Badin, North Carolina is a French flavored town at the foot of the Uwharrie Mountains. Follow a North Carolina Scenic Byway as it curls under Morrow Mountain, winds through the lush fields of Valley Drive and drops gently into Badin. On the National Register of Historic Places, this village in northeastern Stanly County offers the visitor a pleasant stay in a quaint setting.

A Brief History of Badin

In the Spring of 1913, a French company, L’Aluminium Français, began work on a dam at the narrows of the Yadkin River–it becomes the Pee Dee River a few miles downstream–to provide power for a smelter. A town to house the company’s workers was to be built beside the newly-formed lake and named for company president, Adrien Badin.

After the outbreak of World War I, the company’s credit lines were redirected toward the war effort, ending the construction project at Badin. The Mellon Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with its aluminum monopoly, the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA), bought the half-finished company town in November, 1915.

The French had completed a few plant buildings, a clubhouse for single male employees and visitors, a plant manager’s residence, and single family residences along Henderson Street. Work had begun on 150 apartments, but this was not resumed for three years. At this time, bungalows were built along Tallassee Street, cottages on Pine Street, and a women’s annex added to the main club house.

By 1917, Badin was a permanent settlement with a hospital, a 20-room school, a large theatre, and several brick commercial buildings. It was somewhat unusual in the state in that it offered housing and cultural facilities for black workers.

With the automobiles and improved roads of the 1920′s, many Badin workers moved to larger towns and the population of Badin shrank from 5,000 in 1926 to the 1,390 residents of today. In 1983, Badin was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and in 1990, the town was incorporated.

Today, this peaceful village with its picket fences and well-tended gardens, provides a rare look at the characteristics common to many of the state’s company towns with the added attraction of its unique French Colonial architecture.

Little bridges over rock-lined storm drains give entry to French Colonial row houses. Winding, tree-lined lanes lead down to the serene waters of Badin Lake where one can fish in the company of herons, osprey and seagulls and the occasional bald eagle. Between the Narrows and the Falls Dams, the Yadkin/Pee Dee River flows between hundred foot high cliffs in a stunningly beautiful stretch of water.

Badin is beautifully situated in North Carolina’s Piedmont, an easy drive from the population centers of Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem/Greensboro/High Point. Pinehurst, Seagrove Area Potters, Morrow Mountain, the Uwharrie National Forest, the North Carolina Zoological Park, Reed Gold Mine, Historic Salisbury, the North Carolina Transportation Museum, and Town Creek Indian Mound are just a few of the area attractions within an hour’s drive of Badin.

The Romantic Heart of Badin

From the yellowing pages of the 1920 Badin Bulletin, we hear echoes of long-ago romances that blossomed in the old Badin Club House. The handsome white building on its pine-covered knoll, known today as the Badin Inn, was once home to Alcoa’s bachelor engineers and spinster school teachers.

In those days, rooms and corridors resounded with flirtatious laughter and lively music. Romances began around the piano in the lobby and sizzled when jazz made its appearance with the advent of a Victrola. The young couples created the Idle Hours Club, arranged moonlight marshmallow roasts on the hills above the dam, acquired a boat, arranged boating parties and began building an Idle Hours Club House on an island in Badin Lake. A Bachelors Club, started before the school teachers arrived, was soon disbanded due to lack of bachelors.

The anonymous storyteller from the Badin Bulletin warned against the virus, “bacillus matrimonius.” Too late, alas. There is in existence today a long list of the couples who found romance at the Badin Club House and who later wed at the local churches. Some of their children and grandchildren still live in the village and more are scattered throughout the world.

Today, with its newly renovated honeymoon suites and wedding facilities, the Badin Inn lives on as the romantic heart of Badin.

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