Beaufort Woman's Club

The Beaufort Woman’s Club, established 1921, was originally called the Beaufort Community Club.

In Beaufort Scrapbook, Russell wrote, “The Beaufort Woman’s Club has always had challenging plans to serve the community whether in education, preservation, public affairs, conservation, the arts or other areas. Little did I realize all that generations of Woman’s Club members had accomplished until I was given the opportunity to look through years of Woman’s Club scrapbooks.

FIRST SCHOOL CAFETERIA
“In 1932, Woman’s Club members began the first school cafeteria in Carteret County to serve students at Beaufort Graded School. This was beneficial in providing hot, nourishing, balanced meals for students during the Depression.”

LIBRARY AT DEPOT

When rail passenger service was terminated in 1938, owners of the passenger-train depot were persuaded to sell the vacant building to the Town of Beaufort to use as its library. The 2,570 square foot building required considerable refurbishing. Active in the library since 1921, the Beaufort Woman’s Club once again came to the rescue raising funds for the work. When the library was ready for a new building, the Woman’s Club also raised $4000.

FIRST OLD HOMES TOUR(S)
According to Nancy Russell, “Beaufort’s first Old Homes Tour, sponsored by the Woman’s Club, was on May 22, 1957. Newspaper articles stated that five early homes were opened to the public for an afternoon tour that lasted from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. for the cost of $1.00 ticket. Only 125 tickets were to be sold. During the afternoon, Mr. Van Potter gave tours of the Old Burying Ground, and art and relic exhibits were offered as part of the tour.

“According to newspaper clippings, it was 1969 that the Woman’s Club and Beaufort Historical Association jointly sponsored the Homes Tour, and in 1972, the proceeds of the tour went to the Historical Association.”

Ruth Barbour wrote in the History of the BHA, "The Woman’s Club sponsored the first Old Homes tour in May 1957. It was so successful, the club planned another for 1958. There was no tour in 1959, but the club sponsored it again for the town’s 251st anniversary in 1960, continuing it as an annual event until 1980, when the historical association assumed sponsorship as part of the Old Homes Weekend the last weekend in June.

"When the Woman’s Club first proposed an Old Homes Tour, a club scrapbook of 1958 says, 'People did not oppose our plans in the beginning – they just laughed at us.' 'Pay money to go inside my neighbor’s house? It’s nothing to see. Why it’s at least 150 years old. Who want to see that?'

"Mrs. Myrtle Duncan Sutton, Marion, N.C., recalls, in a letter dated March 27, 1989, how the Woman’s Club developed the idea: 'The club decided to have a special event to which all clubs of the New Bern District would be invited. The event was a tour of five historic Beaufort homes. It was an idea whose time had come! We had visitors galore. At the time of the tour, Ruth Davis (Mrs. Charles Davis) was president. Mabel (Mrs. W. M.) Gilchrist was project chairman. Every club member participated.'

"The five homes opened on that 1957 tour were Mrs. Julius (Sarah) Duncan’s home at the west end of Front Street, the home of Mrs. Joseph (Elizabeth) House, 201 Front St., the Buckman house, 114 Ann, Mrs. W. N. (Mabel) Gilchrist’s home (Piner house), at Howland Rock, and Mrs. Graham (Myrtle) Duncan’s home, 124 Queen Street. (The Buckman house was owned at that time by George and Eileen Taylor.)

"The 1958 tour on Wednesday, June 18, featured the Buckman house; Morse house, 215 Front St., Mace house, 619 Ann, Taylor house, 305 Ann, and the Hatsell house, 117 Orange St. The Beaufort Woman's Club won recognition from the State Federation of Woman’s Clubs for this tour. The club’s major project in 1959 was town beautification.

"Mrs. Sutton says: 'Everyone wanted to know when we would have another tour, so two years later (1960) we planned another as part of Beaufort’s birthday party. Mabel Gilchrist sold us on the idea of a bus trip. ‘Get Grayden Paul to run it,” said Ruth Ivey Davis (Mrs. M. Leslie Davis).'

"Mr. Paul agreed, but he said the club would have to write his script. He took the club on a trial trip, which approximated what the bus tours are today. 'Twenty women telling him what to say,” Mrs. Sutton writes. 'He survived and has developed his own story.'"

Original Painting of Seal

SEAL & FLAG
In the 1960s, under then president and preservationist Miss Emily Loftin, the Beaufort Woman’s Club initiated the development of the Beaufort town seal. The seal was designed by Will Hon; artwork was done by Richard Thomas. The background color was later changed to gold, now shown on the town seal and flag, designed in 1972.

Russell also wrote, “A fact, perhaps unknown by many and forgotten by others, is that the Beaufort Woman’s Club raised funds to help furnish the physical therapy department at Carteret General Hospital.”

RESTORED DEPOT
In 1993 the Woman’s Club decided to restore the Beaufort Train Depot and proceeded to raise funds to do so. On October 27, 1996 the beautifully restored building was dedicated.

“The Beaufort Woman’s Club scrapbooks,” wrote Russell, “are reminders that members of this organization were not only strong in their determination to accomplish their goals, but they were also fine examples of grace and style.

“Photographs throughout the scrapbooks show club members dressed in their Sunday finest as they carry out activities and responsibilities of the club—Miss Emily Loftin presenting Mayor “Piggie” Potter with the town seal, club members with then Mayor Roger Hunt receiving the town flag, or Mrs. M.C. (Grayden) Paul, Sr. pouring tea at an afternoon party honoring faculty members of Beaufort High School.

“Woman’s Club members through the years—past and present—have had strong qualities of leadership and were a vital force in helping to make a better life for the citizens of Beaufort and Carteret County. Awarding scholarships to deserving students, assisting with restoration projects of the Beaufort Historical Association and the preservation of the Train Depot, are fine examples of accomplishments.”

1907 Train Depot - Yesterday and Today

New Train Station circa 1907 - Historic North Carolina Collection, Archival Edition 1999
Click images to enlarge

In 1858 the Atlantic & North Carolina Railroad was completed from Goldsboro, through New Bern to Morehead City. Forty-seven years later plans were finally made to extend the rails to Beaufort. Until that time, visitors were transported by boat. 

 

In 1905, a meeting was of local citizens was held in Beaufort with Mayor William F. Dill presiding. A representative of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad estimated a cost of $150,000 to link Morehead and Beaufort by rail. In addition to tracks and trestles, a causeway had to be constructed over the marshland. Then, in July of 1906 the town agreed to construction of a depot at the corner of Broad and Pollock Streets at a cost of $15,000.

 

Until the Wye was constructed, the first train backed into Beaufort on November 18, 1906.

 One of the first trains entering town engine first, possible winter 1907

During the summer, June 8, 1907, Beaufort launched "Gala Week." Banners and bunting were draped while residents and guests dressed in Sunday best attended a grand parade and speeches that launched the festivities, all celebrating Beaufort's new depot and the first train—coming into town engine first.

The Spanish Colonial Revival six-bay long and two-bay wide train station was built of frame construction with a steep hipped roof; eaves flared outward to create an overhang of about ten feet on all sides. It was covered with red tile shingles and supported by massive sawn brackets. Walls were built with a weatherboard wainscot with rough-textured stucco above. The building had Craftsman-style paired sash windows and a bay window on the Broad Street side, flanked by two entrances. The interior contained two separate waiting rooms.  

Neal Willis, born in 1917, wrote in Beaufort by the Sea, Memories of a Lifetime, "It was quite an event when the trains came in each day. We would go down to Railroad Street (Broad Street) and count the cars and wave at the passengers. The Depot had white and colored sections. In between was the ticket office. On the west side was the freight room. Mr. Seth Gibbs was the stationmaster. Mr. Webb was the ticket agent and telegrapher.” The depot was full of activity for thirty years; the train not only provided easier transportation to and from Beaufort, it also brought a new economy, enabling local citizens to more easily ship seafood and other goods. 

By 1938, passenger service ceased when the line between Morehead City and Beaufort was acquired by the Beaufort and Morehead Railroad. Owners of the depot were persuaded to sell the vacant train depot to the Town of Beaufort to use as its library. The 2,570 square foot building required considerable refurbishing. The Beaufort Woman’s Club, under the leadership of Mrs. W. L. Woodard, came to the rescue raising funds for the work. In December 1940 the library moved into the depot and was located there into the 1960s when the leaking roof, termites and the old pot-belly stove provided an inadequate location for a proper library. 

Though there was no passenger depot, the railroad line continued to operate as “The Route of the Jets” between Beaufort and Morehead City into the 1980s. The railroad drawbridge over the Beaufort Channel at the foot of Broad Street was demolished in the mid-1990s; the removal of the tracks down the middle of Broad Street began in 1994.

In 1996 the Beaufort Woman’s Club joined with the Town of Beaufort to thoroughly and beautifully restore the 1907 Train Depot. With much help from John and Ginny Costlow, its period displays of early-20th century railroad memorabilia and old photographs, help the depot remain a symbol and a reminder of the train bringing the outside world to Beaufort.

Sources for this article:

Ruth Little – Beaufort National Register Historic District Survey, Nov. 1997
Jack Dudley - Beaufort An Album of Memories
Susan W. Simpson – Carteret County Public Library, Beaufort - A Brief History
Neal Willis – Beaufort By the Sea, Memories of a Lifetime