Moon Coastal Carolinas Read online

  From Harkers Island, passenger ferries to Cape Lookout Lighthouse and S hackleford Banksinclude Calico Jacks (252/728-3575), Harkers Island Fishing Center (252/728-3907), LocalYokel (252/728-2759), and Island Ferry Adventures at Barbour’s Marina (252/728-6181).

  From Beaufort, passenger ferries include Outer Banks Ferry Service (252/728-4129), which goes to both Shackleford Banks and to Cape Lookout Lighthouse; Island Ferry Adventures (252/728-7555) and Mystery Tours (252/728-7827) run to Shackleford Banks. Morehead City’s passenger-only Waterfront Ferry Service (252/726-7678) goes to Shackleford Banks as well. On-leash pets are generally allowed, but call ahead to confirm for Local Yokel, Island Ferry Adventures, and Waterfront Ferry Service.

  Back on the mainland, a 20-minute free passenger ferry crosses the Neuse River between Cherry Branch (near Cherry Point) and Minesott Beach in Pamlico County every half-hour (vehicles and passengers, pets allowed, 800/339-9156).

  New Bern

  New Bern’s history is understandably a great draw, and that, coupled with its beautiful natural setting at the confluence of the Neuse and Trent Rivers, makes it one of North Carolina’s prime spots for tourism and retirement living. Despite the considerable traffic it draws, it is still a small and enormously pleasant city.

  One all-important note: how to say it. It’s your choice of “NYEW-bern” or “NOO-bern”—and in some folks’ accents it sounds almost like “neighbor”—but never “new-BERN.”

  New Bern is easy to access at the intersection of two major highways. U.S. 17 passes through New Bern going north to south, and U.S. 70 crosses east to west, with Beaufort and Morehead City to the east and Kinston to the west.

  HISTORY

  New Bern was settled in 1710 by a community of Swiss and German colonists. Despite early disasters, New Bern was on its feet again by the mid-18th century, at which time it was home to the colony’s first newspaper and its first chartered academy. It also became North Carolina’s capital in an era symbolized by the splendor of Tryon Palace, one of the most recognizable architectural landmarks in North Carolina.

  SIGHTS

  S Tryon Palace

  Tryon Palace (610 Pollock St., 252/514-4956 or 252/514-4900, www.tryonpalace.org, Mon.-Sat. 9am-5pm, Sun. 1pm-5pm, last tour 4pm, gardens summer Mon.-Sat. 9am-7pm, Sun. 1pm-7pm, shop Mon.-Sat. 9:30am-5:30pm, Sun. 1pm-5:30pm, $20 adults, $10 grades 1-12, gardens and stables only $8 adults, $3 grades 1-12) is a rather remarkable feat of historic re-creation, a from-the-ground-up reconstruction of the 1770 colonial capitol and governor’s mansion. Tryon Palace was a magnificent project the first time around too; Governor William Tryon bucked the preferences of Piedmont Carolinians, and had his and the colonial government’s new home built here on the coastal plain. He hired English architect John Hawks to design the complex, what would become a Georgian house on an estate laid out in the Palladian style. The palace’s first incarnation was a fairly short one. It stood for a scant 25 years before burning down in 1798, and as the by-now state of North Carolina had relocated its governmental operations to Raleigh, there was no need to rebuild the New Bern estate.

  Tryon Palace

  It continued, however, to live on in Carolinians’ imaginations. In the early 20th century, a movement to rebuild Tryon Palace began. By the 1950s, both the funds and, incredibly, John Hawks’ original drawings and plans had been secured, and over a period of seven years the palace was rebuilt. Tryon Palace is open for tours year-round, and it hosts many lectures and living history events throughout the year. One of the best times to visit is during the Christmas season, when not only is the estate beautifully decorated, but they celebrate Jonkonnu, a colonial African American celebration that was once found throughout the Caribbean and Southeastern United States.

  When you visit Tryon Palace, allow yourself plenty of time—a whole afternoon or even a full day. There are several buildings on the property where tours and activities are going on, the gardens are well worth seeing, and the surrounding neighborhood contains some wonderful old houses.

  In 2010, in honor of New Bern’s 300th anniversary, Tryon Palace opened its North Carolina History Center, an enormous new complex along the Trent River next to the Tryon Palace gardens, with galleries, a performance hall, outdoor interpretive areas, and more.

  New Bern Firemen’s Museum

  The New Bern Firemen’s Museum (408 Hancock St., 252/636-4087, www.newbernmuseums.com, Mon.-Sat. 10am-4pm, $5 adults, $2.50 children) is a fun little museum—an idyll for the gearhead with an antiquarian bent. The museum houses a collection of 19th- and early-20th-century fire wagons and trucks, and chronicles the lively and contentious history of firefighting in New Bern. The city was the first in North Carolina, and one of the first in the country, to charter a fire department. After the Civil War, three fire companies operated here, one of which was founded before the war, and one founded during the Yankee occupation. The third was a boys bucket brigade, a sort of training program for junior firefighters. During Reconstruction, every fire was occasion for a competition, as residents would gather around to see which company got to a blaze first—the good old boys (white Southerners) or the carpetbaggers (Northerners who moved south during Reconstruction for economic opportunities).

  Attmore-Oliver House

  The beautiful 1790 Attmore-Oliver House (510 Pollock St., 252/638-8558, www.newbernhistorical.org, call for hours and tour schedule, $4 adults, free for students) is a nice historic house museum, with exhibits about New Bern’s very significant Civil War history. It’s also the headquarters of the New Bern Historical Society.

  Birthplace of Pepsi

  We often think of Coca-Cola as the quintessential Southern drink, but it was here in New Bern that Caleb Bradham, a drugstore owner, put together what he called Brad’s Drink—later Pepsi-Cola. Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company operates a soda fountain and gift shop at the location of Bradham’s pharmacy, called the Birthplace of Pepsi (256 Middle St., 252/636-5898, www.pepsistore.com).

  the Birthplace of Pepsi

  ENTERTAINMENT AND EVENTS

  New Bern’s historic Harvey Mansion has a cozy old-fashioned pub in its cellar, the 1797 Steamer Bar (221 S. Front St., 252/635-3232). As one would gather from its name, the pub serves steamed seafood and other light fare. Captain Ratty’s Seafood Restaurant (202-206 Middle St., 252/633-2088 or 800/633-5292, www.captainrattys.com) also has a bar that’s a popular gathering spot for locals and visitors alike.

  SHOPPING

  New Bern is a great place to shop for antiques. The majority of the shops are on the 220-240 blocks of Middle Street. There are also periodic antiques shows (and even a salvaged antique architectural hardware show) at the New Bern Convention Center. See www.visitnewbern.com for details.

  Tryon Palace is a fun shopping spot for history buffs and home-and-garden fanciers. The historical site’s Museum Shop (Jones House, Eden St. and Pollock St., 252/514-4932, Mon.-Sat. 9:30am-5:30pm, Sun. 1pm-5:30pm) has a nice variety of books about history and architecture as well as handicrafts and children’s toy and games. The Garden Shop (610 Pollock St., 252/514-4932, Mon.-Sat. 10am-5pm, Sun. 1pm-5pm) sells special bulbs and plants, when in season, grown in Tryon Palace’s own greenhouse. Off-season you can still find a nice variety of gardening tools and accessories. A Shop Pass is available at the Museum Shop; this allows you to visit the shops at Tryon Palace without paying the entrance fee.

  SPORTS AND RECREATION

  At New Bern’s Sheraton Marina, Barnacle Bob’s Boat and Jet Ski Rentals (100 Middle St., Dock F, 252/634-4100, www.boatandjetskinewbern.com, daily 9am-7pm) rents one- and two-person Jet Skis ($65 per hour, half-hour $45) and 6- to 8-person pontoon boats ($65 per hour, 4 hours $220, 8 hours $420).

  ACCOMMODATIONS

  The S Aerie Bed and Breakfast (509 Pollock St., 800/849-5553, www.aeriebedandbreakfast.com, $119-169) is the current incarnation of the 1880s Street-Ward residence. Its seven luxurious guest rooms are done up in Victorian furniture and earth-tone fabrics reflecting the house’s earlies
t era. There is a lovely courtyard for guests to enjoy, and the inn is only one short block from Tryon Palace.

  Also on Pollock Street, a few blocks away, are the Harmony House Inn (215 Pollock St., 800/636-3113, www.harmonyhouseinn.com, $99-175), the Howard House Bed and Breakfast (207 Pollock St., 252/514-6709, www.howardhousebnb.com, $89-149), and the Meadows Inn (212 Pollock St., 877/551-1776, www.meadowsinn-nc.com, $106-166). All three are appealing 19th-century houses decorated in the classic bed-and-breakfast style, and within easy walking distance to Tryon Palace and downtown.

  Early Mental Institutions

  Two of the state’s most remarkable museums, both tiny and little-known, are located in Goldsboro and Kinston, about half an hour apart and an easy drive from Raleigh. They both display artifacts from the history of early mental institutions, from Cherry Hospital—formerly the state’s Asylum for the Colored Insane—in Goldsboro, and the Caswell Center, a residential home for the developmentally disabled in Kinston. These museums are not for the faint of heart; amid lists of accomplishments and milestones of medicine are intimations of a tragic past, of suffering on an overwhelming scale and misguided early-20th-century attempts at progressive mental health care. Emblematic of these institutions’ shared past is the fact that each museum has on display a cage, an early solution for controlling unruly patients.

  Cherry Hospital (201 Stevens Mill Rd., Goldsboro, 919/731-3417, www.cherryhospital.org) is still a state-operated inpatient psychiatric hospital, located on the same grim, industrial-looking campus where the first patient was admitted in 1880. It was a segregated hospital, housing only African American patients, until 1965. The strikingly unselfconscious Cherry Museum (Mon.-Fri. 8am-5pm, donation) focuses mainly on the history of the staff and the evolution of medical treatment at the facility, but among the displays one catches fleeting glimpses of what life may have been like here for the early patients. A framed page in one display case lists “Some Supposed Causes of Insanity in the Early Years,” and among them are “religion,” “jealousy,” “hard study,” “business trouble,” “love affair,” “pregnancy,” “masturbation,” “la grippe,” “blow on head,” and, most curious, simply “trouble.” In a time when the definition of insanity was so all-encompassing, and, compounding the terror, African Americans had little or no legal recourse to protect themselves from false charges or incarceration, one can only imagine how many of the “insane” here were in fact healthy, lucid people who had fallen on hard times or committed some infraction of segregation’s etiquette. In the earliest days, “therapy” consisted of work—picking crops in the fields, laboring in the laundry, or making bricks by the ton in the brickyard (which were then sold by the state for a profit). Clearly, such horrors as these are long behind us. They weren’t confined to Cherry Hospital at the time, and certainly don’t occur here today, but the grief of the tens of thousands of people who lived here in the early 1900s hangs heavy in the air.

  To visit Cherry Museum, you must enter the campus of Cherry Hospital on Highway 581, near I-70 and U.S. 117, outside of Goldsboro; you’ll see a sign on I-70. Once on campus, follow the signs to the museum. Once there, you must ring the doorbell and wait to be admitted.

  Down the road in Kinston, about half an hour east, you’ll find the Caswell Center Museum and Visitors Center (2415 W. Vernon Ave., Kinston, 252/208-3780, www.caswellcenter.org, Mon.-Fri. 8am-5pm and by appointment, donation). The Caswell Center admitted its first patients in 1914 as the Caswell School for the Feeble Minded. Like Cherry Hospital, the Caswell Center is still an active inpatient facility, and it is nothing like the bleak place documented in the museum’s displays about the first years here. But this too is an eye-opening education in early attitudes toward mental health care. The Caswell Center’s museum is more blunt in its presentation than the delicate Cherry Museum, confronting directly the sad facts of its history by exhibiting objects like the combination straightjacket-rompers that the earliest patients had to wear, and addressing the Depression-era overcrowding and lack of food. Though the Caswell Center’s patients were all white until the era of integration, they were like the residents of the Asylum for the Colored Insane in that among their ranks were mentally healthy people—unwed mothers, people with physical disabilities, juvenile delinquents—who were crowded into dormitories with the patients who did suffer from mental disabilities. An articulate love letter written from one patient, clearly not disabled, to another hints at the bizarre contradictions of life in an early mental institution.

  Both museums are free, but make a donation to help ensure that their amazing stories will continue to be told.

  Several motels can be found around New Bern as well, including Holiday Inn Express (3455 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 877/863-4780, www.hiexpress.com, from $100), and Hampton Inn (200 Hotel Dr., 252/637-2111, www.hamptoninn.com, from $125).

  Camping

  New Bern’s KOA Campground (1565 B St., 800/562-3341, www.newbernkoa.com, $30) is just on the other side of the Neuse River from town, located right on the riverbank. Choices include 20-, 30-, and 40-amp RV sites; “kamping kabins and lodges”; and tent sites. Pets are allowed, and there is a dog park on-site.

  FOOD

  Down-home food choices include the Country Biscuit Restaurant (809 Broad St., 252/638-5151, Mon.-Tues. 5am-2pm, Wed.-Fri. 5am-2pm and 4pm-9pm, Sat. 5am-9pm, $7-12), which is open for breakfast, and is popular for, not surprisingly, its biscuits. Moore’s Olde Tyme Barbeque (3711 U.S. 17 S./Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 252/638-3937, www.mooresbarbeque.com, Mon.-Sat. 10am-8pm, $6-9) is a family business, in operation (at a series of different locations) since 1945. They roast and smoke their own barbecue in a pit on-site, burning wood that you’ll see piled up by the shop. The menu is short and simple, featuring pork barbecue, chicken, shrimp, fish, hush puppies, fries, and slaw, and their prices are lower than many fast-food joints.

  The Trent River Coffee Company (208 Craven St., 252/514-2030, www.trentrivercoffee.com, Mon.-Fri. 7:30am-5pm, Sat. 8am-5pm, Sun. 10am-5pm) is a casual coffee shop in a cool old downtown storefront, and the coffee is good. It’s sometimes patronized by well-behaved local dogs that lie under the tables patiently while their owners read the newspaper. This is a nice meeting place, and a dark oasis in the summer heat. Port City Java (323 Middle St., 252/633-7900, www.portcityjava.com, Fri.-Sat. 7am-8pm, Sun. 7am-3pm, Mon.-Thurs. 7am-6:30pm) is an international chain, but it started in Wilmington, and has many locations on the North Carolina coast. The punch packed by Port City coffee is reliably good.

  Beaufort and Vicinity

  It’s an oft-cited case of the perversity of Southern speech that Beaufort, North Carolina, receives the French treatment of “eau”—so it’s pronounced “BO-furt”—whereas Beaufort, South Carolina, a rather similar Lowcountry port town south of Charleston, is pronounced “BYEW-furt.”

  The third-oldest town in North Carolina, Beaufort holds its own with its elders, Bath and New Bern, in the prettiness department. The little port was once North Carolina’s window on the world, a rather cosmopolitan place that sometimes received news from London or Barbados sooner than from Raleigh. The streets are crowded with extremely beautiful old houses, many built in a double-porch, steep-roofed style that shows off the early citizenry’s cultural ties to the wider Caribbean and Atlantic world.

  the town of Beaufort

  In the late 1990s a shipwreck was found in Beaufort Inlet that is believed to be that of the Queen Anne’s Revenge, a French slaver captured by the pirate Blackbeard in 1717 to be the flagship of his unsavory fleet. He increased its arsenal to 40 cannons, but it was nevertheless sunk in the summer of 1718. Blackbeard was killed at Ocracoke Inlet a few months later, and it took five musket balls and 40 sword wounds to finish him off. Incredibly cool artifacts from the QAR keep emerging from the waters of the inlet. Beaufort had been a favorite haunt of Blackbeard’s, and you can find out all about him at the North Carolina Maritime Museum.

  SIGHTS

  S North Carolina Maritime Muse
um

  The North Carolina Maritime Museum (315 Front St., 252/728-7317, www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/maritime, Mon.-Fri. 9am-5pm, Sat. 10am-5pm, Sun. 1pm-5pm, free) is among the best museums in the state. Even if you don’t think you’re interested in boatbuilding or maritime history, you’ll get caught up in the exhibits. Historic watercraft, reconstructions, and models of boats are on display, well presented in rich historical and cultural context. There’s also a lot to learn about the state’s fishing history—not only pertaining to the fisheries themselves but also to related occupations, such as the highly complex skill of net-hanging. Far from being limited to the few species caught by today’s fisheries, early North Carolina seafarers also carried on a big business hunting sea turtles, porpoises, and whales.

  Across the street from the museum’s main building, perched on the dock, is the Harvey W. Smith Watercraft Center. For many generations, North Carolina mariners had an international reputation as expert shipbuilders, and even today, some builders continue to construct large seaworthy vessels in their own backyards. This has always been done “by the rack of the eye,” as they say here, which means that the builders use traditional knowledge handed down over the generations rather than modern industrial methods. Their exceptional expertise is beautifully demonstrated by the craft in the museum and by boats still working the waters today.