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North Carolina · Cape Fear Coast · #803
Brunswick County, North Carolina
On North Carolina's southern coast where the Cape Fear River meets the Atlantic and the Brunswick Islands stretch from Sunset Beach to Bald Head Island, Brunswick County has been one of the fastest-growing counties in the country for a decade - its barrier island beaches, golf courses, and waterway communities absorbing retirees from across the eastern United States at a pace that has strained roads, schools, and water infrastructure alike.
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What do you need to do?
Tell us your goal and we'll guide you step-by-step to the right office, forms, and official resources.
Office: Brunswick County Emergency Management – 3325 Old Ocean Hwy, Bolivia, NC 28422 | (910) 253-5383 (see Brunswick County Government’s main Facebook for current updates)
Services: All-hazards emergency preparedness, response, and recovery coordination
Related: Brunswick County Public Shelters – pet-friendly evacuation guidance available; pets require proper ID, current vaccination proof, and a properly sized carrier to be admitted to a shelter.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-17 and NC-211 serve Bolivia, the county seat, in southeastern North Carolina near the South Carolina border
Transit: Brunswick Transit System (BTS) provides local transit service – confirm current routes directly.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Brunswick County Code Administration – 75 Courthouse Drive, Building I, Bolivia, NC 28422 | (910) 253-2050 | Fax: (910) 253-2024
Services: Includes Building Inspections, Central Permitting, and the Fire Marshal’s office; oversees building and fire permitting/inspections
Related: Satellite permitting locations also serve Oak Island, Shallotte, and Carolina Beach areas – confirm the correct location for your project.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
County VSO: Brunswick County Veterans Services Office – Bolivia, NC
Libraries
LIBRARIES
System: Brunswick County Library System – multiple branches
Main Branch: Margaret and James Harper, Jr. Library – Southport, NC
Related: G.V. Barbee, Sr. Library (Oak Island Branch); Southwest Brunswick Library (Carolina Shores Branch); additional branches serve other Brunswick County communities.
Services: Confirm current hours for your specific branch directly, as they vary by location.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Brunswick County is genuinely home to BRUNSWICK TOWN/FORT ANDERSON, a remarkable historic site where two entirely different chapters of American history are literally layered on top of one another along the Cape Fear River; Brunswick Town was founded in 1726 by Colonel Maurice Moore (son of the royal governor of South Carolina) as the first permanent European settlement in the Cape Fear region, and quickly grew into a critically important pre-Revolutionary port; with two successive royal governors residing there, Brunswick effectively functioned as the DE FACTO CAPITAL of colonial North Carolina, hosting the Governor’s Council even though the full General Assembly never formally met there; the town earned a genuine and often-overlooked place in the lead-up to American independence when, in November 1765 – a full eight years before the Boston Tea Party and nearly a decade before Lexington and Concord – some 500 armed colonists surrounded Brunswick Town in an act of open defiance against Britain’s hated Stamp Act, successfully preventing the royal stamp master from distributing the required tax stamps and effectively halting collection of the tax along the entire Cape Fear River; but Brunswick’s own fortunes soon declined as the nearby, better-harbored town of Wilmington grew and drew away residents and political appointments; when war finally broke out, British troops landed and burned much of the largely abandoned town in 1776, and it was never rebuilt – the ruins simply sat undisturbed for the next two centuries, preserving an extraordinary archaeological time capsule; nearly a hundred years later, the Confederate army recognized the strategic value of the same riverside bluff and built Fort Anderson directly atop Brunswick Town’s abandoned colonial ruins in 1862, using it to help defend the vital port of Wilmington throughout the Civil War; in February 1865, following a three-day Union bombardment and naval assault from Admiral David Porter’s forces, Confederate defenders evacuated Fort Anderson under cover of darkness, and Union troops occupied Wilmington the very next week, on George Washington’s birthday; after the war, the fort site was even used as the largest Freedmen’s Bureau refugee camp in the entire Cape Fear region until 1867; today, visitors can walk among the exposed colonial foundations, the still-standing brick walls of 1768 St. Philip’s Church (three feet thick and twenty-five feet tall), and the earthen Civil War fortifications of Fort Anderson, all within a single free, fully accessible state historic site
Notes: Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson’s genuine, extensively documented dual history – colonial capital and Stamp Act resistance site, later built over by a Confederate Civil War fort – represents one of the most historically layered sites found anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
GIS Portal: Brunswick County GIS – accessible via brunswickcountync.gov
Parcel Search: Brunswick County Tax Office
Addressing/911: Coordinated through Brunswick County Emergency Management
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Facility: Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office Animal Protective Services – 429 Green Swamp Rd, Supply, NC | (910) 253-1738
Services: Operated directly by the Sheriff’s Office; handles pickup of stray/unwanted animals (including livestock, weekday hours), plus 24-hour reporting for injured animals, suspected rabies cases, animal bite investigations, cruelty investigations, and abandoned animal reports
Related: SOAR (Southport/Oak Island Animal Rescue) – 3376 Saint Charles Place SE, Southport, NC, a separate nonprofit; Paws Place Inc – 3701 East Boiling Spring Road, Winnabow, NC; Southport Animal Shelter – 201 East Moore Street, Southport, NC, a separate municipal facility; Oak Island Animal Control – 4621 East Oak Island Drive, Oak Island, NC, a separate municipal agency for that town.
Notes: Confirm which agency has jurisdiction over your specific address, as Brunswick County has multiple overlapping municipal and county-level animal service providers.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Environmental Complaints: NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) – deq.nc.gov
Notes: Contact your specific municipality directly for current refuse collection and recycling program details.
NOTES
Brunswick County is genuinely home to Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson, a state historic site where colonial North Carolina’s de facto capital and a Confederate Civil War fort sit layered atop one another on the Cape Fear River. All contact information above was sourced from official county, city, library, and shelter pages as of this writing; phone numbers and hours should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit.
About Brunswick County
Brunswick County’s growth has been driven by a combination that is hard to replicate: Atlantic barrier island beaches (Ocean Isle Beach, Holden Beach, Sunset Beach, Caswell Beach), a warmer climate than the mid-Atlantic retirement alternatives, lower cost of living than coastal South Carolina, and proximity to Wilmington’s airport and healthcare. The Intracoastal Waterway runs the length of the county, and the communities along its banks – Leland, Southport, Oak Island – have grown substantially.
Bald Head Island, accessible only by ferry from Southport, has no cars and one of the most distinctive beach community characters on the East Coast. The Brunswick Islands’ golf economy – dozens of courses in a coastal climate – supplements the beach economy. Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center provides regional healthcare. The county’s rapid growth has made it one of the most active real estate markets in North Carolina.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
North Carolina assesses property at 100% of market value. Property owners may appeal to the County Board of Equalization and Review. North Carolina offers elderly and disabled exclusions for qualifying homeowners. North Carolina has no estate or inheritance tax.
Courts & Legal
Courts & Legal
SENIOR SERVICES
Brunswick County Senior Services
25 Referendum Drive, Bolivia, NC 28422
Phone: (910) 253-2450
Senior Services
Brunswick County Senior Services
25 Referendum Drive, Bolivia, NC 28422
Phone: (910) 253-2450
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF SUPERIOR COURT
310 Government Center Dr NE, Bolivia, NC 28422
(910) 253-6900
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Brunswick County Clerk of Superior Court, Bolivia (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Brunswick County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Brunswick County Clerk of Superior Court – Estates Division Brunswick County Courthouse, 310 Government Center Drive NE (mail: P.O. Box 127), Bolivia, NC 28422 (910) 253-8502 Brunswick County is in coastal southeastern North Carolina, seated in Bolivia.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
North Carolina has NOT adopted the Uniform Probate Code. Probate is handled by the Clerk of Superior Court – an elected official who serves as the ex officio judge of probate – in the county where the decedent was domiciled, under Chapter 28A of the North Carolina General Statutes. Unlike most states, North Carolina does not have a separate probate court; the Clerk’s Estates Division handles all wills, estates, and guardianship matters.
Affidavit for Collection of Personal Property of Decedent (“collection by affidavit,” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 28A-25-1 and § 28A-25-1.1) – available when the decedent’s personal property, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $20,000, or $30,000 if the surviving spouse is the sole heir and receives all property covered by the statute. Filed at least 30 days after death, using Form AOC-E-203B. Real property CANNOT be transferred through this process. If the decedent left a will, the will must first be admitted to probate and a certified copy attached to the affidavit.
Summary Administration – an abbreviated procedure available only when the surviving spouse is the sole heir.
Full Estate Administration – required for larger or more complex estates; the personal representative (called “executor” if named in a will, “administrator” if intestate) is appointed by the Clerk and receives Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
Step 2: filing for administration
File the will (if any) and a petition with the Clerk of Superior Court, Estates Division, in the county where the decedent was domiciled.
The Clerk appoints the personal representative and issues Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
The personal representative publishes notice to creditors; North Carolina’s creditor claim period is typically at least three months from first publication.
The personal representative inventories the estate’s assets, pays debts and expenses, and distributes the remaining assets according to the will or North Carolina’s intestacy law, reporting back to the Clerk at key stages.
The estate is closed once a final accounting is filed and approved by the Clerk.
What it costs
Filing fees for full estate administration generally follow the statewide statutory schedule, which scales with the estate’s value.
North Carolina repealed its state estate tax in 2013. There is no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax – only the federal estate tax could apply, and only to very large estates.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
350 Government Center Dr NE, Bolivia, NC 28422
(910) 253-2777
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
ELECTIONS
75 Stamp Act Dr, Bolivia, NC 28422
(910) 253-2620
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Health Department
25 Courthouse Dr NE, Bolivia, NC 28422
(910) 253-2250
Social Services
30 Government Center Dr NE, Bolivia, NC 28422
(910) 253-2077
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Brunswick County Health Department – Bolivia, NC
Services: Immunizations, WIC, environmental health, vital records
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Bolivia
Population: 155,000
Tier: 2
Inmate Services
Care Packages
Send care packages to inmates in Brunswick County facilities via Amazon.
