How the town is built
Lillington's property mix is organized around the Cape Fear River and the courthouse square more than around any single growth cycle. The historic blocks around Main Street and the Harnett County Courthouse carry late-1800s-through-early-1900s homes and civic buildings on narrow lots. The riverfront area along the Cape Fear carries smaller lots with floodplain restrictions on some placements. The newer residential has filled in on the north side toward Angier and the US-401 approaches, but at a much slower pace than the Angier Wake-commuter build. The Raven Rock State Park approaches on the west carry rural residential and park-adjacent land. The agricultural edge south and east of town carries working farmland. On the commercial side, downtown Main Street handles the civic and small-shop work, and the US-401 strip runs the roadside tenant commercial.