Haw River is named for the river that runs through it, and the settlement goes back to a homestead of 1745. The town itself is young as a municipality: it incorporated on 1 June 1973, when the old sanitary district was dissolved and handed over its assets.
The Granite Mill was built in 1844 by Benjamin Trollinger and bought in 1858 by Edwin Holt and his son Thomas, later Governor of North Carolina. Cone Mills bought it in 1927 and made corduroy here for decades — the Cone plants became the largest corduroy producers in the world, employing more than a thousand people in 1981. Cone went bankrupt in 2003. The mill was listed on the National Register in 2017, and the Granite-Cora-Holt Mills Historic District followed in 2020.
For a buyer this is one of the more affordable addresses in the county, and one of the smallest towns: about 2,250 people in 2020 and an estimated 2,391 in 2024. The housing is mostly older and modest, much of it built for mill families, with some newer building on the edges.
It is also well placed. US 70 runs through town, I-40/I-85 crosses the river just south at Exit 150, and both Burlington and Mebane are ten minutes away. Durham and Chapel Hill are both under forty minutes.
Photo: Indy beetle, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Haw River, in the questions people ask us.
Is Haw River cheaper than Burlington?
Usually, yes — it is a small town with mostly older, modest housing, and that shows in the prices. What you give up is the range: there is far less choice here than in Burlington, so the right house comes along less often.
Does the river flood?
Parts of the floodplain do, as with any river town. Flood zone is one of the first things we check on a property here, because it decides whether you need flood insurance and what it will cost. Ask before you fall for a house, not after.
What is happening with the old mill?
The Granite Mill has been through renovation and is on the National Register, along with the wider Granite-Cora-Holt mills district listed in 2020. It is the oldest surviving mill building in the county still in use.
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