City of Morganton history

Passenger service on this east/west rail line ended in the 1970s. It was not until the War ended that construction began again and the rail line reached Old Fort by 1869.

The first Morganton Depot was built around 1870 on the other side of the track, not where it is located today.

The hospital accepted its first patient March 29, 1883.

By 1886 a new passenger station was built to handle an ever increasing number of travelers.

Construction began in 1891, and the N.C. School for the Deaf opened with 104 students and eight teachers on Oct.

In 1893 the county drew a group of Waldenses, religious refugees from the Italian Alps; their descendants hold an annual festival in mid-August in nearby Valdese.

Pictured is the town of Valdese in the summer of 1894.

In the foreground is Drexel Furniture Co. and the depot, left center, a two-cell jail, center, across from depot; Roller Mill (flour mill), right center; and Sash and Blind Co., far right. (By 1902, a building had been erected to house a factory that manufactured doors, window sashes and blinds.

Students in the 10th-grade class of Glen Alpine High School gather for a portrait about 1912.

By 1927, the Morganton Full-Fashioned Hosiery Mill was built adjacent to the Garrou Mill.

That changed in November 1933 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled the Civil Works Administration (CWA). The CWA's goal was to create manual labor jobs for millions of unemployed workers during the Great Depression.

In March 1934, the CWA approved funding and manpower for the Community House project.

29, 1935, the day after Thanksgiving, the Women's Club held a Civic Dinner in celebration of the formal opening of the new, City-owned Community House.

Edward McKee Goodwin served as the school’s first superintendent until his death in 1937.

Mary Tucker Jeter Walker stands with her students at the North Carolina School for the Deaf during the 1938-39 academic year.

Grace’s sister hospital, Valdese General Hospital, opened in 1939.

In May 1952, members of the Community House Building Committee approached the City Council about making some improvements.

Broughton was accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations in 1973.

In 1981, the Morganton City Council approved expanding the Community House by building a 3,500 square foot addition.

Founded in July of 1988, the Piedmont & Western Model Railroad Club has combined the talents and passions of local railroad enthusiasts to create a fictitious rail line serving Western North Carolina.

More than 20 years later, Premier Hosiery Mills filed for bankruptcy, and the company permanently discontinued around October of 1995.

In 1998, the City of Morganton purchased the building from bankruptcy court and advertised the building for sale by the Morganton Redevelopment Commission.