Located in Piedmont North Carolina on Fork Creek Mill road near the small town of Seagrove, the Why Not community is a peaceful rural community with a unique and colorful name. 

Why Not came into being when a United States post office was established there in 1860.  Postal authorities in Washington needed a name to designate the new postal station.  Area citizens assembled to choose a name.  Numerous names were proposed...why not name it this, why not name it that.  The group could not agree on a name after a long time.  Finally, one of the citizens (according to stories, this may have been Martin Auman, or Alfred Yow, or Noah Richardson) said "Why not name it Why Not and let's go home.  And that is just what they did!

The Why Not Post Office served from 1861 to 1865, when the office was closed.  It reopened in April, 1877, under postmaster Thomas F. Albright.  Martin A. Cagle became postmaster in 1892, and Mamie S. Richardson in 1898.  The Why Not Post Office was discontinued in 1905, when the Seagrove Post Office took over the district.

More about the history of Why Not is available in Bill Auman's book Why Not, North Carolina:  A History of the Why Not Academy, the Why Not Memorial Association, The Why Not Community, and The Fair Grove Methodist Church, published in 1986.