It’s impossible to tell the whole story of the Albemarle Sound. So we let the 1,000 artifacts do the talking.
Day 1
Learn about the history and culture of the Albemarle
A region known for its rich history (being home to the first permanent English settlements in North Carolina) and natural beauty having a broad expanse of wetlands, sounds and rivers.
Museum Exhibits
Our Story: Life in the Albemarle
North Carolina Shad Boat
Tar Heels in the Trenches: The Albemarle and The Great War
I Do! Weddings in the Albemarle, 1831-2015
Contact Information
Address: 501 S. Water St, Elizabeth City, NC 27909D Phone number: (252) 335-1453
Hours: Monday-Saturday 9am-5pm Website
Do a Self-Guided Walking Tour of Main St Commercial / Residential and stop at Nell Cropsey home on Riverside Ave.
Main Street Commercial Walk Tour
During much of the 19th-century, this was a bustling center that was made up of two distinct districts. One was the center of shipping, wholesaling and manufacturing located near the harbor at Main and Water Streets, while the other was in the area of Main and Road Streets where retail and banking activities thrived. (see brochure)
Some of the locations:
Mariner's Wharf
Completed in 1983, these boat slips offer complimentary 48-hour dockage to boaters sailing on the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway. This area is where the Elizabeth City Rose Buddies, the late Fred Fearing being one of the original members, greet boaters with roses for the ladies, and host wine and cheese parties. This tradition is one major reason why Elizabeth City is known as the Harbor of Hospitality.
Reverend Forbes Monument
The Reverend Forbes, rector of Christ Episcopal Church, “surrendered” Elizabeth City to the Union Navy on February 10, 1862, to prevent more serious damage to Elizabeth City’s structures. He was very active in promoting local education.
Moth Boat Park
Once part of the bustling waterfront district, this park, at the end of East Main Street, now honors the Moth Boat. The Moth, as it is affectionately called, is the smallest international class of sailboat. It was designed here in 1929 by Captain Joel Van Sant. The Moth Boat Regatta, held in Elizabeth City each year in mid September, shows off this small sailboat in action.
Lowry-Chesson Building
Built in 1897 as a commercial rental investment property by Dr. Freshwater D. Lowry, the building displays Tuscan-inspired Italianate details in its two-story brick arches with grouped windows. The building’s first tenant was the Bee Hive Department store; a “bee hive” was a 19th century term for a variety or department store. Subsequently, Chesson’s Department Store occupied the first floor of the building. The upper stories contained rental offices and the “Academy of Music,” the city’s first opera house. It is one of the state’s few remaining vaudeville theaters. The ground floor store had a “Lamson Cash Carry Conveyer,” the only early 20th century sales and receipt conveyer system left in North Carolina. The building has been restored and renovated to house The Center, home to Arts of the Albemarle.
Colonial Oil Filling Station
With its signature blue tile roof, this unusually intact Tudor Revival-style gas station was nationally identified with the Pure Oil Company. Built in 1931, and first known as The Auto Fountain, this small building uses steeply-pitched parapet gable roofs and irregular and broken bricks jutting from the walls to create a rustic appearance.
Main Street Residential District Walking Tour:
For lovers of beautiful historic residential architecture, the Main Street Residential District is a fine example. Prior to the Civil War the area was primarily farmland, but early in the 1890s it was developed by some of the city’s leading businessmen who wanted to create an image that reflected gracious living. Today one can see late 19th-century homes that were built in the elaborate Queen Anne and Eastlake styles alongside Craftsman and Colonial Revival designs that were constructed in the early 20th– century.
Some of the locations:
Overman-Sheep House
Across the street is a large house built in 1859 by Reuban F. Overman, a wealthy local banker. It is one of only three, fully articulated, center-hall Greek Revival style houses in the city. Of particular note is the Italianate entrance door with carved dogwood blossoms. It was later the home of S. L. Sheep, who came to Elizabeth City in 1878 to assume the leadership of the private Elizabeth City Academy. He later oversaw the establishment of the Elizabeth City Public Schools, in 1907. Today, Elizabeth City’s Sheep-Harney Elementary School is named for these former neighbors and early educators — S.L. Sheep and Hattie Harney.
M. Leigh Sheep House
A wedding gift to Gertrude Foreman and M. Leigh Sheep, this transitional Queen Anne/Neoclassical Revival style house was completed about 1906. M. L. Sheep was a local merchant, who had a woman’s shop in downtown Elizabeth City. His son, Leigh Sheep was a popular photographer and local historian. Note the pedimented gable on the second level which is repeated over the porch entrance, and the walk-out porches on both levels.
Lillie Grandy House
This house, one of the city’s most distinctive Queen Anne style houses, was built in 1897 for Miss Lillie Grandy. Notice the decorative wood shingles in the gables, and paneled frieze below each gable. Imagine its exterior painted in four colors — the original specifications for the house. The design for this house was supplied by the mail order architectural business of George F. Barber.
Nell Cropsey Home (1901 Riverside Ave Elizabeth City, NC):
Elizabeth City’s own haunted house — named after the ghost, Nell Crospey, who moved in with her parents in 1898. In 1901, she vanished and her body was found beaten to death in the Pasquotank River. Her fiancee and a newspaper editor wanted to investigate her death, but after meeting, the fiancee shot himself in the head and the editor was mysteriously killed in a car accident. (Learn more about the ghost of Nell Cropsey)
Discover the Albemarle region’s art scene. The Arts of the Albemarle is a world-class facility – home to the Jaquelin Jenkins Gallery – holding art from over 250 artists, craftsmen and photographers.
Contact Information
Address: 516 E Main St, Elizabeth City, NC 27909
Phone: (252) 338-6455
Experience the rich and deep history of the Dismal Swamp Canal – created in 1805 after George Washington suggested developing it after he visited the Great Dismal Swamp in 1763. The swamp and canal served as a strategic location in the Civil War, Underground Railroad and more.
Visit a replica still along the Canal road, about a half-mile from the Dismal Swamp Visitor’s Center
Visit the remains of real stills along the Supple-jack Trail
Stop by the Visitors Center and learn more about the National Underground Railroad Address: 2294 US 17 North, South Mills, NC 27976 Phone Number: (252) 771-6593
Learn about the history and culture of the Albemarle
Stop in at Arts of the Albemarle
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