Most of Pinebluff was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1985. Its Register listing is the Lincoln Park School. Below: maps from 1948 on and the census since 1910.
Founding year: the first Pinebluff post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Pinebluff’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Pinebluff is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Pinebluff’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 Pinebluff’s 5.5 sits near the middle of its state (47% of North Carolina towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to B−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.4 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 Pinebluff’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Pinebluff was a regional resort area during the early 1900s, enjoying greater renown than Pinehurst Resort at the time. After an uncontrollable fire, the town was permanently damaged, and it is currently a small residential area. As of 1909, Pinebluff was a sundown town, where African Americans were not allowed to live or stay overnight. At the southern end of the town, a lakeside park called Cardinal Park offered a small lake beach and summer-time water-sport recreation to African Americans despite the rest of the town being closed to them at the time in 1962. The park has since reopened in 2019 to the public after being closed for several years.
The Pinebluff post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Pinebluff rank for history?
Pinebluff is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns. 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 Pinebluff?
One place: the Lincoln Park School (listed 1997).
How old are the homes in Pinebluff?
9% of Pinebluff’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.4 points), against a typical 4.1% for a North Carolina town; the median home was built in 1985.
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 (1), Wikipedia, 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.
