Aulander, NC

Aulander is a town in Bertie County, North Carolina, built around the old crossing of Main Street and Commerce Street in the county’s northeastern farm country. The 2020 census counted 763 residents. Highway 11 now bypasses the town, with several exits leading back to its streets, while NC 305 follows the older north-south route. Aulander has no school inside town limits today, but the Sallie Harrell Jenkins Memorial Public Library and volunteer rescue squad remain important local institutions. The old railroad depot is still part of the town’s historic map.

Before Aulander, the place was Harmon’s Crossroads, where the Harmon and Dunning families kept stores and a sawmill. Andrew Dunning wanted the town named Orlando after a Florida city, but the post office suggested a different spelling; Aulander kept the sound. The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad arrived in 1885, bringing people, freight, and mail. Passenger trains ended in 1958, but the railroad beginning still sits behind the town’s street plan. Aulander is a small Bertie County town with a changed name, an old depot, a bypass highway, and civic work carried by neighbors.