in the Triangle area. Its popularity is growing. Visitors show up from different states often to see what all the fuss is about. Take a stroll through downtown Pittsboro on a weekend evening and you may hear the music, see the lights and smell the wonderful aromas emanating from the General Store Café. With articles in the Bon Appétit and Southern Living Magazine as well as numerous newspapers throughout the Triangle area, the café has become a favorite community gathering place as well as a destination for a lot of new folks.

Originally owned by two prominent women in the Pittsboro/Chatham community, Elizabeth Anderson and Mimi Pearson, the store opened as a natural foods grocery on May 12, 1979, in the Hall-London House on the corner of Thompson and Hillsborough, a few blocks north of its present location. A year and a half later it relocated to a space in the Blair Hotel Building on the traffic circle, where it resided until 1994, and for several years operated as a combination natural foods store and consignment shop.

History of Pittsboro, NC

Pittsboro is a town in Chatham County, North Carolina, UnitedStates. The population was 2,226 at the 2000 census, but it estimated to be almost 3000 today. It is the Chatham County seat. The town is served by four local schools; Pittsboro Elementary School, Horton Middle School, Northwood High School, and Chatham County Community College (CCCC), Pittsboro Branch.

Pittsboro was established as a town in 1785; the Chatham County Court House stood on land belonging to Mile Scurlock. In 1787, however, the legislature declared that a town could not be established on Scurlock's land. The town's trustees instead purchased adjacent land belonging to William Petty and laid out the town. That same year, Pittsboro was officially named the county seat. Although Chatham County is named for William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Pittsboro is named for his son, William Pitt the Younger.

Pittsboro was once considered as a potential site for both the University of North Carolina and the state capitol. UNC was eventually sited in Chapel Hill and the state capitol was located approximately 30 miles to the east of Pittsboro, in Raleigh.