Designers' s Showcase to be at old "Davis Hotel"

Davis Hotel - Beaufort, NC

This image is included in Linda Sadler's postcard book of Carteret County.
Click images to enlarge.

In 1882 "Miss Sarah" Davis joined three houses, on the west end of Front Street, under one roof and named it the Davis House. From 1882 until World War II it was one of the most popular boarding houses in Beaufort. The hotel closed in the 1930s. In 1970, the property was acquired by Duke University to offer affordable housing to marine scientists and grad students from around the world.

Fortunately, when the property was purchased in 1970, architectural historian Tony Wrenn was in Beaufort doing a survey for the NC Dept. of Archives and History, and was able to save the original building(s) from destruction. The apartments became known as the Colonial Apartments.

The 1997 Ruth Little Survey recorded, "The porch is the longest in Beaufort with a total of thirteen bays, and has an exterior staircase, slender Doric columns and plain railing. "

The structure was rescued during the last few years and converted into private residences. 123 Front Street is now plaqued the William Jones House ca.1813. 119 Front Street is plaqued as the Davis House Dining Annex ca. 1836.

In June, this will be the site of the Beaufort Woman’s Club Designers' Showcase. Proceeds will go to help save the 1726 Ward-Hancock House and move it “back home” as a centerpiece for the seaport complex being developed by the North Carolina Maritime Museum and Friends at Gallants Channel Annex.

The event - DESIGNERS' SHOWCASE - will display the latest decorating trends by 15 award-winning interior design teams - who will fill the rooms and the porches at 123 and 119 Front Street on June 6-9 and June 13-15 from 10:00-5:00. The Showcase will be open by appointment* from June 10-12.

Tickets are $15.00 in advance and $20.00 at the door. Tickets are available in: BEAUFORT at Handscapes Gallery and Clawson’s Restaurant; in MOREHEAD CITY at Dee Gee’s Gifts & Books, Poor Richard’s Paint and J.R. Dunn Jewelers; in CEDAR POINT at Sweet Dreams Gifts & Interiors and in NEW BERN at Maggy Costandy Interiors. *For information and appointments, contact Marnie Park 252-728-7571
Carole Sadler 252-728-7365 or email mbrock001@ec.rr.com

Ward-Hancock House ca.1726 Warshaw Painting->

The 1726 Ward-Hancock House on Third Street will be open

June 7^th and 8^th from 12-5. The house is open the first Saturday of each month from 12 to 4.

BEAUFORT'S BEST

Carteret County Courthouses - A History

"1796 Courthouse" - Painting by Mary Warshaw
The building is on the Beaufort Historic Site.

The Carteret County Courthouse of 1796, built at the intersection of Ann and Turner Streets, was the third Beaufort courthouse. The first was built in 1724 after Beaufort had become the "county seat" of Carteret Precinct. The second courthouse was built in 1728 by William Davis of Davis Island.

In his 1965 essay, Colonial Beaufort, historian Charles Paul noted Carteret deed books and court minutes that referenced the first courthouses. “In June, 1724, the church wardens bought from the town commissioners a ‘Lott of land ... together with the house now erected thereon ... being at present the house appointed for a Court House....Only three months later, though, a hurricane rendered it unusable by destroying its roof, and in the next year it was completely destroyed by fire. When the next courthouse was completed in 1728, the church started holding its services there and did so throughout the Colonial period.^”

According to research by Mamré Wilson, Colonel William Thomson was in charge of building the 1796 courthouse. Thomson was a Beaufort landowner and town official. As treasurer for the county and of public buildings, Col. Thomson was able to acquire the funds.

About 1837, after the decision was made to build a new courthouse, the 1796 courthouse, setting of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions for 40 years, was moved to the northeast corner of the same streets. The building was first sold to George Denby in 1843 for $170. A year later it was sold to Dr. James Hunt. When Dr. William Cramer, of Portsmouth Island, came to Beaufort in 1850 to help staff the new US Government Hospital, he purchased the old 1796 courthouse and made it his home.

Beaufort native Neal Willis, born in 1917, remembered that the building became the home of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel H. Thomas after Dr. Cramer died in 1864. Mrs. Thomas, “Miss Delight”, was the daughter of Mr. Nate Carrow, a civil war veteran. Neal Willis remembered seeing the old soldier “sitting on the front porch while I was passing with my father in the late twenties.”

Acquired in 1976 and moved to the Beaufort Historic Site in 1977, the building, having been sectioned off as a private home, was completely restored in 2001, as a one-room courthouse and returned to its original color. Today it proudly displays an original 13-star American flag.

The 1796 courthouse is the oldest surviving wooden courthouse in North Carolina and also the oldest remaining public building in Carteret County. Today it serves as a museum and hosts an interactive dramatization program that allows school children to conduct mock trials and reenactments.

The 1837 courthouse at the corner of Turner and Broad was built for $4400 by James Ward. Ward most likely hired brick masons who had come to Beaufort and stayed after finishing Fort Macon in 1834.

The building was 50 by 60 feet with two stories and walls fifteen inches thick. One entrance faced south on Broad Street and the other faced west on Turner Street. A brick-paved area separated the street from the west side of the courthouse. Inside the west door were the stairs to the second-floor courtroom, which occupied the entire space. The judge's bench was at the north end and there was space for lawyers and witnesses, all enclosed by a rail, similar to the interior of the 1796 courthouse. Long benches were available for spectators. On the first floor in the southeast corner was the register of deeds office. Two rooms at the north end of the first floor were occupied by the clerk of court and the library.

There was no room for the sheriff in this building, so his office was the second floor of the "old marketplace" at the northeast corner of Turner and Front Street. Nearly sixty years after the courthouse and the new jail were built, the mortar began crumbling and the fear that the building would collapse resulted in hiring people to stucco the exterior of both.

In a 1900 letter, Thomas Carrow wrote about helping with this stucco work in 1895 and being paid 75 cents for ten hours of work. From 1894-1898 he helped his father in the register of deeds office as a clerk. In 1903, the county commissioners made plans to build a new, larger fireproof courthouse. This courthouse was built in 1907 at a cost $32,000 in the center of Courthouse Square. The old courthouse was used for a time as a public school and later as a library. In 1914 the court ordered the building sold and removed. When it was demolished, many of the old books and papers were still in the building.

The current active courthouse, built in 1907, designed by noted New Bern architect Herbert Woodley Simpson, is a monumental brick Classic Revival building occupying the center of the 400 block of Broad Street. Corinthian porticos face Broad and Turner streets and a tall octagonal cupola dominates the Beaufort skyline.

Don't miss Beaufort today...Beaufort's Best

Norcom House and the Old Inlet Inn

"Norcom House" on Front Street (before 1911)
Click Images to Enlarge

The original Inlet Inn, built in the 1850’s by the owners of a dry goods store in Beaufort, was first a private residence known as the Lowenberg House. The 1880 census recorded Charles W. Lowenberg as a hotel proprietor.

In the early 1900’s the home was sold to the Morris family who used it as a summer home. After a couple years the Morris’s turned the home into a boarding house and named it the Morris House.

In the Heritage of Carteret County, Joyce Norcom Tolson wrote, "'Miss Cad' [Carrie Dill married Henry D. Norcom in 1878 and lived on Craven Street in the Norcom family home.] took over and operated the Inlet Inn which had been known as the Morris House....at that time [the inn was] known as the Norcom House and stood where the Branch Bank is today."

In 1911, the house was sold to Congressman Charles Abernathy who greatly expanded its size with rambling additions and named it the New Inlet Inn. (1900 census notes Charles Abernathy, lawyer, living with his wife on Ann Street. The 1910 census recorded Charles S. Abernathy, 38, solicitor-third judicial district, was living within the first two blocks of west Front Street.)

According to the history on the current Inlet Inn website: there was a ball room on the second floor and music was provided by a small orchestra comprised of the four children of the inn operator, Mrs. Worth, and two other local Beaufort boys. There was even a dance instructor. Fresh water was pumped to the Inn by windmills.

At this time a beautiful swimming beach was right at the front steps of the Inn and a very popular half-mile long boardwalk, extending from the 500 block of Front Street to Gordon Street, passed in front of the Inn. Dredging of Taylor’s Creek and the resulting unsightly piles of sand on the south side of the channel combined with the Depression following World War One lead to the closing of the Inn in the early Twenties. Several comebacks were attempted but never very successfully. Eventually the beach in front of the Inn was filled and Front Street was extended and paved.

Finally, in 1967 at the age of 110, most of the building was torn down to make way for construction of the BB&T bank building just east of the current Inlet Inn. One wing of the original Inlet Inn was salvaged and is now at the edge of the parking lot of the current Inlet Inn and again is used as a private residence.

Drummond's Pictorial Atlas of North Carolina, published 1924, shows the Inlet Inn as one of the resort hotels in North Carolina. Part of Drummond's description:

"Beaufort has just installed a sewer and water system which covers the whole town. It has paved sidewalks and is now paving the principal streets. A fine seawall lies in front of the town. The city owns her own water and electric plants. Beaufort has good public schools and a large private school. Baptist, Congregational, Methodist and Episcopal churches are here. Investigation of Beaufort's numerous advantages is welcomed by the Chamber of Commerce.

Beaufort's fishing industry is one of the largest in the State. Approximately one million dollars is invested in boats, nets and factories. Lumber is also one of the big industries here.

Old Inlet Inn circa 1933
The inn was then under the supervision of Mr. & Mrs. W.J. Willmott

Don't miss Beaufort's Best & Event Calendars
and Hatsell-Clawson Restoration

Two Unique Civil War Graphics

General Burnside on the Road from New Berne to Beaufort, N.C.
From Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper

“Log Fort near New Berne” from the James Wells Champney Sketchbook, ca. 1862

Champney was born in 1843 and died in 1903 in a tragic fall down an elevator shaft at the Camera Club in New York, where he had gone to develop a couple of images.

He was a noted painter and illustrator who studied with Edouard Frere and at the Antwerp Academy in 1868.

Whaling Images

...to help us imagine what it was like for the whalers off of Beaufort
and Shackleford Banks beginning in the early 18th century.

New England Whaler 1856

Walfang Zwischen
Published by Currier & Ives

"Dangers of the Whale Fishery"

1820 W.Scoresby
NOAA Photo Library

Links to more of Beaufort's Maritime Heritage:
A Whale of a Story
Friends of NCMaritime Museum Website
Beaufort's Best & Event Calendar

Outer Banks Windmills

Windmill at Beaufort, ca.1890, at the corner of present-day Live Oak
and Front Streets (NC Division of Archives and History)

"The Outer Banks of coastal North Carolina was devoid of the running water that powered gristmills in the Piedmont and mountain regions of the state. Instead, maritime communities turned to the most obvious natural resource at hand - wind.

Windmills dotted the landscape of coastal North Carolina from the eighteenth century until the twentieth. Eighteenth-century mills are documented at Nixonton in Pasquotank County (Old Windmill Point); Swansboro, Marshallberg and Beaufort in Carteret County; and on Portsmouth Island.

Swansboro historian Tucker Littleton made a survey of the state's windmills in the 1970s and documented 155.

North Carolina windmills were of the 'post mill' type--framed rectangular sheds built atop a single post some twenty or thirty feet off the ground. The entire structure revolved on the post and was manipulated by a tail post that reached from the building to the ground some seventy feet away. A wheel attached at the ground end of the tail pole ran in a track. Thus, the mill could be positioned to catch the prevailing winds.

The rotation of the fans turned a huge assembly of wooden gears inside the structure, which in turn moved the stone that crushed the grain.

The speed of the four fans was controlled by sails that covered their surface. The sails were furled to accommodate wind velocity, in much the same way that sails are used on boats. Regulation of the fan revolutions was important to the quality of meal produced. Too much speed on the stones scorched the grain and ruined it.

Mills were used for grinding wheat and corn and for pumping water. The former type were primarily located north of Onslow County and the latter south of Pender County. The mills of New Hanover and Brunswick Counties were often employed in the production of salt.

Post mills were simple and straightforward structures that could be easily built from available material. If a location proved unprofitable, they were frequently loaded onto wagons and hauled to new sites.

Ironically, the greatest threat to coastal windmills was its source of power. Severe storms and hurricanes toppled many mills and lightning destroyed others. These testimonials to North Carolina's maritime heritage eventually became outdated derelicts made useless by the advent of electricity and gasoline engines, and one by one, they were destroyed."

Quoted from Seasoned By Salt: A Historical Album of the Outer Banks by Rodney Barfield

Beaufort Today at Beaufort's Best

Origins of the Marine Lab

The "Seaside Laboratory" (Gibbs House) of John Hopkins University
Sketch by Henry F. Osborne published November 20, 1880
in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper

Although many scientist and naturalists visited and documented the Beaufort, North Carolina area from the mid to late 1800s, Dr. Elliot Coues, an army physician stationed at Fort Macon in 1869-70, provided the greatest publicity for the potential of the Beaufort region for natural history research. The area became a significant place for scientist to gather information.

In the May 5, 1899 issue of Science magazine, the assistant Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, Hugh McCormick Smith, announced that the US Fish Commission would maintain a marine biological laboratory at Beaufort, NC. The only other station at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, had been established in 1885.

Joseph Austin Holmes, North Carolina State Geologist and head of Natural History Survey from 1891-1905, was primarily responsible for gaining support of the federal government for establishing the fisheries laboratory at Beaufort. Professor Henry Van Peters Wilson, professor and chairman of zoology at the University of North Carolina from 1891-1935, pressed for the establishment of the laboratory at Beaufort.

Dr. Henry Van Peters Wilson had spent several seasons in Beaufort as a Johns Hopkins graduate student. In 1899, Wilson, who had continued conducting research in Beaufort during the summers, was placed in charge of the new laboratory, which was for the study of questions pertaining to fish-culture, fisheries and marine biology. Professor Wilson was granted $300 with which he rented a "commodius building" on the waterfront and provided it with suitable laboratory equipment and a small working library. This building was the Gibbs house, built around 1850.

A steam launch was assigned and on June 1, 1899 the laboratory was opened for its first season. At this time Beaufort was reached by boat from Morehead City. Twelve men, faculty and students from various universities, had come to Beaufort by September - to use the laboratory for various projects. Even though these men conducted various research projects, all contributed in the effort to determine the animals and plants in and near Beaufort Harbor, including their abundance, local distribution, breeding times, habits, etc. The foundation was laid for a museum collection and a record book was opened.

Before the Laboratory reopened for its second season, President Theodore Roosevelt had signed an act of Congress authorizing the establishment of a permanent biological station on the coast of North Carolina. Land was acquired with the help of Alonzo Thomas and others - the laboratory on Pivers Island was officially opened on May 26, 1902.

Information and photos for this post were gathered from
History of the Federal Biological Laboratory at Beaufort, North Carolina and
History of the Federal Fisheries

Beaufort's Best

1930-31 Beaufort Football Squad

An original photo found on eBay with ID notes on back.

Inez Gaynelle Felton's name is also included on the back of the photo.
She was born 13 Feb 1914 and died 25 Mar 1996 - daughter of John and Ruby Felton - granddaughter of John F. and Effie Sabistion .

Beaufort's Best

Bogue Banks Lighthouse 1855-1862

The following is an abbreviated version of an article written in 2004 by Fort Ranger/Historian Paul Branch for Fort Macon Ramparts. Link to the full article is at the bottom of this post.

“Although many people today are familiar with the lighthouses that dot the coast of North Carolina, few are aware that one of them once stood outside the walls of Fort Macon at the eastern end of Bogue Banks. Its existence was only a brief seven years. Its end was untimely – a casualty of war. Nevertheless, the story of the Bogue Banks Lighthouse remains an interesting part of the history of coastal North Carolina.

…August 31, 1852 Congress appropriated a sum of $5000 to erect a small harbor lighthouse on the eastern point of Bogue Banks to assist vessels entering Beaufort Inlet…The work was under the superintendence of Captain Daniel P. Woodbury of the Army Corps of Engineers...

To build the Bogue Banks Lighthouse, Woodbury selected a site back from the shifting beach on a large spit of stable, dry land adjacent to the marsh about 200 yards northwest of Fort Macon. Construction began in the summer of 1854 … Plans called for a brick lighthouse tower with a two-story building attached to be used for storage of supplies. The plans originally depicted the tower as being circular. When constructed, however, the tower was built in an octagon. Also included in the lighthouse plans was a small, two-story keepers house, although it is unclear if this was ever built.

The Bogue Banks Lighthouse was given a fixed fourth order Fresnel lens… stood fifty feet above the sea. The light was visible 12-1/2 nautical miles out to sea…The two lights were put into operation for the first time on May 20, 1855.

For the next several years the lights operated successfully, guiding mariners through Beaufort Harbor. The 1860 census lists Thomas Delemar* as the Lighthouse Keeper. One year later, the War Between the States began in April, 1861.

…the lights in the Cape Lookout and Bogue Banks Lighhouses and the Bogue Banks beacon were all extinguished for wartime security…By June, 1861, it was decided the very valuable Fresnel lenses should be removed from these lighthouses and the beacon in order to safeguard them from any war danger. Beaufort Collector of Customs, Josiah F. Bell,** who was appointed Superintendent of Lights for the Beaufort District of the Confederate Lighthouse Bureau, had the lenses carefully taken down and placed in storage in a warehouse in Beaufort at a cost of $5 per month. He also spent $19.25 for the purchase of blanket in which to wrap the lenses.

Knowing that some manner of attack was only a matter of time, Colonel White and his men made what preparations they could to defend the fort. One of the key considerations for defense, of course, was that the fort’s cannons must have a clear field of fire in all directions. Tall structures outside the fort that in any way masked the guns, such as the Bogue Banks Lighthouse and beacon, had to go. On the evening of March 27, the fort garrison toppled the lighthouse over onto the ground. It broke apart into sections and lay in a crumpled heap in the sand. On the following morning the beacon was also pulled down.

Such was the brief existence of the Bogue Banks Lighthouse. Although the foundations of the lighthouse were mentioned as still being present in 1871, no artifacts or remains have ever been found of it. The site is now occupied by the United States Coast Guard base adjacent to Fort Macon…the Fresnel lens from the lighthouse was reused by the Lighthouse Board in another lighthouse. It probably still exists today in one of the many lighthouses that still remain guarding the coast of the United States.”

*Thomas Delemar's listing in the June 1860 Carteret County census shows Delemar, age 66 with Abigail (Pearce) Delemar 50 (married 1855), a domestic and John Delemar, age 10 - Post Office-Shepherdsville. The 1850 Beaufort census lists Thomas Delamar, age 56, ship carpenter, with Hannah Delamar 55, Nancy D. Delamar 25, James Delamar 18, Rebecca Smith 10 and William Mosely 13.

**Josiah Fisher Bell 1820-1890 also served as an agent in the Confederate Secret Service during
the Civil War.

Read full article...

Don't Miss Beaufort's Best
and the Orange Street restoration now in progress.

Front Street Houses

Front Street houses at the top of this site – left to right:

J.D. Davis, [Moore Street], Nelson, Jule Duncan,
Sloo, Morse, Thomas-Humphrey

J.D. Davis House circa 1812 – This house is shown on Gray’s 1882 map. It is said that the house was raised to 2 stories about 1843.

John Hancock Nelson House circa 1790 - Capt. John Nelson ca. 1675-1759 owned large tracts of land north and south of the Neuse River including Garbacon Creek plantation. Nelson signed a petition in 1712 asking that the court be held in the area. He was on the first vestry of St. John’s Parish. Capt. Nelson’s son John Hancock Nelson owned the 1790 Nelson House on Front Street.

18^th Century Benjamin Perry/J.Duncan House 1920 - Benjamin Leecraft Perry married Elizabeth Manney in 1835. He was involved in coastal trading and was one of the wealthiest men in Beaufort before the Civil War—buying and selling land from 1832 to 1869. Many visitors in the early days boarded with Capt. Perry. The 18^th century Perry House that stood on this lot was demolished in the early 1920s to make way for this house built by Judge Jule Duncan.

Sloo House circa 1768 – Two-story, 5-bay side gable house includes a two-story portico with Doric posts. Notable residents have included Capt. Sloo and Miss Hannah Shepard.

Joseph B. Morse House circa 1771 – This large 2-story, side gable house is 5 bays wide with a transomed 2^nd-story entrance. A 3-bay, 2-story pedimented portico has Doric posts.

Thomas-Humphrey House circa 1907 – This is a traditional 4-bay Queen Anne/Colonial Revival house. James Manney had a house on this lot. It was razed before 1907 when Thomas Thomas built the current house with a widow's walk. It was occupied by the Humphrey family for many years.

Images and Brief Histories of other Beaufort Houses

Hatsell-Clawson House Restoration

Read more about Beaufort today at Beaufort's Best

Paul Jones House circa 1913

Canelium Clarence (C.C.) Guthrie was born in 1875 to Canelium Hines Guthrie and Susan Jane Roberson; both had deep roots in Beaufort and Carteret County. According to what has been written by family, C.C. yearned to become a carpenter and began his apprenticeship at a very young age. He went on to become a skilled carpenter and craftsman, building this and other houses including that of his brother – the 1910 Ernest R.Guthrie House on the southwest corner of Ann and Pollock - and the Hatsell-Clawson House on Orange Street. While building the old Coast Guard Station at Fort Macon, he was known to pack his lunch and row to work each day. In 1929 Guthrie, assisted by his son Claude, built the director’s house at the Federal Biological Lab on Piver’s Island. C.C. was still doing occasional carpentry work for the laboratory in the early 1950’s.

Paul Sylvester Jones (1904-2001) owned the home the second half of the 20^th century. Paul was the son of Christopher Delamar “Kit” Jones and Mary Luzina “Lutie” Carrow Jones*. He attended the University of North Carolina 1922-1924 until his father died. In 1933 Paul Jones married Ruth Killingsworth from Yatesville, North Carolina. Ruth, besides being a professional nurse, was mother to Paula Jones, Thomas Carrow Jones and Robert Killingsworth Jones. Jones taught school and then worked at C.D. Jones Company – a grocery on Front Street. He took over management in 1931 and ran the business, assisted by many of his siblings,** until it closed in 1960. Jones then worked at the commissary at Cherry Point until he retired in 1974. Paul Jones was one of the founders of the Beaufort Historical Association.

In 2001 the Paul Jones House was totally renovated and an upper porch was added to reflect the Bahamian-influenced double porches of old Beaufort.

*In The Story of the Methodists in the Port of Beaufort, Amy Muse, in describing the fate of the Chrissie Wright that went down off the coast: "1884...'Miss Lutie' Jones tells of the feeling of awe that came over her when as a child she ran into the cemetery and saw so many graves open at the same time."

**A tragic accident - New York Times, March 11 1912, Beaufort NC - March 10 - "Fifteen-year-old John Forlaw, son of a banker, was accidentally shot and killed today by his playmate, John [Gladwell] Jones, 13, t