The Story of the Unionville City Limits Sign
We all know that Unionville is a small town, but it's actually just a little bit smaller than you think. As we approach the 30th anniversary of this little known event in Unionville history I and a few others have decided that it's time to tell the story of how a beloved basketball coach and a few eager students changed the footprint of our little town forever.
"I wish I lived within the city limits of Unionville."
Those were the words spoken by High School Basketball Coach and Civics/History teacher Jerry Burlison one afternoon in 1981 while talking with his Civics class.
Coach Burlison lived in a house in the subdivision behind the post office and (then) Jimmie Lee's Market (now Unionville Market & Deli). The southernmost Unionville city limits sign (in Red below) was about a half a mile north on Highway 41-A, about 100 yards shy of Community Cash Market. The northernmost sign was about a half mile north of that, near where JC's garage was then located, near White's Welding now.
Meaning that Coach Burlison's house, Community High School, the post office, and most of what we now think of as Unionville actually wasn't even in Unionville.
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Coach Burlison went on to remark that not even the school was within the city limits.
It's not known who in that Civics class was the first to suggest that the sign marking the southern boundary of Unionville proper could be "relocated". But the idea quickly became a topic of spirited discussion.
And then an offer was made.
Coach Burlison said that anyone who could arrange for the school, and his house, to somehow be made to sit within the city limits of Unionville would receive an A for that 6-weeks of Civics class.
Challenge Accepted!
I'll let Jeff Barber, one of the students involved, take the story from there.
"I do remember that the baseball lights were on. I think there was a softball game being played. We moved the sign from the area near Sewell's store (Community Cash Market) to the place where the sign has resided since. It was night and we had to be careful because the area was lit up by the baseball field lights and there was some traffic."
The sign was moved to its current location, about 100 yards south of the market, near the back entrance to the new high school. The other students who moved the sign that night were Richard Stovall, Melvin Broome, and Eric Marlin. (Eric says he wasn't in the Civics class so he probably joined the others after their baseball practice was over.)
There was some buzz around the school the next day, and more than a few knowing winks, but as the days passed an interesting thing happened. Nothing. We all waited for the day a county road crew would be dispatched to return the city limits sign to its proper location. But evidently the county officials didn't notice that Unionville had grown, quite a bit, overnight. A road crew never came (except to replace the aging sign with a brand new one sometime in the 1990's).
It's unclear if the sign's relocation was ever noticed by anyone in the county government. Maybe it was but they just decided to leave it, or maybe they still don't know what happened. Either way, the sign still stands today at the southern entrance to Unionville. Right where those 4 students put it 30 years ago.
As for the students, all received an A in Civics on their next report card.
And Community High School has been within the Unionville city limits ever since.