Most of Advance was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2001. Its Register listing is the John Edward Belle Shutt House and Outbuildings.
Founding year: the first Advance post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Advance’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Advance is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Advance’s overall grade.
North Carolina towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical North Carolina town has 12.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Advance’s 14.2 sits near the middle of its state (57% of North Carolina towns have fewer) while its 2 historic buildings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to C+. The pre-1940 share (±2.6 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Advance’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Advance yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Advance (pronounced AD-vance) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Davie County, North Carolina, United States. It is 75 miles northeast of Charlotte, with the northern outskirts of Advance in proximity to Winston-Salem. The population was 1,499 at the 2020 census. It is located along North Carolina Highway 801, south of Bermuda Run. Advance is part of the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina.
Its first post office opened in 1877. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,138 to 1,499 (+32%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Advance, 1877 to 1995
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Advance post office opened in 1877, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Advance rank for history?
Advance is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Advance?
One place: the John Edward Belle Shutt House and Outbuildings (listed 1996).
How old are the homes in Advance?
2% of Advance’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.6 points), against a typical 4.1% for a North Carolina town; the median home was built in 2001.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
