History with ‘Hud’: How Leland grew from a stopover town to a rapidly-growing community
LELAND, NC (WWAY) — This week marks 34 years since the Town of Leland was officially incorporated on September 12, 1989. But it took a long time to get to that point.
In the mid 1890s, the area which is now Leland was an unnamed settlement situated at the crossroads of Village Road and the Wilmington, Columbia and Augusta Railroads. The tiny community served as a minor center for trade and a stop off point for people traveling north or south via train or ferry.
But that began to change in 1897. It was in that year Joseph W. Gay and other citizens petitioned the U.S. Post Office Department in Washington, D.C. for a local post office. The petition included three potential names for a settlement, with Leland – named after Gay’s nephew Leland Adams — ultimately being chosen.
Joseph Gay served as the Postmaster of the new office, which officially opened on February 10, 1898 in a corner of his General Store.
Due to its proximity to the Brunswick River, Leland served as an early transportation center. Ferries were in place nearby for travelers going north and south, with a bridge built across the Brunswick River towards the end of the 19th century. But the route was bogged down by soil wetness due to swamp land. So in 1923 the road from the Brunswick River through Leland was hard-surfaced and became known as State Road 20.
Early activity in the town revolved around the school, two grocery stores, railroad station and several churches. It remained relatively unchanged for nearly half a century.
The Leland Shopping Center arrived on Village Road in 1978, but despite the growing area, Leland was still an unincorporated region. It wasn’t until the urging of the Leland Civic Association in 1989 that Leland residents voted 427 to 42 to incorporate the 19.9 square mile area bounded by the Brunswick River, Sturgeon Creek and US Highway 74/76, after voting down incorporation just ten years prior.
Many of the early talks about helping Leland become an official town took place inside the Benton Home, which received a plaque recognizing its significance in early 2023.
The Leland Town Charter Commission was formed soon after incorporation, made up of 12 members chosen for integrity, civic mindedness, and commitment to the community. Five of those original members would be elected to the first Town of Leland Council in November 1989, with the first meeting being held in one of the area’s oldest surviving residences, the circa 1916 McFarland House.
The first mayor of the newly incorporated town was Russell Baldwin who helped guide the initial stages of the town of around just 1,000 people.
As the population exploded to over 10,000 people, a new 40,000 square foot Town Hall was built in 2015 for $9.7 million to include the Police Headquarters, along with an 18,000 square foot Cultural Arts Center.
Despite being one of the Cape Fear’s youngest towns, it remains one of the fastest growing towns in all of North Carolina and the largest town in Brunswick County. With a near-doubling of the population from 2010 to 2020, Leland’s popularity shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
