Grover, North Carolina

Grover is a town in Cleveland County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 708 at the 2010 census.HistoryGrover is classified as a small town where railway and highway routes Interstate 85 and U.S. Highway 29 cross the state line between North Carolina and South Carolina. It was previously named Whitaker and legally was in South Carolina. The name change to Grover was in honor of President Grover Cleveland. Gingerbread Row, (Cleveland Avenue - NC Highway 216) has an antique look with many restored homes.A railroad-dominated town started when the Atlanta Charlotte Airline Railway placed a turntable for engines to be spun. They operated from the 1880s to the 1920s and Southern Railway (U.S.) continues to carry passengers to this day (now known as Norfolk Southern). Mail drops and pickups by train occurred several times per day in Grover. Amtrak also operates on the line (under permission) and carries passengers from Atlanta to Charlotte, Richmond and New York City. George W. Bush made a rail stop in Grover during his U.S. Presidential campaign.Grover is also home to international companies like Eaton, Commercial Vehicle Group, Southern Power, Cunningham Brick and the Presidential Culinary Museum and Library. Hatcher Hughes previously lived in Grover and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1924 for his Broadway play, Hell-Bent Fer Heaven, a show about his own people from the area of the foothills - where Grover is located. He was a professor at the Ivy League college Columbia University. The Hambright (Hambrecht) family of Philadelphia and Prussia lives in Grover and built the tallest and largest mansion there in 1879 under the guidance of Doctor Alfred Frederick Hambright (Hambrecht). Grover also hosts a former White House Chef and manager of the Presidential resort and conference center Camp David, Martin CJ Mongiello, who lives there.