A Rare Peak Into a Lightkeeper’s House
By Sue Clark on Feb 26, 2008 in Featured 
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Twenty People Look Inside Currituck’s House
Although Currituck Lighthouse is open for climbing, the keepers’ house has been shuttered to visitors since it was restored in the 1980s. Last week, the site manager opened the house to twenty visitors for a rare tour through the big house, which sits only fifty feet from the tower. According to a story in the the Virginian Pilot, many more people had to be turned away. Over 100,000 climb the tower each year, but most can only see the house from the top, as in the picture to the left.
A few other people have been inside over the years, but only by special invitation or appointment. Because the rooms are small, there are no hallways, and limited staff and funds to maintain the house, the doors are usually closed. Meghan Agresto, site manager, plans another tour soon because of this pent up demand. But she’s not saying when.
Tales From the House
One of the visitors last week was a woman who used to play in the then vacant house years ago. It was her first time back inside since those days in the early 1950s. “We called it a spook house,” she said in the story. “It’s a treat to get to go in it now.”
But it wasn’t always a treat, at least for the lightkeepers that lived there. The head lighthouse keeper and his family lived on the south side, while the two assistant keepers and their families lived on the north side. At times, thirty people were crammed together in the house. Eventually, the Lighthouse Service built the smaller one away from the main house and moved the Head Keeper to there. And not a moment too soon, in at least one case.
Keepers didn’t always get along. Horatio Heath, an assistant keeper in the 1870s and 1880s, was accused by the head keeper of poisoning the other assistant’s dog. Heath denied the charge and asked for a transfer but was asked to remain by a supervisor because he “knew him to be peaceable.” He stayed.
A keeper from 1891 to 1924, William Riley Austin, made his grandson, O.S. Austin, trim the grass with a pocket knife between walkway bricks. Above one of the upstairs doors, two Austin family boys wrote their initials and last names on the wall on May 15, 1914. When the walls were repainted during restoration, the penciled names were left uncovered.
In the 1970s, John Wilson, the former mayor of Manteo and great-grandson of lighthouse keeper Homer Treadwell Austin, set his sights on the deteriorating house. It was considered a hazard and slated to be destroyed. Wilson got permission to restore the state-owned structure, created the Outer Banks Conservationists, raised money, and opened the lighthouse for tours in 1990.
The Currituck Controversy
Earlier this month, Lighthouse News featured a story about the long running feud between the Outer Banks Conservationists and Congreeman Walter B. Jones. In a nutshell, the struggle over ownership of the light between Currituck County and the Outer Banks Conservationists went on for over a decade before finally being laid to rest. At issue was a false pride of ownership, with Jones wanting the property to be part of the Whalehead Club, pictured below.
The controversy was settled, with both groups forming a coalition with three other groups, and will be working together instead of at odds with each other. With the tentative plans to reopen the house for occasional tours, this bodes well for the future of the Corolla Coalition.
Photo Credits:
- God’s Eye View by Elementality. Some rights reserved.
- Currituck Lighthouse and Whalehead Club by D. M. Amundsen. Some rights reserved.
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