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Small NC town hopes to turn vacant, historic buildings into thriving community once again

Whitakers is a town of trains thundering through, of tobacco fields sweeping off, of tired, old storefronts presiding over stubborn weeds. Yes, it's a town that's seen better days - but what Lori Mizelle sees is a town teeming with promise.

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By
Bryan Mims
, WRAL reporter
WHITAKERS, N.C. — A small town in our area is looking to make a big comeback.

Whitakers -- just north of Rocky Mount -- has seen its population shrink for decades.

It hoped a shot on a national TV show would give it a boost, but the town didn't make the cut.

Whitakers is a town of trains thundering through, of tobacco fields sweeping off, of tired, old storefronts presiding over stubborn weeds.

Yes, it's a town that's seen better days – but what Lori Mizelle sees is a town teeming with promise.

"I don't try to see the bad side of it," she says. "I try to see what it could be. And see the beauty that once was and what it could be again."

She sees the beauty in the old bank building, which was unneeded and unloved for half a century.

The town's cheerleaders – they call themselves Whitakers Revitalize and Preserve – are investing in that bank.

Through grants and many a barbecue chicken fundraiser, the group is waking up Whitakers.

"It's just a lot of history here," says Nancy Taylor, the group's president. "And if we could get this building renovated, re-purposed, I feel that that would be the starting point for our downtown."

Taylor can just picture it: a stately, century-old bank someday housing an apartment, a coffee bar, retail space.

"We really don't have a definite plan, but we know we want to save the building," she says.

Whitakers has  a population of about 650 – compare that to 1,300 hundred in the late 1960s. But no matter: this small town's biggest fans say Whitakers is on the right track.

They were tracking toward stardom a couple of years ago, when Whitakers was in the running for HGTV's "Hometown Takeover," which gave four towns a big sprucing-up. The town lost out, but the townsfolk didn't lose their all-in.

"There are a lot of people who like a challenge," says Taylor.

In the two years since we visited, it's been the little-town-that-could. It's built the Freenotes Harmony Park, where one can take a stroll and play the xylophones. A new restaurant and bar is also in the town's future.

"I mean, we've got all these empty buildings -- and all we need to is get people to come in and open them all up and thrive in Whitakers."

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