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If Richard Sceiford ever dreamed of donning a hard hat, it would have been for a stage role as a construction worker. But the lifelong thespian now spends much of his day in a work zone in downtown Lumberton, where the scraping of concrete and laying of bricks fill the once-quiet space.
Sceiford, the executive director of the Carolina Civic Center, has a front-row view of the construction of a $3 million theater annex in the heart of downtown. The 8,200-square-foot expansion, which is expected to open by Christmas, includes additional seats, an improved lobby, and a new space for special events.
Built in 1928, the Carolina Civic Center featured vaudeville acts, silent movies, and nationally recognized organ players in its early years. With its low admission costs and frequent shows, the theater connected people of all ages for decades, according to its listing on the National Register of Historic Places. But the crowds began to dwindle in the 1950s and ‘60s, and the theater closed in 1975. Local developers and officials at the time threatened to tear it down or turn it into a parking lot.
While patrons raised money to reopen the theater in 1985, maintenance became increasingly costly, and it shuttered again a few years later. A cycle of openings and closings continued until Sceiford took over in 2007. He helped raise $2 million for renovations to the existing lobby and box office, and the theater reopened in 2009.
Since then, the Carolina Civic Center has been thriving, consistently selling out local Christmas concerts and musicals, and drawing children from around southeastern North Carolina to voice and acting lessons.
The theater expansion is the first new building in downtown Lumberton in more than 30 years. But it is just one of the projects coming to life in the heart of this Robeson County town home to 19,000 people. Entrepreneurs are repurposing a historic firehouse into a mixed-use office and living space, opening a new jazz bar and organizing events in the downtown plaza. For the first time in a long time, business owners and town officials say, Lumberton is on the precipice of becoming a true destination.
“This is an old town and we’re working with old infrastructure,” Sceiford said. “But we really think we’re breathing some new life in here that is sorely needed.”
But plenty of roadblocks threaten progress. Most downtown buildings are owned by a few family estates, including those of a former mayor and state senator whose family no longer lives in Robeson County. Many of the properties need major repairs and have become eyesores.
Longtime business owners in the area describe a repeated pattern: Entrepreneurs drawn to the area by cheap rent soon encounter widespread maintenance issues that often go unfixed.
Lumberton thrived in the 18th and 19th centuries, when stagecoaches from Elizabethtown and Fayetteville crossed the Lumber River in the town. The U.S. Navy used the city as a primary lumber shipping point. The river’s high bluff was the launching point for thousands of logs floated down to Georgetown, South Carolina.
“This is an old town and we’re working with old infrastructure. But we really think we’re breathing some new life in here that is sorely needed.”
Richard Sceiford, Carolina Civic Center executive director
Before the city was established in 1787, the banks of the Lumber River were long inhabited by American Indians. Home to the Lumbee tribe and many Tuscarora people, Robeson County’s population is now 42 percent Native American. The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, 12 miles west of Lumberton, was founded in 1887 as the Croatan Normal School.
The community’s vibrancy began to fade amid the decline of the tobacco and textile industries. Robeson County had more than 17,000 acres of tobacco in the 1980s; by 2022, the number dropped below 7,000. Lumberton lost more than 6,500 factory jobs between 1996 and 2001, according to the North Carolina Sociological Association. Converse, International Jensen, Croft Metals and Gerber Childrenswear all shuttered their Robeson County factories in a five-year span, according to research by UNC Pembroke.
Lumberton’s population grew by 67 percent between 1950 and 1960. But it has grown just 25 percent in the 60 years since, well behind the statewide growth rate of 138 percent, according to Census data. Damages from hurricanes Matthew and Florence in 2016 and 2018, respectively, contributed to a 13.1 percent population loss between 2010 and 2020. More than 5,000 people were displaced by the storms, and many in the community are still reeling from the effects—waiting for their homes to be rebuilt or replaced.
Still, the city continues to be an ideal crossroads. Situated next to Interstate 95, it serves as the halfway point between New York and Florida. A 215-acre industrial park at the interchange of I-95 and U.S. 74 includes the largest manufacturer of stainless steel sinks in the country.
Like many cities and towns across rural North Carolina, Lumberton has turned its focus downtown. Elizabeth Parham is the director of North Carolina Main Street, a program through the N.C. Department of Commerce focused on economic development and historic preservation in rural communities. She said investing in downtowns is important for rural communities because they serve as the lifeblood of struggling towns.
“If the core is rotten, then the community is rotten,” she said. “Investing in downtown is essentially investing in the community’s future and vitality.”
Interest across the state in rural downtown revitalization is growing: North Carolina Main Street hosted its largest-ever conference earlier this year on the topic, with about 150 towns participating.
Carolyn Fryberger is the associate director of economic development for NCGrowth, an economic development center at UNC-Chapel Hill. She said investing in downtown revitalization in rural communities is one of the most worthwhile things a town can do because it helps build a sense of place for future generations.
“Investment will pay dividends over many, many years,” she said. “The next generation will say, ‘Hey, there is something for me here. There is a quality of life, there’s a community that I want to be a part of,’ and a downtown can really be an anchor for that.”
In December, Lumberton officials unveiled a 10-year master plan for the area that includes a reimagined riverwalk, upgraded building facades, and a series of small parks.
“We’re sitting on a gold mine here in Lumberton, if we can tap into it,” said Sarah Beth Ward, Lumberton’s downtown development manager. “We’ve been pushing hard to bring more foot traffic here, and I think it’s going to pay off.”
Main Street, which supported the plan, has been a key driver of equitable economic recovery across rural America because local communities know how to best leverage their unique resources, according to a nationwide study by The Brookings Institution.
“It feels like the town and the business owners are finally seeing the potential together,” said Steve Branch, a building owner in downtown Lumberton for more than 15 years. “There’s more going on there now than I’ve ever seen.”
Downtown Blight
As the town attempts a rebirth, those who have been in Lumberton for decades know progress never comes easily.
“I’ve seen how rough Lumberton can get,” said Pat Belin, who has owned Platinum Cuts barber shop in downtown Lumberton for 14 years. “And there’s some progress being made now. I just hope it stays that way.”
Belin’s windows have been smashed three times over the years. Most recently, this past winter, an unhoused man broke a window and slept in the barber shop overnight. Seven months later, black trash bags and duct tape still cover the window.
Lumberton has long struggled with high rates of poverty, crime and homelessness. The city saw 86.7 violent crimes per 1,000 people in 2023, the latest available data according to the State Bureau of Investigation. Robeson County had the highest violent crime rate and overall crime rate in the state.
According to 2023 Census data, 31 percent of Robeson County residents live in poverty and 54 percent are considered low-income (earning less than $59,900 a year for a family of four). Eighty-one people in Robeson were identified as homeless last year, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, although housing experts say the number is likely much higher.
The building that houses Platinum Cuts is owned by the estate of Hector MacLean, who served as Lumberton mayor from 1948 to 1953 and in the state senate from 1961 to 1971 before his death in 2012. Belin said he used to communicate with MacLean’s daughter and her husband about maintenance issues, but both died earlier this year. Now, Belin said he doesn’t know who to call. He said he has been unable to get in touch with the current leader of the Hector MacLean Corporation for more than eight months.
The corporation owns at least two other properties downtown worth $889,300, records show. The Border Belt Independent called a phone number associated with the corporation, but the line was disconnected.
“My money is still in there on the 15th every month,” Belin said of paying rent, which is about $1,600 a month. “I don’t know what the outcome is going to be. I just hope and pray they don’t try and sell it from under me.”
‘I love Lumberton’
Felicia Evans Williams has owned Sweet Candy Café, a candy store in downtown, since 2012. She said unhoused people used to sleep under the store’s awning and garbage would pile up outside the dumpster.
“I love Lumberton. I’m not from here, but this business has made me love the community,” she said. “And I want to stay here for the long haul, but there are just a lot of problems that we need to address in downtown.”
Frustrated, Evans Williams installed a lock and doorbell camera on her store last year. But now customers can’t freely enter without an employee unlocking the door each time. For several years, the storefronts adjacent to her were vacant with boarded-up windows, giving her candy store less curb appeal. But a pet grooming store moved in, and Branch is transforming an adjacent property into offices and apartments.
Evans Williams’ building is owned by Dick Taylor Insurance Agency Incorporated. Taylor died in 2022 at age 94, but his estate still owns more land in Lumberton than anyone else, according to property records. In downtown Lumberton, his agency once owned as many as 44 properties, 35 percent of the area, worth an estimated $7 million. The Taylors still own 34 properties; only 14 are currently occupied, according to county property records.
Taylor was a fixture downtown, helping to revive the area in the 1960s. He owned and operated his insurance business for more than 70 years and was president of the Downtown Lumberton Association. He served on the UNC-Pembroke Board of Trustees and the Lumberton City Council. When he died, Lumberton Mayor Bruce Davis named the downtown plaza in Taylor’s honor.
To business owners, Taylor was a dream maker. “I can’t speak highly enough about him,” Evans Williams said. “He really took a chance on me and so many other businesses.”
But Taylor’s legacy is complicated. Some local entrepreneurs blame him for the disrepair that has plagued downtown for decades. They say he failed to adequately keep up with repairs and favored short-term successes over creating a long-term vision.
“I’m not from here, but this business has made me love the community. And I want to stay here for the long haul, but there are just a lot of problems that we need to address in downtown.”
Felicia Evans Williams, owner of Sweet Candy Café
“I don’t think he saw the cooperation with the city as a worthwhile investment as far as making a plan for the future,” Branch said. “He thought of his properties as an investor: to make money was the primary goal.”
Fryberger said these situations, where ownership of downtown properties is held in the hands of a few estates, are common in rural areas. Unless town officials can convince those owners that reinvestment is important, she said, a community can remain stagnant for generations.
Taylor was close with Davis, who sought Taylor’s mentorship when he joined the Lumberton City Council in 1991 and was elected mayor in 2015.
Several business owners who declined to comment publicly said the town, under Davis’ leadership, consistently declined to pursue code enforcement violations against Taylor’s properties. Windows would go unfixed and structural concerns would be ignored, forcing owners to pay for repairs and renovations themselves.
Davis said staffing issues prevented the town from enforcing every violation. “They had a lot of other things to worry about,” he said of the inspections department. “The city had more to do than chase those code violations.”
The mayor acknowledged, however, that the sale of buildings has helped downtown Lumberton. Since Taylor died, his estate has sold 10 buildings, all to different owners, records show. Most recently, the estate sold three downtown buildings in February.
“We had people in town that owned buildings for years and years and years, and they wouldn’t do anything to them,” Davis said. “And now we’ve got people that have bought them, and they’re fixing them up.”
Parham said this pattern is taking shape across the state. “We have seen a trend of buildings getting out of some of those trusts and out of those long-time family ownerships and moving into redevelopment opportunities.”
Taylor’s wife, Lenore, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Her children, who are involved in the business but no longer live in Lumberton, also did not respond to requests for comment.
As Lumberton now sits at the edge of progress, the beige stone building that bears Taylor’s name and continues to house the insurance business looms over the town.
New Businesses
In June 2023, Gidget and Tommy Vickers moved to Lumberton and opened 219 ELM, an antiques and coffee shop, in a building owned by Taylor Insurance Agency. Their space has become a community hub for open mic nights, concerts, history lectures, and more. The couple is also overseeing the firehouse renovation project, hoping to energize the town by restoring a previously abandoned historic landmark.
“We wanted to be part of the downtown revitalization,” Gidget Vickers said. “It saddened me when we moved and the downtown was just sort of gone. So we wanted to be part of that change.”
The couple has pushed the city council and local organizations for change in Lumberton, helping to reorganize Main Street Lumberton, advocating for increased policing downtown and encouraging more frequent cultural events downtown.
“If you’re bored in Lumberton,” Gidget Vickers said, “you’re not looking hard enough. We’ve got things happening all the time. We’re trying to make this a place where more and more people want to come.”
The Vickers took over the lease from an existing business that paid out of pocket for renovations, so the building was not in disrepair.
“You have to be committed,” Gidget Vickers said. “One person, or a few people, can’t make all the things happen that we want to see. It has to be a united vision together.”
The city council, along with Main Street Lumberton, has pushed for more help to help spark development, including a Rural Downtown Economic Development Grant through the N.C. Department of Commerce. The grant program encourages new buyers downtown by holding taxes steady for the first five years. The city also received grant funding for facade and building improvements.
In late 2023, the city worked with the Lumberton Police Department to bring a permanent patrol officer to downtown. Greg Moore, who has been with the department for 11 years, said he has built trusting relationships with both the business owners and unhoused people who gather in the plaza to create a safer downtown for everyone.
“I’m trying to give everyone in Lumberton, no matter if you’re rich or poor, a sliver of humanity in downtown,” Moore said. “Because ultimately, this should be a place people want to gather.”
Belin, Gidget Vickers, and several other business owners said Moore’s presence has paved the way for more social events and a decrease in safety concerns.
Ward said the town is drafting a vacant building ordinance that would prevent buildings from sitting unoccupied for years.
“I think everyone is just more on board now,” Branch said. “The city council, advisory boards, business owners are just thinking less about themselves and more about what’s best for Lumberton as a whole. Having a good downtown is good for Lumberton as a whole.”
In early May, new awnings adorned the Dick Taylor Plaza to provide shade for a summer concert series. The end of May marked the restart of the farmers market downtown. And in early June, the Civic Center laid the first bricks for its new theater annex.
“Gathering spaces like a theater that bring people together are the key to telling the story of a renewed downtown,” Parham said. “People-to-people connectivity in a space like that is how you keep the momentum going.”
As construction hums outside the theater’s historic facade, Sceiford stands at the edge of a dream he and others spent nearly two decades fighting for—a bigger stage for downtown Lumberton. For a city long caught between its past and potential, that kind of vision is no longer an act. It’s becoming a reality.
“It may be a year, or five, or 10,” he said. “But the time to buy in Lumberton is now, because change is coming — and you’re going to want to be here to see it.”
Ben Rappaport is a reporter at the Border Belt Independent. A graduate of the Hussman School of Journalism & Media at UNC-Chapel Hill, he previously worked for the Chatham News + Record.