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History of Mount Airy, North Carolina

It is noted that that the first settlers came to Mount Airy’s town site before 1747, almost 150 years before the town was incorporated.  Jefferson and Frye made their map of this region after the boundary survey of 1747, they noted these settlers:  Loven, Mount, and a Scotsman named Rentfrow or Rentfrew, who probably had his home on the hill (post office site) which still bears his name and who gave his name to the river which we call the Ararat and to the street we call Renfro.

In 1801, Thomas Perkins bought from Surry’s most important citizen of his time, Martin Armstrong, his plantation home on the river of Hamburg Street.  He named it Mount Airy.  Since affairs centered around this plantation, the little settlement became known as Mount Airy.  Mount Airy became an official post office in 1832 with James Tucker as postmaster.  In 1885 Mount Airy was incorporated.  Mount Airy began to grow quickly, which spawned fire and police protection, water works in 1895 and garbage collection in 1899.

Mayberry

Mount Airy was the childhood home of American actor Andy Griffith, and the inspiration for the fictional community Mayberry, the setting of The Andy Griffith Show. Although Griffith himself often denied the connection, several locations and names mentioned in the show reflect real places and people in or near Mount Airy, including Mount Pilot (nearby Pilot Mountain) and Snappy Lunch, a restaurant which still stands in the city's downtown and is famous for its pork chop sandwich. The community holds an annual "Mayberry Days" celebration during the last weekend of September which regularly attracts thousands of visitors from around the world.

Citizens of Mount Airy normally take pride in the Mayberry theme, but others are embarrassed by the association. Many citizens would rather Mount Airy show off and market its own rich heritage. In any case, Mount Airy itself looks nothing like TV's Mayberry, as the show was filmed entirely in Hollywood, California, on the RKO Pictures backlot called "Forty Acres".