Pittsboro can be described as small, quiet and country. Lately though, the town has been growing beyond its soda shop and antique stores in the past year alone. Pittsboro has introduced a new Japanese restaurant, a Papa John’s, a tanning salon, a bakery and will soon have a frozen yogurt shop.
The town has always been a relatively small, tight-knit community, filled with unique shops and traditional events such as First Sunday, a street fair and gathering of local businesses held the first Sunday of each month.
“It’s very small but I feel like we all know each other really well. When I go to visit my cousins in Ohio, they don’t know their neighbors as well as we do here,” said junior Morgan McDonnell, who has lived in Pittsboro her entire life.
Jean Oldham, the owner of S&T’s Soda Shoppe, has been managing his restaurant for nearly 16 years. He says he enjoys living outside of major cities as opposed to living in a busier, urban setting.
“It’s a community where a lot of people know each another and we all still try to help one another if something goes wrong. We think a lot of each other; it’s not like a big city where nobody knows each other,” said Oldham.
For sophomore Bella Chevalier, who has just recently moved to North Carolina from California, Pittsboro can’t compare to her old hometown.
“It’s all right. I’d like to see Pittsboro with a movie theater or something other than just a McDonald’s and a soda shop,” said Chevalier.
Now that the new businesses have gone from just being rumors to actual establishments in the town, business owners who have been here for years and local residents are taking notice.
Aaron Freeman, one of the science teachers at Northwood, has lived in Pittsboro for six years and does not see the appeal of the new businesses coming to town.
“As a resident [of Pittsboro] I’ve never been to the tanning salon, I’ve never been to the bakery because I work and it’s not open when I can get there and I’ve only eaten at New Japan once. I just don’t visit those businesses,” said Freeman. “I will drive to Apex where I can do all of that in one stop at Target.”
Oldham agrees that Pittsboro has been developing more as of late, and is wary about the types of new businesses in town. He does not want new businesses to come into the town take all the business out of town. He believes that they should nourish the town.
“[Pittsboro] always has to change; it’s not something that’ll stay the same,” said Oldham.
McDonnell also believes that the types of incoming businesses determine if they will benefit the town or not.
“I think the expansion will be a good thing. We’ve gotten a little more commercial, which I like,” said McDonnell. “I think [Pittsboro] will continue to grow, business-wise, but I hope we stay close-knit.”
Senior Kelsey Lafoon, who has lived in the Pittsboro area for 18 years, says that she’s noticed both the opening of new businesses and the closing of familiar ones, such as the General Store Café.
“When the [General Store Café] closed, I was more curious as to what was going to replace it rather than why it closed. The Café was such an iconic thing for Pittsboro, everyone knew about it, and it’s going to be hard to top that,” said Lafoon.
Lafoon describes the changes as a way for Pittsboro to develop into a more modernized version of itself. In five to 10 years, Lafoon sees the town becoming a support system for both the old and the new businesses, appealing to a wider range of people.
“I don’t really think the new businesses will take away any business from the
old ones. As long as the businesses are attracting customers to the town, people
will still support both,” said Lafoon. “I work at the Carolina Brewery and we were worried that when New Japan opened, it would take away some of our business. However, that never happened and both of our businesses are still getting plenty of customers.”
With Pittsboro growing into a more urban setting, some students hope that the town’s appeal will expand beyond its rustic roots.
“I am excited about the new changes to town,” said Lafoon. “I think that people complain about Pittsboro being ‘boring’ all the time, so hopefully these new changes will help bring some new interest to the town and give people more options of how to spend their time.”
– By Kristen Hutchinson