Thursday, September 14, 2017

Portsmouth

In April, 1753, a bill "appointing and laying out a Town on Core Banks, near Ocacock [Ocracoke] Inlet, in Carteret County" passed in the North Carolina colonial assembly.

"The town, Portsmouth Village, was established as a transfer and storage site for goods passing through Ocracoke Inlet. A fifty acre plot of land was divided into half acre lots. The town was named after Portsmouth, England."

Frances A. Eubanks Photo from
Friends of Portsmouth Island website

















The above two paragraphs come from a National Park Service web page documenting the history of Portsmouth Village. From artifacts indicating that the North Carolina coast was inhabited as early as 3,800 years ago, to the restoration of the Henry Pigott house in 2012, the web page documents the historic timeline of Portsmouth Village. 

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a brief history of Howard's Pub. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news082117.htm.  

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:25 AM

    Did the NC colonial Assembly have a hand with the platting and laying out of OI? Portsmouth looks as if it were a new housing development before people bought the lot and started to landscape, plant gardens, dig a pool put up privacy fences, leave toys and swing sets in the yard, have clothes lines, cars up on cinder blocks, overgrown shrubs, etc. It is a moment frozen in time of a lala land ( I did not see the movie)

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    1. In 1715 the NC Colonial Assembly passed an act to settle pilots on Ocracoke. Land was set aside in the Springer's Point area for the pilots. I don't think any mention was made of swimming pools.

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