Fuquay-Varina: A town where 2 histories offer more reasons to explore

Several years ago, when I started looking seriously at moving to North Carolina, I arranged for a Raleigh area real estate agent to send me daily home sale listings. In the process, it was interesting to see the "new" (to me, anyway) names of communities that would be associated with those listings.

One of the most peculiar was Fuquay-Varina, a town in the far southern end of Wake County. Fuquay-Varina is 14 miles from Raleigh, the state capital and seat of Wake County. I remember spending some time in Indiana reading up on the town, trying to find out how it got its name.

The short story is that the hyphenated name comes from a 1963 merger of adjacent communities, one originally named Fuquay Springs for early settler William Fuquay and his great-grandson Stephen, and for the mineral springs discovered in the town proper. Varina came from the pet name that confederate solider J.D. Ballentine called Virginia Avery, the woman he fell in love with. Varina had written to Ballentine during the Civil War as part of a community effort to help boost soldiers' morale, and the correspondence evolved into romance. The couple settled in the community after the war, and as the town's first postmaster, Ballentine had the privilege of naming the town, and he chose Varina.

Until my shoot in Fuquay-Varina last week, I was much more familiar with the newer, more commercially developed business district along U.S. 401 on the north end of town. Lee Ann and I delved further into the town -- entering the original business district -- about a year ago when I wanted to explore a couple craft breweries -- the Fainting Goat Brewing Co. and the Mason Jar Lager Co. It turns out, Fuquay-Varina also has several other craft breweries -- Aviator, Vicious Fishes and Oaklynn Springs.

Given everything I've mentioned above, one might expect me to lead off the post with a picture of the mineral springs, or a brewery or even a storefront in the old Fuquay Springs merchant district. Instead, I decided to lead with a photo of the impressive mural on the backside side of the former Hook and  Cleaver Market at Broad Street and Randsell Road in the Varina Historic District. Actually ... I'm cheating a bit; I was intending to concentrate strictly on Fuquay in this post and use separate posts to explore Varina and three churches I came across in town, but I couldn't resist starting today with this image.

Actually, I came across quite a few murals on my shoot July 2, and this one was among the larger ones. I also thought it would be a nice nod for a community that can boast of having its own art center (pictured below), which opened in March in the Fuquay Springs part of town. It's at the corner of Vance Street and Fuquay Avenue and features another of the murals on the side of the building facing Fuquay Avenue. The mural salutes the two communities' strong ties to the railroad industry through the years.

In a somewhat "newsy" development -- something I didn't know about until I began to hunt for the town hall a few days ago -- I learned that on July 29 (just three weeks from now) Fuquay-Varina town government will move from its current site (photo below) on Old Honeycutt Road to a new, two-level structure on South Main Street (second and third photos below).

Other than a few churches and the town's Mineral Springs Park, the major focus of my shoot was to photo document the two historic districts. I began in the Fuquay area, then spent a short time in the park (which is smaller than I expected) before heading north to the original Varina district.

As always, to view a larger and sharper version of an image, just click on the photo. This is particularly helpful when accessing the blog on a mobile device. To view a full gallery of photos from my July 2 shoot, click on the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: I used my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD lens for all the photos in this post. I bracketed all of my compositions for three exposures -- one normal, and one each in 2/3 stops above and below normal. I merged the three images into one using Photomatix high-dynamic range (HDR) software .

Above and below: The Fidelity Bank was once the Bank of Fuquay. 

Above: A side view of a commercial building along Main Street. 

Above: I don't know much about contemporary Fuquay-Varina culture, but I had to wonder whether the Joyce and Family Restaurant at 129 N. Main St. was a popular and/or favorite attraction. I do know that it is closed on Mondays.

Above: Call me strange, but there was something about the juxtaposition of Sovereign Guns and Reese European Hair Salon that stopped me in my tracks ... 

The community's police station on Main Street (above) and fire station (below) on Vance Street are about four blocks from each other. When the then-new fire station opened in 1966, it was dedicated to one of its first fire chiefs, Thomas J. Bridges. In front of the station is a memorial to Bridges (second photo below), which features the local high school's team mascot, a bengal.

Above: I liked the sidewalk chalkboard sign in front of this Main Street business, OS (Original Strength) Institute.  

When I made my first sweep past the Shoppes on Main around 9:30 a.m. (above), the sidewalk sign and balloons (below) hadn't been set up yet outside the main entrance. I came across the sign and balloons an hour and a half or so later while making my way back to my car.

Anna's Pizzeria (above) and Piedmont Pottery (below) are shops along the west side of South Main Street, about two blocks apart. 

Vicious Fishes Brewery of nearby Angier has a taproom in Fuquay-Varina on Fuquay Avenue (above), just across the street from the Wake County library branch, Centennial Museum and driver's license office. Across the street from each other in the 300 block of South Main are the Fainting Goat Brewery (first photo below) and Mason Jar Tavern (second photo below), a sister enterprise of the Mason Jar Lager Co., whose brewery is farther north, not far from the Old Varina Downtown district. 

In the 100 block of South Fuquay Avenue, the Wake County library branch (above), Centennial Museum (below) and driver's license office (second below) are situated right next door to each other, across the street from the Vicious Fishes Brewery taproom. 

Above: Another mural, this one on the side of The Mill sit-down coffee, beer and wine shop on South Main Street.  

Above and next two below are some examples of historic homes in the community. Each is walking distance from the town's original commercial district on Main Street.  

At the intersection of East Academy and North Ennis streets, you'll find the old (above) and new (below) forming the current-day campus of Fuquay-Varina Middle School. Across Ennis Street from the school is the W.O. Council Gym (second below), a community parks facility that actually also encompasses outdoor fields and playgrounds (not in the picture).  

After mentioning Mineral Springs Park in the introductory text, I thought I'd be remiss if I did not include at least one photo of the park (above). The park has a couple of benches, a gazebo, some paved walks, lots of shaded area ... and an administration building (below). 

Next up: Historic Downtown Varina