Pinehurst was founded in 1895 by Boston soda-fountain magnate James Walker Tufts as a health resort, laid out by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted's firm with curving streets radiating from a central village green. It stayed an unincorporated resort community for most of a century and only incorporated as a municipality in 1980, which is why the local government still calls itself the Village of Pinehurst.
In 1996 the Pinehurst Historic District was designated a National Historic Landmark — the first golf resort community in the country to receive that recognition. That history shapes daily life here more than it does in most towns: architectural character, tree canopy, and the low-speed village street pattern are actively protected, and the Village Green in James W. Tufts Memorial Park is still where concerts and the farmers market happen.
Two things anchor the practical side of living here. The first is golf: Pinehurst Resort's No. 2 course is the USGA's first "anchor site" for the U.S. Open, with championships scheduled in 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047 after hosting in 1999, 2005, 2014 and 2024. The second is healthcare: FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital, a 402-bed regional referral hospital, sits on Memorial Drive less than a mile from the traffic circle. That combination is unusual for a town this size and it explains the mix of retirees, physicians, and military families you meet here.
