Sweetgum Circle at dusk: a round green with one enormous sweetgum tree turning red and gold, a bandstand under it, brick storefronts all around, and the old theater marquee lit on the far end

Welcome to Sweetgum.

Pridgen County, North Carolina

A Down East farm town of about 2,400 people on Highway 11, built around the Circle and the old sweetgum tree it was named for.

Take a walk around the Circle Town news by email

Founded 1880s
Population about 2,400
Home of the Hornets

Town hall

Town business goes on the marquee.

Sweetgum's town hall is the old Royal Theater on the east end of the Circle. Everybody calls it the dollar theater. It showed first-run pictures from 1938, second-run pictures for a dollar on weekends into the 2000s, and the town bought it for back taxes in 2006.

The Town Council meets on the stage the second Monday of the month at seven. The public sits in the old theater seats. Water bills are paid at the window in the old concession stand.

Council meetings, lost-and-found notices, and Friday night scores go up on the Circle side of the marquee.

Council Mon 7PM
Found: Beagle
Go Hornets

The old 1938 theater at night, its marquee lit with rows of warm bulbs and the popcorn machine glowing behind the glass doors — Town hall, after a Monday meeting.

From the mayor's office

A word from Mayor Pate

FROM: Office of the Mayor
Sweetgum Town Hall

Welcome, neighbor.

I taught agriculture at Sweetgum High for thirty-four years, and I have served as your mayor for twenty. A good many of you sat in my classroom, and I am proud of what you have made of this town.

The Town Council meets the second Monday of each month at seven o'clock at town hall on the Circle. Meetings are open to the public, and anyone who wishes to speak is welcome.

If you have business with the town, come by and see us. We are glad you are here.

Arlis PateMayor, Town of Sweetgum

Ongoing requests to the state: a second traffic signal on Highway 11 and replacement of the bridge over the creek.

Around the Circle

Where to go, and who'll be there

Main Street goes around Sweetgum Circle, a round green with the old sweetgum tree in the middle. The town was named for that tree, and the tree was here first.

The old board-and-batten railroad depot with a long wooden freight platform, a crape myrtle growing up through the boards, and the feed mill's steel bins down the track — The depot, the tracks, and the mill bins beyond.

The inside of a small-town diner before dawn: a long counter, two big steaming coffee urns, pie under glass, and a red vinyl window booth

Crossroads Diner

North side of the Circle

Dell Whitfield opens the counter at five for the farmers. The deacons have the window booth most mornings from about seven. Breakfast, lunch, and pie.

Counter opens 5 a.m.

A two-story red brick hardware and feed store with a faded painted wall sign, a tin porch roof over the sidewalk, feed sacks and rocking chairs out front, and a pickup parked at the curb

Barefoot Hardware & Feed

Corner of 11 and Main

A family store since 1904, run today by June Barefoot. Feed, seed, fencing, hardware, building supplies, and farm diesel out back.

Est. 1904 · Caps and shirts at the General Store

Battle's Bar-B-Q

Edge of town on the Halsey highway

Eastern North Carolina whole hog, chopped, with a vinegar and red pepper sauce, cooked over oak and hickory coals in the pit house out back. Slaw, hushpuppies, Brunswick stew, banana pudding. When there's smoke over town on a Thursday, Battle's is open.

Thursday–Saturday till it's gone · Since 1958

Summerlin'sSoutheast corner of 11 and Main since the 1880s. Sweetgum grew up around it. Bread, milk, coffee, bait, hoop cheese, and Nabs. No gas pumps.
Doc LassiterA. W. Lassiter, M.D., south side of the Circle, beside the post office. Tuesday and Thursday mornings, eight to noon, walk-ins only.
Bev's Beauty BoxSouth side of the Circle. Friday is set-and-style day. Bev is also a notary public.
The post officeOne brick room on the south side of the Circle. Ruth Ann is behind the counter.
Taylor's Service StationJust south of the light. Two old pumps, cash only, one repair bay, a drink machine that still takes quarters. The sign says PAY FIRST. Curtis Taylor runs the wrecker the county calls.
Tienda SalinasHighway 11 north, between the mill and the Dollar General. Pan dulce, Mexican Cokes in glass bottles, a hot case, and Lupe Salinas's tamales by the dozen at Christmas.
The depotUp by the tracks, built around 1900 for the Coast Line. Freight trains still come through at night; listen for two longs, a short, and a long at the crossing.
Skeeter's stripA grass airstrip and windsock off Pamlico Road. Skeeter Odom flies a yellow ag plane and sprays soybeans, peanuts, and cotton in season.

Sweetgum Community Church

The church feeds everybody.

A white clapboard country church with a tall steeple, a gravel lot with pickup trucks, and an old cemetery between the lot and the highway — A mile south of the light on 11. The 1912 sanctuary, the bell, and the cemetery out front.

The white clapboard sanctuary went up in 1912. Pastor Hollis Gaskins preaches there on Sundays and grows sweet potatoes the rest of the week; the older members call him Preacher. Miss Odessa Lane plays the organ.

The fellowship hall is where Sweetgum eats: Wednesday night supper, funeral dinners, and whatever the town needs fed after a storm. Sugar Sasser's cream cheese pound cake and peanut butter pie are known all over the county.

Sweetgum news by email

Get new books from Magnolia Whitley and a free story set in Sweetgum the summer before the first one.

A two-story red brick volunteer fire station with two bay doors, an old red pumper on the apron, a flag out front, and the pale blue Sweetgum water tower behind it — The station on the Halsey highway, with the water tower behind it.

Sweetgum Fire

Sweetgum Volunteer Fire Department

Sweetgum Fire is an all-volunteer department of about thirty members, with three captains who run the calls. Chief Pendergrass has led the department since 1971.

The station sits on the Halsey highway just west of the light. The department's 1974 pumper still leads the Christmas parade, and the annual fish fry on the last Saturday in August supports the department.

Town board

What folks are saying

Lost dogs, pie updates, and prayer requests, straight from the Sweetgum Community Board.

Sweetgum Community BoardPrivate group · 1,148 members · Admin: Arlis Pate

Loading the board…

New posts every week. Somebody's always got something to say.

Town calendar

What's coming up in Sweetgum

Regular meetings and yearly events around Sweetgum.

Second Monday · 7 p.m.

Town Council

Town hall on the Circle. Open to the public.

Every Wednesday

Wednesday Night Supper

Sweetgum Community fellowship hall. The whole town eats.

Thursday–Saturday

Battle's is open

Battle's Bar-B-Q, until it's sold out. Church plate sales on Saturdays.

Last Saturday in August

Sweetgum Fire Fish Fry

At the fire station. Plates benefit Sweetgum Fire.

A Sunday in October

Homecoming

Sweetgum Community Church. Dinner on the grounds.

First Friday in November

The Creek Bowl

Sweetgum Hornets vs. Mercy Creek Mustangs, at the Gumball.

Second Saturday in November

Ruritan Harvest Festival

At the fairgrounds, with the barbecue cook-off and a dessert tent.

December

Christmas Parade

Around the Circle, followed by the lighting of the sweetgum tree.

Across the creek

About Mercy Creek

Cross the old bridge over the creek and you're in Mercy Creek: about nine thousand people, three stoplights, a country club, a subdivision with a fountain at the entrance, the regional hospital, and the county's only town police department.

The two towns have been football rivals for generations, and the Creek Bowl on the first Friday in November is the biggest game of the year.

HORNETSSweetgum

vs.

MUSTANGSMercy Creek

By tradition, the mayor of the losing town wears the winner's jersey and serves plates at the Ruritan Harvest Festival.

The narrow old bridge over the dark creek, its iron rails painted green, cypress knees in the water, and a produce stand with an honor box on the near bank — The old bridge over the creek, and the produce stand on the Sweetgum side.

Small town. Big secrets.

Everybody knows everybody. Nobody knows everything.

Sweetgum is the setting of Welcome to Sweetgum, a series of clean Christian romantic suspense novels by Magnolia Whitley. Book One, Dating for Cover, is coming soon from Mercy Creek Press.

Meet the books Get the free novella Visit the General Store

Real danger · Real chemistry · Real faith · Zero spice