La Grange, NC

La Grange is a Lenoir County town in North Carolina’s Inner Banks, built on the old Moseley Hall site and shaped by the Norfolk and Southern Railroad through its historic district. Its name comes from the Marquis de Lafayette’s French estate, Château de La Grange-Bléneau. A railroad porter helped give La Grange its “Garden Spot” nickname in the early 1900s, when gardens lined the tracks. The Garden Spot Festival keeps that phrase on the calendar each September. La Grange is eastern North Carolina with a French name, a rail line, and a garden nickname that never left town.