Community Name:         Swansboro

County:                                Onslow

Information:

The unique village atmosphere in Swansboro’s historic downtown area offers opportunity to enjoy the community’s heritage while shopping in an area alive with restaurants, boutiques, gift shops, and waterside parks. Popular activities available in Swansboro and the surrounding area include beach-going, fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, golf, shopping, the arts, and amusement parks. Known as a high-quality living location, Swansboro offers a wide variety of residential settings – many of which are located on or near the White Oak River, the Intracoastal Waterway, or the numerous coastal creeks that border the town – and an attractive array of business services.

History:

Founded in 1783, the “Friendly City by the Sea” offers a historic downtown district overlooking the water, numerous opportunities for coastal recreation, and a progressive town government that works to balance high quality community growth with conservation of the community’s natural and historic resources.

Settlers first came to Swansboro around 1730, founding a community on the site of an Algonkian Indian village at the mouth of the White Oak River. The colonial port town of Swannsborough was incorporated in 1783 – named in honor of Samuel Swann, who had been speaker of the North Carolina House of Commons. The community’s early prosperity was based on shipbuilding, and its most famous shipbuilder was Captain Otway Burns. Burns, whose exploits as commander of the privateer vessel Snapdragon brought early attention to Swansboro, was also the builder of the Prometheus, the first steamboat constructed in North Carolina.

Although its shipbuilding industry declined, Swansboro found new prosperity in lumber and naval stores, and, in the mid-Twentieth Century, in the commercial fishing industry. Beginning with World War II, Swansboro, like most of Onslow County, began experiencing an economic boost from the nearby establishment of Camp Lejeune, one of the U.S. Marine Corps’ largest bases, and from the growth of coastal tourism – trends that continue today.