Want to know more about Cary? For the 1st time, a visitor center is ready to welcome you
Walking into the Cary Visitor Center, you’ll find the 1976 municipal flag that flew over the town until 2001.
You’ll see books by local writers and bricks from the old Page-Walker Hotel, built in 1868, which serves as the town’s arts and history center.
If your family has lived here long enough, you may even spot your parents in a Cary High School yearbook.
As the town has grown to over 180,000 people, there has been a push for new developments, shopping centers and restaurants. Yet, there has never been a physical location to go to when seeking general information or to request a tour.
The Cary Visitor Center has opened at 107 W. Chatham St. this month, thanks to two Cary natives who wanted to change that.
“I think it’s really an interesting unifier where people, regardless of their legacy or their time in Cary, are coming back to one place to see it in a new way,” said Katherine Loflin, a town historian and business owner.
Though you can find recommendations, the Cary Visitor Center is more than maps and dinner suggestions.
It presents Cary “in a way that makes people want to fall in love with it,” Loflin said.
‘The new merging with the old’
In February 91-year-old Ralph Ashworth and his son’s decision to close Ashworth Drugs, a neighborhood pharmacy and lunch spot on West Chatham Street, sparked the idea for the visitor center.
Their decision left many residents reflecting on changes in downtown Cary, such as new restaurants and nightlife, a future apartment building, and, recently, the $68 million Downtown Cary Park. Many felt the places they loved would soon disappear.
“I thought to myself, this is a moment we need to step up for Cary because (the closing) was disorienting,” Loflin said. “And I knew a government-operated visitor center in Cary was going to still be elusive for a while.”
Loflin, who leads paranormal tours and stages plays around town under her business, The City Doctor Productions, and Leslie Douglas, the owner of Douglas Realty Group in downtown Cary, opened the visitor center in the realty group’s building.
“I remember when the only reason you went downtown Cary was to get a (sandwich) from Mr. Ashworth,” Douglas said. “I think you can embrace the new and the change, at the same time celebrating the history. I wanted this to be a place where the new merges with the old and we appreciate where we come from.”
What’s in the Cary Visitor Center?
Cary residents have donated books, maps, flags and commemorative antiques to the center.
Ashworth, who had been in business 67 years, donated awards the business had won, the awning that hung over the lunch counter, and original coins from Cary’s centennial celebration.
Other donated items are original art by Jerry Miller, the Cary artist behind the town’s Lazy Daze Arts & Crafts Festival that began in 1977; railroad spikes; and facts about Henry Adams, who played a role in integrating Cary High School.
There are also replicas of drums from the Tuscarora Native American tribe made by Eagle Scouts in the 1950s.
“If you thought you knew everything about Cary, you might want to come in and check us out,” Douglas said.
The Cary Visitor Center is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on weekends from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
