Founding year: the first Burgaw post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Burgaw’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Burgaw is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #76 of 290 in North Carolina. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Burgaw’s overall grade.
North Carolina towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical North Carolina town has 12.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Burgaw’s 343 sits above most of its state (91% of North Carolina towns have fewer) while its 132 historic buildings outnumber those of 91% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±9.0 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Burgaw’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Before Burgaw was established, a small trading post called Cypress Grove was established along the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad, in January of 1854 the post office department began to call this location, Burgaw Depot. After Pender County was separated from New Hanover County in February, 1875, A man named W.H. James, a civil engineer who was employed at the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad examined land beside the railroad and Burgaw Creek, and reported it to be a good place for the town and well situated for drainage. On February 6, 1876 the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad company deeded the plot of land to the Pender County Board of Commissioners to establish modern Burgaw and to the courthouse. The town of Burgaw was incorporated by an act of the North Carolina General Assembly (Private Laws, Chapter 23) on February 25, 1879, and on December 8, 1879, the name of the post office w…
The Burgaw post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Burgaw rank for history?
Burgaw is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #76 of 290 in North Carolina. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Burgaw?
Three places: the Pender County Courthouse (listed 1979), the Burgaw Depot (1986) and the Burgaw Historic District (1999).
How old are the homes in Burgaw?
15% of Burgaw’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.0 points), against a typical 4.1% for a North Carolina town; the median home was built in 1987.
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).
From the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
