attractions - Historic Sites
Viewing 1 - 9 of 9 total listings in Historic Sites.
Elizabethan Gardens
- 1411 National Park Drive (off U.S. Highway 64) next to Fort Raleigh National Historic Site
- Roanoke Island
- (252) 473-3234
- map
Designed by two of America’s foremost landscape architects to pay tribute to America’s first English colonists, The Elizabethan Gardens is a rare treasure on the Outer Banks. It’s a haven of verdant, flourishing growth and natural prosperity. The gardens are in bloom year round with azaleas, dogwoods, roses, camellias, daphne, a variety of annuals and herbs and much more. Adding exquisite touches are ancient stone fountains, garden ornaments, a waterfront gazebo, benches, statues, an expansive lawn and some of the most amazing live oaks you’ll ever see. The Garden Gift Shoppe sells books, gifts, herbs and plants.
Nestled in the gardens is the Amazing Fossil Dig, a maze of gravel where children can play and sort to look for fossils and shark’s teeth. The gravel was imported from PCS Phosphate Mine in Aurora, North Carolina, a place known for its abundant fossils that can date back 20 million years!
Elizabethan Gardens offers outstanding workshops, classes and day camps almost all year round. Art classes, plant sales, gardening workshops, kids’ outdoor-oriented classes and much more are listed on the website. The Gardens’ Easter Eggstravaganza, Harvest Hayday (near Halloween), Harvest Hoedown fund-raiser and WinterLights festivities are great fun.
The Gardens open at 9 a.m. seven days a week throughout most of the year and at 10 a.m. December through February. Closing time varies according to the season. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for youth ages 6 to 17 and free for children age 5 and younger. Reduced rates are available for group tours.
The Gardens make a beautiful setting for bridal luncheons, weddings and receptions. Choose from a variety of backdrops for an unforgettable day. The Gardens are also perfect for organizational retreats or group meetings. An on-site Reception Hall, tent and Tea Garden accommodate parties large and small. Call for more information.
Island Farm
- U.S. Highway 64
- Roanoke Island
Roanoke Island’s Island Farm is a re-creation of the Etheridge family’s 1850s Roanoke Island working farm. Visitors feel as if they’ve stepped back more than 150 years as they explore the farm and see interpreters dressed in period attire carrying out the daily activities of the time – tending animals, blacksmithing, hoeing corn, doing laundry, making corn cakes. Hands-on activities and demonstrations may include woodworking, textile work, cooking demonstrations, ox-drawn wagon rides, 19th-century toys and games and farm and garden work. Visitors take self-guided tours of the Etheridge House and Farm, interacting with interpreters along the way. Activities vary daily and by season and are weather dependent. Standard admission costs $6 per person, with children 5 and younger admitted for free. After opening day for the season, which is April 4, 2012, hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday until closing day on November 24. Note that they’re closed on Thanksgiving Day.
Lost Colony
- Waterside Theatre, 1409 National Park Drive, Waterside Theatre, off U.S. Highway 64
- Roanoke Island
- (252) 473-3414
- map
More than 400 years ago, 117 men, women and children sailed from Plymouth, England, in an attempt to settle on Roanoke Island. They vanished just two years later. The only clue left behind was the word “CROATOAN” carved in a tree. The Lost Colony is their story.
Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Green, The Lost Colony is performed summer nights by a company of more than 100 actors, dancers, singers and technicians in the historic outdoor Waterside Theatre. Come see epic battles and Indian dances. Experience the sorrow and heartbreak of tragedy and loss. Witness the pageantry of the queen and her court, and celebrate the birth of Virginia Dare. There is music, laughter, romance and dance.
An Outer Banks tradition and cultural treasure, The Lost Colony educates, enriches and entertains — don’t leave the Outer Banks until you see it.
The Lost Colony is performed Monday through Saturday nights from May 27 through August 20, 2011. Show time is 8:30 p.m. Upper Level seating is $20 for adults and $18 for seniors (62 and older). Lower Level seating is $24 for adults and $21 for seniors. Children 12 and younger pay $10 in either level. Groups of 10 or more save up to $4 per person. Advance reservations are recommended. For tickets, call (252) 473-3414 or purchase online at www.thelostcolony.com.
Take a backstage tour for a behind-the-scenes look at how The Lost Colony comes to life, from weaponry and stunt demonstrations to actors putting last-minute touches on makeup. Tours begin at 7:30 p.m. and cost $7 per person.
New in 2011 are Waterside Sunset Picnics. Enjoy a scrumptious gourmet picnic as the sun sets on the Albemarle Sound. Picnics include an appetizer, entree, side dish and dessert. Tables are available or bring a blanket to sit on. Cost is $16 for adults and $8 for children.
Manteo Self-Guided Walking Tour Book
- Manteo
- (252) 473-1111
Manteo is much more than a modern vacation resort. It’s a place with an interesting past. In the downtown and waterfront area, you can see remnants of days gone by — and a great way to experience this history is with One Boat Guides’ Manteo Walking Tour. The book features an easy-to-follow map and format that guides you through Manteo, showing historic photographs, pointing out historical details and landmarks and relating anecdotes along the way.
OneBoat Outer Banks also features walking and driving tours to Corolla, Nags Head, Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Village. The books are available on the Outer Banks in bookstores, gift shops, grocery stores, attractions and specialty shops. Or you can call (252) 473-1111 to order a copy in advance of your visit and have it shipped to you. Look for their distinctive covers with historic photographs. Have fun exploring the history of the Outer Banks!
Roanoke Island Festival Park
- 1 Festival Park, Across from the Manteo Waterfront
- Manteo
- (252) 475-1500
- map
Did you know that the first Roanoke Island settlements predate the Jamestown settlement of 1607? The Roanoke Island settlements took place 20 years earlier, between 1585 and 1587. Though the Roanoke Island colonies didn’t prove successful as far as longevity, they were the foundations of English-speaking life in America and provided much-needed information about the New World that helped the later colonies succeed. Roanoke Island Festival Park is one place to learn about these first English settlements and the impact they had on the Native Americans who were already residing here in the 16th century. The state-run park and cultural center is just across the bridge from the downtown Manteo waterfront on its own 25-acre island. Be prepared for a day of fun, as there is a lot to do and see here.
Elizabeth II—The centerpiece of the park is the 69-foot Elizabeth II, a 16th-century sailing ship. It’s a representation of a particular 16th-century English merchant ship, Elizabeth, one of seven in Sir Walter Raleigh’s 1585 expedition to establish England’s first New World colony. Costumed interpreters speaking Old English greet visitors to the ship with sea tales, legends and historical facts and answer questions about 16th-century seafaring. Kids love walking around on the decks and crawling down below to see what life was like on the ship. The Elizabeth II’s tender, Silver Chalice, is 24 feet long and carries up to 15 crew members.
Settlement Site – The Settlement Site is where guests get to interact with costumed interpreters portraying the colonist men and women as they settled into life in the New World. Visitors can try their hand at blacksmithing, woodworking, colonial games and more. See how the first English settlers lived when they arrived in the New World. Try on some of their armor, learn some 16th-century warfare techniques and some of the arts and crafts needed to make life tolerable on Roanoke Island more than 400 years ago.
American Indian Town – Explore coastal Algonquian culture and history in the American Indian Town, an exhibit that’s new to Roanoke Island Festival Park. The town represents an American Indian community similar to what the English explorers investigated and surveyed during their voyages to Roanoke Island and the surrounding area in the late 16th century. Visitors follow paths that wind through the park. Homes, agricultural areas and work shelters line the paths. Two longhouses represent the historical homes of American Indians from the region. One of the longhouses stretches more than 30 feet long and interprets the home of a leader from the community. A smaller and partially completed longhouse includes an interactive component that invites visitors to help complete the structure. Both areas contain interactive exhibits that focus on the developing relationship between the American Indian and English people during the late 16th century. The ceremonial dance circle is also located here. The exhibit has a planting and harvesting area where visitors can learn the advanced nuances of American Indian farming techniques. Three work shelters include activities like cordage (rope) making, mat and basket weaving, net mending, food preparation, tanning hides, fishing, boat building and gathering.
Fossil Search — Find ancient treasures, including shark’s teeth and coral, from a time long before the colonists arrived.
Roanoke Adventure Museum — The Roanoke Adventure Museum features highly interactive, multi-sensory, hands-on exhibits and experience of 400 years of Outer Banks history. The exhibits invite interaction, especially the dress-up trunk of Elizabethan clothing and the duck-hunting station. Watch as history comes alive for children of all ages in the hands-on exhibits.
Pavilion — The Outdoor Pavilion and surrounding grounds offer a perfect place to enjoy a picnic and concert. Events are scheduled year round and many are free and open to the public.
Art Gallery — Located in the Administration Building, the Art Gallery features a different art exhibit every month, with most of the artwork done by local artists. Sometimes other important works of art are brought to this distinguished gallery.
Film Theater — The film The Legend of Two-Path is shown several times a day in the 242-seat Film Theater. It tells the Native Americans’ perspective of how the arrival of the colonists changed their lives. Special performances are also held here year round.
Boardwalks & Grounds — Enjoy wildlife in a natural setting while walking the Boardwalk that runs throughout the park. Along the landscaped walks, native shrubs and flowers thrive in the sound and marsh. The Boardwalk joins the Roanoke Voyages Trail, which bisects Roanoke Island.
Outer Banks History Center — The Outer Banks History Center, (252) 473-2655, is a public research facility with a friendly staff that is willing to help you find historic photographs and documents, research information and more. Their gallery features a history-related show each year, and their reading room offers scores of up-to-date periodicals. See the separate listing for the center for details.
The cost for admission to Roanoke Island Festival Park, which includes all venues, is $8 for adults and $5 for ages 6 to 17. Children 5 and younger get in free. Tickets are good for two consecutive days.
It’s free to tour Festival Park’s Art Gallery, dig in the fossil search, browse the Outer Banks History Center and to walk along the boardwalk that skirts the outer edge of the island that houses the park. Parking is plentiful and free.
Special events are ongoing at Festival Park all year. See www.outerbanksthisweek.com for details.
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site
- 1401 National Park Drive (off U.S. Highway 64)
- Roanoke Island
- (252) 473-5772
This national historic site commemorates and preserves the first English attempts at colonization and aims to help visitors gain a better understanding of the known elements of the settlement. Renovation of the park’s visitor center should be completed by mid-June 2011; until then a temporary visitors center is set up on the site.
To understand the story of the colonists, pay a visit to the visitors center and bookstore. Interpretive panels, a short film and park staff will help you understand the history of this area. During the summer months, park staff offers a regular schedule of ranger programs. Outdoor paths through the historic grounds offer visitors a view of the restored earthen fort, originally built during the 1580s. The Thomas Hariot Nature Trail winds through the wooded area between Roanoke Sound and the earthen fort, making about a quarter-mile loop. Hariot’s descriptions of the New World are quoted on signs along the trail. Nearby this site was the location of a Freedmen’s Colony, where escaped slaves found refuge during and after the Civil War. On the grounds, you will find waysides that discuss the Freedmen’s Colony and a Civil War marker that designates the park as part of the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, a nationwide program of sites that addresses the Underground Railroad story. Visitation to Fort Raleigh is free and allowed during daylight hours. The visitor center is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with hours extended to 6 p.m. from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Adjacent to the parking lot, a picnic site is available with tables under shady trees and a spacious lawn for kids who love to run and enjoy the great outdoors. The Elizabethan Gardens and The Lost Colony’s Waterside Theatre neighbor the Fort Raleigh site. See www.outerbanksthisweek.com for details on Park programs.
Pea Island Cookhouse Museum
- Sir Walter Raleigh Street
- Manteo
- (252) 473-2133
In the roundabout at the intersection of Sir Walter Raleigh and Bideford streets, a part of the community’s African-American heritage is being preserved and interpreted with a statue and a museum. A life-sized bronze statue of Richard Etheridge, the first African-American United States Life-Saving Service Keeper at Pea Island Station on the Outer Banks, is in the roundabout’s median. Adjacent, the Pea Island Cookhouse Museum is housed in a the refurbished former cookhouse of the historic Pea Island Station and honors the African-American men who courageously served under Etheridge.
Born into slavery on Roanoke Island, Etheridge was in charge of the U.S. Life-Saving Service Station at Pea Island from January 1880 to May of 1900. The story of Etheridge and the Pea Island surfmen has been immortalized in the riveting book, Fire on the Beach, and recently made into a documentary film, Rescue Men. Despite living during a time of great prejudice — his station was burned to the ground by disgruntled whites and white lifesavers who refused to work for him — Etheridge’s career was one of distinction. Having been a sergeant in the Colored Troops of the Union Army during the Civil War, he ran the station with military precision. This resulted in successful lifesaving missions, including the chilling rescue of the E.S. Newman in October 1896 when two of his crew moved through hurricane-force seas to save lives. While fighting to end slavery during the Civil War, Etheridge also fought for the rights of people on the homefront who were being mistreated in the Freedmen’s Colony. He co-authored a compelling letter to the commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau and signed it “on behalf of humanity.” The statue of Etheridge was crafted by Stephen H. Smith of Marshville, who has also sculpted the likenesses of Martin Luther King Jr. and Wilbur and Orville Wright.
In the museum you’ll see original artifacts from the U.S. Life-Saving Service, the shipboard from the E.S. Newman and a video and learn about the history of Etheridge and his crew.
For now, you may call the number listed here to arrange a tour.
Roanoke Island Maritime Museum / Creef Boathouse
- 104 Fernando Street, Manteo Waterfront
- Manteo
- (252) 475-1750
Originally a boathouse used to build world-record-holding speedboats, this building has seen a variety of boat-building uses in its day. The building’s double-wide doors and barn-like roominess create the perfect setting for this working boathouse museum. The Roanoke Island Maritime Museum is a treasure-trove of local seafaring history. Come inside for a look at some locally built boats and possibly to see boat building in the process.
Whatever you see, you’ll learn about the island’s traditional boats, what they were used for and how they were used. On the water, you’ll see a variety of traditional watercraft, the most noteworthy of which is the reproduction North Carolina shad boat, The Spirit of Roanoke Island, built by museum volunteers. Head over to the boathouse to see the Ella View, an original shad boat built in 1883 by George Washington Creef, the boathouse’s namesake. It’s free to tour this museum and talk with the volunteers and staff.
The museum has a number of programs and workshops to celebrate maritime heritage. They also offer boat rides in a traditional shad fishing boat once a week throughout the summer and Shallowbag Bay Sail-Abouts and Open Sails on Tuesdays starting at 6 p.m. throughout the summer, weather permitting. Call to register in advance. Outer Banks Sailing Academy, (252) 207-1719, teaches Youth Sailing Programs at the Roanoke Island Maritime Museum (see our Recreation section or the museum’s website).
Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse / Manteo Weather Tower
- East End of Queen Elizabeth Street, Waterfront
- Manteo
- (252) 475-1750
Perched over the water along Manteo’s waterfront boardwalk, the picturesque Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse is perfectly suited to the town’s maritime setting. This Victorian stick-style lighthouse is a reproduction of the third Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse, which never stood on the Manteo waterfront but in the Croatan Sound from 1877 to 1955. Out there in the sound, the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse keepers lived on the lonely lighthouse platform and operated the light to help mariners navigate safely. This replica was built by the Town of Manteo and dedicated in September 2004. Inside the lighthouse is an exhibit about the history of the first lighthouse along with some boat-related exhibits from the neighboring Roanoke Island Maritime Museum.
Also on this site, the Town of Manteo is keeping the century-old tradition of the Storm Warning Tower alive with the Manteo Weather Tower. This particular tower dates back to 1904, when the U.S. Weather Bureau set up its first Storm Warning Tower in Manteo. Using flags by day and lights by night, the towers provided a useful service to local residents, especially mariners and fishermen, but certainly for others as well. A. E. Drinkwater, the town’s telegrapher, was the weather observer, and the tower was located first at the downtown courthouse, then at a location on the waterfront and then at Drinkwater’s home, where it stayed for decades until the Town of Manteo obtained it in 2005. The tower on the Manteo waterfront today is the original 1904 tower with the original signal lights and a bit of refurbishing. The Town of Manteo’s dock master changes the flags and lights according to weather reports, and locals and visitors enjoy interpreting the signals. If you need to brush up on your weather-warning flag symbols, a legend for the flags is available at the base of the tower and also on postcards available at the Maritime Museum and at Manteo’s Town Hall on Budleigh Street.
