Grover, NC

Grover is Cleveland County's southernmost town, incorporated in 1887 near the North Carolina–South Carolina line. The 2020 census counted 802 residents. The settlement began as Whitaker, grew after the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line reached it in 1872, and changed its name after the North Carolina post office created a second Whitaker problem. The new name honored President Grover Cleveland. Railroad history is still the key to understanding why this small town sits where it does.

Grover Elementary is in town, while middle and high school routines connect students to Kings Mountain. The Cleveland County history network places Grover's Presidential Culinary Museum among the county's distinctive local collections. The railroad also tied Grover to the county's cotton and textile economy, which grew rapidly after rail service arrived. A resident can still read that older arrangement in the town's position at the county's southern edge: a compact place with school, church, and residential streets, linked by the rail corridor to Kings Mountain and the wider Piedmont manufacturing belt.