Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Brunswick was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1976. Below: old-book passages.
The Brunswick post office opened in 1926, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Brunswick’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Brunswick yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Brunswick is a town in Columbus County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 973 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1926. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,119 to 973 (-13%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Brunswick, cut from the printed page as they were published.
And HIvS TimKvS. 207 grandfather's colon}' left it, and accordingly he returned there about 1723, and in 1725 laid out the town of Brunswick, about eight miles below the site of the original settlement, and sixteen miles below Wilmington. Two of his brothers, Roger and Nathaniel, came with him, as did many others.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
returned. In retaliation the Spaniards, several years after, made forays along the coast, attacking different places, and amongst others the town of Brunswick on the Cape Fear river, eighteen miles below Wilmington.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Brunswick post office opened in 1926, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.