North Carolina Coastal Land Trust Executive Director Harrison Marks is officially stepping down as executive director to assume the role of senior adviser for the Wilmington-based nonprofit organization.
Places
Albemarle Region’s tallest hotel offered luxurious amenities
The nine-story, 100-room Virginia Dare Hotel, completed in 1927 amid a hotel industry trend of going taller and taller, enjoyed a only a brief heyday but still stands as an Elizabeth City icon.
Rough dig: Dismal Swamp Canal never quite lived up to plans
With poor initial funding, shoddy engineering and enslaved laborers forced to work in awful conditions, the man-made connection between the Albemarle Sound and Chesapeake Bay fell victim to competition but is now thought to be the country’s oldest operating canal.
Chance encounter reveals shared family history of service
Joan Collins, director of outreach and education with the Pea Island Preservation Society Inc., relates how she happened to meet Johnnie Van Willis of Marshallberg and the discovery of what their two families have in common.
First document to declare independence celebrated in Halifax
The first official action taken toward Independence by any colony was commemorated this past weekend with numerous dignitaries and more than 300 turning out for “Halifax Resolves Days.”
Ocracoke decoy festival to highlight Eddie O’Neal’s carvings
Lifelong waterman and islander Eddie O’Neal is the featured carver for this year’s Ocracoke Island Waterfowl Festival Friday and Saturday in the Ocracoke School gym.
Dare’s A250 Faire to honor ‘Liberty, Legacy and Lift-Off’
Dare County’s A250 Committee has planned two celebrations for Saturday in Manteo as part of its commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
‘Black Church Crawl’ to be immersive, historic experience
The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridors’ North Carolina Summit is offering an immersive tour highlighting the history of Black churches in Brunswick and New Hanover counties.
Halifax to mark colonies’ first big step toward independence
Historic Halifax State Historic Site is commemorating Friday through Sunday the 250-year anniversary of North Carolina taking the first official action of any colony to call for independence of British rule.
Tea parties too: Edenton, Wilmington women protested tax
Through boycotts and burning, women in Wilmington and Edenton took a stand in 1774 against England’s taxation without representation by forming their own tea party protests, the earliest-known political actions organized by women in the American colonies.
Rainy remembrance marks Revolution’s first decisive win
The commemoration of the first notable patriot victory of the Revolutionary War held recently at Moores Creek National Battlefield in Pender County featured reenactors, a ribbon-cutting for two exhibits, and special guest, Diana Gabaldon, creator of “Outlander.”
Saved from demolition, Rosenwald School still needs help
The National Register of Historic Places-listed structure was described in 2016 as the only graded public school that, from the 1920s-1950s, served both local African American and Native American students in the Pleasant Plains community.
Pender County event honors patriots’ first win of Revolution
Moores Creek National Battlefield, the site where, on Feb. 27, 1776, the first decisive victory of the American Revolution took place, ending English authority in North Carolina.
Dare County begins America’s 250th commemoration
Dare A250, the county’s planning committee for America’s 250th, has begun celebrating with an interactive map and passport program that focuses on Dare’s contributions to the nation’s origins.
Our Coast: On the shores of Harkers Island, 1944
Historian David Cecelski looks beyond the tranquil scene in this image featuring Capt. Stacy Davis, his fish house and nets on Harkers Island, and at the great upheaval here in the years between the 1933 hurricane and just after World War II.
Records point to 13 unmarked graves in Old Burying Ground
Carteret County native Bill Lewis has spent the last few years digging through records to corroborate what he’s always heard: that 13 of his ancestors are buried in unmarked graves in the Old Burying Ground.
