Road to the Beach: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Cape Lookout National Seashore

Regions 1, 2, & 4 Park Cultural Landscapes Program

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 Road to the Beach component landscape. The component landscape contains the Road to the Beach which travels from the Portsmouth Life-Saving Station to the south/southeast. Other circulation features includes an access road to two seamen’s graves, the 1940s airstrip, and a road to access the airstrip from the Road to the Beach. In addition to the resources associated with the Portsmouth Life-Saving Station, the component landscape includes a U.S. marine hospital brick cistern, large septic leach field, the graves of two seamen, and modern NPS additions including equipment storage buildings, comfort station, and a boneyard. 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.

Road to the Beach: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Cape Lookout National Seashore

Series

See also