Richmond County, NC

Richmond County, North Carolina
Richmond County Courthouse in Rockingham
Location in the U.S. state of North Carolina
North Carolina's location in the U.S.
Founded	1779
Named for	Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond and Lennox
Seat	Rockingham
Largest city	Rockingham
Area
• Total	480 sq mi (1,243 km2)
• Land	474 sq mi (1,228 km2)
• Water	6.1 sq mi (16 km2), 1.3%
Population
• (2010)	46,639
• Density	98/sq mi (38/km²)
Congressional district	9th
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Website	www.richmondnc.com

Richmond County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 46,639. Its county seat is Rockingham.

Richmond County comprises the Rockingham, NC Micropolitan Statistical Area.

The county was formed in 1779 from Anson County. It was named for Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond and Lennox who was an Englishman and a member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom who sided with the colonists in America during the American Revolution.

In 1899 the southeastern part of Richmond County became Scotland County.

Kader Keaton, a colonial American officer in the American Revolutionary War, was a founder of Anglo-American settlement in Richmond County.

The city of Hamlet in the southeastern sector of Richmond County is known for its railway history. Prior to the turn of the 20th century, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad moved to Hamlet, helping the town become a crossroads for rail spurs extending from Florida to New York and all points east and west. In 1900, the SAL Railroad constructed the Hamlet Historical Depot Seaboard Air Line Passenger Depot, a Victorian architecture train station which is one of the most photographed train stations in the eastern United States. The depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was fully restored in 2004. In 2009, the city of Hamlet dedicated a new building to the Tornado steam engine locomotive—the first one in the State of North Carolina. The original locomotive was built in 1839 by D.J. Burr & Associates of Richmond, Virginia. It was briefly captured by Federal forces during the American Civil War before being repatriated. In 1892, the Tornado was featured in the Great Centennial Celebration of Raleigh, NC. Hamlet is also home to the National Railroad Museum and Hall of Fame, a striking collection of artifacts from the Seaboard Air Line Railroad spanning decades of time.