Rose Hill, North Carolina - World's Largest Frying Pan

Some think that it "Is a shabby dud to visit when not filled with chickens..." or "the pan is still not much to look at." It is still part of our hometown character and many individuals stop and take pictures to say they have seen it just as we Americans travel this country to see the World' Largest Ball of Twine or the World's Largest Yo-Yo.

"The Pan" is used several times a year for charitable cooking and community celebrations. Our claim to fame may be the "World's Largest Frying Pan" but, we also have the Duplin Wine Cellars-"The FIRST North Carolina Winery" of this era which will offers an accent to your visit with a taste of wine for your health, and a hometown greeting that you will not soon forget. So stop on by at Exit 380 on Interstate 40 in North Carolina and see it for yourself. "The World's Largest Frying Pan" [Vance Herring, 06/22/2005]

At first I thought that nothing had changed in the year since I last visited the World's Largest Frying Pan in Rose Hill, NC but upon closer inspection I see that the building that surrounds the pan has been treated to a new coat of white paint. Some of the wooden supports for the building have been replaced and painted as well. The only thing that was missing from the structure was the sign declaring the pan as the "world's largest" (part of the sign was on the ground inside the building in mid-restoration).

Looking WAY back in time at the Roadside America picture of the pan with the Hinged Man (TM), it's clear that Rose Hill has done a lot of updating to the pan and pan house. Metal has been added to the base of the pan to hide the ugly cinder blocks and a fence has been added to the pan shelter building.

Still, even with all these wonderful updates, the pan is still not much to look at. And it stinks. My first visit was in winter so, perhaps, the cold weather was suppressing the abundance of bacteria that give the pan its, er, aromatic qualities. On my latest trip, during a warm day in May, I found the pan to have a rather pungent odor of old cooking oil and left-over chicken parts from who knows when. I'll make sure to make a trip back in late July or August to experience the full olfactory assault of the pan after months sitting in the sweltering Carolina heat. [Greg Brown, 05/30/2001]

The town's welcome signs pronounce Rose Hill the home of the world's largest frying pan, and the pan is still used to fry up a large number of chickens at a time. [Rebecca Caldwell, 04/08/1998]

[RA: Is a shabby dud to visit when not filled with chickens, though...]