DAVIDSON, N.C. — Just 20 miles north of Charlotte is the town of Davidson -- a community that has seen tremendous growth in the past 10 years.
Mayor Rusty Knox calls himself a "lifetime townie," and when he was young only about 1,500 people lived in Davidson. Now, nearly 15,000 people call the town home.
Despite the growth, it still has its small-town flare.
“Davidson is a community that you move to and you can jump in with both feet and in six months everybody knows who you are,” Knox said.
He is currently serving his third term -- and the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. His father was mayor from 1985 to 1997.
Davidson’s population has doubled in the past decade but it still has the character of a small southern college town.
“If you look at the main street, the storefronts that you see right now are basically the same storefronts that were here when I was a child,” he said. “Most of them were storefronts when my dad was a child as well.”
The biggest employers in town are Ingersoll-Rand, MSC Industrial Direct and Davidson College.
“I remember when the college was the largest employer period," he said. "35-40% of the residents worked at the college in some manner... They either taught there, worked in the frat houses, they were cooks they worked in the laundry and more.”
From the arts, the greenways, and hundreds of mom-and-pop shops in the community, MSC Industrial Direct fell for Davidson’s appeal.
Chief Supply Chain Officer Doug Jones said after doing a nationwide search, it moved its headquarters from New York to North Carolina.
“To try to attract a bunch of New Yorkers to come down, we needed sports teams, we needed arts, we needed outdoor activities, the lake was obviously a big selling point,” Jones said.
Davidson was the perfect location.
“We have about 400 people working here contributing to the restaurants, shops, gas stations around here,” Jones said. “We have also become very ingrained in the community in the nine years we have been here. We also partner with the nonprofits in the area.”
The town also holds its own when it comes to eateries.
“When we first got here in 1996 there was the soda shop downtown, North Habor café… Not a big selection of restaurants," Bill Russell, president of Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce, said. "But since then we have seen Flatiron Kitchen and Carrburritos and the introduction of lots of restaurants from Asian to Latino cuisine.”
It's bringing foodies into town.
“Once Kindred opened up and got in Bon Appetit, people came from across the state to eat at Kindred,” Knox said. “That just spurred other restaurants to open up and now we have 29 restaurants in town.”
It's a community that really comes together in tough times. During the pandemic, Knox said only one business closed its doors, and it was only because they planned to retire within the next year.
"Everybody in town pitched in, everybody was doing take-out food, curbside pickup, bookstore curbside, shopping at the village store," Knox explained. "Online shopping and things like that. It's also thanks to the programs and initiatives by economic development that helped save the businesses."
Although there are no current development projects in the works Knox said there are opportunities for growth in the eastern part of town.
“We know that we are going to grow and we know that plans are going to come in the future but that is a challenge that myself and future board and future mayors will have to deal with as it comes,” he said.
One focus, as they continue to expand, is providing some level of affordable housing in the area so that anyone who discovers Davidson has the ability to work, live and play there.
“I’ve embraced the growth as a lifetime townie, we were 1,500 when I grew up,” he said. “We are 15,000 now and when we build out we’ll probably 25,000 people."
But the goal is to stay a small southern college town for as long as they can.
Contact Jesse Pierre at jpierrepet@wcnc.com or follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.