Tarboro Town Common
Why it's listed
Tarboro Town Common is a nine-acre public park in the center of Tarboro, North Carolina, shaped roughly like a triangle and crossed by Trade, Main and St. Andrew's Streets. It began as part of Joseph Howell's plantation, which commissioners bought in 1760 to lay out a town, setting aside fifty acres for commons. The common once surrounded the town on three sides, but expansion, an academy and a graded school gradually reduced it. During the Civil War it served as a training ground and temporary barracks for the Edgecombe Guards. Today it has open lawns shaded by old oaks and elms, a moved nineteenth-century cotton press, a Confederate monument from 1904, a Wilson obelisk, a Spanish-American War marker and a cast iron fountain honoring Henry Wyatt. The listing rests on its rarity as an early planned town common, an unusual feature among North Carolina's eighteenth-century towns.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues that the common is a unique survival of early urban planning in the South. Few eighteenth-century North Carolina towns set aside land specifically as town commons, and Tarboro's original plan reserved fifty acres for this purpose. The remaining space has served as a training ground, a park and a site for memorials.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 70000453, listed September 30, 1970. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | Bounded by Wilson St., Albemarle Ave., Park Ave. and St. Patrick St., Tarboro |
|---|---|
| County | Edgecombe County |
| Listed | September 30, 1970 |
| Reference number | 70000453 |
| Resource type | Site |
| Areas of significance | Community Planning and Development, Landscape Architecture |
| Level of significance | State |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Described as in good condition, altered, on its original site, and in use as a public park owned by the Town of Tarboro. |
| Acreage | 7 |
| Within district | Tarboro Historic District |
| Coordinates | 35.89821, -77.53553 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
Sites (archaeological sites, battlefields, landscapes) are often listed with a restricted address to protect them from looting or disturbance. Listing is honorary for private owners; federal undertakings on or near the site go through Section 106 review, and state laws may protect burials and artefacts regardless of listing.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 70000453.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q19863970
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.