Although it started as a bedroom community for people working in Raleigh, Cary is one of the fastest growing towns in North Carolina. 

Cary has ranked high on MONEY magazine's BEST SMALL CITY TO LIVE IN lists since 2010. It has an economy that remains stable despite the national economy. Houses hold their value, and workers hold their jobs -- with remarkable consistency. But for the tourist, maybe the best thing about Cary is that it's at the center of "The Research Triangle", and so close to where you'd rather be. Raleigh museums are only a 10-minute drive away. The cultural attractions of Durham and Chapel Hill are less than 20-minute ride in the other direction. Is that a good enough reason to visit Cary? Well, maybe not. Unless you are gallery hopping, probably the best reason to visit Cary is to check it out if you are planning to live in the area. So with that in mind let's just see what this town is all about.

Cary used to be a sleepy crossroads town. Like so many, it grew up around a railroad station in the 1860s...but it didn't grow very much until the 1970s. In 1970, U.S. Census figures showed a population of 7,640. The latest figures put Cary's population at 170,282, a staggering increase. Its rise from a crossroads town to a bedroom community for the surrounding region accounts for most of the increase, and it keeps going up. Now it's easy to miss little old Cary amidst the sprawl of condos, single home developments, shopping and office complexes that make up new Cary. But don't miss it. While it is difficult, especially late on a Saturday afternoon, to tell if the old section of town is on its way up, or battling a descent into irrelevance, you owe it to yourself to see what Carolina town centers used to look like. Does your town center have a drug store soda fountain and an automotive service station and a train station? We didn't think so.

Unless you like to be completely dependent on your GPS, it helps to know that old Cary central is bound by two beltways: an inner circle formed by Maynard Avenue and the outer circle of Cary Parkway. If you approach Cary by the Harrison Street exit off I-40, you will find your way quickly to the few blocks of downtown Cary near the train station. It runs about three blocks from Harrison Avenue to just beyond Walker Street, and along Academy Street. The intersection of Academy and Chatham looks like the middle of things in terms of their downtown though really most of the life is in the shopping centers which are too numerous to list.