Lnewton46

Newton's Point is a small community in southeastern North Carolina located ten miles northeast of Rockingham near Marston in Richmond County. The name is derived from the proprietor, Melvin Porter Newton, of a small country store located at the junction of US 1 and NC 177 which is Newton's Point (NC 177 was originally named NC 77 but that road name was changed in the early 1960's to free up 77 to be used as an interstate route number). The communities of Marston and Hoffman lie just to the north and the former peach shipping community of Cognac is just to the south. The railroad center of Hamlet is nine miles southeast as well.

M.P. Newton opened the store, at the location that bears his name, in the early 1920's and sold groceries, local produce and was a dealer for Amoco Petroleum products. Before the opening of interstate 95 in the late 1960's, US 1 was a primary route from New England to the vacation areas of central and south Florida. Newton built several "tourist cabins" behind the store that became a popular stopping point along the route for tourist on the way south.

After suffering a stroke in the mid 1950's, Mr. Newton passed the store and its running to his daughter Dorothy Newton Scott and her husband Kit O. Scott. After the opening of I-95, much of the traffic that was the livelihood of the store left and eventually Mrs. Scott found other means of keeping the store running. She offered homemade light meals for local workers and, during deer hunting season, deer stand assignments were issued each morning.

In the mid 1960's NC Motor Speedway was built adjacent to the Newton's Point property and a drag strip was built across US 1 from the speedway. The tourist cabins were used to house workers building the speedway. With the opening of the speedway the access roads and the original fork between US 1 and NC 177 were modified to allow better traffic movement. The original store and cabins were demolished and a new, more modern store built under different ownership. This store succumbed to the low traffic flow after the speedway ceased operations and is now closed. The original Newton homeplace located about 75 yards south of the store burned to the ground in the early 1990s in an unfortunate accident.

An old elementary school stood to the northwest of the original store but closed in the 1940's. The building was purchased and converted into a factory that built small watercraft. Also, K.O.. Scott operated a small foundry just to the south of the original store that specialized in sand molded aluminum foundry work. Much of Scott's work was molding replacement parts for local textile mills whose equipment was often made in the late 1800's and no longer had parts available.

Melvin P. Newton in front of his country store at Newton’s Point, NC circa 1927

Note: M.P. Newton was the grandfather of this article's author and information given here is first hand knowledge of the author.