Have you ever been flipping channels around 10pm and come across Guy Fieri and his show “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives”? Watch for 5 minutes, your mouth will be watering and you will inevitably hit the refrigerator before bed!
Well Guy made a visit to the Outer Banks recently. Some favorite local restaurants will be featured on his show airing November 5th on the Food Network. Click here for more details. You won’t want to miss it!
The town of Edenton is home to nearly 5,000 residents and was once the colonial capital of North Carolina. In recent years Edenton has become a popular retirement location and destination for “heritage tourism.” The town is rich in history, offers beautiful views, and is home to many bed and breakfast inns.
The Virginian Pilot recently posted a nice write up about Northeast North Carolina’s quaint town…
“Edenton has aged well.
Incorporated in 1722, the town’s main business district is as active as it was when colonial sailing vessels crowded the bay with cargos of local goods bound for New England and the West Indies.
Edenton’s Broad Street was named last week one of four great main streets in the state by the North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association, joining Charlotte, Hillsborough and Asheville. Mt. Airy got the people’s choice award for having a great main street.
Going against the trend of many downtown business districts, Broad Street shops are busy. Not one retail front is vacant.
“We’ve added three new stores in the last month or two,” said Jim Blount, owner of Blount’s Mutual Drugs.
A popular movie house built in 1925 draws crowds on Friday nights. Afterward, it is a short walk to any one of a handful of restaurants. Large holly trees shade wide, brick sidewalks. Colonial-era homes are interspersed with tall, narrow commercial buildings dating from the late 19th century.
The town has an ambience similar to Williamsburg’s, said Mayor Roland Vaughan, who runs a jewelry shop from a 132-year-old building.
“That’s been true of downtown Edenton ever since I’ve grown up here, that this is the center of the community,” Vaughan said.
Jean Byrum Brown and her husband, Steve, are the third generation to run a Broad Street hardware store. Her grandfather, Thomas Campbell Byrum, founded the business in 1914. Loyal customers can have accounts and pay off the bill as they are able. Steve Brown says they try to greet people as they walk in the door, and if an item is not available, the Browns will send shoppers to another store.
It doesn’t hurt that big box stores have never come here and that more than 50,000 tourists annually visit the historic sites.
Change does not come easily here, either.
Edenton’s population hovers around 5,000, the same as in the 1950s. A map of the downtown drawn in 1769 by a French surveyor looks as if it could have been drafted this year. Vaughan has been mayor for 17 years; town manager Anne-Marie Knighton has 23 years on the job; and tourism director Nancy Nicholls has held her post for 20 years.
Edenton residents have always had a strong sense of town preservation, Vaughan said. Maybe it was because the town was an early capital.
“There’s a certain amount of grandeur associated with that,” he said.
In 1918, residents formed a corporation to save the deteriorating Cupola House. In 1948, a group of women borrowed $15,000 – without their husbands’ knowledge – to save the 1773 home of James Iredell, one of the first justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Edenton avoided burning and bombing during both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.
Edenton was the colony’s first capital and remained so until 1743. The town’s early settlement began with travelers from Nansemond County going down a route that went around the western side of the Great Dismal Swamp. It was then and still is known as Virginia Road, but it has the official route name of N.C. 32.
Later into the 1700s, Edenton served as a busy port where ships entered and exited the Outer Banks through an inlet just across the sound from the town. But storms closed that inlet and shipping commerce subsided.
The courthouse, built in 1767, is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church – Joseph Hewes, signer of the Declaration of Independence, attended there – is the second-oldest church building in North Carolina.
Close to the waterfront sits the 254-year-old Cupola House, where a group of residents has maintained a Colonial-era garden for nearly 40 years.
Open to public, the garden is a popular lunch-hour destination for Broad Street merchants.
Joe Heard, planning director for Kitty Hawk, presented Edenton’s main street award Tuesday for the North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association. In his remarks, he summed up what he believes visitors think when they come to Edenton.
“You are blessed with a truly special place.”"
Kitty Hawk Landing, a beautiful boating community located at the end of Kitty Hawk Road, offers stunning views and quiet evenings. Away from the hustle and bustle, the neighborhood’s location creates a sense of seclusion, highlighting the natural beauty of this soundfront community.
Many call Kitty Hawk Landing home, from retirees to young families. With community access to the Sound, via community boat ramp, and the neighborhood’s private beach access, it is easy to live an Outer Banks lifestyle.
This year-round community has much to offer and the views speak for themselves. This community is truly unique. For more information on Kitty Hawk Landing, contact a Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty agent.
Martin’s Point is located at the foot of the Wright Memorial Bridge in Kitty Hawk. This gated community was developed on a 2 mile long peninsula that juts out into the Currituck Sound.
Martin’s Point has a community marina, playground and multiple pond/park areas. It is a great neighborhood for walking and relaxing. The neighborhood is quiet and community minded, as you can find families playing in their yards and kids exploring on their bikes.
This neighborhood is often over-looked by visitors to the area but is home to many of our year-round residents.
A little history on Martin’s Point as reported by The Virginian Pilot…
“Most likely it got its name from someone who may have owned the property,” said Bill Harris, a Kitty Hawk resident and historian. “But then, who knows? Maybe it’s for the bird.”
County records dating to the early 1700s reveal that people with the last name Martin lived in the area at that time. Though documented ties to the peninsula are lacking, it’s still possible that one of them inspired the name, said Sarah Downing, a curator at the Outer Banks History Center.
In his 1958 book “The Outer Banks of North Carolina,” historian David Stick wrote that the name “Martins Point” first appears in a deed from 1786. Stick, who died in 2009, was widely regarded as an authority on Outer Banks history.
“This area was one of the first to be settled extensively on the North Banks,” he wrote.
In his book, Stick also wrote about his conviction that Martin’s Point played a historic role in early attempts by English settlers to colonize the Outer Banks. By interpreting a map drawn by John White – whose role in history is most often tied to the Lost Colony mystery – Stick concluded the explorers who first arrived in 1584 sailed through an inlet near the mouth of the creek that separates Martin’s Point from the modern-day towns of Southern Shores and Kitty Hawk.
On file at the Outer Banks History Center is a U.S. Coast Survey map dating to 1848-49 that shows a windmill and a small settlement by the name of Martin’s Point on the peninsula’s northern end.
In the 1850s, Martin’s Point was owned by a man named Hodges Gallop, who farmed the land with slaves. Legend has it, according to Stick’s book, that Gallop was buried standing up “in order that he might keep an eye on his property.”
Ownership of Martin’s Point changed hands multiple times until 1982, when Martin Point Inc. began building modern homes on the wooded strip of land.
Cottage Row in Nags Head, NC is one of my favorite places to drive. The row of classic Old Nags Head cottages are so beautiful and filled with so much history. The unique architecture is truly gorgeous and you can’t beat those views!
Here’s a little history on Cottage Row as told by The Nags Head Guide:
The first oceanfront cottage was built here around 1855 by Dr. W.G. Pool of Elizabeth City. Pool is said to have bought 50 acres of oceanfront property for $30 from the Midgetts, a family of Bankers still living in the area today. Pool divided the lots and sold them to the wives of his friends back home for a dollar apiece, and the Unpainted Aristocracy, a mile-long stretch of oceanfront cottages, was born.
By 1885, 13 shingled cottages, many made from scavenged wood, had sprung up within 300 feet of the breakers. In the early 1910s, cottagers called on a self-taught carpenter from Elizabeth City named Stephen J. Twine to repair and enlarge their summer houses. Twine would build at least another dozen cottages on the oceanfront between 1910 and 1935, along with St. Andrew’s By-the-Sea Episcopal Church, transforming the beachfront and in turn defining what would become known as the Nags Head style of architecture. Each cottage, with its hip-roofed porches, built-in benches and propped-shuttered windows, added to the majesty of Cottage Row.
The Unpainted Aristocracy has stood sentry against the changing tides of the Atlantic Ocean for more than 130 years. Known officially as the Nags Head Beach Cottage Row Historic District, the collection of close to 40 historic structures is one of the Tar Heel state’s little-known historic secrets, though it has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1977. The Unpainted Aristocracy has provided a porch rocker’s view of history. Under eaves furred by a century of salt spray, the families of Nags Head watched as Union troops marched into Nags Head, using the hotel as a headquarters and dismantling All Saint’s Chapel for use as a shelter for runaway slaves. They waded through chest-high hurricane waters in 1899 and 1933, lined the road in 1937 as a president visited, and later darkened their windows as ships burned off shore during World War II. They battled ceiling-high sand in 1962 after the Ash Wednesday northeaster and today fight a continuing battle against development to the north, south and west and the often-fierce Atlantic to the east.
The vacationers who were first to build cottages along the oceanfront lived in virtual isolation for nearly 100 years. They packed their bags for home on Labor Day and, because most structures among the Unpainted Aristocracy had no heat, they didn’t return until Memorial Day the following summer.
Though pockets of cottages and mom and pop hotels sprang up along N.C. 12, there was little development around the Unpainted Aristocracy until the 1960s. Families who had grown up along the cottage line began to mushroom, some members building new cottages nearby. And early in the 1970s, real estate developers from Ocean City, Maryland, began spreading the word about the pristine Outer Banks, both as a place to get away from it all and as a destination to explore the state’s history.
In time, some of Nags Head’s older structures fell into disrepair and were replaced by new cottages with more modern conveniences. Yet devotees to the historic beach life that Nags Head provided continued their efforts to preserve their beloved cottages.
“What’s special about Manteo is that, if you’re willing to take a moment of your time to say hello, you may very well make a friend.” -Angel Ellis Khoury
The Town of Manteo wraps around Shallowbag Bay on the eastern side of Roanoke Island, part of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Named the seat of government for Dare County in 1870, this waterfront community incorporated in 1899.
RoanokeIsland.net says it best…
The Roanoke Island town of Manteo is often compared to Mayberry because it holds a similar small-town character — and characters — and all the charm, hospitality and friendliness that come with that designation. Since this town bears so much resemblance to fictional Mayberry, is it a coincidence that Andy Griffith has lived here off and on since the 1940s? Most likely not, since Griffith himself once said, “If Mayberry is anywhere, it is Manteo.”
Manteo is the lively Dare County seat and an up-and-coming shopping/dining/cultural center that throws out the welcome mat for visitors.
Nags Head, North Carolina is often used synonymously with the Outer Banks of North Carolina. As one of the most developed cities on the Outer Banks, Nags Head is a wonderful place for vacation living or year-round living.
Known for its pristine beaches, Nags Head is also home to many attractions including the east coast’s largest sand dune, shops, restaurants, night life, water sports and more.
“A Nags Head vacation experience offers a blend of the old with the new. Visitors still can revel in timeworn traditions while enjoying a host of modern-day comforts.”
The History of Nags Head: Legend states that early inhabitants of the area tied lanterns to the necks of horses and led the horses up and down the beach after dark to lure merchant ships. Sailors who saw the lights would mistake them for lights from ships and decide to come closer to shore. When they did, they would run aground and Nags Head residents would pillage the ship’s cargo.
For more information about Nags Head real estate, visit www.coldwellbankerobx.com.
Corolla, NC is the northern most town of the Outer Banks, situated just south of the Virginia/North Carolina line. Corolla is rich in history and full of tradition for many.
Corolla is an unincorporated community and home to more than 100 wild Spanish Mustangs. The horses can be found on 12,000 acres in Corolla, north of populated areas. Approximately 500 permanent residents call the community home.
Up until the development boom of the 1980s, some 30 years ago, Corolla was little-known and little-traveled and was often referred to as North Carolina’s last beach frontier. That’s all changed today. Corolla has grown quite rapidly, and the number of people who have decided to move to this edge of the world location has steadily increased.
Today, Corolla is a popular vacation destination for families from all over. Although you may not be able to enjoy the convenience of super stores and malls, you’ll find all the amenities you want for a great vacation. The beautiful beaches are clean and vast, and usually just a short walk from your vacation home. There is great shopping and a fine recreation scene, including kayak tours, jet-ski rents, surf lessons, fishing, wild horse tours, go-carts and more. Dining and entertainment is top notch, many of the renown restaurants provide live out-door music for those beautiful summer nights.
Corolla has a little something for everyone, “It is a world of contemporary luxuries, where vacationing is easy and life is civilized.”
Kill Devil Hills
The oldest township in the Outer Banks, Kill Devil Hills should not be confused with Kill Devil Hill, where the Wright Brothers made the first successful flight in a powered machine. The Wright Brothers Memorial Monument stands sixty feet high on the ninety foot high Kill Devil Hill.
Situated in the middle of the northern Dare County beaches, KDH is the most populated of the Outer Banks town. The majority of our OBX locals reside here, with a total population of approximately 7,500.
Today, Kill Devil Hills is one of the most popular vacation destinations on the Outer Banks. The many beach accesses make for an easy trip to the beach with lots of public parking. Lifeguards are stationed every half mile or so, making KDH beaches ideal for families with children. With thousands of rental homes, great restaurants, sports and activities, and shopping, Kill Devil Hills is at the center of an Outer Banks vacation.
Bay Drive is one of my favorite places on the Outer Banks. Not only is it one of the best places to catch the sunset, but you can always count on seeing someone you know and catching up with friends. There is a warm sense of community in this neighborhood as you see neighbors waving as they pass each other on the street, chatting in their front yards, or biking/running at sundown.
Located in Kill Devil Hills, NC, Bay Drive is a beautiful residential street that runs along Kitty Hawk Bay and is home to many Outer Banks locals.
For more information about Bay Dr. and available homes along this great street, please contact one of the Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty agents.