This old gabled roof Caribbean-style home, with its unique position on the west end of Front Street facing Taylor’s Creek and Beaufort Inlet to the south and Gallant’s Channel and Piver’s Island to the west, has had a front-row seat to centuries of Beaufort history. 
some valuables and most likely went to Garbacon Creek Plantation in The Duncan House was the first house to be plaqued. In 1962 Elizabeth Ann Street
This Duncan House photograph was taken in 1940 by Thomas T. Waterman for the Historic American Buildings Survey. This survey noted the house as being built circa 1800.
Duncan House todayLou Register was the last Duncan descendant to occupy the house. Before she moved to Texas a few years ago she had the plaque date changed from 1790 to 1728. This was due to finding a scrap of paper in her "Grandpapa" Julius Duncan's desk; the desk originally belonged to Thomas Duncan IV. The paper read, "Thomas Duncan was born in 1700. In 1728 he acquired lot 33 on the condition he build a habitable house within two years." But, no structure was built and the lot, like most, reverted back to the town.
Further research by Thomas S. Howland, Jr., G-G-G Grandson of Capt. Benjamin Tucker Howland, shows the taxes on lot 111 were low prior to 1817 indicating no structures of note.
Twelve years later, Howland sold the property to his daughter and son-in-law Thomas Duncan IV (1806-1880). Thomas and Elicia had thirteen children and added the western part of the house.
I recently found an 1854 court record, Commissioners of Beaufort vs.Thomas Duncan, in debating the status of the lot 111 property line at the end of Front Street, stated that Joel H. Davis’ father James Davis, owned the property prior to 1820, “Joel H. Davis, who is the son of the foregoing witness [James Davis], that he lived with his father on the lot No. 111; that his father built a house on it and that the ordinary high water would come up to the edge of the piazza of the house on this lot; and that, West of the house, there was a dry sand shoal for fifty yards; that a storm had cut open the channel, and that the same gave away and cut away the shore, and that the water ebbed fifty feet West of his father's piling. "
Duncan House today showing its position on Gallants Channel
Other interesting notations in the court record include, "The defendant offered in evidence an ordinance of the Commissioners of the town of Beaufort, dated May 1816, that Jonathan Price should survey the town of Beaufort, and make a plat thereof. Also, he offered in evidence a private act of Assembly, entitled "an act to confirm an accurate survey of the town of Beaufort, in the county of Carteret, and for other purposes," which act recites that, "whereas, disputes have arisen concerning the true lines of the streets and lots of the town of Beaufort, in consequence of which the inhabitants have employed Jonathan Price to survey and make an accurate plan of the said town."
The record goes on to read, "The defendant proved by James Davis, that, in the year 1817, he was the owner of lot 111, and that the water then encroached upon his lot, and that he then drove down piling along what he conceived to be his Western line, to keep it out, and filled it in. That he had been informed by old citizens of Beaufort, that the channel between Piver's island and the land in controversy, used to be dry at low tides, and that a log was put across the same, for persons to walk over, and that the dogs used to cross the same in going to hunt on the island, and that, in his day, a pilot-boat could not turn about in the channel; but that, at this time, the channel was between fifty and a hundred yards wide, with a sufficient depth of water to admit vessels and steamboats of the largest size to navigate."
A more complete history and stories will be included in my upcoming book Porchscapes, The Colors of Beaufort, North Carolina, to include paintings and histories of Beaufort's historic homes - along with other information I've compiled.
Further research by Thomas S. Howland, Jr., G-G-G Grandson of Capt. Benjamin Tucker Howland, shows the taxes on lot 111 were low prior to 1817 indicating no structures of note.
Twelve years later, Howland sold the property to his daughter and son-in-law Thomas Duncan IV (1806-1880). Thomas and Elicia had thirteen children and added the western part of the house.I recently found an 1854 court record, Commissioners of Beaufort vs.Thomas Duncan, in debating the status of the lot 111 property line at the end of Front Street, stated that Joel H. Davis’ father James Davis, owned the property prior to 1820, “Joel H. Davis, who is the son of the foregoing witness [James Davis], that he lived with his father on the lot No. 111; that his father built a house on it and that the ordinary high water would come up to the edge of the piazza of the house on this lot; and that, West of the house, there was a dry sand shoal for fifty yards; that a storm had cut open the channel, and that the same gave away and cut away the shore, and that the water ebbed fifty feet West of his father's piling. "
Duncan House today showing its position on Gallants ChannelOther interesting notations in the court record include, "The defendant offered in evidence an ordinance of the Commissioners of the town of Beaufort, dated May 1816, that Jonathan Price should survey the town of Beaufort, and make a plat thereof. Also, he offered in evidence a private act of Assembly, entitled "an act to confirm an accurate survey of the town of Beaufort, in the county of Carteret, and for other purposes," which act recites that, "whereas, disputes have arisen concerning the true lines of the streets and lots of the town of Beaufort, in consequence of which the inhabitants have employed Jonathan Price to survey and make an accurate plan of the said town."
The record goes on to read, "The defendant proved by James Davis, that, in the year 1817, he was the owner of lot 111, and that the water then encroached upon his lot, and that he then drove down piling along what he conceived to be his Western line, to keep it out, and filled it in. That he had been informed by old citizens of Beaufort, that the channel between Piver's island and the land in controversy, used to be dry at low tides, and that a log was put across the same, for persons to walk over, and that the dogs used to cross the same in going to hunt on the island, and that, in his day, a pilot-boat could not turn about in the channel; but that, at this time, the channel was between fifty and a hundred yards wide, with a sufficient depth of water to admit vessels and steamboats of the largest size to navigate."
A more complete history and stories will be included in my upcoming book Porchscapes, The Colors of Beaufort, North Carolina, to include paintings and histories of Beaufort's historic homes - along with other information I've compiled.
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