Rowland, NC

Rowland is a Robeson County town in southeastern North Carolina, with 885 residents in the 2020 census. It sits in Rowland Township near Interstate 95, one exit north of the South of the Border roadside attraction. Main Street, the former depot, and the town’s historic district give the community a compact center amid the farm roads and pine country of southern Robeson County. The road network keeps Rowland tied to Lumberton, the South Carolina line, and the long north-south traffic stream along I-95.

The community’s history reaches back to the Ashpole Presbyterian congregation, founded here in 1796. Rowland incorporated in 1889 and took its name from Alfred Rowland, a North Carolina politician and local figure. The Ashpole church, Centenary Methodist Church, Rowland Depot, and Main Street Historic District are all part of the town’s registered historic map. Rowland is a North Carolina town where an old church congregation, a railroad stop, a highway exit, and a small downtown carry the story of a borderland farming community.