Matthew Dellinger and his father lived down the hill from his grandfather’s house on a 280-year-old family farm outside Cherryville. Almost 40 miles west of Charlotte, Cherryville is on an old railroad line, built around the textile and trucking industries.
Dellinger earned an undergraduate degree from Western Carolina University and is now enrolled in the UNC School of Government’s Master of Public Administration program.
Editor’s note: Tar Heels come from communities of all sizes, some of them tiny. In the Small Town Spotlight series, Carolina students share photos of meaningful places and people back home.
He had some initial concerns about attending a larger university, but Dellinger says faculty and staff quickly respond to his questions. He’s connecting with a close-knit group of 30 classmates who are “phenomenal” and “brilliant” and with guest speakers and school alumni who might be able to hire him.
Dellinger feels something familiar off campus, too. “Although it’s larger, Chapel Hill has a small-town feeling,” he said.
Below, Dellinger shares photos and thoughts about his hometown.
Downtown Cherryville has been revitalized, and business owners were ecstatic. Antique stores and mom-and-pop shops remain, but new restaurants and businesses are coming in. One of those older places was named Mike’s Motors. Now, it’s Brunner’s Automotive. I spent a lot of time there because I had an old beater car, and that guy kept it alive. If I had a Lamborghini, I’d trust him with it. When I go home, I still get my oil changed there.
My granddad Gene Dellinger’s farm has been here since the late 1700s. It’s a centennial farm registered with the state of North Carolina. There’s this barn, three granaries, a smokehouse and a well house on the property. Water from the creek runs through the well house to keep it cool. I think my great-grandparents and great-great grandparents stored milk and eggs there.
The railroad museum is a testament to the town’s revitalization. The building’s parking lot, for instance, didn’t exist two years ago. Piedmont Lithium is building a plant and a mine nearby and has contributed a lot to the revitalization. It’s nice to see Cherryville get a facelift, especially when it helps good people who’ve been through a lot. The schools are getting special attention, too. The grade schools are heavily focused on science and math, and they put on plays and musicals. Cherryville High School is now a public service academy. As a student of government, I’m excited to see high schoolers becoming a skilled workforce.
Murals and public art are popping up all over town. This one shows some of Cherryville’s history, like the railroad and a Carolina Freight truck. When the Carolina Freight trucking company left in 1995, it took a lot of jobs with it. There’s a woman working in a textile mill and a baseball player from the American Legion program. The town loves baseball.
Animals are all over the farm, including barn cats, chickens and guinea. We have a garden and grow muscadine grapes. We also harvest honey and melt the honeycomb to make lip balm and candles. That dogwood is one of many shrubs and trees that my grandparents planted. In the spring, the place explodes with color. My grandmother, Rochelle, enjoyed being in the dirt. When I was a kid, she let me plant sunflower seeds by the road so in the summertime the top of the hill was lined with sunflowers. My granddad and I planted sunflower seeds for years after she passed away.