attractions - 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

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 Shop 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!

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 Elizabethan Gardens Family Fun Series offers hands-on activities with Wild Wednesdays and Discovery Thursdays in the air-conditioned theater or out in the gardens from June 9 through August 12. All family fun activities are free with paid admission to The Elizabethan Gardens.

The Elizabethan Gardens is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the original idea for the gardens in 2010. In 1950, Sir Evelyn Wrench, founder of the English Speaking Union, traveled to Roanoke Island to see The Lost Colony and while on the site of Fort Raleigh came up with the idea of building a formal garden on the site as an additional attraction and a memorial to the first English colonists. By 1951 the idea was well on its way to fruition when The Garden Club of North Carolina formally adopted the project. The Gardens will celebrate this 60th anniversary on August 17, 18 and 19, 2010. Tuesday will bring the East Carolina University Chamber Orchestra to the gardens, Wednesday will be a free visitation day as part of the Virginia Dare birthday celebration and Thursday will feature the unveiling of a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. Stay tuned to www.OuterBanksThisWeek.com for event schedules and times.

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.

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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. A renovation of the park visitor center is under way, but a temporary visitor center is on site. Construction areas and alternative paths to the park grounds will be marked.

To understand the story of the colonists, pay a visit to the temporary contact station and bookstore. Interpretive panels and park staff will be available to answer your questions. 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. The site is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the summer; it closes at 5 p.m. during the rest of the year. 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.

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Island Farm

• U.S. Highway 64
• Roanoke Island
• (252) 473-6500

Roanoke Island’s eagerly anticipated new attraction is the Island Farm, 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, horse-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. Admission costs $5 per person, with children younger than 5 admitted for free. After opening day on June 7, 2010, hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Island Farm is not open on weekends, and it will close for the season in November.

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Lost Colony

• Waterside Theatre, 1409 National Park Drive, Waterside Theatre, off U.S. Highway 64
• Roanoke Island
• (252) 473-3414

Since its premiere in 1937, The Lost Colony outdoor drama has become one of the Outer Banks’ most beloved attractions. The play itself has become as much a part of the culture and history of Roanoke Island as the historic events it portrays. The symphonic production tells the 400-year-old mystery of the 117 men, women and children who lived for a short time on Roanoke Island then vanished without a trace. Held in the beautiful, open-air Waterside Theatre, the lively show features song, dance and drama. Getting to the actual theater requires a short walk down a paved path through an enchanting forest, stirring the imagination about the colonists’ lives.

In September 2007 a fire consumed The Lost Colony costume shop, destroying all of the show’s working stock and historical costumes. The silver lining in this tragic event was that the show rebounded to an even more stunning production. Renowned Broadway costume designer William Ivey Long, creative costumer for such productions as The Producers and Hair Spray, designed and created a thousand new costumes for the show, and The Lost Colony is more visually stunning than ever. The new costumes are not only beautiful, but they are also more historically accurate, as the redesign allowed Long to portray the Elizabethan class system of the colonists. A new director has also changed some key elements of the play. Even if you’ve seen The Lost Colony several times, it’s worth it to go again to see the new level of sophistication it has attained.

The Lost Colony is performed Monday through Saturday nights from May 28 through August 20, 2010. The show starts at 8 p.m. and is about two hours long. Tickets for Upper Level Seating cost $20 for adults, $19 for seniors (62 and older), $12 for children 11 and younger. Lower Level Seating costs $24 per person. On Mondays and Fridays, one child age 11 and younger gets in free with the purchase of a full-price adult ticket. On Saturday, one child gets a half-price ticket with the purchase of a full-price adult ticket. Advance reservations are recommended. For tickets, you can call (252) 473-3414 or visit www.thelostcolony.com to purchase your tickets online.

During their summer production season, The Lost Colony offers backstage tours Monday through Saturday nights at 7 p.m. On this 45-minute walking tour you’ll see insider views of the theater, costume shop and props. Reservations are required, and the cost is $7 per person. The Lost Colony production company also offers many special events throughout the year, such as children’s theater, musicals and more. See www.outerbanksthisweek.com for more information.

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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!

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Roanoke Island Festival Park

• 1 Festival Park, Across from the Manteo Waterfront
• Manteo
• (252) 475-1500

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. The Summer Children’s Performance Series, productions by Elizabeth R and Company and many other 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.

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