Mount Airy

Mount Airy is a small town in the northern Piedmont of North Carolina with a population around 9,000 and sits at roughly 340 meters elevation. The downtown streets follow a grid pattern with low brick storefronts and some wooden residential houses toward the edges.

The settlement began in the 1750s as a stagecoach rest stop between Winston-Salem and Galax in Virginia. The community officially incorporated as a town in 1885 and grew into a regional trading center for tobacco and textiles.

The town took its name from a grand estate called Mount Airy that once stood on a hill near the town center. Today the downtown centers around Main Street, where local businesses still occupy brick buildings from the early 20th century.

The downtown is easy to walk around, with free parking available on several street corners. Most shops and restaurants open during the day from Monday to Saturday, while Sundays see only scattered businesses operating.

The North Carolina Granite Corporation operates the largest open-face granite quarry in the world here, with stone used for many national monuments. Material from this quarry appears in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Library of Congress, among others.