The Perquimans River is a narrow, twisting coastal river that never leaves Perquimans County.

It’s rarely more than 50 or 60 feet wide until it suddenly opens up just upriver from Hertford, the county seat. As it passes Durants Neck a little more than a mile south of the town, the river becomes a broad estuarine waterway offering a direct route to the Albemarle Sound.

County Manager Frank Heath stood recently on the edge of a wide, bulkheaded boat basin telling Coastal Review about the Perquimans County Marine Industrial Park that, after more than 10 years of false starts and missed steps, finally completed the first phase of the project last year: The $7 million deep-water boat basin now allows direct water access to the Albemarle sound.

“It’s 350 feet wide, more than a football field in width, and it goes inland 700 feet,” he said. “We do have such spectacular water resources, to me, it makes sense that we start with this.”

For some time, there have been calls to develop the county’s water access. More than 65 years ago in 1958, in celebration of the bicentennial of the founding of Hertford, W.G. Newby compiled “Town of Hertford Bi-Centennial” note, among other historic facts, “One of the very important contributing factors in the growth of a town is transportation. We have here … a great and beautiful river, the Perquimans.”

The author went on to note that by 1958 the river “is only used by a fleet of oil tankers that supply oil of home, U.S. Navy and other uses. However, it could be put to work of industry and we hope some day that this will come to pass.”

The basin, Heath explained, is phase one and it took a while to complete that first step in developing the county’s waterfront for commercial use.

“We spent quite a bit of energy getting the grants for phase one,” he said.

Getting the first phase completed, began Heath said, “12 or 13 years ago” when North Carolina identified Hertford as a secondary marine resource when the Wanchese Marine Industrial Park ran out of space.

It was, Heath explained, a much-needed economic lifeline for the county.

“The textile industry left in the 1980s and ’90s, we had several good-sized factories, those shut down,” he said. “We have an agricultural-based economy, which is very important, and we want that to continue to thrive, but we also want other industries to come in.”

Originally a state project, as plans moved forward, it became apparent that the state was not in position for the grants needed to build the marina project.

“What they found as … a state entity, they weren’t eligible for state grants, like the county would be. So, they transferred the ownership back to the county, and in the past, say, four years, we have been piecing funds together to get this done,” Heath said.

The county’s plan for the marina targets companies that need water access for large scale construction projects as likely tenants for the marina.

“There are builders from this area and outside the region, we’ve talked to companies that are looking to reshore back (return manufacturing) into United States,” Heath said.

At least one company has moved from Hampton Roads to Hertford. East Coast Steel Fabrication, a company providing heavy steel fabrication for barges and marine structures, is located immediately adjacent to the basin, although it is not part of the marina.

Heath mentioned there have been contacts with potential customers for the marina, although any announcement remains months in the future.

“I would think by the beginning of next year, we would have some news, if not sooner,” he said. “I’d love to have something before the end of the year.”

There is still work to be done.

There is not yet a road to the basin. Heath mentions the county is working with the North Carolina Department of Transportation on getting a road built.

“I’ve worked in cooperation with NCDOT. They’ve helped me do cost estimates and preliminary drawings, and I included that in requests that I’ve sent to the General Assembly to try to get funded through a budget process,” Heath said, adding that the budget impasse in the state legislature this session has stalled funding.

As a short-term solution, the county does have the funds to put in a gravel road something Heath said would be done in the next three months.

Phase two of the project will include a substantial extension of the boat basin, although Heath is careful to not get ahead of himself.

“We spent quite a bit of energy getting the grants for phase one. For grants for phase two to open up, getting the current basin leased out, is going to be important, because it proves the case itself. So, my primary goal now is to market to potential companies that need that kind of access,” he said.

Perquimans County is not considered an economically distressed county by North Carolina. The state uses a three-tier rating system, with Tier 1 being the most distressed and counties with a rating of 3 having the healthiest economies.

Perquimans County falls squarely in the Tier 2 category, but at least part of that economic health is created by workers who don’t work in the county.

“Our goal is to create jobs here in Perquimans County,” Heath said. “We have a lot of people that go to Hampton Roads to work, and we’d like to give them a place at home to work.”

That would, he noted, be more convenient for the workers, but there is more to it than that. Workers employed in the county also spend money in the county.

“They could buy gas here, they could buy lunch here. You’re going to stop by the grocery store and stop by the hardware or the auto place where you work,” Heath said. “We want to recapture that leakage.”

The Albemarle Sound region, one of the oldest areas in the state to be continuously settled by Europeans, has dozens of small towns with centuries of history.

One of these is Hertford, the county seat of Perquimans County.

Though the town, which has never had more than 2,500 residents, has seen some growth in recent years, it is still rural and quiet.

Wonder Lewis, a Perquimans County native who has worked for the library for three decades, said that when it comes to town expansion, “we’ve added a few things, but not enough.” She believes that Hertford’s charm is its “rural nature,” which makes it a haven for retirees from up north.

The town incorporated in 1758 has played an important role in the political, social and sports history of North Carolina.

In the mid-17th century, settlers in Virginia began to trickle across a yet-to-be drawn border with what would become North Carolina. They bought land from Native Americans and established corn and tobacco plantations along the Albemarle Sound.

Slowly, the increasing population coalesced into new communities. One of these, which later became Hertford, was located in Perquimans Precinct on the Perquimans River.

This community became known early on for its attachment to Quakerism. The founder of the Quakers, George Fox, traveled throughout the region as a popular preacher in 1672.

According to his journal, the people of Perquimans “much desired after (Quaker) meetings,” mainly because there were no other churches.

While all Albemarle Sound counties were influenced by the visiting Quakers in some way, Perquimans was more readily converted than its peers.

The county became home to the first Quaker meeting in the Colony a few years later and remained the center of Quakerism in North Carolina for more than a century.

Apart from the dominance of Quakerism, Hertford resembled other small towns of the Albemarle region such as Windsor in Bertie County. It was a center for the tobacco trade located on a large navigable river that wound its way through the region’s tobacco plantations.

This location brought a modest amount of wealth to the small settlement. One group of prosperous residents near the Perquimans River helped contribute to the construction of the oldest surviving brick house in North Carolina.

The Newbold-White House, likely built in the early 1730s, remains an outstanding example of 18th-century Quaker plan architecture.

Hertford played an ancillary role in events of the late 18th and 19th centuries. It was too small to be a notable target for either the British in the 1770s or the Union in the 1860s. But Hertford did build up a quaint historic downtown.

The current Perquimans County Courthouse completed in 1824 is one of the town’s more remarkable structures.

Hertford also contributed several important people to the state and nation in its early years. Perhaps the most influential was John Harvey, a leader of the North Carolina Provincial Congress and one of the leading Patriots before his untimely death in 1775.

The 20th century saw Hertford grow and gain some of its more notable attributes.

One was the “S bridge” connecting Hertford and neighboring Winfall, the oldest swing-span bridge in the state until it was replaced in 2021. Its replacement opens in the same way and looks much the same as its 1920s predecessor.

The town also gained a commercial district with the banks and department stores of typical eastern North Carolina towns, and became a minor tourist attraction in the 1980s when the Newbold-White House was opened as a historic site.

Besides John Harvey, the most notable native of the town lived during the 20th century.

Jim “Catfish” Hunter excelled at multiple sports at Perquimans County High School before making his way to Major League Baseball. He won over 220 games and five World Series in his 15-season career, according to ESPN.

There is some uncertainty as to how the construction of Interstate 87 will affect the area. The road, which will connect Interstate 40 in Raleigh to Interstate 64 in Norfolk, Virginia, is projected to increase traffic and potentially expand the suburban sprawl of Norfolk, located less than 60 miles to the northeast.

Hertford has remained small despite centuries of growth in nearby Elizabeth City and Edenton, and there is a high chance that it will retain the small-town character that has defined it for centuries.

Reprinted from the Daily Advance.

HERTFORD — Hertford town officials are exploring a possible historic district designation for an area in West Hertford.

Hertford Town Council voted unanimously last week to accept a proposal from Landmark Preservation Associates to perform the work needed to secure the designation.

Town Manager Janice Cole recommended the firm based in Lexington, Virginia, to conduct a study in preparation for applying for an official historic district designation.

Landmark’s work would cost the town between $24,000 and $26,000, with the final amount to be determined in negotiation with the town. Cole said she had been told to expect a fee of $30,000, so she was pleased with the proposed amount.

Dan Pezzoni of Landmark Preservation Associates states on his website that he “provides architectural history and preservation consulting services” and has done work “from the East Coast to the Mountain West in states as diverse as Nevada and North Carolina, Kansas and West Virginia.”

According to the website, the firm’s clients include homeowners and municipalities seeking assistance with historic designations like the National Register of Historic Places, which is what the town of Hertford is hiring Landmark Preservation Associates to help with.

Other clients include “business owners planning the rehabilitation of a historic building; historical organizations in need of research and editing for their architectural history; and archaeologists and architects in need of an architectural historian as a team member.”

In another matter, the town council approved a preliminary resolution for financing the purchase of a new fire truck.

Cole said the town has been trying to buy a new fire truck and has identified one at a price of $650,000. She recalled that the council had indicated it plans to take half the cost of the truck from fund balance and seek a loan for the remainder.

Fund balance is the town’s reserve that is set aside for items such as emergencies and special capital projects.

The N.C. Local Government Commission requires the preliminary resolution as a first step toward approving the town’s borrowing of the funds.

Council also voted to accept a $5,000 grant from ElectriCities for tree trimming around utility lines.

Former Councilman Quentin Jackson asked to address the council during public comment but was told he could not do so since he had not signed up before 6 p.m. in accordance with the town’s established procedure.

The Daily Advance is a newspaper based in Elizabeth City and serving Chowan, Camden, Currituck, Pasquotank and Perquimans counties. Coastal Review is partnering with The Daily Advance to provide readers with more stories of interest about our coast.

The 93-year-old, weakening swing span of the historic Hertford “S-bridge,” which connected the towns of Hertford and Winfall, was removed Monday.

The removal is part of a project to replace the nearly century-old bridge, which has been in place since 1928, over Perquimans River, according to the state Department of Transportation.

Contractors for the North Carolina Department of Transportation loaded the truss onto two barges, which will temporarily house the bridge sections near Missing Mill Park. There are local preservation efforts underway to put the structure on permanent display.

The removal is part of a $57 million project to replace the aging Hertford swing span bridge that connected the towns of Hertford and Winfall along U.S. 17 Business. The new bridge, which will also replace the causeway that was settling unevenly, is expected to open to traffic by April 30, 2022.

The “S-bridge” over the Perquimans River on U.S. 17 Business in Hertford will be closed between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday while contractors pump concrete for the new bridge currently under construction.

The new bridge is part of a $57 million project to upgrade and improve U.S. 17 Business/N.C. 37 between Hertford and Winfall in northern Perquimans County. In addition to the bridge replacement, the project includes improving the causeway north of the bridge, which has been damaged by settling of the ground underneath it.

Work on replacing the 90-year-old Hertford “S-Bridge” began in July 2019.  The state Department of Transportation contracted the project with McLean Contracting of Chesapeake, Virginia. The project is scheduled to be complete in December 2021. ​

Portable message boards will be placed on U.S. 17 in both directions advising motorists of Saturday’s closure. In the town of Hertford, a barricade will be placed in the travel lane at Grubb Street and barriers will be placed on the bridge approach.

In Winfall, barricades will be placed at the intersection of Winfall Boulevard and Creek Drive.

Drivers should plan ahead and use caution around the work zone.

For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on social media.