Wahab Coffee Shop

The building in the photo below is now the center section of the Island Inn. Originally built in 1901 as the Odd Fellows Lodge and Schoolhouse, it was converted to a private residence after a new schoolhouse was built in 1917. About 1940 island native, Stanley Wahab, bought the structure and used it as a popular island gathering place, the Wahab Coffee Shop.

During WWII the upstairs section was made into a Navy Officers Club called the "Crow's Nest."

Photo Courtesy of the Outer Banks History Center

After the war, Stanley moved former Navy barracks to his property, and attached them to the building. He now called his enterprise the Silver Lake Inn.  Some years later Doward Brugh purchased the property and re-named it the Island Inn, as it is still called today. Current owners continue to operate the Inn as a popular destination for Ocracoke visitors.

This building is identified with a red arrow on the USACE 1939 chart that I published on November 11.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a brief history of the Soundfront Inn, one of the oldest structures on the island. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news102113.htm.