Our police department is the best! They keep the neighborhood safe, and really get to know the…read moreresidents of our sleepy little village.

I recently sent a birthday package to my grandson in Pine Bluff, NC. My son had just recently…read moremoved, and I inadvertently transposed the house number for which the package was to be delivered. Upon tracking the package, it showed it had been delivered. Meanwhile, my son stopped the mail carrier one day to inquire about the package. The person he spoke to was actually the Post Master, covering deliveries. She advised my son to have me call her the next morning. My phone call was answered by a very pleasant, understanding, and compassionate Post Master named, Danielle. She assured me she would work on trying to retrieve the package, and kept me informed every step of the way. In the end, the package was retrieved by Danielle, from a working family who had planned to return the package to the P.O., but had not been able to do so yet due to conflicting work hours. My grandson received his birthday present, and was delighted. I received a greater gift, knowing there are still wonderful people in this world! Both the people in the household who had received the package and planned to return it, and Danielle, the Post Master for working above and beyond her duties, especially since the initial error was my wrong doing! Thank you to all involved in locating and delivering this package to my grandson! Your actions were hands down first-class, and much appreciated!

The "Old" Moore County Courthouse stands in the center of the traffic island at the core of…read moredowntown Carthage. It is the third to serve as the county courthouse, a three-story structure of Indiana limestone and concrete in a Renaissance Revival architecture. It was completed in 1923, designed by architect Christopher Gadsden Sayre. It does not have columns instead is a symmetrical building with somewhat limited ornamentation. Sayre's works are known for proportion and integration of classical motifs into public architecture, such as the Wiley Elementary School in Raleigh and the former John Graham High School in Warrenton. The courtroom is on the second floor and I was not able to tour it this afternoon. Moore County itself was established in 1784, carved from Cumberland County and named for Alfred Moore, a Revolutionary War veteran and U.S. Supreme Court justice. The much more contemporary design of the current courthouse is concrete and glass and just to the south, completed in 2023. [Review 739 of 2025 - 4171 in North Carolina - 24299 overall]

Lee County, North Carolina was officially formed in 1907 from parts of Moore and Chatham counties…read more It was named in honor of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and became the 98th county in the state. The county seat, Sanford, was named after railroad engineer Col. Charles Ogburn Sanford. The rise of the railroad played a major role in the county's formation, as residents of Sanford found travel to Moore County's seat in Carthage too burdensome. The junction of two major rail lines helped Sanford grow rapidly, eventually leading to the merger of Sanford and Jonesboro in 1947. The courthouse was built in 1908, shortly after the county was formed. It is a two-story rectangular brick building in the Classical Revival style with Ionic brick columns and a small dome atop its hipped roof. It was designed by Charles McMillan who is also responsible for a number of North Carolina structures including the Masonic Temple in Wilmington and the Grand Lodge Masonic Temple in Raleigh. Unfortunately, the courthouse is under massive remodeling with a large fence around the front. I was not able to see the front lobby. The rear entrance does look pretty boring for a hallway with terrazzo floors. Today, Lee County is known as the "brick making capital" of the United States and hosts the Sanford Pottery Festival, a major cultural event. The grounds of the courthouse include a huge parking lot, the interment of Jacob Gaster (a Revolutionary War hero) and the restored Court Bell. There is also a large marker at the rear between the Historic and New courthouses with a biography of the county's namesake. [Review 745 of 2025 - 4177 in North Carolina - 24305 overall]

I worked there when they initially brought this building online back in 1994-1995. That was an…read moreinteresting time...

The Moore County Courts Facility, located across the street and to the south of the Historic Moore…read moreCounty Courthouse, was built in 2023 and stands out as a prime example of contemporary architecture. The four-story construction focuses on functionality, security, and accessibility. Its west-facing façade has a huge glass wall with recessed entrances and small horizontal windows on the second level, all beneath a flat roof that overhangs the building--an intended contrast to the ornate limestone of the nearby 1923 courthouse. The building's interior is designed for both operational effectiveness and security. It has distinct circulation routes for judges, inmates, and the general public, a basement level with holding cells, utilities, and safe parking for court staff, and a sally port system for safe prisoner transportation. Superior and district courts, as well as a sizable 220-seat courtroom, are located on the higher levels, while the ground floor functions as a judicial plaza. The new courthouse has a modern ethos, including streamlined architecture, technological integration, and a focus on public service, although lacking the classical decoration of its predecessor. I much prefer the Historic to the Contemporary in this case but I do understand the need to modernize. A lot has changed in the last 100 years since! There is street parking and there are free lots nearby. [Review 740 of 2025 - 4172 in North Carolina - 24300 overall]

Located in gas station parking lot along US-1, this marker points out something nearby. I guess…read moreyou're probably not heading down Caddell Road, so it's here. The marker reads, "Cameron Morrison School. State home and school for boys, opened 1925. Gives academic, vocational and agricultural training. Three miles west." Online, there is more information. "Work for the care of delinquent youth in North Carolina began in 1890 when the State Board of Public Charities passed a resolution calling for the appointment of a committee to formulate plans for a juvenile reform school for offenders. In 1907 the legislature passed an act creating the Stonewall Jackson Manual Training and Industrial School in Cabarrus County. In 1909 the school opened to serve 120 white male adolescents." "By the 1920s Thad Tate, a black barber and civic leader from Charlotte, was voicing his concern about the large number of black youths being placed on chain gangs as punishment for committing crimes. Tate approached one of his clients, Cameron Morrison, then a candidate for governor, and suggested a training school be established for young black men in trouble with the law. His proposition was that, just as at the Stonewall Jackson School, offenders could learn a trade and be given a new start in life." "In 1925, during Cameron Morrison's term as governor, the Cameron Morrison Training School for Negroes was opened on a 700-acre farm in the community of Hoffman in Richmond County. The school's core curriculum included English, social studies, mathematics, and science. Vocational education courses offered included shoe repair, electricity, carpentry, brick masonry, auto mechanics, barbering, arts and crafts, vocational agriculture, and graphic arts. As stated in the Second Annual Report of the Morrison Training School "the school committed itself to the task of making citizens rather than punitive repression." By the end of the school's first year in operation the school's population had grown from thirty-seven to sixty-two and by 1956, the enrollment had risen to 228. The school closed during the 1970s and the property was turned over to the Department of Correction." And yes, it is now the Morrison Correctional Institution. [Review 15005 overall, 507 of 2021, number 2867 in North Carolina.]

[* NOTE: There are *two* Plank Road Historical Markers but Yelp merged them. On Sep 25, 2020, I…read morereviewed the one in Asheboro. Yelp merged it with the one I reviewed on August 4, 2025 that is in Carthage. They are 40 miles apart and I can't be bothered to argue with Yelp about fixing their error. *] This marker is just to the south/east of downtown Carthage and points out some pre-Civil War history. The marker has the same text on both sides. It reads, "This street is the route of the Fayetteville-to-Salem plank road, a toll road 129 miles long, built 1849-54." It is marker number K-26 and it was erected in 1948 by the Archives, Conservation and Highway Departments. The 129-mile toll road built between 1849 and 1854 during a statewide push to improve transportation infrastructure. Inspired by similar roads in Canada and the northern U.S., it was part of a broader plank road movement that saw nearly 500 miles constructed across North Carolina by 1860. Despite initial enthusiasm and investment, the roads proved costly to build and maintain, and were quickly overshadowed by the rise of railroads, particularly after the North Carolina Railroad opened in 1856. The Civil War and economic downturns ultimately ended further development, leaving the plank roads as a brief but ambitious chapter in the state's transportation history. [Review 742 of 2025 - 4174 in North Carolina - 24302 overall]