Walnut Creek plans 50th anniversary celebration
By From staff reports
Published in News on September 25, 2015 1:46 PM
The Village of Walnut Creek will observe its 50th anniversary with events this weekend and next week.
The village, incorporated in 1965, will mark its birthday with an anniversary recognition banquet on Saturday and a pig pickin' and pool party on Sunday.
On Wednesday, Sept. 30, the actual anniversary date, a cocktail party and raffle drawing will be held at the village clubhouse.
Walnut Creek was the brainchild of a handful of men who envisioned an upscale community with amenities that included a golf course and even at one time, an airport. Conway Rose, Bob Thompson, Rance Garris and James Uzzell came up with the idea in the early 1960s and chose a tract of woodland between Goldsboro and LaGrange for the project.
Since then, the village has grown to become one of the premier living places in the state.
Charter members of the village will be honored. According to officials with the village, Rose was the visionary who foresaw what Walnut Creek could become. At the time, the property off U.S. 70 about eight miles east of Goldsboro was a large wooded tract of land with a creek that meandered through it.
In 1962, Rose formed a corporation with Garris and Thompson and established Walnut Creek Estates.
A membership committee was formed to find people interested in the project, and they were invited to a barbecue and meeting held on the grounds of the proposed country club in September of 1965. An initial board of directors was created and charged with planning for the village.
Woodland was cleared, roads were built and dams were constructed to create Lake Wackena and Spring Lake. Professional golfer and golf course architect Pete Dye laid out an 18-hole golf course, and construction of homes began.