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How Oak Ridge’s commercial core came to be From farmland to shopping centers, family perseveres to build their dream

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Fall 2019 by PATTI STOKES In 1972, changes in the Greensboro City school system prompted Jerry and Phyllis Cooke to make a decision that would ultimately lead to much of the commercial development Oak Ridge has experienced in the last 25 years.

“We spent two years looking at what was available (in the rural part of the county),” Jerry Cooke said. During their search, he created a 3x5 card system and wrote down every tract of undeveloped land in northwest Guilford County that had recently sold, and the selling price. Cooke said he had spent many Saturday mornings looking at land when in 1974 an acquaintance told him about some farmland in Oak Ridge for sale. The 130-acre tract, which bordered N.C. 68 on both sides, was owned by fi ve heirs. Almost immediately after seeing the property, Cooke said he made an off er. It was accepted, and within a month he and Phyllis agreed to owner-fi nancing at 10 percent interest; compared to the going interest rate in 1974 of 22 percent, it was a bargain. The couple also agreed to make a $30,000 payment at the end of the fi rst year, with the balance due at the end of 10 years.

Cooke said he later found out a local resident had been off ered the property, but declined to pay more than $500 an acre for it. Insulted, the heirs’ family manager said no one in Oak Ridge would own his family’s farm.

“That was my opportunity, but I didn’t Photo by Patti Stokes/NWO Oak Ridge resident Jerry Cooke, soon to be 84, credits his wife and youngest son for their help and support in commercially developing much of the 130-acre farm he purchased in 1974.

know that at the time,” Cooke said. “The asking price was $1,442 an acre, and that’s what I had off ered him.”

Before construction could begin on the Cookes’ new home, to be located on the farmland, trees and brush had to be cleared for a driveway. For about a year Cooke and Philip, the couple’s son who at the time was 7, spent almost every Saturday cutting out the ¼-mile driveway that led from N.C. 68 back to where their new home would be.

“We drug all that brush back here (into the woods) and burned it,” Cooke told the Northwest Observer while sitting in his former home, which is now where the company’s offi ces are located.

At the end of the workday, the two tired and hungry workers would go to Libby Hill Seafood on W. Market Street for dinner and pay $3.50 a plate for all they could eat. He said they got their money’s worth.

In the spring of 1975, a $30,000 loan payment came due on the Cookes’ farm property. Concerned about falling short, Cooke sought help from his father. continued onpage 28

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From the whistle blast of the Atlantic & Yadkin to the sound of cars, trucks and tractor trailers

Stokesdale’s history dates back to 1860, when John King opened a general store on presentday Ellisboro Road; Friends of Stokesdale wants to preserve the town’s history and revitalize a once vibrant downtown area

by CHRIS BURRITT with contributions by JOE THACKER

Photo courtesy of David Bott In 1886, the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railroad (later Atlantic & Yadkin) laid tracks in Stokesdale, followed by construction of a depot for freight and passengers. Several wooden buildings were built on the opposite side of the street that ran along the track.

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Fall 2019 STOKESDALE – As a boy, Bob Simpson knew the train was coming by the blast of its whistle.

Two long blasts followed by one short and one long signaled the train was crossing a street. It sounded one short and one long blast as it departed the train depot on U.S. 158.

Those memories from half a century ago have surfaced in Stokesdale as the historic depot that once anchored downtown was put up for auction in late September after being relocated to property on U.S. 220 in Madison as a private residence 42 years ago.

“I’d like to see it moved back to Stokesdale,” Simpson, 82, said in an interview before the auction. As a boy, he’d go into the depot to listen to clicking of the telegraph. He worked as a brakeman on the railway 60 years ago. “I would like to see it as a museum.”

The history of the railroad goes back to the founding of Stokesdale; known originally as Green Pond, it was likely named for a nearby pond green with algae. It’s unclear why the name was changed to Stokesdale.

“Some say there was a conductor or surveyor of the railroad named Mr. Stokes,” according to a history of the town written by Stokesdale resident Joe Thacker. “Maybe it was the town’s proximity to Stokes County. No one knows for sure.”

The history outlined below comes from Thacker, president of Friends of Stokesdale, a nonprofi t focused on promoting the town’s history, preserving its old buildings and revitalizing the downtown area. In recent months, the organization secured a clock that fronts U.S. 158 at the fi re station – the former site of the train depot – and commissioned a mural commemorating the town’s 30th anniversary of incorporation this year. Stokesdale originated in 1860 when John King built a general merchandise store on present-day Ellisboro Road. There, he sold coff ee, sugar, salt, beans, seed, hoes, shovels and other general goods to local farming families. A post offi ce was assigned to the store within a few years.

Twenty-six years later, the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railroad (later Atlantic & Yadkin) laid tracks in town, followed by construction of a depot for freight and passengers. Several wooden continued onpage 30

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Homes From The $500’s New Homes From The High $500’s Photo by Chris Burritt/NWO Upkeep of the old Stokesdale train depot has become too much for Mary Hunter (above) so she’s decided to sell the historic building where she’s lived since 2003. “It needs better hands than I can give it right now,” said Hunter, looking through one of the two ticket windows in the former depot building that has been her home for the last 16 years.

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