9 Most Charming Town Squares In North Carolina
Skip the beaches and peaks for a minute; North Carolina’s best tale plays out in nine tiny town squares where brick still beats blacktop. These plazas are living museums: a college bell rings beside a craft roaster, white squirrels scurry across courthouse grass, and fiberglass bears guard apple-country stalls. Each downtown is small enough to cross before your latte cools yet rich enough for a whole weekend; ride a ferry from a Civil War fort, stroll a riverwalk that once sparked revolt, or watch wild horses while peeling shrimp.
What unites these places isn’t size or setting; mountain ridges and tidal creeks both qualify, but there is fierce loyalty to the square as the town’s front porch. Instead of chasing big-box makeovers, the towns below double down on walkability, restored storefronts, and festivals that still shut Main Street by sundown. Step onto any green and you’ll feel it: history underfoot, local flavor on the breeze, and a heartbeat strong enough to drown out the interstate five miles away.
Davidson
Davidson's academic, commercial, and civic spaces seamlessly share one walkable center. Anchored by Davidson College, a private liberal arts school founded in 1837, the town’s core is compact but intentionally designed. The result is a square and downtown district where the sidewalks are always active but never crowded, and where storefronts, college buildings, and civic greens blend without interruption. Just steps from the old college chapel, Summit Coffee’s original location serves as an informal hub for students, professors, and locals, with live music staged in front on weekend nights.
The town’s most visible institution, Davidson College, maintains the public-access Van Every/Smith Galleries, a free rotating exhibition space showcasing contemporary work. Across the street, Kindred offers serious dining anchored by house-made pastas and a nationally recognized milk bread appetizer. A few blocks away, Roosevelt Wilson Park provides shaded walking trails and a small lake just off Griffith Street. On Saturdays, the Davidson Farmers Market gathers regional growers and small producers in the heart of the square, an event consistently attended by a broad cross-section of town residents.
Hillsborough
Hillsborough is one of the few towns in North Carolina where colonial and modern histories are both visible from the town square. Once the capital of the North Carolina colony, it has preserved more 18th-century structures than most towns its size. The Old Orange County Courthouse, built in 1845, anchors the square and still holds official proceedings. Just a few steps away, the Orange County Historical Museum displays artifacts from Hillsborough’s role in the Regulator Movement, with original documents and weapons on view. Literary figures including Allan Gurganus and Frances Mayes have called the town home, adding another layer to its historical identity.
Churton Street functions as the town’s main axis, with small businesses and cultural institutions lining the route. Visitors can follow the Riverwalk, a greenway that begins just off the square and runs along the Eno River. Antonia’s, an Italian restaurant in a restored storefront, offers lunch facing the square. Further down the street, Cup-A-Joe serves coffee and locally baked pastries with indoor and sidewalk seating. On the last Friday of each month, the downtown hosts an evening art walk and music series, which temporarily closes streets and brings out food vendors, musicians, and open studios across the district.
Hendersonville
Hendersonville’s downtown is shaped by agriculture but centered on civic architecture. The 1905 Historic Henderson County Courthouse, with its columned façade and clock tower, anchors Main Street and sets the scale for the blocks around it. The town is the commercial center of one of the largest apple-producing regions on the East Coast, and this is reflected each fall during the North Carolina Apple Festival, when a stretch of Main Street is lined with orchard booths, cider stands, and live demonstrations. Permanent features include the Mineral and Lapidary Museum of Henderson County, which holds a notable collection of North Carolina minerals and a 2,000-pound meteorite.
Bearfootin’ Art Walk, a series of painted bear sculptures placed along the sidewalks, connects storefronts and public seating areas across six blocks. The square includes Black Bear Coffee Co., which operates inside a former bank and serves single-origin coffees with open views of the courthouse steps. Mezzaluna, one block south, runs a wood-fired pizza oven and has a rotating tap list of local beers. McFarlan Bake Shop, open since 1930, sits near the center of the square and remains known for its yeast donuts and seasonal pies.
Brevard
Brevard is known for its unusually high population of white squirrels, which are commonly seen in and around the town square. The main blocks are laid out where Broad and Main Streets meet, with the Transylvania County Courthouse standing at the center. OP Taylor’s, a multi-story independent toy store, occupies a large corner building and draws traffic from visitors year-round. The town is also home to the Brevard Music Center, which hosts classical concerts and open rehearsals during its summer festival season, with performances advertised prominently throughout downtown.
Bracken Mountain Bakery, located on Main Street across from the courthouse, sells rye loaves, croissants, and seeded multigrain bread, and operates a walk-up counter that faces the square. On 4th Fridays from April through December, the downtown hosts an evening gallery walk with live music, open studios, and extended shop hours. Rocky’s Grill and Soda Shop, a 1940s-style lunch counter, serves pimento cheese sandwiches and root beer floats in the middle of the downtown blocks. At the edge of the square, Silvermont Mansion and Park includes walking trails, a tennis court, and a restored 1917 home that occasionally opens for public tours and events.
New Bern
New Bern is the birthplace of Pepsi-Cola, originally created in a downtown pharmacy in 1898. The site now operates as The Pepsi Store, where visitors can order fountain drinks and view memorabilia from the brand’s early years. The town’s layout dates back to 1710, with Broad and Middle Streets forming the historic core. Bear Plaza, located along Middle Street, contains a concentration of shops and small galleries and features several of the town’s fiberglass bear statues, each painted by a different local artist.
Tryon Palace, a reconstruction of the colonial governor’s residence, sits a few blocks south of the square and includes formal gardens and a museum wing with rotating exhibits. The palace grounds connect to the North Carolina History Center, which covers regional topics including coastal ecology and Civil War industry. Union Point Park, at the convergence of the Neuse and Trent Rivers, offers access to a boardwalk, boat launches, and frequent events such as outdoor concerts and craft festivals. Across from the park, Baker’s Kitchen operates a full-service restaurant and bakery with a visible production area for its signature butter syrup and cinnamon rolls.
Beaufort
Beaufort is North Carolina’s third-oldest town and one of the only downtowns where wild horses can be seen from the boardwalk. Across Taylor’s Creek, the horses roam freely on Carrot Island, part of the Rachel Carson Reserve. The town’s main commercial area runs along Front Street, where the Old Burying Ground entrance is marked by a wrought-iron arch and guided tours begin most evenings. Inside the cemetery, several 18th-century graves are marked with oyster shells or simple wooden planks, and one tomb holds a child buried in a barrel of rum.
The North Carolina Maritime Museum sits adjacent to the square and contains exhibits on shipwrecks, including artifacts from Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge. Behind the museum, a working boatbuilding shed remains active and open to visitors. Further down Front Street, Clawson’s 1905 Restaurant & Pub operates inside a restored general store and serves crab cakes and shrimp burgers sourced from nearby fisheries. From the town dock, Island Express Ferry Service offers daily runs to Shackleford Banks and Cape Lookout, as well as evening dolphin-watching cruises.
Boone
Boone sits at 3,333 feet above sea level and maintains the highest-elevation downtown of any town in North Carolina. Its square is shaped by Appalachian State University and the region’s history of folk art, labor, and land use. The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, operated by the university, anchors the northern end of King Street and features rotating exhibitions of contemporary regional work. Across the street, the Appalachian Theatre of the High Country screens classic films, hosts touring musicians, and holds community talkbacks inside its restored 1938 auditorium.
Mast General Store occupies a large corner lot and stocks dry goods, hiking gear, and glass-bottle sodas in barrels of ice. Nearby, Espresso News serves espresso drinks, used books, and pastries from a narrow brick building with rear-deck seating that overlooks Boone Creek. Lost Province Brewing Co. runs a taproom and kitchen a block off King Street, with access to a beer garden built behind the main dining area. Every summer, the downtown hosts An Appalachian Summer Festival, a multi-week series that brings chamber ensembles, documentary film screenings, and dance companies into town venues.
Southport
Southport’s downtown sits at the mouth of the Cape Fear River and has served as a filming location for multiple films, including Safe Haven and I Know What You Did Last Summer. The square centers on Howe Street, which runs from the historic Brunswick County Courthouse to the waterfront. The Fort Johnston-Southport Museum and Visitors Center occupies the former officers’ quarters of an 18th-century military post and includes exhibits on coastal defense and maritime trade. The Old Yacht Basin, located one block down, holds a working waterfront with shrimp boats, charter docks, and a boardwalk lined with benches.
Provision Company, known locally as “Provisions,” overlooks the basin and serves peel-and-eat shrimp and crab cakes on a covered deck that stays open during most of the year. On the inland side of the square, Port City Java operates out of a former bank and offers seating under a canopy of live oaks. Southport Market features local produce, packaged goods, and seafood, with a rotating selection of hot meals made in-house. On July 4th, the downtown becomes the site of one of North Carolina’s largest Independence Day festivals, with a parade, street fair, and fireworks launched over the water at nightfall.
Edenton
Edenton was North Carolina’s first colonial capital and remains one of the only towns in the state with a preserved 18th-century courthouse still facing its original green. The 1767 Chowan County Courthouse anchors the town square and stands beside the brick-paved Courthouse Green, which hosts seasonal concerts and public events. The waterfront is two blocks away, where the Barker House offers free public tours and serves as a local history center with views across Edenton Bay. Adjacent to the house, a short boardwalk leads to the Roanoke River Lighthouse, a screw-pile structure relocated and restored for public access.
Downtown storefronts line Broad and South Granville Streets and include Edenton Bay Trading Company, which hosts outdoor live music with wine and beer service on its rear deck. Governor’s Pub serves sandwiches, local seafood, and rotating specials, with indoor and patio seating near the courthouse steps. The Penelope Barker House hosts a daily trolley tour that begins in front of the green and covers key historic sites, including the James Iredell House and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
These nine squares prove North Carolina’s character is written in brick, cupola, and storefront rather than skyline. Each one rewards patience: pause for a courthouse bell, listen to water against pilings, note the aroma of cider or espresso drifting through open doors. Plan your visits around markets or festivals, but arrive early and linger late; the stories, like the sidewalks, are best appreciated when you slow your stride a while.
