Bynum is an unincorporated community in northeastern Chatham County, North Carolina, United States on the banks of the Haw River. Bynum is three miles north of Pittsboro, North Carolina and 9 miles south of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It is also known as Bynum Mill Village or Bynum Mill Hill. [1]
Bynum's most notable building is the Bynum General Store at 950 Bynum Road, Bynum, NC 27228. Tift Merritt started her music career playing on the General Store's front porch.[2] The Store closed in 2006 but the building has been in constant use since as a community center. The Bynum Front Porch Music Series still runs every Friday evening rain or shine, May - September at the Bynum General Store. [3]
The town was a "cotton mill town." The original mill was built about 1872 beside the Haw River. [4] The spinning mill was purchased by John Milton Odell of Concord, North Carolina in 1886.[5] In several stages from about 1890's to 1910, small two to six room houses were built on the hill above the mill and rented to the mill workers and their families. Bynum was one of the first areas in Chatham County to have electric lights because turbines at the mill provided electricity for both the factory and the houses. The mill workers were paid in script. The script was only usable to pay their rent or at the "company store" (also owned by the mill). [6] In the 1970's the houses were purchased from J.M.Odell Manufacturing Company with a Housing and Urban Development grant, renovated and sold to the mill workers - where many lived all their lives. Odell Manufacturing closed the Bynum mill in December, 1983. The factory sat vacant for many years, then burned down in March, 2001. Most of the original mill houses are still standing and are now private homes. [7]
The former mill site is now part of the Lower Haw River State Natural Area. There is a canoe put-in, trail head and parking lot on Bynum Church Road. A two mile trail follows the Haw River southeast to Pokeberry Creek. Interpretive displays about the mill and the mill village are under development. The turbine building is still standing and the mill race empties into the Haw River nearby. The area adjoins and is managed by the Jordan Lake State Recreation Area.
The old Bynum Bridge (built 1922)[8] is on Bynum Road and crosses the Haw River. It was closed to motor vehicle traffic in 1999, but it is currently a pedestrian bridge and part of the statewide designated bicycle route. Cars now cross the Haw River on the newer US 15-501 bridges about 1000 feet north. There is another canoe take-out, dam and the mill race sluice gates at US 15-501.
Hundreds of Jack-o-lanterns line the old bridge rails on Halloween night from dark until midnight, and local artist and musicians perform. There are haunted houses, trick or treaters and a Halloween carnival at the Bynum Methodist Church and Ruritan Club near the old bridge. The old bridge is also the location of the community's 4th of July picnic. [9]
The Bynum Community Garden is on Bynum Hill Road. Chatham County's Earl Thompson Park is also on Bynum Hill Road and has playground and a baseball field.
|
||||||||||||||||||||
