Swansboro Town Hall is located at 502 Church Street, Swansboro, NC 28584; phone: 910-326-4428.
Swansboro was incorporated in 1783 but the area had first been settled in the 1750s. The town was laid out in 1772 at the mouth of the White Oak River, opposite the navigable Bogue Inlet, and was the first successful town to be established. The town flourished into the middle of the 19th century with an economy based on fishing, piloting, ship building, and naval stores production. The town went into decline after the Civil War. Population dropped from over 150 in 1860 to 128 in 1880 and remained depressed until the 1890s when the first of a succession of lumber mills was established, leading the way to a restoration of prosperity. [†]
Dan Pezzoni, Architectural Historian and Preservation Consultant, Historic and Architectural Resources of Onslow County, North Carolina, nomination document, 1988, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.