Alexis, NC

Alexis is a Gaston County community about three miles north of Stanley, set among the roads and rolling farmland of the western Piedmont. Its older name, Alex's Cross Roads, came from Alexander, an early landowner, and the settlement was incorporated in 1899 before taking its present unincorporated shape. Gaston County's textile and agricultural history sits all around it, with Charlotte and Gastonia providing the larger work and shopping connections.

A local landmark is the Alexis-Stroupe Forest Preserve, a 62-acre remnant of land connected to Jacob Stroup, an early pioneer in the area. The preserve gives the crossroads a patch of woods within a county better known for mills, highways, and expanding suburbs. Stanley is the nearest town center, while the roads through Alexis lead toward Gaston and Lincoln county communities. Alexis is a small Piedmont settlement whose story moves from an old crossroads name to a present-day rural neighborhood, with a preserved piece of early county landscape nearby today as well.