LITERARY SANCTUARY: HISTORY, ARTS AND CULTURE CONVERGE IN DOWNTOWN HILLSBOROUGH.

• Author: Mims, Bryan
• Position: TOWNSQUARE: Hillsborough

The historical markers line Churton Street like so many signposts, one of them pointing to the man who wrote the jazz classic "Take the A Train." It stands along the curb, giving passers-by a 20-word summary of Billy Strayhorn's life. The composer and pianist who wrote numbers for the Duke Ellington Orchestra grew up here in Hillsborough.

One sign tells of a Patriot hero in the American Revolution who was from Hillsborough, while another tells of a despised Loyalist who had his home burned down. Still another recounts the public hanging of six Regulators, a group of rabble-rousers who raged against Colonial taxes.

Hillsborough, founded in 1754 and considered the state's oldest Piedmont town, has long made history hip. But these days, it's just as common on downtown's Churton Street to see utility poles plastered with flyers about upcoming concerts or dramatic readings by regional authors.

"Twenty years ago, it was 'Come to historic Hillsborough, come to historic Hillsborough,'" says Mayor Tom Stevens as he sits at Cup-A-Joe coffeehouse, where the smell of locally roasted coffee beans hits you in the face like a thick, warm cloth, and young professionals gaze at their laptops. "It's still about the history, but now we're getting to be known for music. We're known for writers and visual arts."

The seven-term mayor and local artist, white-haired and dressed in a tweed sport coat, black crewneck shirt and jeans, owns the Thomas Stevens Gallery on West King Street. Downtown is brush-stroked with studios, including the Skylight Gallery, Eno Gallery and Hillsbot ough Gallery of Arts.

The story of this former textile-mill town of about 7,200 people is also a literary tale. A couple of dozen authors call Hillsborough home, their creative juices stirred by the classic Southern setting that seems straight out of an Allan Gurganus novel--because it just might be: The author of Local Souls and Plays Well With Others does, in fact, live here.

Other writers taking up residence in Hillsborough include Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun; Jill McCorkle, a North Carolina native who penned Life After Life and Carolina Moon; and Michael Malone, former head writer for the soap opera One Life to Live. This concentration of wordsmiths and storytellers inspired a 2014 article in The Wall Street Journal with the headline, "America's Little Literary Town."

The clean-cut old houses, the leafy neighborhoods of white pickets and wrought iron, and the Eno...