Good morning, Clayton! It’s a pretty light week, so instead of doing a big lead, I’m using this space to let you know The Clayton Dispatch now has a mailbag. Is something happening in Clayton that you feel the need to speak on? Go for it. Have a
Each Sunday, we're sharing a small bright spot from the previous edition of The Weekender Joel Fitzgerald turned a free record player, a stack of somebody else’s records and a lifelong need to make things into Four Track Records, Clayton’s little traveling record shop. Joel Fitzgerald
Good Morning, Clayton! So... this past week I spent most of it chasing a story about stormwater, construction sites, retaining walls, erosion control, and a ton of emails containing the words "100-year storm." And honestly, that story is still cooking. One thing I'm trying really
Each Sunday, we're sharing a small bright spot from the previous edition of The Weekender There are plenty of places around Clayton where you can buy produce. There are considerably fewer places where the person selling it to you can probably tell you what farm it came from,
Good Morning, Clayton! Last week’s story about Clayton Fitness was, by far, the most-read thing we’ve published since starting The Dispatch. And I don’t think that’s because everybody suddenly developed a burning interest in municipal recreation facilities. People care about Clayton’s seniors. After the
For the last few Clayton Time Warp columns we have been exploring what life was like in Clayton in 1936 using the recently digitized Clayton News. The project is focused on promoting this publicly available resource on Digital NC, Aug. 13, 1936. The main focus will be clippings that come
Good Morning, Clayton! Holy smokes, this is a long one. Even by my “Dan is writing these things way too long” standards. Which has actually given me an idea: I’m thinking about putting out a TL;DR version for paid subscribers. So basically the exact opposite of everywhere else.
Each Sunday, we're sharing a small bright spot from the previous edition of The Weekender Downtown Clayton got one hell of a sunset this past Monday night, captured here by council member Amanda Underwood. These colors show up when the setting sun has to travel through more of
Today's Time Warp takes us 90 years in the past to the first week of August 1936. The Clayton Market began to ship melons north on the first of the month, a new grocery store was getting ready to open, and Mr. John T. Talton was encouraged to
Good morning, Clayton! This week, welcome to the hellscape that is the life of every Downtown Clayton business owner: the downtown parking problem. Yes, I know. Nothing gets the blood pumping quite like a parking study and a town council work session. But buried beneath the hundreds of thousands of
![The Clayton Time Warp - July 30, 1936 "The [Two] Stop Lights"](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2f/30/2f30efdc-507a-4954-97c5-0bbc338ea133/content/images/size/w600/2026/07/jpoLYtXX-1.jpg)
My name is Ben Chapman and I am a student of history and a professional archivist. I live in Clayton and I wanted to share stories about the history of Clayton. This local history column has two goals: 1. Focus on the local events and figures in the town of
Good morning, Clayton! Packed issue this week. For The Dispatch Lead, I sat down and really dug into Economic Development Director Joe Stallings’ presentation to the Planning Board from Monday night. I pulled out the parts I found most interesting: Clayton’s rapid growth, the town’s lopsided residential tax