Located just an hour north of downtown Raleigh is the North Carolina Room at the Richard H. Thornton Library, 210 Main Street, Oxford, North Carolina. We hold some 4,500 books, 80 manuscript collections, and hundreds of vertical files and maps with a special focus on the northern North Carolina Piedmont and Southside Virginia. Of course, we have many materials relative to Granville (formed in 1746), which is a mother county to contiguous Warren, Vance, and Franklin counties.
Many records are unique to the North Carolina Room. Among these resources are the Francis B. Hays (1867-1959) Scrapbook Collection; some 150 volumes of newspaper clippings and writings on a multiplicity of topics including Granville County and North Carolina history; and development, towns, churches, industry, biographies, and family genealogies. Also unique to our library are the Pressley Davis Family charts (two dozen, 4×5 foot hand drawn genealogical charts covering some 8,000 individuals from Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and beyond). We are proud of our wide selection of genealogy and local history resources and hope you can get by for a visit while you are in the area.
The North Carolina Room is open Monday through Thursday from 10:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.; and Sundays from 1:00 until 5:00 p.m., Labor Day through Memorial Day. Out of town visitors are encouraged to call in advance (919-693-1121) so that we can assure that a staff member will be on hand for your visit. Come by and see us!
Contributed by Mark A. Pace, North Carolina Room Specialist, Richard H. Thornton Library