BOOK 



MARKET 



(1995) and The Nature of North Carolina's 

 Southern Coast (1991), both from UNC 

 Press. 



• Outer Banks Architecture: An 

 Anthology of Outposts, Lodges, 

 and Cottages, by Mirimar McNaughton, 

 John F. Blair, Publisher, Wintson-Salem 

 NC 27103. 114 pages. Paperback, $14.95, 

 ISBN 0-89587-192-0. 



To give readers a sense of people and 

 place, Miramar McNaughton presents the 

 history of the Outer Banks through its 

 architecture. The author shows that 

 necessity influences form, and structures 

 support lifestyles. 



The book highlights structures that 

 have been preserved or restored and remain 

 visible to the public — ranging from simple 

 to lavish and representing a variety of 

 native architectural styles. The lively 

 narrative is full of "behind the scenes" 

 insight that is often humorous and always 

 interesting. 



"Using this book as a guide, it is 

 possible for newcomers and old-timers to 

 peel away the excessive commercial and 

 residential development evident on the 



Outer Banks today and 

 rediscover the barrier 

 islands as they were from 

 the 1800s to the 1950s," 

 McNaughton writes in the 

 introduction. 



Not surprisingly, 

 lighthouses, lighthouse 

 keepers' houses and 

 lifesaving stations are 

 among the oldest structures 

 on the Outer Banks. Less 

 apparent is the fact that the 

 earliest keepers' houses 

 were built from materials 

 left over from the light- 

 house construction. 



Perhaps even more of 

 a surprise is the fact that 

 hunting and shooting clubs 

 appeared on the landscape 

 almost as early as the 

 lighthouses. The Currituck Shooting Club, 

 described as "Spartan," is the oldest active 

 hunt club in North America — 

 its membership dates to 1857. 



Corolla's Whalehead Club 

 is a more lavish retreat. As 

 McNaughton tells the story, it 

 was built in 1925 by Edward 

 Collings Knight Jr. on the site of 

 the much earlier Lighthouse 

 Club. The story goes that Knight 

 wanted to create a new club for 

 his second wife, an accom- 

 plished hunter, who had been 

 denied entry to the local all-male 

 hunt clubs. 



'These retreats started a 

 trend — one that continues 

 today — in which large 

 gatherings of people of means 

 come to the Banks for a limited 

 season of sport and pleasure," 

 she writes. 



Other vacationers came to 

 escape the threat of malaria. 

 These families came from the 

 Albemarle region after the Civil 

 War — planters, their wives and 



children, friends, neighbors, cooks and 

 maids — to establish the first Old Nags 

 Head on the Roanoke Sound. "Nothing of 

 that original colony survives on its original 

 site today," the author says. Gone are the 

 bath house, post office and general store. 

 But some believe that one or two of those 

 cottages may have survived to become part 

 of a second Old Nags Head Cottage Row. 

 Located along the oceanfront, these wood- 

 frame, cedar-shingled homes are now on 

 the National Historic Register. 



McNaughton concludes with a "tour" 

 of Southern Shores, the first planned 

 community on the Outer Banks. After 

 World War H, when lumber was restricted 

 for government use, developer Frank Stick 

 created the "Flat Top" single story, block 

 cottages made of sand mined from local 

 beaches then cast into 42 pound cement 

 blocks. The first, built in 1947, remains 

 today along with a handful of others from 

 that period. 



The book is fun to read and a definite 



24 AUTUMN 2000 



