Mount Airy Historic District (Boundary Increase)

This five-acre addition to Mount Airy's historic district centers on the intersection of Willow and West Oak streets, just west of Main Street. It holds thirteen mostly brick buildings, ranging from one to four-and-a-half stories. The four oldest, built between about 1888 and 1905, were tobacco leaf houses and warehouses, including buildings of the Sparger Brothers Tobacco Company with stepped end gables and segmental-arched windows. From the 1920s they were converted to textile use. Smaller commercial buildings from the 1920s and 1940s were later absorbed into the same complex. The Mount Airy Knitting Company, founded in 1926 and renamed Spencer's Incorporated in 1962, expanded across the block with additions and enclosed walkways over Willow Street, becoming a leading maker of infants' and children's wear until it closed in 2007. Five buildings contribute to the district, and eight do not. The area was added because it keeps the massive industrial buildings that show a tobacco complex becoming a textile complex. The buildings are now largely vacant.