Andrews, North Carolina

Andrews is a town in Cherokee County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,667 at the 2020 census.



History
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Valley River was inhabited by Muscogee people. They constructed platform mounds in the centers of their towns. At least 14 existed within the limits. By the beginning of the 18th century, the Cherokee had pushed the Muscogee out and taken over their townsites. Many of the towns retained their original names.

Andrews was the site of two substantial Cherokee sister towns, Tomotla and Konohete. The meaning of Tomotla is lost. Konehete or Gu'nahitun'ya on the other hand, can be translated to mean "Long Place" or "Long Valley." The remains of the Andrews Mound survived until 1975, when the land owner bulldozed the structure after it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. All of the other mounds have been destroyed either through farming or malicious land owners.

The area was originally called Jamesville, and then the Whitaker Settlement, in honor of settler James Whittaker. In 1852, Cherokee County’s first industry, a tannery northeast of what would become Andrews, was established by James Stewart. The town’s first school was a log structure built on Fairview Road in the early 1880s. In the late 1880s, Col. A.B. Andrews, second vice president of the Richmond and Danville Railroad, bought 50 acres in the area to build a commissary for the railway. Trains began visiting in 1891.

The town's establishment
In 1905, the town of Andrews was incorporated, with David Samuel Russell appointed as the first mayor. The Franklin Pierce Cover House, First Baptist Church, and Walker's Inn are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. On October 27, 1906, the dedication of the Andrews Public School occurred, and its first classes began in August 1907 in the Masonic Lodge. The building was used until its demolition in the summer of 1961.

After African-Americans were forced out of Cumming, Georgia, in 1912, some came to Andrews and started a community called Happytop. A Carnegie library was built in Andrews in 1914. It was demolished in 1979 to make room for the current Andrews Public Library building. The Andrews Public Library joined the Nantahala Regional Library system in 1940.

Andrews was home to the Wilhide brothers, Robert M. and Wilfred W. Wilhide, born between 1920 and 1922. Both were born and raised in Andrews, attended flight school at Cherry Point, North Carolina, and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps as pilots during World War II. In the space of several days, after inflicting severe losses upon the Japanese fleet, both brothers were lost and killed during missions near Okinawa. The Wilhide brothers were given a memorial in the Valleytown cemetery, and a monument at Veterans Memorial Park in Andrews, not far from their childhood home and birthplace.

In October 1920, the Peavine Railroad was completed between Andrews and Hayesville. It hauled mainly lumber and was dismantled in 1951. Passenger service between Asheville, Murphy, and Andrews ended in 1948.

Late 20th century to present
The town’s first hospital was located downtown on the corner of Locust and Main Streets, founded by Dr. Van Gorder. In 1956, a 30-bed non-profit regional hospital named the District Memorial Hospital of Southwestern North Carolina was constructed in Andrews at a cost of $375,000 (about $4.3 Million today). A complete renovation and expansion was done in 1970, making it a 64-bed facility. Citing uncollected payments, District Memorial declared bankruptcy in 2000, closed in June 2003, and was demolished in late 2008/early 2009. Today the town is served by Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital 12 mi southwest in Peachtree. Industrial Opportunities, Inc. (IOI) was founded in 1974 to serve Cherokee, Clay, and Graham counties. The Andrews nonprofit hires mentally and physically disabled adults to manufacture military, medical, and commercial goods. IOI opened as a 1,200 square foot factory in Marble, North Carolina, and had operated in Marble until early 2003. IOI Road in Marble is the only piece left of IOI in Marble. The current factory was once home to the H.D. Lee company (now just Lee) that opened in 1979 and had been in Andrews for several years until its closure on January 11, 2002. IOI opened its Andrews location on February 28, 2003. It was also home to Berkshire Corporation until its closure in 1977. Andrews had two more industries during the late 20th century: Baker Furniture and Owenby Manufacturing. Baker Furniture's Andrews plant opened in 1965 as Andrews Furniture Industries, Inc. The plant also made Magnavox stereos and TV cabinets. The plant closed on July 1, 2000. Owenby Manufacturing opened in 1955, and its closure date is unknown.

In 1976, the West End Plaza shopping center opened on the west side of town on Main Street. A second shopping center, named the Andrews Town Centre, opened in 1990. A four-lane highway was built between Andrews and Murphy around 1977. This new highway was opened in 1979, with its previous alignment through town becoming US 19 Business. Andrews did not charge churches for city water until 1999. In 2018-2019, the town hosted the last Possum Drop in North Carolina.

Mayoral history

 * 1) David Samuel Russell (1905–c.1928)
 * 2) J.H. Christy (1929–)
 * 3) D.S. Russell (1931–)
 * 4) D.H. Tillitt (c.1939)
 * 5) R.T. Heaton (c.1943)
 * 6) Percy B. Ferebee (c.1961–1966)
 * 7) Ty Burnette (1971–1985)
 * 8) Mitch Rhinehardt (2001–)
 * 9) Nancy Curtis (2013–2017)
 * 10) James Reid (2017–present)

Geography
Andrews is located in northeastern Cherokee County on the south side of the Valley River, a southwestward-flowing tributary of the Hiwassee River and part of the Tennessee River watershed.

U.S. Routes 19, 74, and U.S. Route 129 form a four-lane bypass around the northern edge of the town; the highways lead northeast 8 mi to Topton, where they diverge, and southwest 15 mi to Murphy, the county seat. Bryson City is 32 mi northeast via US 19/74, and Robbinsville is 20 mi north via US 129.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Andrews has a total area of 4.2 km2, all land.

Valleytown Township dominates the eastern part of Cherokee County. The area is bordered by Graham County to the north, Clay County to the south, and Macon County to the east. Within the township are the towns of Marble in the west, Andrews at the center, and Topton in the far east at the Macon and Graham county lines.

2020 census
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,667 people, 714 households, and 400 families residing in the town.

2010 census
In the 2010 census, the total population was 1,781 people residing in 780 households including 452 family units. The population density was 1,090 people per square mile.

Transportation
The Western Carolina Regional Airport is a county-owned public-use airport located 2 mi west of the central business district of Andrews.

Andrews was served by railroad from 1891 until the 1980s when Norfolk Southern decided to close the Murphy Branch west of Sylva, North Carolina, because of declining freight traffic. The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad operated passenger excursions from Dillsboro, North Carolina to Andrews from 1988 until 2010.

Law enforcement
The Andrews Police Department occupies a 1940s stone building that was also the town hall until the city administration moved to a building on West End Plaza in 2023.

In 2014, four officers walked out after an uncertified administrative police chief was hired. The town's police department again faced turmoil in the early 2020s, according to the Cherokee Scout newspaper, as it went through eight police chiefs in six years and the town became known as a "chief killer." In March 2014, four officers resigned in protest. In 2020, the police chief resigned after the mayor ordered him to establish checkpoints and harass visitors to prevent COVID-19 from entering Andrews. In 2021, an officer wrecked a patrol car at a high speed downtown. Afterwards, officers contemplated disabling their automatic vehicle locators so they couldn't be tracked. That same year the city's entire police force was suspended after officers reportedly moved cameras facing locations like the station's evidence room. In May 2023, the assistant chief was wounded after he was accidentally shot with an AR-15 style rifle. In June 2023, a female officer who allegedly stalked a 16-year-old Andrews High School student she dated was ordered to stay away from the girl. In September 2023, the police chief was suspended after he was charged with obtaining property under false pretenses and obstruction of justice. He died before arrest.

Education
The town of Andrews has three schools. Andrews Elementary, Andrews Middle, and Andrews High School are part of the Cherokee County School System.

Until the early 1960s, all Andrews schools were located next to each other on the property of the current elementary school. A 1935 topographic map of Andrews shows each school building, marked with a flag, located adjacent to each other on Walnut Street (now Jean Christy Avenue) and Fourth Street. The current high school and current elementary school appears first in the 1975 map. Between 1935 and 1975, the school zone has dramatically changed. Andrews Elementary (AES) is a Pre-K thru Grade 5 school. The current school building was constructed in 1951 as the Andrews Primary School. The building has had two expansions. In 1979, new classrooms, a cafeteria, and a school library were added. This first expansion happened after the Andrews Grammar School, which was located just to the right of the small primary school building, was burned. After 1979, the school was Andrews Elementary. The school's second and most recent expansion occurred in 2003, with the addition of a gymnasium connected to the building on the west side of the building. The old rock gym built in 1934 east of the school closed in May 1999 was demolished in 2003. With this expansion, Jean Christy Avenue was cut off and is now only a loop in the front of the school, and a road leading up to a turn onto Fourth Street behind the school.

Andrews High School (AHS) is a 9 thru 12 school built in 1962, after a fire burned down the second campus built in 1914. It was incorporated by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1893. The school most likely opened in 1890, after the establishment of the town's name. From 1963 to 1999, Andrews High held students of Junior and Senior High.

In 1998, a new campus built between Wakefield Road and US-19 Business was constructed. The land was donated by the H.D. Lee factory (now the Industrial Opportunities, Inc. factory) west of the site. This site was the home of the new Andrews Middle School, established and opened in late 1999. Junior High was turned to Middle School, and AES and AHS operated as a Pk–5 and a 9–12 school.

Andrews Elementary, Junior, and Senior High School were part of the Andrews City School District. Each city school district (Andrews and Murphy) had their own board of education and superintendent. Each district was in charge of many purchases for their schools, such as school transportation. Andrews was the first in Cherokee County to receive a school bus in 1926 and the first to receive an activity bus in 1951. The individual districts merged with Cherokee County Schools in 1969.

Andrews City Schools Superintendents

 * 1) Isham Barney Hudson (1935–1951)
 * 2) Charles O. Frazier (c.1962–1969)

After the merger of Andrews and Murphy's districts in 1969, Cherokee County's superintendent was John Jordan.

Media
Andrews was served by the weekly Andrews Journal newspaper from 1959 until January 1, 2019, when it merged with the Cherokee Scout in Murphy. Andrews no longer has a newspaper of its own. After the town's newspaper closed, Mayor James Reid began offering a quarterly e-newsletter.

Notable people

 * Rick Blaylock – Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die) songwriter
 * Dave Bristol – Major League Baseball manager
 * Charles Frazier – National Book Award-winning author, grew up in Andrews
 * Dr. Dan Lunsford – Mars Hill University president from 2002 to 2018