DATE: Sunday, September 7, 1997             TAG: 9709060091

SECTION: HOME & GARDEN           PAGE: G1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  218 lines

COTTAGE CHARM

ON THE WIDE, wooden porch that wraps around his Nags Head cottage, Lloyd Horton's grandfather hosted dances. Music from an old Victrola sifted through the salt air. Bare feet rough with sand wore the hand-hewn timbers smooth.

``You can see the spot where they did the most dancing. It pretty much erased the lines between the tongue-and-groove flooring here,'' Horton said, scuffing his sandal across the boards. ``This house has 10-foot wide porches. Most of the others are only 8 feet. No wonder all the neighbors came over.''

Today, friends stop by for cocktails on Horton's shady porch. Children loll in hammocks beneath the weathered rafters. But no one does much outdoor dancing any more.

Nags Head has changed since Horton's grandfather carried his whole family across the sound, by boat, to spend summers on the Outer Banks more than 80 years ago. Upscale developments have sprung from the once-barren sand dunes. And restaurants, souvenir shops and hotels have replaced the acres of open islands.

Along a two-mile stretch of beachfront just north of Jockey's Ridge State Park, however, the skyline looks similar to how it was when Horton's grandfather bought the family's first vacation home in 1908.

About a dozen houses built between 1860 and 1940 flank the flattened dunes. This is Nags Head's historic cottage row, featuring the oldest original beach homes on the Outer Banks.

On Tuesday, eight of them will open their wooden screened doors for tours.

The Outer Banks' oldest church, St. Andrews by the Sea, also will welcome tourists. A general store that operated on the beach road for more than 40 years will be displaying treasures the original owner's daughter picked up along the shore. The current owners hope to turn it into a beachcombers museum. Refreshments will be served inside First Colony Inn, a restored resort that has housed visitors since 1931.

``People on this tour will be able to see how the first summer families of Nags Head lived,'' said Peter Rascoe, a historic cottage owner who is organizing the one-day event. ``These homeowners were vacation pioneers. They were the first folks to move from the soundside of the Outer Banks to the ocean.''

Sponsored by the Historic Preservation Foundation of North Carolina, the tour takes place from 2 to 5:30 p.m. Proceeds will help the private, non-profit organization purchase historically significant properties - and resell them to people willing to restore and preserve the buildings.

``Some of the cottages on this tour look just as they did during the turn-of-the-century,'' Rascoe said. ``Others, their original owners wouldn't recognize. We want to create an awareness among the public of how historic these unique structures really are.

``These homes are a symbol of the Outer Banks - and they've influenced much of the area's architecture throughout the ages.''

According to forms filed with the National Register of Historic Places, the Nags Head Beach Cottage Row Historic District is ``one of the few areas of late 19th-century to early 20th-century resort development along the Eastern Seaboard that retains essentially its original character. To the north, south and west of the district is typical 20th-century beach development. But the character that survives within the district boundaries makes this row of beach cottages significant.''

Shuttered and shingled, their thick piling legs perched in the sand, some of the houses have been moved away from the sea four times. They have about three football fields of sand between their back doors and the waves. But the ocean is evident in the cottages' architecture - and interior.

Porches are the most distinctive feature on most of the historic seaside homes. Encircling three or four sides of the houses, wide and usually covered with sloping, shingled roofs, they provide a place for people to congregate, out of the sun, to enjoy the sea air. Built-in benches along the sides and corners seem to lean out - and invite neighbors in.

``The porches are one of the things we enjoy most about this place,'' said Horton's wife, Carolyn. ``The inside is really nothing to get excited about. But we don't spend much of our time indoors here.''

Most of the homes have one or two stories and rough-textured wooden walls and roofs. They have three or four bedrooms. The average living space is between 1,200 and 2,000 square feet.

Windows wrap around the houses - full-width, single dormers. Wooden storm shutters - many painted moss green - allow quick close-ups. But on sunny days, they're propped open on painted posts, welcoming the light and air.

The older houses were constructed with outdoor kitchens, so the modified indoor kitchen often occupies the breezeway. Open, high-ceilinged - with lots of counter space - they include wells for long-forgotten rain barrels, usually next to aluminum sinks. Along one wall of Horton's kitchen, the ceiling slopes down sharply. That whole side of the room was a pantry when he was a boy - big enough to store provisions for the entire summer.

Servants' quarters were between the kitchens and the main homes. They've become extra guest rooms for modern travelers. There, as throughout the rest of the house, floors are left bare to make sweeping sand easier.

When these beach cottages were built, most had outhouses. Modern owners have added indoor bathrooms. But at Horton's house - and several others - there is still no indoor shower, only the open-air one on the front porch.

``It gets pretty chilly out there by October,'' said Horton, whose family lives in St. Petersburg, Fla., but spends each August at their Nags Head home. ``We've thought of adding an indoor shower. But this is all we really need. When the place is full, though, - sleeps 16 - there can be quite a line for this shower.''

The Hortons also go without air-conditioning, a dishwasher and television at their summer cottage. They've only had a phone at their Nags Head escape for 10 years. The home is much the same as it was when Horton's mother danced on the deck as a child.

``All this furniture is ancient. It's been in the family forever,'' Horton said. ``My grandfather made this dining room drop-leaf table, the sideboard and corner cupboard all from a single pine tree that fell on his Plymouth farm during a storm.''

Gray Clark bought his historic cottage 20 years ago. He just added air-conditioning this summer. And he's kept much of the original wooden furniture - rough, but befitting the beachy atmosphere - and able to withstand the damp, salty air.

``This place is more comfortable than it is historic. None of us are trying to be fancy,'' Clark said. ``We don't worry about wet bathing suits hanging on the furniture, or tracking sand into the living room. We try to keep Nags Head a very relaxed and happy place.''

Some of the cottage owners seemed worried that tour-takers would be disappointed in the way the cottage dwellers live at the beach - and the laid-back decors they've adopted (and inherited) to accommodate vacation lifestyles.

``There's no sub-flooring in these places because the cottages were built to be moved back or blown away,'' Horton said. ``The fireplace is cracked from the last time we slid the house. The wood on the rafters looks furry because a century of salt spray has accumulated on the beams.''

The Nixon Cottage, which Horton owns, was built in 1866. Originally, it had only one story and four rooms. But Horton's grandfather added an upstairs and enlarged the first floor.

Walls along the stairway are board and batten planking, painted a thick white. Some boards run horizontally, others vertically, with no apparent order. Bare bulbs hang from the ceiling beside thin cotton twine switch pulls. In a back bedroom, one leg of an old wooden bed is propped on a brick.

``The bed's fine. The floor's not,'' Horton laughed. ``Settled uneven, maybe during a move.''

Horton said his is the third oldest oceanfront cottage on the Outer Banks.

``Some folks might think these old houses are dilapidated,'' he said. ``But I think most people will appreciate them for their charm - and all the antiquity they embody.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

DREW C. WILSON/ The Virginian-Pilot

The Fred Wood Cottage, left, is one of eight cottages in Nags Head's

historic cottage row that will be open for tours Tuesday. Like many,

it was built by S.J. Twine

Carolyn Horton plays with Caleb Underwood in the comfort of a

hammock strung between posts on the porch of the Nixon Cottage.

Photo

DREW WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot

The Fred Wood Cottage, built by S.J. Twine, is one of eight that

will be on the Nags Head cottage tour Tuesday.

Graphics

TAKING THE TOUR

What: A walking tour around and through eight historic old Nags

Head homes, an Episcopal church originally constructed in 1915, a

restored 1931 inn and an old general store that's been turned into a

beach combing museum.

Where: Nags Head, N.C. between mileposts 11 and 13 on the beach

road.

When: Tuesday, Sept. 9, from 2 until 5:30 p.m.

Cost: $25 per person; $40 per family; children 12 and under are

free

Call: (919) 482-7455

WHAT YOU'LL SEE

St. Andrews By-the-Sea Episcopal Church

In 1915, this church was built near the sound. Its congregation

moved the building to the seaside in 1937. Its vernacular Gothic

Revival style has been adapted to fit the beach.

Windemere

Well-known Nags Head builder S.J. Twine, who constructed many of

the cottages along the historic row, finished this one-story home

in the 1930s.

Fred Wood Cottage

Also built by Twine, this two-story house has two gable-end

chimneys and a covered porch surrounding all four sides.

Pruden-Battle-Clark Cottage

This 1915 home is square and has two stories. The upstairs

windows are irregularly spaced and shaded with hinged wooden

shutters. The encircling porch features the built-in benches

popular in historic Nags Head architecture.

Whedbee Cottage

Built just after the Civil War, this two-story frame home was

finished in 1866.

Nixon Cottage

The area's third-oldest oceanfront house, this cottage was built

in 1866 as a single-story structure. A second floor was added in the

1920s, and the lower level was expanded.

Badham-Kittrell Cottage

S.J. Twine built this house, too, in 1928. There's a one-story

L-shaped wing extending from the back of the home. A second story

perches over the primary living area.

Miss Mattie Midgett's Store

This general store sat on the soundside of the Outer Banks,

behind Jockey's Ridge, in 1914. But its owners slid it to the

seaside in 1933. Miss Mattie ran it for more than 40 years,

supplying vacationers with groceries, mail and the area's only

telephone. Thousands of artifacts that Miss Mattie's daughter,

Nellie Myrtle Pridgen, found in the sand, from shells and fossils to

plastic pails, will be on display for the first time. Pridgen's

family hopes to be able to establish a permanent museum to house her

collection.

Martha Wood Cottage

Some say this is the oldest Nags Head oceanfront cottage. It was

built at least as early as the 1870s, maybe earlier. It's a

two-story, single-pile structure with two projecting dormers on the

beach side. It has a small, rear L-shapped addition, hinged wooden

awning shutters and a covered porch encircling the cottage with

lean-out benches.

Walker Cottage

Located on the Roanoke Sound, near Jockey's Ridge State Park,

this house was built in 1932. It is located where Nags Head's

original resort was built and is the only structure on this tour

that's not near the ocean. Participants are permitted to drive to

this property. The rest of the sites are within walking distance of

one another.

First Colony Inn

Built in 1931, this historic hotel was called LeRoy's Seaside

Inn. It was moved to its current location in 1988 and has been

renovated. It's the last old-style Nags Head hotel that's still open

to guests, with traditional wrap-around porch.

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