Mount Holly, North Carolina, United States

🇺🇸 Mount Holly is a small suburban city in north-eastern Gaston County, North Carolina, United States. The city is situated just west of the Catawba River, north of Interstate 85, south of North Carolina State Highway 16, and west of Charlotte.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 10.0 square miles (25.9 km²), of which 9.8 square miles (25.4 km²) is land and 0.19 square miles (0.5 km²), or 1.98%, is water.

Mount Holly is located 12 miles (19 km) north-east of Gastonia and 13 miles (21 km) north-west of Charlotte.

History Land grants were first issued in the Mount Holly area by King George II of Great Britain around 1750. In 1754, a land grant was issued to James Kuykendall of Holland in the locale known as Dutchman's Creek. Later in 1838, a post office in the area was named Woodlawn. In 1875, the name of the town was changed to Mount Holly, after the Mount Holly Cotton Mill that was started that year. The name "Mount Holly" was used in recognition of the famed yarn made at a spinning mill in Mount Holly, New Jersey.

A.P. and D.E. Rhyne and Ambrose Costner originally owned the Mount Holly Cotton Mill. It was the fourth mill to be built in Gaston County and is the oldest surviving mill today. The mill's success and the prosperity of the area as a whole led local residents to petition the North Carolina General Assembly for incorporation of Mount Holly in 1879.

The first railroad in Gaston County, the Carolina Central Railway, began serving Mount Holly in 1860. The line, which runs parallel with North Carolina State Highway 27, is still in service and operated by CSX. In 1911, construction began on the area's second railroad, the Piedmont and Northern Railway. On May 20, 1912, it made its first run from Charlotte to Gastonia.

Electricity became available to homes and businesses around the turn of the twentieth century. The Woodlawn Mill, located on Woodlawn Avenue, was built in 1906 and was the first mill in Gaston County to be served with electricity.

The Downtown Mount Holly Historic District and Mount Holly Cotton Mill are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Government The City of Mount Holly has a Council-Manager form of government with a mayor and six council members. The mayor is elected every four years in November, and the council members, elected at-large, serve four-year staggered terms. The city council appoints a professional city manager to run the day-to-day operations.

Education Three elementary schools (Pinewood, Catawba Heights and Ida Rankin), Mount Holly Middle School, East Gaston High School and Stuart W. Cramer High School are the public schools that serve Mount Holly. All six schools are part of the Gaston County Schools. Mountain Island Charter School is also located near Mount Holly near Highway 16. Because of Mount Holly's location, residents there have access to a number of public and private colleges and universities, including Belmont Abbey College, Gaston College, Central Piedmont Community College, Queens University of Charlotte, Pfeiffer University, Johnson and Wales University, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Johnson C. Smith University.

The Mount Holly Branch of the Gaston County Public Library serves this community.

Economy Improvements in the regional transportation network and the economic growth of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area, and Mount Holly's strategic location between Charlotte and Gastonia, have created conditions for an expanding population in recent years.

The textile industry continues to play a significant role in the Mount Holly area. The Gaston County Economic Development Commission's current manufacturing directory lists 19 manufacturing firms in the area, ten of which are textile related. The city's largest textile firm is American & Efird, Inc. (A&E), the world's second-largest thread maker. The firm was created with a 1952 merger of American Yarn and Processing Company (located in Mount Holly) and the Efird Manufacturing Company (located in Albemarle, North Carolina). American Yarn had its start in 1891 when Charles Egbert Hutchison founded the Nims Manufacturing Company on Dutchman's Creek. With six plants and their corporate offices in Mount Holly, A&E employs more than 980 people and maintains a strong presence in the community. In 1990, the Freightliner Trucks manufacturing plant was annexed into the city. Freightliner and its subsidiary businesses have been a significant employer in Mount Holly since 1979.

Since 2007 National Gypsum has operated a wallboard plant in Mount Holly. While gypsum wallboard is typically produced from gypsum rock, the Mount Holly plant uses byproduct gypsum produced by sulfur dioxide scrubbers at four of Duke Power's coal-fired power plants.

Mount Holly's historic downtown district includes several restaurants, a coffee shop, salons and retail offerings in addition to offices, banks and other businesses.