SALISBURY — Tuesday was a big day for the Rowan County Chamber as officials celebrated the organization’s 100th birthday.

2025 Chair of the Board Steve Fisher addressed the crowd packed into the first floor of the Paul E. Fisher Gateway Building in downtown Salisbury. 

“I’m so honored to be a part of this chamber’s 100-year celebration,” Fisher said. 

The chamber was officially incorporated on Feb. 25 of that year. 

“The year was 1925,” Fisher said. “Where is Terry Osbourne? What was going on then?”

While addressing the crowd, Fisher highlighted a few hallmark moments from that year.

“Clarence Birdseye invented the frozen food industry,” he said. “Most of us would not have eaten in college without the man. ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published that year. That is the smiling one. The not so smiling one, so was ‘Mein Kampf’ by (Adolf) Hitler, a foreshadowing of what was to come for the very people who founded this chamber. Also, that same year, the very first appearance of Mickey Mouse and of course, the incorporation of the Salisbury Chamber.”

As Osbourne, who is Fisher’s predecessor as chair of the board, confirmed, that first gathering happened a couple blocks away.

“The first meeting was right down the street at the old chamber building which is now the Rowan Museum house,” Fisher said. “We started out as the Salisbury Chamber of Commerce. In 1960, it became the Salisbury Rowan Chamber of Commerce. In 1995, to recognize the fact that we continue to grow, the Rowan Chamber of Commerce, which we still are today.”

Fisher rifled off a few points of accomplishments from that first group, including the establishment of the Salisbury Creamery.

“We had way to much dairy product and not enough to do with it,” Fisher said.

That was also the year that Catawba College relocated to Salisbury. Much like their descendants to come, those chamber members spent a lot of time, effort and resources lobbying for better roads.

“Does that sound familiar to anyone?” Fisher said. 

Fisher wrapped up by mentioning the long-term businesses that call the place home, including Cheerwine, Beaver Brothers, Johnson Concrete, Wallace Realty and his own F&M Bank.

“We want to celebrate those folks today,” Fisher said.

Celebrate they did.