Rockford Historic District

Rockford is a small, semi-deserted town on the north bank of the Yadkin River that was laid out in 1790 as the seat of Surry County. The historic district follows half a mile of High Street from the railroad track up to the Methodist Church. Surviving buildings include the York Tavern, the Masonic Lodge, the remains of the Grant-Burrus Hotel, a Greek Revival brick courthouse of 1830 that burned in 1925 and was later rebuilt as a residence, and a group of stores and railroad-related structures. The county seat moved to Dobson in the 1850s, and the town declined. The Southern Railway branch completed in 1890 brought new trade, hotels and warehouses, and much of the remaining building stock dates from that period. Because little has been built since the early twentieth century, the street preserves a readable record of the town's early political life and later railroad-era commerce.