HOA Management Services in Terrell, NC

TERRELL IS AN UNINCORPORATED AREA IN SOUTHEAST Catawba County

Thomasville, NC Facts & Information

Terrell, North Carolina, is an unincorporated area in southeast Catawba County. Because Terrell is unincorporated with no defined municipality borders, the hub of the community is generally considered the area around the crossroads or intersection of North Carolina Highway 150 and Sherrills Ford Road. The name Terrell reportedly originated from the last name of an early Methodist minister of the area.

Terrell Geography: The community of Sherrills Ford is directly to the north. The community of Denver is located to the southeast. The Town of Mooresville is east traveling down North Carolina Highway 150.

Location/Coordinates – Latitude: 35°35′35.12″N, Longitude: 80°57′21.31″W per Google Earth 

Elevation above sea level: 758 feet per Google Earth

The telephone area code for Terrell is 828.

Zipcode: 28682

Terrell is probably best identified as the little community up the road from Duke Energy’s Marshall Steam Station on Lake Norman. It may also be identified as the crossroads up the road from the “Hot Hole.” The hot hole is the moniker for the small area of Lake Norman, where warm water is discharged from Marshall Steam Station in the cooling process. 

The current Rehobeth United Methodist Church building was constructed in 1889 and remodeled in the mid-1900s. The original church was a frame structure with both a hipped and gabled roof. This original church had a main entrance of two large double-door, paneled doors on the east side. The gables were described as having elaborate woodwork. The church cemetery has graves dating back to the early 1800s.

The Terrell Country Store that was located at the intersection of North Carolina Highway 150 and  Sherrills Ford Road was demolished in 2020 for redevelopment. The Country Store was probably the oldest operating retail store in Catawba County. Built by Thomas Franklin (T.F.) Connor in 1885, after he inherited around 1,000 acres in the area. T.F. Connor was a graduate of Catawba College and a successful farmer and merchant. His father, Lieutenant Charles Connor, was a Confederate cavalry officer who was only 25 when he was killed in a Union Army raid in Newton, North Carolina, in 1865. Connor’s grandfather, Major Henry W. Connor, fought in the Alabama campaign against the Creek Indian uprising in 1814. Major Henry W. Connor represented the area when he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1821 until 1841.    

The Terrell Country Store was a clapboard building and was an area landmark that housed the Terrell post office for many years. The store has also been home to a hardware store, a real estate office, and an antique store. T.F. Connor sold the store to Harold Gabriel in the 1930s. Gabriel ran the general store until the 1980s. T.F. Connor’s great-grandson, Charles Connor, bought the store in the 1980s and leased it out to different proprietors. As with most traditional general stores, when it was first opened, it carried the staples of the time for the community. In recent years, the store served ice cream, potato chips, and there was a chainsaw artisan in the rear of the store who did magnificent wood sculptures.

Since the first settlers to the area, the economic base of Terrell revolved around agriculture. Growing cotton was the primary cash crop from the 1800s into the 1900s. Cash crops being crops grown for the market. In the mid-1900s, the boll weevil infestation that destroyed many thousands of acres of cotton fields in the south struck Terrell. The infestation devastated the cotton crops for many years, and this is reportedly what led to the decline of farming as an economic driver for the area. This was when many agriculture workers transitioned to seeking work in textile mills in the nearby towns and cities.    

The Terrell community is located within the Lake Norman of Catawba CDP. The Lake Norman of Catawba CDP is a census-designated place (CDP) within Catawba County, North Carolina. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the population was 7,411. An increase from 4,744 as of the 2000 U.S. Census. The Lake Norman of Catawba CDP is within the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area. As established by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Hickory–Lenoir–Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area is an area consisting of four counties in the Catawba Valley region of western North Carolina. These four counties being Catawba, Burke, Caldwell, and Alexander. The 2019 U.S. Census-estimated population for the Hickory–Lenoir–Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area was 369,479. Within the United States, the Hickory–Lenoir–Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area is the 147^th largest based on population.

The first effective and permanent bridge across the Catawba River connecting Catawba County and  Iredell County was completed in April 1911. This was a one-span toll bridge that connected the communities of Terrell and the road to the Town of Mooresville. The bridge was of steel construction atop concrete pillars. The bridge was built by J.A. Brown and B.A. Troutman, and thus became known as the Brown and Troutman Bridge. The first actual bridge connecting Iredell and Catawba counties was a wooden bridge constructed in 1882. This wooden bridge reached from Iredell County to Monbo or East Monbo, and did not hold up to the traffic and the environment, and was no longer standing by the end of the 1880s.   

The tolls on the Brown and Troutman Bridge ranged from five cents for someone to cross on foot to one dollar for farm tractors to cross. The bridge was washed out by the Great Flood of July 1916. The bridge washed out due to the failure of the partially completed Lookout Shoals Dam upriver. 

Historical population of Thomasville per the United States Census Bureau

CensusPop.

Need Association Management?

Contact Us