The sign on the front porch reads: "Dr. Ayer Whitley." He was the last Country Doctor to welcome patients to his small office before it was moved from its original site on NC Hwy. 218 to Hillside Drive in 1987, after standing vacant for more than thirty years. Today the restored building, registered with the Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission, commemorates an era gone by. It was an era in which Mint Hill's post office was located in a corner of Henderson's Store, when R. J. McEwen Hardware carried everything from cradles to caskets, when Bain School was a private academy, and when Philadelphia Presbyterian Church groomed the town's leaders. It was a time when people often paid the Country Doctor in vegetables, eggs, and chickens from their farms. The museum is more than a mirror of the immediate community. It also provides a broad picture of the practice of medicine in the Piedmont area of North Carolina - from early times when roots and herbs were used to treat illnesses to more modern days when doctors began to prescribe drugs and administer anesthesia. Among the rarities on display are... an instrument case carried by a Civil War surgeon a wooden medicine cabinet designed for the doctor's buggy a battery-operated muscle shocker an artificial wooden leg an examining table and basins used by Dr. Whitley a certificate to practice medicine, dated 1886, belonging to his predecessor, Dr. John McCamie DeArmon Step back in time to explore the life of a typical country doctor and meet the two country doctors who serviced Mint Hill residents. They are Dr. John McCamie DeArmon, who served from 1886-1907, and Dr. Ayer Whitley, who served from 1908-1948.