Archive for Local History
Centennial tees on sale
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ERIC AND ANN McCLURE of Putnam County, West, Virginia purchased the first Centennnial t-shirts from Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station Historic Site the first day they went on sale. Eric is demonstrating the front design while Ann shows the back of the shirt. These are limited editions destined to become collectors’ items. They are 100 percent cotton Hanes tagless tees with the U.S. Lifesaving Service logo accurately rendered along with the date of the 1911 station. More centennial items will soon be available. For more information about this site and its activities and offerings, visit www.chicamacomico.net, email clss@embarqmail.com or call 252-987-1552.
Donate family artifact
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THE MOORE FAMILY presented the National Park Service with a historic family artifact last Dec. 17, during the annual celebration of man’s first powered flight at Wright Brothers National Memorial. The artifact was a crosscut saw used by Johnny Moore, the youngest witness of the Wright brothers’ first Flight Dec. 17, 1903. Shown from left are Shane Moore, NPS Supt. Mike Murray, Stanley Moore, Park Historian Darrell Collins and Karen Brickhouse. Stanley Moore, youngest son of Johnny Moore, lives in Colington.
Chicamacomico opens for season
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DAN BECK AND DAUGHTER HEATHER, from Cold Brook, N.Y. (near Utica) were the first official visitors to the Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station Historic Site & Museum for the 2011 season. Dan said he had been coming to the outer Banks since the 1970′s.
This is also the centennial year for the 1911 Lifesaving Station. While a major one-day event is being planned for Aug. 4 (see www.chicamacomico.net), the recognition will go on all year. There are many special “centennial items” that will be available in the gift shop all season long, and there are many new Coast Guard items, including hats, tee-shirts, decals. challenge coins and more.
The site is now open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The nonprofit charges nominal admission fees which help keep it running. Daily programs are scheduled for June, July and August.
The site is a seven-acre, eight-building complex. It is considered the most complete remaining U.S. Lifesaving Service complex in the nation. It contains two of the 285 U.S.L.S.S. stations built from 1848-1914. It was the first operational station in North Carolina and is located on the eastern-most point in North Carolina. Today the site is open to the public and contains artifacts, displays, photographs and other unique items.
The site consists of eight buildings:
* The 1874 station which opened in December 1874. It was located approximately one-half mile north of its current location but was relocated to its current site soon after the 1911 station was completed. Once the replacement station was built, the 1874 station was used by the crew as a boat house and storage shed.
* The 1892 sound-side boat house.
* The 1896 cook house which was built to accompany the 1874 station. In later years it was relocated to the property and was then used as an oil shed.
* The 1911 station which was a larger structure with unique architecture – cedar shakes and shingles, dormer windows and an enclosed watch tower.
* The 1911 stable which held two “government horses” until they became obsolete for this type of beach patrol.
* The 1911 cook house.
* The 1936 tractor shed.
In addition, the site also contains three wooden water cisterns (1874 era) and one concrete “beehive” cistern (1911 era).
The Chicamacomico Lifesaving Service Station was decommissioned and closed in 1954. It was abandoned property until it was acquired by a private citizen. In 1974, this private citizen turned the property over to the residents of Rodanthe/Waves/Salvo. They then created the nonprofit organization, Chicamacomico Historical Association to own and operate the complex. Limited restoration was done to the buildings up to 1994 when vigorous work began. From 1994 to the present, the 1911 Chicamacomico station is 97 percent restored and the 1874 station is 75 percent restored. The buildings on the site are back in their correct historical location.
In 2005, a home built on Hatteras Island in 1907 was donated complete with furniture and other furnishings and was relocated to an adjacent piece of property within the Chicamacomico complex. This home has direct ties to the Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station. It is now called the 1907 Midgett House and is also open to the public.
Chicamacomico was the scene of the most highly-awarded maritime rescue in American history (SS. Mirlo, Aug. 16, 1918) and has on display Surfboat No. 1046, the actual boat used in that stunning and dramatic rescue. Chicamacomico was also the scene of one of the last breeches buoy rescues in the state of North Carolina (Omar Babun, 1954).
Today Chicamacomico is now the only place in the United States that performs the full beach apparatus drill re-enactment for the public during the summer months. It is also the only drill re-enactment in the world performed by active-duty U.S. Coast Guard personnel.
To learn more about Chicamacomico, its activities and offerings, visit www.chicamacomico.net or email clss@embarqmail.com or call 252-987-1552.
Early visitors
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GLEN STORCK AND SUSAN HARRINGTON, driver and passenger, respectively, of South Carolina’s The Ridgeland Touring Visitors, were early visitors to Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station Historic Site & Museum in more than one sense. They arrived the week before the museum opens for the season, which was too early! They also arrived in a beautiful and flawless 1921 Model T Ford, which was pretty early in the last century. It is a good match for the site and looks right at home in front of the 1911 station. Their impeccibly-mannered dog, Redwina, sits between them. They might be a precursor to the centennial celebration of the station planned for this summer. To learn more about Chicamacomico, its activities and offerings, visit www.chicamacomico.net, email at clss@embarqmail.comor call 252-987-1552. They are now on Facebook.
Chicamacomico hiring
Posted by: | CommentsChicamacomico Lifesaving Station Historic Site is hiring one part-time 2011 summer seasonal site assistant.
The primary duty will be to work with gift shop point of sale. Other duties include assisting visitors, helping to open and close the site, perform routine housekeeping duties and assist with site functions and special events.
A high school diploma (minimum) is required, with Cape Hatteras Secondary School students excepted. Fluent English, professional demeanor, better-than-average people skills, self-motivated, able to stand for extended periods and work in a non-climate-controlled environment is also necessary. Direct sales experience and knowledge of the Outer Banks are helpful.
Employment begins Wednesday, May 25 and ends Friday, Sept. 2. The schedule is Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., no weekends or evenings required. Pay is $8 per hour with a performance review after 30 days.
Apply by calling 987-1552, 996-0493 or email clss@embarqmail.com.
Learn history of lighthouses
Posted by: | CommentsRecently Bodie Island Lighthouse has been encased in more than 2,000 pieces of scaffolding while undergoing restoration. The current lighthouse, first lit in 1872, is the third beacon to bear the name Bodie Island Lighthouse. Learn the history of all three sea coast lights next month in the exhibit, “The Lighthouses at Bodie Island: third time’s The Charm.”
Join the Friends of the Outer Banks History Center, staff and members of the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society for the opening reception First Friday, March 4, 5:30-7:30 p.m., in the history center gallery. Enjoy the simple but hearty fare of a lighthouse keeper’s supper – biscuits and beans and Hatteras-style chowder. The event is free and open to the public.
The exhibit will be on display in the history center march 5 through Dec. 31. Information is available at www.ncculture.com. (Courtesy Dare County Arts Council)
Lighthouse project on hold
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BODIE ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE, which has been involved in a massive restoration project since December 2009, has structural and other unexpected problems, and work will end this spring awaiting further funding. Significant and major work has been accomplished over the past year in order to protect this iconic beacon. Last summer while removing layers of paint and corrosion, the contractor discovered significant structural integrity issues associated with the support structures under the balcony. An assessment has been completed to determine the seriousness and full extent of those findings, which included problems with framing, lantern beam supports, masonry and stitching, and steel drum and belt course segments located at the top of the lighthouse. (Photo and information courtesy National Park Service)
A family tradition
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NEVIN WESCOTT, JR., of Manteo and Janet Wescott (center) of Manns Harbor, grandchildren of Josiah Holly Wescott, third keeper (1888-1894) of the Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station, recently visited the Chicamacomico Historic Site with a friend, Patricia Pilgreen (left)who brought them to the station after discovering it herself. Pilgreen has been a close friend of the family since 1971 and shares the pride of their heroic ancestors. The site needs a photograph of Keeper Wescott. Notable wrecks occurring under Wescott’s watch were the bark ”Josie Troop,” the schooner “”Sue Williams,” the steamer ”Strathairly” and the barkentine ”Revenwood.” It is interesting to note that the ”Josie Troop’s” cargo was comprised solely of tons of chalk, and to this day, large chunks of that very chalk still occasionally wash up on the beaches around Rodanthe. (Courtesy Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station Historic Site)
1850 farm found on Roanoke Island
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GINA demonstrates to visitors how farm people cleanedtheir hands before running water: by keeping wooden containers outside and washing their hands in them.
JOHN demonstrates a wooden vise, known as a shaving horse, at the 1850′s Island Farm , administered by Outer Banks Conservations. The farm is complete with demonstrators such as John and many of the buildings and activities you would find on a farm 160 years ago.
THE ETHERIDGE HOMEPLACE, built about 1847 housed generations of the family as they farmed the acreage they leased and eventually bought on the north end of Roanoke Island. The farm can be found by turning at the signjust south of Etheridge Rd. (also known as Cloth Barn Road).
THE TABLE in the Etheridge house is ready to be set for a sumptuous farm meal.
GINA SHOWS off Island Farm’s three-hole outhouse, a relative large one for its time.
TIFFANY DEMONSTRATES a farm ”appliance” in the kitchen at Island Farm. The big fireplace has glowing coals ready to heat a pan to make fried cornbread. The three-legged pan was not placed directly over the fire; rather, it was placed near it and the food was cooked with that indirect heat. She was also cooking a pan of figs for preserves in the fireplace.
GINA stands in front of a loom that would have weaved the household goods in the 1850′s. She is holding a skein of wool that would have been taken from sheep raised on Island Farm. The loom is located in the farmhouse.
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TIFFANY demonstrates a ”toaster” in the kitchen of Island Farm.
A TYPICAL BEDROOM of the 1850s would have included a corn shuck or feather bead and might have slept a mother and several children. There were few closets because people of that time did not have many clothes
A trip to Island Farm
On the north end of Roanoke Island is a farm that has existed there since the first Adam Etheridge leased 1,500 acres to range his livestock. In 1783, his son bought 150 acres of this land and established a farm which ”forms the core” of Island Farm.
A true history demonstration, the farm has a farm house, which has just recently been vacated. The house has two parlors, a servants chamber, travelers chamber and two other bedchambers. It also has a slave cabin with furnishings that would have been typical of the day, an outhouse, cookhouse, smokehouse and dairy building. A barn and chicken coop, cow barn, blacksmith shop and woodshed complete the picture. A windmill is to be constructed across from the farm.
Island Farm has chickens, a cow and a horse with feeding and grazing room for all. Raised here are corn for feed, figs, okra, gourds and more, which will supply the farm with some of the food needed for the animals and demonstrations.
The family counts its lineage on Roanoke Island’s north end to 1757, and eleven generations have lived there.
The farm is administered by Outer Banks conservationists Inc. Admission is $5 which helps support the farm.
Army Rocks C.G. Station
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CHICAMACOMICO LIFE-SAVING STATION Historic Site and Museum boasted the tri-village’s July 4 celebrations which were sponsored by Rodanthe-Waves-Salvo Civic Association. About 150 folks -a balanced blend of locals and visitors – enjoyed the various festivities. After the traditional patriotic sing-alongs and the impressive reading of the Declaration of Independence in its entirety, the crowd was treated to the modern music of the U.S. Army’s TRADOC Rock Band from fort Monroe, Va. The final treat, of course, was watermelon served up by the RWS Civic Association. (CLSS photo)