The 1937 courthouse is a genuine landmark — handsome brick, well-kept grounds, and worth a short walk around. Not a destination on its own, but a good anchor for any downtown visit.
Built in 1937 as part of the New Deal's push to improve civic infrastructure across the rural South, the Pender County Courthouse is a restrained and dignified piece of architecture that has aged well. The red brick, white columns, and symmetrical facade are classic without being showy — the kind of public building that communicates stability without theatrics.
The grounds are open and well-kept, shaded by a mix of old oak and pecan trees that make a circuit around the building genuinely pleasant on a mild day. Inside, it is an active courthouse — real cases, real clerks, the mundane machinery of county government still running in the original space.
It is worth seeing because it is real rather than restored. Burgaw has not had to rebuild or relocate its courthouse like many counties, and so this one sits exactly where it was placed, doing what it was built to do, in a town that has grown around it without displacing it.
Practical tips
- The grounds are open any time; go whenever suits your schedule
- The interior is open on weekday business hours if you want to see it
- Best light for photography is in the afternoon, when the sun hits the facade directly
- Combine with a walk of the full downtown — the courthouse is the natural starting point
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Worth combining with this
Downtown Burgaw
A main street that still feels like one.
The kind of town square that has become rare — a working courthouse, local shops with actual character, and sidewalks worth strolling. Best on a Friday afternoon when the energy is right.
Moore's Creek Battlefield
Where North Carolina decided to fight.
A Revolutionary War National Battlefield just 20 minutes from Burgaw, set in a forest of moss-draped bottomland trees. The history is real and the grounds are worth visiting for their own sake.