Drexel, NC

Drexel is a small foothills city in Burke County, about 10 miles southeast of Hickory via US Highway 70. Interstate 40 runs 8 miles north, connecting to Charlotte (60 miles) and Asheville (70 miles). The town of 2,100 sits where the Piedmont rises toward the Blue Ridge Mountains. Hickory Regional Airport is 15 miles northwest. The historic Drexel Building downtown recalls the furniture company that founded the town in the early 1900s.