Murphy to Manteo: Finding new adventures, historic detours, and the soul of North Carolina on the state’s longest highway: U.S. Route 64. Read the series.

I’m standing in the middle of a grassy lawn dotted with towering 200-year-old oaks in Edgecombe County. But “lawn” isn’t really the best word to describe 15 acres. “Field” isn’t right either, considering the impressive canopy above me. “Park” is technically correct, but somehow doesn’t quite do it justice. Officially, I’m right in the middle of Tarboro Town Common, and that name comes closest to capturing its lofty atmosphere. Because where I’m standing is older than the United States itself.

Tarboro Town Common was used for community events, military drills, and grazing livestock. Photography courtesy of State Archives of North Carolina

As I begin walking toward the perimeter, aiming for the sidewalk lined with stately old homes with white columns and covered porches, I get the hard-to-describe feeling of being in another era, of walking through time. It’s not just the misty gray morning, the quiet, the gnarled branches, the historic houses. Well, it’s all those things — and knowing that this place has stood nearly unchanged for centuries. I have the chance to not only see something historic but also, in a way, experience it like somebody in the past.

On the banks of the Tar River, “Tarborough” was chartered in 1760. Photography courtesy of “Tar River, Tarboro, N.C.,” North Carolina Postcard Collection (P052), North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, UNC Chapel Hill

Established in 1760, when the North Carolina Colonial Legislature chartered “Tarborough” on the banks of the Tar River, this is the second-oldest legislated town common — a piece of land open to the public — remaining in the country. In fact, the only other original colonial town common that’s older is Boston’s.

Originally 50 acres, Tarboro Town Common was designed for grazing livestock, hosting community events, and holding military drills. Perhaps George Washington strolled past the common’s sapling oaks when he came to town on his Southern tour in 1791. Today, it’s still the place where locals gather for special events and festivals.

• • •

Leaving the town common behind, I walk down St. Andrew Street, my feet firmly planted in the present, even if my mind is on the past. As an admirer of historic buildings, I’m already giddy, but with each house I pass, my jaw drops a bit more. I knew this district would be impressive, but I wasn’t expecting to find historic plaques by the doors of every home on both sides of the street. At each one, I stop and gaze, I ponder, I admire … until I realize how long it’s taken me to reach the end of a single block. If I want to truly experience the 45 blocks and 364 houses, churches, and businesses in the historic district, I’m going to need to pick up the pace.

Park Avenue is lined with historic homes overlooking the Tarboro Town Common. photograph by Charles Harris

I pinball from street to street, trying to see as much as possible: There are pergolas and porticos, cupolas and columns, stained-glass windows and scalloped shingles. The architectural styles — antebellum, Victorian, Second Empire, colonial revival, neo-classical revival, Beaux Arts, and more — span the centuries, with the oldest built around 1785. It’s enough to make my head spin. I lean against an old brick wall covered in ivy and pull up a map on my phone.

• • •

Beyond its sheer size and variety of styles, what makes the Tarboro Historic District so special is just how well-preserved it is. The local historic district — established in 1976 to protect Tarboro’s large collection of structures deemed historically and architecturally important — is part of the larger National Register Historic District, established in 1980, which includes downtown. That year, it also became one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s first five Main Street communities in the state.

illustration by Ed Fotheringham

“I grew up in Pitt County, lived in quite a few other places, and then came back [to eastern North Carolina], and one of the things I appreciate most about Tarboro’s Historic District is that the architecture is so varied,” says Catherine Grimm, the town’s planning director and staff liaison to the Historic District Commission. “You might see a house from the 1880s next to one from the 1940s, and yet it all blends really well. I like that our town doesn’t seem to be quite so much like a museum.”

She pauses, then laughs. “There’s a quote that I love: In 1974, the president of the Edgecombe County Historical Society, Mahlon DeLoatch, said, ‘We are in no way trying to pickle Tarboro.’ That stuck with me.”

• • •

I finally leave the sidewalk behind to cover some ground in my car, but as soon as I start driving, I feel compelled to pull over. I hop out at Calvary Episcopal Church, a Gothic revival-style building with elaborate stained-glass windows that was constructed in 1867. It’s surrounded by an enchanting walled churchyard where I slowly wander along winding paths past weathered gravestones and century-old trees, their branches outstretched. Once more, in the quiet churchyard, I feel like a time traveler as I imagine the many others who’ve walked along these well-worn bricks before me.

More than 150 years after it was built, Calvary Episcopal Church has many of the original furnishings, including its altar and chairs used by the bishop and deacon. photograph by Charles Harris

My car forgotten, I continue on, wondering, What historic treasures await just out of sight? What century will they catapult me into? I come across a brick house with decorative gable trim and read the plaque: it was built in 1869 — by Calvary’s third rector, the Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire. Next to it is a small and tidy white home — without a designation — built in 1937.

I imagine the festivals and happenings that the original owners of both homes may have attended down the street at the town common, nearly 70 years apart. Then my thoughts turn to the current owners, who might also meet up there, might come together beneath the old oaks. How valuable it is to preserve the past, to remember — and to continue adding to it all the while.

More to Explore: To explore more in Tarboro, check out our downtown guide at ourstate.com/tarboro.