Balfour, NC

Balfour is a Henderson County census-designated place on the north side of Hendersonville, with 1,335 residents in the 2020 census and Mud Creek forming its eastern edge. U.S. 25 Business runs through the community between Hendersonville and Mountain Home, so Balfour's geography is tied to the county seat and the road north to Interstate 26. The post office opened in 1893, around the same time the railroad reached the area, and the community was named for Captain William Balfour Troy, who owned the original town site.

Troy also opened a granite quarry, and Balfour granite moved out by rail in carloads, including stone used for the Biltmore Estate. That quarry, a train stop, a store, and a post office gave the community its early shape; a mill village and churches followed. The old Balfour School now houses the Balfour Education Center, with alternative-school and Blue Ridge Community College classes, while the former quarry property is now owned by Hendersonville and sits at the city's wastewater treatment plant. Balfour is gradually blending into Hendersonville, but the local clues remain: Mud Creek, a late-1890s rail-and-quarry story, and a community name that began with one man's piece of western North Carolina.