Sanford City Hall was constructed on Charlotte Avenue during 1909 and 1910. The builders were Contractor Joe W. Stout and Contractor Robert Tandy Walker (1861-1915). During the early years of the structure, fire horses were stabled in the building. Photo and context courtesy of James Comer

City leaders say year-long celebration will not only honor Sanford’s history, but look forward to where the city is heading with tremendous growth expected on the horizon

By Gordon Anderson

There are always any number of reasons to expect big things in a new year, and 2024 is no different. But for Sanford — both its formal government and its 30,000-plus residents — 2024 promises to be not just big, but historic.

Click above for the digital edition of this month’s “The Rant Monthly.”

That’s because Feb. 11 will mark 150 years since the city (well, it was referred to as a “town” back in those days) received its charter from the state. A population of about 200 had sprung up around the Raleigh-Augusta rail line built two years prior through the location that is now Depot Park, and local leaders at the time developed the surrounding piney woods into today’s downtown area that anchors a city rapidly that’s growing by any definition of the word.

Today’s city and community leaders are planning big things for the sesquicentennial (that’s a mouthful, but it just means “150th,” and it’ll be rolling off your tongue with ease with enough practice) celebration, much like their forebears did in 1974 for the city’s 100th birthday.

The celebration is still being planned, but it won’t just mark the anniversary of Sanford’s charter —  the date in April 1874 when it became effective following the election of the city’s first leaders — or any other specific date.

Instead, Sanford Mayor Rebecca Wyof Salmon envisions a yearlong celebration with various events that will be open to the public celebrating both past and future.

“It’s a way to engage the whole of our community in participating,” Salmon said. “I think sometimes things get lost. If we’re just dressing up in outfits from 1874, I don’t know a lot of young people who are excited about that sort of thing. The community is doing so much visioning about where we want to go, but also how we keep our character. I think that going back and using our history as a touchstone will be a component of what we want to do — collecting more stories of our history and tapping into the resources right here in our community. But we also have a chance to celebrate where we’re headed.”

“With regards to the branding, we’ve had some people ask, ‘Where are the bricks?’” Salmon said. “We were the brick capital, but we’re not anymore. We were actually founded on the railroad, and the railroad is where we’re going back to. It represents both our past and future. There’s a nice symmetry about that.”

James Comer of Sanford has been researching his family’s genealogy since he was 9 and now has more than 10,000 pages in print located on genealogical sites and libraries across the United States. Comer shared several of the photos he’s collected and shared on his Facebook platforms with The Rant for this month’s piece on the city’s 150th anniversary. Above: Carthage Street in the early 1900s. Click to enlarge.

Salmon and the Sanford City Council have tapped Bob Joyce, a recently retired economic developer with the Sanford Area Growth Alliance, to spearhead the yearlong celebration, and while plans aren’t yet concrete, they envision at least three big events throughout the year, supplemented with various smaller events aimed at looking into more specific parts of the city’s 150 years.

The first event will likely be sometime in February, to commemorate the issuing of that charter in 1874.

“That happens to be Super Bowl Sunday, and not a good time of year to try to organize a crowd,” Joyce explained.

That said, plans are forming for a recognition of the charter around that time, most likely at City Hall, that would be open to the public. And because the charter wasn’t effective until April 1874, Salmon, Joyce and the sesquicentennial committee are aiming for a spring celebration with food trucks, amusements and more early in April. Finally, the city’s annual StreetFest & Fireworks in October will be centered around the 150th celebration, giving city residents and others multiple options for marking the occasion. The Rant will have information about times, dates and locations for these events when they are available.

Much of the branding around the 150th birthday (like the official logo above) will be based on the concept of trains. Not only was the railroad literally the reason Sanford exists today, it also figures heavily into the city’s very near future and beyond with recent developments along North Carolina’s S-Line track that are expected to bring passenger rail travel back.

But for Joyce and Salmon, any event throughout the year is an opportunity to celebrate.

“Throughout the year, we’ve got lots of events already,” Joyce said. “We’ve got Strawberry Jammin’. We’ve got the Farmers Market events. We’ve got walking tours. There’s music festivals and holiday events at Christmas and Halloween. And what we’ve talked about doing is branding them with the (sesquicentennial) and tying all those things into chances to celebrate and learn about our history.”

One method for doing so will be what Salmon and Joyce call a “history harvest.” Staff at the Lee County Library have contacted the state’s Cultural Resources Department and obtained funding to help scan and catalog photos from The Sanford Herald’s photo archive. There’s also talk of organizing video interviews with people whose memories of Sanford stretch back the farthest.

“We’ve talked about having some 60 Minutes style interviews, and doing it in an organized and academic way,” Joyce said. “And there’s a call to action here. The Lee County Library will soon be prepared to receive inquiries about this, whether you have an aunt or an uncle or a great grandparent or whatever who would want to be interviewed. Or if you just have a piece of Sanford’s history, whatever it is. We want to have that story and share that story.”

There’s strong precedent, as mentioned previously in this story, for a big birthday celebration in Sanford. The 1974 Centennial looms fairly large in the memory of those who were around Sanford back then, and the evidence can still be seen if you know where to look.

The Centennial Committee that year produced “Centennial Memories,” a half inch thick volume that’s a little light on actual history but heavy on photos of Sanfordians at the time (mostly dressed up in period specific clothing). The Sanford Herald published a large centennial edition on April 30 of that year detailing the first 100 years of the city’s existence. It includes letters of congratulations from both of North Carolina’s senators at the time, Republican Jesse Helms and Democrat Sam Ervin.

Hawkins Avenue in the early 1900s when it was still a dirt road. Click above to enlarge.

But even if these memories can be found, doing so isn’t always easy. Salmon wants that to be different for the 150th celebration, in large part because 2024 is much different, technology-wise, than 1974.

“What we’re hoping to find is not the stories we’ve heard over and over, but things that are unique and different and special that will round out the history we already know,” she said. “And one of our big goals is to do this in a way that once we’ve captured these things, these photographs and interviews and pieces of history, that we have them on hand so that our next generation can have access to them.”

To be clear, there’s a lot about Sanford’s history that’s been lost. There’s a period of 25 years early in the city’s existence where it’s unknown who the mayor was. There’s no known photo of Col. C.O. Sanford, the railroad engineer for whom the town is named.

“There’s a known drawing we have that was done by (now deceased former economic developer) Hal Siler, but when he was asked how he knew what Sanford looked like, he just said ‘well, I just kind of imagined what he might look like,” Joyce said, laughing at the memory. “But there is a chance that someone, in Sanford or somewhere else, has pieces of our history that we don’t currently know about.”

A 1912 postcard from Sanford shows the train depot, a passenger train with several people looking on and buildings along Moore Street in downtown Sanford. Photo courtesy of James Comer, click above to enlarge.

As referenced earlier, plans for the entire year are still being made, and the public’s input is not just welcomed, but necessary. Joyce and Salmon are actively seeking volunteers to get involved in every level of the planning, whether that’s gathering information about the past, arranging or conducting interviews, giving walking tours, coordinating with existing historical resources like downtown’s Railroad House Historical Museum, and more.

Those interested in volunteering can contact Salmon at rebecca.salmon@sanfordnc.net or Joyce at rfjoyce44@gmail.com.

“We hope to be planting trees. They say the best time to plant a tree is 50 years ago, and the second best time is today. We ‘ve looked at joining up with the Arts Council to do a little mini pottery festival and talk about our pottery festival. We hope to have a lecture series,” Joyce said. “It’s just that these things require manpower.”

“We’ve talked about offering some sponsorship opportunities, so we can make things for the most part free to the public or at least very low cost,” Salmon added. “We strive very hard to make sure that we’re putting out good quality, fun things for families to be able to participate in. And we’re gonna be able to do that throughout the year celebrating. And we’ve talked about reaching out to the community, whether that’s civic organizations or families or businesses and saying, “we want you to create your own 150 memories within your organization. When the story becomes about more than just one festival, the whole community gets an opportunity to make it their own. We all own this together, and we’re all going to celebrate together.”

Hundreds gather in Sanford in 1925 for a church conference in downtown Sanford. Click above to enlarge.

The city has created sanford150.com which will host all information about the sesquicentennial. The site isn’t live yet, but content is expected to be available in the coming days and weeks.

And to be clear, the purpose of this story was not to detail Sanford’s history. The purpose of this story was to discuss the citywide celebration that’s expected to take place over calendar year 2024. But if the content you’re interested in is explicitly historical content, worry not. The Rant expects to participate in the sesquicentennial by detailing what we’re able to learn throughout the year in stories each and every month. That will be done in conjunction with the city’s official events marking the birthday, but also through our readers.

Those with old photographs, mementos and stories are encouraged to reach out to gordon@rantnc.com or billy@rantnc.com to share what you have, if you’re willing. We can’t promise to publish everything, but we’ll take a look at everything we get.