Laurinburg Commercial Historic District

Laurinburg's downtown commercial district lies along Main Street in the county seat of Scotland County, North Carolina, and is built largely of one- and two-story brick storefronts. The earliest extant building is the c. 1893 Central Hotel, and the period of significance runs from about 1893 to 1953. The town grew around the Wilmington, Charlotte, and Rutherford Railroad, whose shops were moved here during the Civil War and remained until 1894. Textile mills founded from 1899 onward and the banking and mercantile activity of the McNair family sustained the business district. Buildings include the c. 1904 McDougald's Furniture Store and Funeral Parlor, the c. 1904 Everington's Drug Store, and the 1940 Gibson Theater, the town's only Art Deco commercial building. The 1918 First United Methodist Church, a Gothic Revival building, anchors the southern edge. The district is regarded as a well-preserved record of a turn-of-the-century railroad and county seat town.