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The Johnston County Heritage Center's exhibits are housed in the Holding-Richardson Exhibit Hall on the first floor or in the Visitors Bureau Gallery on the third floor. The building is open FREE OF CHARGE 9:00-5:00 Monday-Saturday (except holidays observed by the County of Johnston). While there's no charge for admission to any part of the Johnston County Heritage Center, voluntary donations are always welcome!
Holding-Richardson Exhibit Hall (first floor)
- Grist Mills then and now --- An exhibit of known records and photographs of the two dozen or so grist mills that once operated throughout rural Johnston County. Most are gone now, but the remnants of a few, including the mill ponds, remain....
Here's a 1962 photograph of Barber Mill that operated for many years on Swift Creek in Cleveland Township not far from Clayton. Most mills like this ceased operations by the 1950s and most, like Barber Mill, are no longer standing.
Here's a 1972 photo of Ray Wheeler of Atkinson Milling Company and Brenda Hill, who had just been named North Carolina's "Corn Bread Princess." Mr. Wheeler and family continue to operate Atkinson Mill on the Little River in northern Johnston County - a business that goes back to 1757 and remains the only local grist mill in commercial operation today.
Our historic architecture --- Woodrow Strickland hand-made the replica of his boyhood home on Brogden Road that's now on display in our first-floor exhibit hall. It draws attention to a major new addition to our archives upstairs: more than 1,000 files on properties covered by a recently completed Historic Architecture Survey of Johnston County.
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Fossils from our prehistoric ocean --- An amazing collection of shark's teeth, whale bones, and petrified shellfish unearthed along a tributary of Johnston County's Black Creek provide evidence that the ocean reached this far inland millions of years ago. Marvin E. Underwood discovered the fossils, including dinosaur parts, on his family's land north of Benson and called in professional geologists to help identify the pieces. He has brought a sampling to the Heritage Center for display.
Johnston County's colonial history --- On display are some of the Heritage Center's most valuable artifacts: an original copy of explorer John Lawson's A New Voyage To Carolina, published in 1711; and an original oil painting that depicts Smith's Ferry on the Neuse River at the place that became the Town of Smithfield in 1777.
The story of First Citizens Bank --- Built in 1913 for the Bank of Smithfield, the renovated building that houses the Johnston County Heritage Center served for many years as the home office of First Citizens Bank & Trust Company (the bank's headquarters are now in Raleigh). Prior to the Heritage Center's opening in April 2000, First Citizens donated the building to the County of Johnston. In celebration of First Citizens' 103rd anniversary on March 1, 2001, a permanent exhibit was unveiled on the Heritage Center's first floor that tells the story of the bank's founding and subsequent nurturing by Smithfield's Holding family. The exhibit is centered around the bank's vault door, which was left in place as the entrance to the Heritage Center's elevator vestibule.
Visitors Bureau Gallery (third floor)
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Margaret Lee and the Johnston County Room --- A tribute to the lady who started the Heritage Center's basic collections of local history and genealogy 40 years ago in the Public Library of Johnston County and Smithfield. Mrs. Lee continued to serve the Heritage Center as curator emeritus until a few days before her death, at age 96, on February 12, 2007.
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The infamous 'Catch-Me-Eye' explosion --- Original newspaper front pages about the March 1942 munitions-truck explosion near Selma (displayed in vestibule outside the Audiovisual Room). We also hold in our archives a collection of photos, including the one below, showing the blast's devastation. NEWLY ACQUIRED: We now have a DVD copy of a "home movie" showing the explosion's destruction (you may view it in the Audiovisual Room).
