01/24/2023
📍 Dunn NC lies along the west side of I-95 roughly half-way between Smithfield and Fayetteville in Harnett County. Although Dunn was officially incorporated in 1887, it existed as a community much earlier. That community was known under several, creative and unique names, before it's official incorporation.
In the 18th century, when it was a local center for the naval stores economy (logging and turpentine distillation), it was known as Hell's Halfacre according to the docent at the Dunn Area History Museum. But by the early 1800s, she told me, it was more commonly known as Tear Shirt. "One night, a fight broke out at one of the famous barrooms involving some twenty-five or more men. One got his shirt ripped into shreds. When the disturbance quieted down, someone picked up the torn shirt and gave it to the barroom keeper. From then on, this place was known as “Tear Shirt Barroom."
During those early years before the Civil War, the bulk of Harnett County's population resided in Averasborough, where Smith's Ferry crossed the Cape Fear River and the post road to Smithfield, Raleigh, and Fayetteville converged.
But after the battle of Averasborough (https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/averasboro), many of those residents moved 5 miles north to Lucknow, the third and more respectable name. By that time, Lucknow was home to the state's largest mobile wagon cotton yard. If you search for Lucknow today, you'll find a city in India which is also home to cotton manufacturing.
Following the Civil War, the local economy began a more rapid shift from naval stores (longleaf pines) to cotton and to***co agriculture, both of which required reliable transport. Enter the railroad and Bennett Rivers Dunn, a civil engineer from Pennsylvania, who laid out the area's first railroad. The Wilson to Fayetteville route was completed in 1886 and the town was incorporated under "Dunn" in 1887 in honor the Mr. Dunn's accomplishment.
The town continued to grow and is now home to a number of small businesses and a growing population. Thanks to the North Carolina Main Street Center program which brings together community activists, town staff, and business people, there are more renovated storefronts than not in the downtown historic district. As a testament to how well this program is working, I visited on a Saturday late morning and couldn't find a parking spot on any of the downtown streets.
If you haven't been to Dunn recently, I hope you will find something in my write up that will prompt you to visit.
📚: Small Town NC
