Conover's City Hall is in a church. A gym and a meal-prep business are in a furniture plant. The 1940 bank building now holds a homebuilder's office, and the police department works from the old public works lot. The City of Conover's new interactive StoryMap, A Glimpse Into the Past, was announced on September 16 for the 150th anniversary. Its main point comes through stop after stop: Conover mostly kept its old buildings and found new uses for them.
The biggest exception is the oldest. The railroad junction that started the town, and gave it its first name, disappeared long ago.
The Y that named the town is the one thing you can't see
Before there was a City of Conover, the settlement was called Wye Town. The name came from a Y-shaped railroad junction near what is now Five Points. The city's anniversary materials say that junction "became the center of the community" and that businesses, homes and industry grew up around it.
A local history account on the Conover NCGenWeb history page adds detail. It describes the wye as the point where a Southern Railway branch split off toward Newton, three miles south, and says trains were turned around there. The same account says a track change in the early 1880s did away with the wye and moved the depot, and that the old structure beside the abandoned roadbed was gone by 1908. Going by that account, the feature behind the town's first name lasted only about a decade after Conover began.
The city places the wye only "near what is now Five Points," and no source pins it to a specific intersection. It's the most important site in town and the only one on this list you can't actually stand on.
The name that replaced Wye Town has its own story. The NCGenWeb account credits Julia Ann Rowe Seitz and Mattie Miller with naming the settlement Conover. It calls the popular story about the sculptor Canova a legend, not established fact.
Downtown buildings and their second jobs
The StoryMap's tour has 17 stops. Many of them are places you pass on everyday errands without knowing what they used to be.
| What it was | What the City says is there now |
|---|---|
| Trinity Church's "Rock Church," built 1935 | Conover City Hall |
| Conover Public Works, 115 2nd Ave NE, until 1993 | Conover Police Department |
| Citizens Bank, opened September 3, 1940 | David Cline Signature Homes, after a stretch as a Wells Fargo |
| Conover Furniture Company, owned by Broyhill in the 1950s | Perfect Workout and Fresh Chef |
| Concordia Lutheran Church and the Concordia College site | Concordia Christian Day School |
| Yount Cotton Mill, early 1920s to early 1950s | The original building, still in its original spot |
City Hall has the best story of the group. The town bought the Rock Church property and received the deed in 1952. Some of its first changes were bays for the fire department. The StoryMap notes that interior renovations were underway in 2025, so the building is still being adapted more than 90 years after it went up.
The congregation that left that building is still nearby. Trinity United Church of Christ meets at 217 2nd Ave NE and still uses the Trinity name. Within a few blocks, then, you can see both the church Trinity moved out of and the one it moved into.
The bank building has a small claim to fame. According to the StoryMap, it was one of the first buildings in Catawba County to use fluorescent lighting. Its first board of directors included R. K. Bolick, L. E. Hunsucker, JNO. A. Isenhower, S. S. Rowe, T. W. Saunders, A. L. Shuford and P. E. Yount. The last name on that list matches the cotton mill a few stops later on the tour.
The Yount Cotton Mill outlasted its own industry. It ran from the early 1920s to the early 1950s, was used for storage after that, and still stands where it was built. The property once had mill housing for its workers.
The block of S 1st Ave that once had everything
The StoryMap's densest stop is one stretch of what was then S 1st Ave. In a few doorways, it held most of what a small town needed:
- 118 S 1st Ave, the Conover Department Store
- 120 S 1st Ave, the Conover branch of the US Post Office, with Claude M. Schell as postmaster at the time of the photo
- 122 S 1st Ave, Herman Grocery Co., which opened in the early 1940s and sold kerosene, ice cream and groceries
Close by is the one business on the map that never needed a new job. Drum Funeral Home has been at its 1st Avenue South location since 1926, and in the archival photo it also advertised 24-hour ambulance service.
The tour's first stop is on this side of town too. A photo taken on 1st Ave N looks north toward where Walmart is now, and the city says some of the homes in it are still standing.
The stops that really are gone
A few stops on the map ran out of second chances, and they show the other side of the pattern.
- Catawba Dairy Bar, 506 Conover Blvd SW, sold fresh local milk, ice cream and other dairy products.
- Superior Petroleum, 1023 Acme St, was the town's only supplier of gasoline, kerosene and lubrication oil until January 1952.
- Mackie Motel, on US Highway 70 and 64 across from today's Smurfit WestRock, had a restaurant and 38 heated and air-conditioned units. Its site is now a vacant lot next to housing.
- McGee Building Supplies sold hardware and aluminum windows. Its lot is vacant too.
The last stop is a view west along Conover Blvd E, taken from the spot where S & H Pools now sits near the YMCA. Holding the old photo up to the current view is probably the easiest way to see how much the boulevard has filled in.
The map asks for corrections
The StoryMap admits it may have some details wrong. A note at the bottom says locations and timelines "may not be 100% accurate." It asks anyone with information about the properties, or anyone who spots an error, to call the Planning Department at 828-464-1191.
Even the anniversary date has some history behind it. The city counts its 150 years from 1876. The NCGenWeb account dates the town's beginnings to 1871 and its incorporation to 1877. So did the wye vanish in the early 1880s, ten-odd years into the town's life, or barely five? That depends on which start date you use. A map that asks for help is a good fit for a town whose records don't fully agree on when it began.
The city made the same invitation when it announced the project. It said there are "countless stories, photographs and memories of Conover waiting to be shared."
Where the anniversary year goes from here
The StoryMap is one part of a larger 150th-anniversary effort built around places that have disappeared. The city's Conover 150 Collection started with a "Wye Town Tee" in Drop 01: The Archives, which was on sale through September 30. The city says Drop 02, Local Legends, will feature businesses and names that generations of residents remember. A holiday collection is planned to close out the anniversary year. The city's September 12 announcement gave no release dates for either and said new drops would be announced on its social media channels and e-newsletter. The shop runs through the Conover 150 store.
Two more anniversary-season events are on the calendar from Conover Community Partners:
- Honor + Hear, November 10, an evening honoring local veterans and hearing their stories. Organizers say more details are coming, and they're asking local veterans or their spouses who want to share a story to get in touch.
- Christmas Comes to Conover, November 21, with downtown businesses, Conover Farmers Market vendors, Santa's Workshop photos, a kids' zone and food trucks.
The calendar notes that listings may change as details are confirmed. Check it again before you go.
The farmers market's own move this year fits the pattern. The Conover Farmers Market moved to downtown Conover for 2026 and lists its address as 122 Second Ave. SE. On November 21 its vendors will set up in a downtown that still uses much of the town it was 80 years ago.
If you've lived near one of these buildings for years and only now learned what it used to be, you're who the city had in mind when it made the map. Knowing what a building used to be, and what has happened to the blocks around it, is part of how Cat McCrary helps clients understand Conover beyond the listing sheet. If you're curious what your own street looked like before it got its current name, or what your home's corner of town is worth today, Schedule a Free Consultation and we'll talk it through.