THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 24, 1997 TAG: 9701240690
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: 75 lines
In 1888, a tornado ripped through South Mills, tearing roofs off houses, uprooting trees and demolishing barns. It even ``killed a cat but not the dog,'' according to one chronicler.
Through photographs, relics and the words of eyewitnesses, Museum of the Albemarle visitors will be able to learn about that disaster and others throughout northeastern North Carolina in an exhibit that opens Saturday.
``Disasters, although not denoted in history like the great wars and battles, remind us of our ties to the Earth and each other like nothing else,'' said Don Pendergraft, exhibit curator for the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City.
``They remind us we aren't all-powerful creations. We are part of the whole. We are not the whole,'' he said.
The region is fortunate, Pendergraft said, because, despite all of the great disasters here, only the hurricane of 1899 took several lives.
``Most people think that's the worst storm to ever hit our area,'' he said.
That storm grounded nine ships and sunk 12 others. Several crews went down with their ships.
The exhibit of the 1899 storm includes the nameboard of the ship Priscilla, which wrecked on the shoals Aug. 18. Rasmus Midgett, a surfman with the Gull Shoal Lifesaving Station, single-handedly rescued 10 members of the crew and received the Gold Lifesaving Medal of Honor.
Longtime residents of Elizabeth City measure recent history by whether it occurred before or after the Carolina Building fire.
That building, erected in 1912 at the Hinton Building, took up an entire block on Elizabeth City's Main Street and was at one time the largest office building in the state.
A janitor smelled smoke early on the morning of March 1, 1967, and reported it. Fire inspectors could not find the source because the fire ignited within the walls. Flames later broke through, and a wind carried the fire swiftly across the building and destroyed it.
``People who are not from here do not realize what a booming town Elizabeth City was,'' said Pendergraft. ``This town rivaled Norfolk in the 1920s and '30s. The Carolina Building was a major loss because of its historical value.''
Other museum exhibits include the August 1995 blimp hangar fire in Weeksville, the 1978 Winslow Oil Field fire in Hertford, 1962 Ash Wednsday storm and the Cheapside fire in Edenton.
Cheapside was a city block of wood buildings used by marine merchants. The Broad Street businesses were a replica of London's Cheapside district and were as old as historic Williamsburg.
The entire district, which was just down the street from the still-standing Cupola House, burned in 1893.
Photos by Aycock Brown document the destruction of the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962.
The winter storm, called a nor'easter, flooded the Outer Banks and joined the ocean on the east to the sound on the west. In between, beach homes floated from their foundations and broke apart into piles of rubble. Miraculously, no one died.
``A lot of people there thought of others before they thought of themselves,'' said Pendergraft. ``I've never been anywhere where people are so aware of disaster. People here always seem to know what needs to be done.''
The museum hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free. For more information, call 335-1453. ILLUSTRATION: Photo courtesy of Fred Fearing
A Museum of the Albemarle exhibit documents area disasters,
including the 1967 burning of Elizabeth City's Carolina Building.
Photo courtesy of The Outer Banks History Center
The Atlantic Ocean met the Albemarle Sound, washing away homes in
between, during the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962.
Photo courtesy of Charles Skinner Jr.
The 1978 Winslow Oil Fields fire in Hertford is one of several
disasters covered in the exhibit that opens Saturday.