Lattimore, NC

Lattimore is a town in Cleveland County, in the foothills of western North Carolina. The 2020 census counted 406 residents. A post office has operated here since 1886, and the town took its name from an early settler. Roads connect Lattimore with Shelby and the surrounding farm communities, while the town’s strongest present-day institution is a college campus set among the older rural landscape. The campus also draws students from outside Cleveland County. It also brings faculty and visitors.

Ambassador Baptist College began in nearby Shelby in 1989 under Evangelist Ron Comfort and moved to Lattimore in 1997. The private Bible college trains students for ministry and now shapes the town’s daily map through classes, housing, and campus life. Lattimore is still a small Cleveland County town, but the college gives it a regional role beyond the post office and farm roads. Its story comes through a long-running mail stop, an early settler’s name, and a school that relocated into the community and stayed.