Adapting to meet the needs of a changing economic environment has led community colleges across the nation to increase their offerings that will get students ready to enter the workforce.
By Justyn Kissam
This photograph was taken on May 8, 1921. Bishop Leo Haid, of the Order of St. Benedict, dedicated the church “to the service of God.”
Mount Airy Museum of Regional History
Here is a picture of the church, built in 1921 and the rectory, built in 1929. (Photograph courtesy of David Wright via Surry County Digital Heritage
Communion is a ceremony that marks a child or adult’s first reception of the Eucharist. Here is a picture of a Communion taking place in 1921.
Mount Airy Museum of Regional History
A Communion from this year.
Mount Airy Museum of Regional History
Pictured here are 11 stonemasons quarrying dimension stock. To the far left in the hat is J.D. Sargent, head of the North Carolina Granite Association. Holy Angels Roman Catholic Church was built with stone from the quarry.
By Kate Rauhauser-Smith
A mining industry publication in 1927 stated the Mount Airy quarries employed more than 750 people with a payroll of $900,000 a year. The craftsmen turned out ornate pieces and building blocks in several finishes but, by far, the more common products have been more mundane items such as street curbing. Concrete curbs deteriorate in a few years in harsh northern winters where salt and the freeze-thaw cycle are constant. Granite is impervious to such destructive forces. A large group of quarry workers are pictured here in 1914 in one of the cutting sheds.
The US Census records show the impact the quarry had on regional diversity with significant clusters of residents born in European mining centers around the quarry. Carving rock is a specialized skill that takes decades to master. Three of the best known are pictured here in the 1940s. From left are Marcelino San Emeterio, who was born in Santander, Spain; Vincenzo “Big Jim” Alfano, from Salerno, Italy;