Rural Hall is a community with a proud past and a bright future. When settlers began spilling out of nearby Bethania and the frontier economy began to attract new entrepreneurs in the late 1700s, the area surrounding Rural Hall was one of the first places they came.

The community’s history actually can be traced to a trapper’s cabin built in the 1740s. Today that small log structure stands as part of a stately 18th century home in southern Rural Hall.

With growth of the community immediately after the War Between the States, postal demands of residents and businesses soared. Benjamin L. Bitting, who was appointed postmaster, used his home as the post office. Bitting’s home had a wide hall that extended from the front to the back and “was wide enough to drive a wagon through,” according to reports from that day.

Mail coming into Forsyth County post office was marked for “The Hall,” some intended for Salem, some intended for the Bitting Hall. That posed a dilemma for the postmaster at Salem and created the need for the community in northern Forsyth County to have a name. To solve the problem of routing the mail, the Salem postmaster began to mark the mail to “The Rural Hall.” The Bitting’s home no longer stands.

Rural Hall first provided municipal services in 1935 when it formed a sanitary district to provide water and sewer services. On June 1, 1974, the Town of Rural Hall became incorporated as a municipality.

The town has grown from a population of just over 1,000 in 1974 to just over 3,000 today. It is well-poised for a future that is expected to bring new opportunities and a continued high quality of life to its residents.