Doctor's Creek and East Portsmouth and Village Environs: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Cape Lookout National Seashore
Regions 1, 2, & 4 Park Cultural Landscapes Program. 2018. Doctor's Creek and East Portsmouth and Village Environs: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Cape Lookout National Seashore. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 976090. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPS Southeast Regional Office, Atlanta, Georgia / CRIS-CL Database
Inventory Unit Description: Portsmouth Village is a National Register of Historic Places district located on the northern end of Cape Lookout National Seashore, Carteret County, North Carolina. Cape Lookout National Seashore was established in 1966 “to preserve for public use and enjoyment an area in the State of North Carolina possessing outstanding natural and recreation values” (U.S. Congress, 80 Stat. 33, approved 10 March 1966). Portsmouth Village is the sole surviving village on the Core Banks south of Ocracoke Island. The district contains several dozen historic buildings and structures, associated circulation features, tidal creeks, sandy hammocks, vegetation communities, and a range of small-scale features, in addition to other related cultural landscape features. The period of significance for the Portsmouth Village Historic District begins in 1753 and concludes in 1971, encompassing the establishment of the community through the time when the last permanent residents left the island. The district is significant at the state level under Criteria A, C, and D of the National Register of Historic Places, in the areas of social history, maritime history, military history, architecture, and archeology. The site retains sufficient integrity to convey the associations of its period of significance to the visitor. Within Portsmouth Village is the Doctors Creek and East Portsmouth Village Environs component landscape. The component landscape contains numerous residences in addition to associated outbuildings and small-scale features including fences, cisterns, and septic tanks. The landscape also contains the Portsmouth Methodist Church and Babb Dixon Cemetery. The resources within the component landscape are located on both the east and west sides of Doctors Creek, as well as the north and south sides of Village Road. Examples of cultural vegetation within the landscape include eastern red cedars. The majority of extant cultural features survive from the early to mid-twentieth century and the Portsmouth Village Historic District landscape most closely reflects its character as it evolved during this time. Surviving resources represent the continuation of the earliest patterns of construction, land use, and way of life. No buildings exist from the initial eighteenth century development period and only a handful of structures remain from the nineteenth century. The site lacks integrity for this early period. Other modifications to the historic district include changes in circulation, vegetation, and alterations to accommodate the administration of Cape Lookout National Seashore.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Regions 1, 2, & 4 Park Cultural Landscapes Program
- Date of Issue
- 2018-08-08
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- CALO , SER
- Keywords
- archeology, architecture, Babb Dixon Cemetery, cistern, community history, eastern red cedar, english exploration and settlement, fencing, fish farming, historic vernacular landscape, maritime history, military history, Ocracoke Island, Portsmouth Methodist Church, Portsmouth Village, recreation, residence, rural cemeteries, septic tank, shingle style, social history, transportation, vernacular architecture