Looking Back

A settlement called Bradford's Ordinary began in 1750 in what is now Cary. However, the man credited with founding Cary was Allison Francis "Frank" Page, who was its first developer, mayor, postmaster and railroad agent.

Page and his wife, Catherine "Kate" Raboteau Page bought 300 acres here in 1854. He named his development after Samuel Fenton Cary, a prohibition leader from Ohio. Cary was incorporated in 1871, several years after the Seaboard and North Carolina railroads formed a junction in Cary.

Page, whose main business was a sawmill, laid out the first streets of Cary and built a hotel. What became known as the Page-Walker Hotel is now an arts and history center on Town Hall campus. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

One of Frank and Kate Page's sons is Cary's most famous son. Walter Hines Page (1855-1918) was an editor, publisher, social reformer and proponent of public education. He was ambassador to Great Britain during World War I. The British honored him with a tablet in Westminster Abbey.

With development of Research Triangle Park in the 1960s, Cary began to grow as a bedroom community for the park from a quiet town of a few thousand people. Growth escalated during the 1970s, with the population nearly tripling to 21,763. The population doubled during the 1980s, and doubled again during the 1990s.

To Learn More

The Cary Heritage Museum on the third floor of the Page-Walker Arts and History Center has a listening station for oral histories. Artifacts include medical instruments and the World War I uniform of Dr. James Templeton, who volunteered for the Army at age 62, and was a "country doctor" for nearly half a century.

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