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Five Things You Must Do While You Are in Fayetteville

Fayetteville, North Carolina (population 121,100), is 51 miles south of Raleigh and near the South Carolina border. In 1783, two early settlements converged and were named Fayetteville, after the Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette.

1.  Honor the military heritage of the United States. Fayetteville's county is the site of Fort Bragg, the largest military installation in the world. In World War II, it was a training ground for all five U.S. Army Airborne Divisions. On certain days, the base is open to watch parachute training jumps. At the Airborne and Special Operations Museum are exhibitions about the days of the early Airborne Divisions; World War II; the Korean and Vietnam wars; the Cold War; and contingency operations and training. The 82nd Division War Memorial Museum celebrates the history of the first "All American," airborne division from 1917 through World War II.

2.  Stroll the downtown historic districts. View Early Commercial and Classical Revival architecture and Fayetteville's first efforts at community planning and development in the Downtown Historic District. Also tour the Haymount Historic District and Liberty Point National Register District.

3.  Visit the 1897 Poe House Museum.  You can learn about late-19th and early 20th century Southern social, cultural, and family life. Businessman, politician, and civic leader Edgar Allen Poe -- no relation to the famous poet by the same name – and his wife built an Eastlake-style, two-story frame house, barn, woodhouse, smokehouse and well house. Architecturally significant elements include an entrance bay, wrap-around porch, exterior sawnwork, tongue-and-groove wainscoting, and bulls-eye molding. 

4.  Tour a botanical garden. On the bluffs of the Cape Fear River, the Cape Fear Botanical Garden provides 85 acres of formal gardens and natural woodland. Interpretive signs provide historical and horticultural information on more than 85 species of trees, including the largest swamp chestnut oak on the Fayetteville register of big trees. The cultivated section contains more than 2,000 species of ornamentals.

5. Market House Square National Register District.   Take a walking tour of the Market House Square National Register District. The Market House is one of the few structures in America to use the town hall-market scheme found in England. It was built in 1832 on the site of the old State House, destroyed by fire in 1831. In the State House, North Carolina ratified the U.S. Constitution in 1789, chartered the University of North Carolina, and ceded its western lands to form the state of Tennessee. For decades, meat and produce were sold on the ground floor of the Market House, while the second floor was the town hall. In recent years, the second floor has been used as a library, chamber of commerce offices, and art museum.