Brunswick Town Historic District

Brunswick Town Historic District covers about 120 acres along the Cape Fear River in Brunswick County, North Carolina. It contains the ruins of a colonial port town and the earthworks of Civil War Fort Anderson. Founded in the early 1700s, Brunswick was home to merchants, sea captains and officials, and in 1765 a group of citizens surrounded Governor Tryon's house at Russellborough to protest the Stamp Act, an early use of arms against British authority. The town declined as Wilmington grew and was burned during the British raid of 1776. In 1862 Confederate forces built Fort Anderson on the site, incorporating the walls of St. Philips Church, and abandoned it in February 1865. Archeologist Stanley South excavated about 25 of 65 foundations between 1958 and 1968, including houses, a public house, wells and a smokehouse. Visitors walk trails past the ruins, the pond, the batteries and the church.