Formed January 1, 1847 (77th county)
Alexander County (36,440), Taylorsville (2,317)
A concrete Modern facility was built in 1970 in Taylorsville. It is located on a square at Main Avenue, Center Street, Main Avenue Drive, and 1st SW Street. North Carolina State Highway 90 is Main Avenue. James Biggs provided the designs. The grounds have veteran memorials and a canon. An 1848 courthouse and a 1902 courthouse preceded this one also in Taylorsville. James Crossing was the first county seat. The county was created on January 1, 1847 from parts of Caldwell, Iredell, and Wilkes counties as the 77th county. Alexander County was named for the Alexander family settlers. Taylorsville is named for Mexican War General Zachary Taylor.
Alexander County government consists of a manager, a register, a sheriff, an attorney, and a clerk (executive). It has 5 Commissioners (legislative.) Twenty-one Superior Court Judges serve Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Cabarrus, Caswell, Chatham, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Guilford, Iredell, Orange, Rockingham, Rowan, Stokes, Surry, Wilkes, and Yadkin counties, Three District Court Judges serve Alexander and Iredell counties and a court clerk serves Alexander County (judicial.) Alexander County is in western North Carolina. Greensboro, North Carolina is east and Charlotte, North Carolina is south of the county. The county center is 2.6 miles Southwest of Taylorsville. The county is surrounded clockwise by Wilkes, Iredell, Catawba, and Caldwell counties.
The area of the county is 264 square miles. It is 93 out of 100 in the state. It ranks 67 out of 100 in population in the state. It has a density of 138.0 persons per square mile making it 40 out of 100 in the state. Alexander County has 6.4% of its population in its incorporated areas. United States Highway 64 travels east to west in the county from Iredell County to Caldwell County. The county looks like a molar tooth. Taylorsville is located near the center of the county. Taylorsville is the county seat and, as the only incorporated city, it is the largest city. It is 6.4% of the county population. This county is in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Taylorsville
