THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994 TAG: 9406030275
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
DATELINE: 940605 LENGTH: Long
Close up, the gate posts explain away their unusual presence. Each pillar is embedded with a smooth marble name plaque on which is carved simply the name of the property owner, Currituck Gunning and Fishing Club.
{REST} Then, the gate posts don't seem so out of character. Instead they recall an era early in the century when Back Bay and Currituck Sound, the back waters of southern Virginia Beach and North Carolina's Outer Banks, were known far and wide for their fabulous duck hunting.
The straight-as-an-arrow, dirt driveway leads past a couple of farmhouses and almost into Currituck Sound before the hunt club looms into view. The huge, two-story shingled house, built in 1905, is situated on a beautiful piece of high ground overlooking the sound.
The lush green lawn is sprinkled with giant pine trees that look about as big as pine trees can get. A pair of ospreys are raising young in the top of one of the trees and their high-pitched calls are background music to all that goes on this time of year.
Cedars down by the water are growing bent toward the southwest having been hammered for years by strong northeast winds that blow off the sound in winter. An ancient, shingled boat house in good repair adds to the picturesque scene.
For many years now hunting on Back Bay has been in decline, but the story is different on Currituck Sound. Although many Virginia Beach hunt clubs have been torn down for development or are being used for other purposes, duck hunting is still a viable sport in the healthy, green marshes of the sound, said hunting guide Joe Lewark.
`` This is one of the two best marshes left in coastal Carolina,'' Lewark said. ``We still do really well, mostly marsh ducks like mallards, pintails, widgeon and teal.''
Lewark is the caretaker and hunting guide for the Currituck Sound Club, one of the oldest continuously operating hunt clubs in the area. His grandfather, Thomas Waterfield, guided at the club for 30 years back in the early part of the century.
An original wooden Back Bay sharpie, a traditional duck hunting boat that could be push-poled out to the marshes before the days of motors, still is tied in the boat house. In use today for pleasure, the boat was surely used for business by Lewark's grandfather.
Altogether the club is comprised of six acres of land on Knotts Island, 135 acres across the sound on North Carolina's Outer Banks and 1,400 acres of marsh in between. The Swan Island Hunt Club, also a working club, owns property adjacent to the Currituck club.
In hunting season today, as they have for many years, club members generally arrive for three-day stays. They bunk down in the seven bedrooms only for short sleeps, awaking before dawn to feast on huge breakfasts cooked up at 5 a.m. by Lewark's wife Carol. Today hunters head out to the marsh before sunrise in metal John boats tied up by the sharpie in the boat house.
After hunting all day, they return to the club where they warm up in the living room which has not one but two fire places kept blazing hot for their return. Lewark stokes the fires at 3 a.m. when he arrives for work.
The hunters keep their guns and hunting gear in the same gun room used by their forefathers more than 75 years ago. Carol Lewark serves them up old-fashioned, ham, turkey or duck din ners from an old-fashioned kitchen and butler's pantry which still have their orig inal glass-fronted cabinets.
Although they can't go up on the roof anymore to the spot where folks used to keep a lookout for poachers, they can go through the log books that have been kept since the club's beginning. Detailed re cords of who went hunting and what they shot are available for almost every year since 1890 when the club began.
At that time, the club was on the Outer Banks side of the sound. Chartered by a group of Norfolk businessmen in 1890, it was first known as the Martin's Point Gun Club Inc., and then as the Currituck Sound Shooting Club. Almost a decade later, the club was washed away in a violent storm.
After the storm, another group of businessmen purchased the land and wisely chose to build the present club house on the Knotts Island side, renaming it the Currituck Gunning and Fishing Club. Although much has changed over the years, much is still the same, too.
For example, the old windmill that used to pump water for the house still stands though it's no longer needed. The house even has air conditioning and heating but the big old wood shed is still maintained out back. The shed with the Delco battery that provided power until the 1940s is still there also.
The property has changed hands several times since 1905 and now it is owned by a group of Northern Virginia businessmen who have put it on the market again. Carol Webb of Long and Foster is the agent. The asking price is $2.3 million dollars. So if you're interested in buying a hunt club, contact her at 428-4600.
P.S. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 15 YEARS, purple martins did not return to Martin Harrell's yard in Alanton this spring. Harrell wants to know why and wonders if anyone else has had a similar problem?
CANADA GEESE ARE THRIVING all over the Beach this year. The handsome birds also have been seen with goslings on Lake Joyce and at Kings Creek on the Elizabeth River, according to readers' messages.
A NEW ART EXHIBIT, THREE AT SEA, by Tidewater artists Bettie Cheek, Pat Daley and David Freyss opened last week at the Life-Saving Museum of Virginia, 24th Street and Atlantic Avenue. The exhibit will be on display through June 30. Call 422-1587.
by CNB