McAdenville: Christmas Town and Edison's First Bulbs
Near Charlotte, North Carolina
Colonel Rufus Yancey McAden founded this mill village in eighteen eighty-one to give families recovering from Reconstruction a stable place to work and live. He built McAden Mills, and the village grew up around them. The lights have stayed on in a manner of speaking.
In nineteen fifty-six, the McAdenville Men's Club and mill owner W. J. Pharr strung red, white, and green lights on the trees around the community center.
The tradition grew year by year until the town was covered. National television coverage followed, and the name Christmas Town USA stuck. Today more than six hundred thousand vehicles pass through in December, making this tiny mill village one of the most visited holiday destinations in the Carolinas.
