In Beaufort, North Carolina, the historic Carteret County coastal town with many of the charms of Charleston, stands a quirky old house famous for both its history and mystery. Named for the rise of land where it sits, surrounded by thick palmettos and live oaks, the Hammock House property once extended down a grassy slope to Taylors Creek and Beaufort Inlet, the access from the Atlantic Ocean to Beauforts deep water harbor. The house is one of the earliest known structures in a town whose rich heritage includes Indians, Spaniards, Frenchmen, the English, the Scots and waves of colonists who persevered to settle North Carolinas lovely but often treacherous coastal areas.
The town of Beaufort was established in 1713 and named in honor of Lords Proprietor Henry Somerset, Duke of Beaufort. But Beauforts story is much older than that, tracing its beginnings to the site of an ancient Indian fishing village. The Spanish were the first Europeans to explore the area in the early 1500s. They were followed by French explorer Jean Ribaut, who named the region and its deep-water harbor Port Royal, but left after a brief experiment in settlement. The Americas were claimed by England under Elizabeth I in 1584 with the settlement of Roanoke Island, later to be known as the Lost Colony. Under Charles I, settlement had expanded and opened the way for Charles II, in 1663, to deed the territory to his friends the Lords Proprietors. Efforts to explore and occupy the Port Royal region followed, with the English and Covenanter Scots leading the way, followed by an adventurous mix of West Indies planters, English merchants and entrepreneurs, and scores of indentured servants. All endured incursions by the Indians, often incited to attack by the Spanish and French, and frequent visits by pirates, including the infamous Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard. Artifacts retrieved from the waters of Beaufort Inlet are consistent with items historians believe would have been found on Blackbeards flagship, the Queen Annes Revenge, which was lost in that location in 1718.
The haunted house
Nestled away on a shady street a block from Beauforts picturesque Front Street, the Hammock House is a pretty white frame house with a Caribbean green door. It has two pedimented dormers, nine-over-nine windows and two stuccoed chimneys. But its most remarkable feature is a set of double porches that speak of cool breezes and creek views. White wicker furniture and rockers invite the visitor to sit awhile and enjoy the serenity of this happy house and its island setting.
Idyllic, yes, but for many years the Hammock House was referred to as the haunted house, or Blackbeards house, and it was thought to have been a tavern and inn frequented by pirates and other rowdy guests. Tales abounded of ghosts and the buried skeletons of soldiers and, of course, hidden treasure. The stories are part of the romance of this old house and of the swashbuckling history of Beaufort itself.
Thought to have been built around 1709 for Farnival Green, a plantation owner who was named to the Provincial Assembly that same year, the Hammock House had had 33 owners and was being sold by an old Beaufort family when Chapel Hill residents Gilles and Betty Cloutier purchased it in 1995. Both ardent preservationists, the couple comes by their love of old houses from growing up in historic places. Gilles is a native of Montreal, Canada, and Betty grew up in Winnsboro, South Carolina, a town she says has much the same feel as historic Hillsborough, North Carolina. Their search for an old house led them to Beaufort in the early 1990s. They bought a small 1950s cottage to use as a base to explore Beaufort. We wanted a second home for us and our two teenage children to enjoy, not a beach house, says Betty, who was thrilled when friend and Beaufort resident Candy Rogers told them about the Hammock House. When we saw it, she says, we knew we would have to renovate it to suit our familys needs but not remake it. They were already supporters of the Beaufort Historical Association (BHA) and turned to them for recommendations of craftsmen knowledgeable about old houses. The group introduced the couple to Rob Cullen, a preservation carpenter who at the time was working on the 1796 Carteret County Court House, a project for which Cullen and the BHA won a national award from the American Association of State and Local History, and two state awards.
Cullen examined the Hammock House for the Cloutier couple and reported that the house was in pretty good shape. It had been re-plumbed and rewired by the previous owner, Maurice Davis, a retired engineer and Beaufort native. Not only had Davis been a good steward of the property, he had taken on researching and writing the history of the Hammock House as a retirement project. The manuscript, assembled in 1984, History of the Hammock House and Related Trivia, documents, to the extent possible, each of the houses owners. Davis also addresses the popular local legends that seek to explain the houses original purpose and the reason for its location on a high point at the edge of town on Taylors Creek, near the mouth of Beaufort Inlet.
Davis notes that the house would have been suitable for an inn, or ordinary, because sailors could anchor their ships and row to the house from the inlet. There was a considerable amount of trade conducted with the local Indians and settlers by legitimate merchant ships as well as by privateers and pirates, all of whom used the nearby beaches to careen their ships. Another theory Davis explores says that the house was built by pirates, or a coalition of ship captains, to provide a guide to steer into the inlet. Davis examined the maps and charts of the area and determined that all of them, from the Moseley map of 1733 to the Holland Chart of 1793, show the Hammock House as a landmark for mariners entering the harbor. Davis also discusses the prospect of the house having served as a fortification, since local lore has it there was a tunnel from the house to a creek, which formerly ran to the east. Tunnels were fairly common in houses near the water, according to Davis, who actually found a trap door cut in the parlor floor that could lead to a waterway.
Family living in pirates lair
Cullen and the Cloutiers made their own exciting discoveries as they laid down salvaged antique flooring to mend termite damage and planned a discreet rear greenhouse room to accommodate a family sitting and dining area, a laundry and a downstairs bath. After removing the back of the deteriorated shed-roofed porch for the new addition, Cullen uncovered a 30-foot-long beam with axe marks and Roman numerals chiseled at intervals to show where rafters were to be added. This post and beam construction technique is consistent with building technology appropriate to the period of the house and to the region. Cullen found a similar beam as he was enlarging the second-floor bathroom.
Always attentive to Hammock House folklore, Cullen and the Cloutiers were aware that in a 1917 remodeling, human skeletal remains were said to have been found beneath the space that has been renovated as the greenhouse room. Legend has it that three Union soldiers, mustered out of Fort Macon on nearby Atlantic Beach after the attack on Fort Sumter, were directed to lodging at the remote Hammock House. They were never seen again. Betty, who demonstrates excited interest at things old, proudly displays her collection of bone fragments and animal skeletons unearthed from the grounds around the house.
When deciding on the dcor and furnishings for the house, Betty Cloutier wanted an indigenous coastal feeling. A Christmas gift from Gilles was an old heart-pine Eastern North Carolina sugar chest, elegant in its simplicity, that she displays in the dining room beneath a collection of hand-painted antique plates. An Eastern North Carolina farm table is used in the dining room, surrounded by nicely scaled Windsor chairs and set with pieces from Bettys eclectic collection of blue and white Canton ware.
Surprisingly, several family pieces fit well into the Hammock House dcor, including an Up Country South Carolina deacons bench that had been too long for the Cloutiers home in Chapel Hill. One of a pair of benches that once sat on the Winnsboro homes front porch now occupies the space beneath the windows in the dining room. Another family heirloom, a landscape painting of a lush Florida wilderness, found its place over the graceful S-curved mantel in the dining room. Another of the inherited Florida paintings hangs in the living room above a matching S-curved mantel.
The mantels came when I asked Rob to replace the Victorian ones in the living room and dining room with replicas of the traditional S-curved mantel I'd seen in the renovated Bell and Manson houses at the Beaufort Historic Site, says Betty. The tropical colors of the living room painting are reflected in the deep green of a painted wicker chair that sits in front of the living room mantel, pairing well with an elaborately carved English armchair upholstered in green striped cotton. On the mantel are two ceramic parrots and several pieces of art glass in jewel-like tones. Betty says collecting parrots rounds out the pirate theme associated with the Hammock House.
A small room adjacent to the living room is outfitted as a study and holds a James Allen Rose model of the Adventure, the sloop that Blackbeard sailed in coastal waters. The wall of the study holds advertising memorabilia for Sears Weatherbeater paint which used the Hammock House and other historic homes in a 1972 promotion. Two Victorian needlepoint pieces adorn the wall leading to the new greenhouse addition.
The color theme of greens and teal blues are echoed in the coverings and throw pillows on the greenhouse rooms comfortable wicker armchairs. There are more parrot paintings and a pair of ceramic parrots perching gracefully on the informal dining table. But the rooms most striking accents are two stained-glass windows found in the small storage she'd on the rear of the property. One, a memorial window in beautiful opaque greens, yellows and peach, hangs above a parrot-bedecked antique sewing machine.
A trip to the two upper floors brings more opportunities to see playful coastal themed art. The tall walls flanking the narrow stairway and its white painted balustrade display a Craig Gurganus Cape Lookout Lighthouse. And on the wall leading to the third level, an enameled pirate mask, the creation of a notable Montreal artist, holds pride of place.
The third floor is a kneehole room given over entirely to the Cloutiers son Peter. Two pairs of twin beds with brightly colored quilts and floral coverlets blend with a masculine settee and matching armchairs covered in brilliant Caribbean colored stripes. Fishing rods are laid over plastic buckets and a computer is wedged into the dormer niche. The happy disarray of Peters third floor aerie contrasts nicely with daughter Virginies feminine second-level room where hand-appliqud quilts and antique cotton tufted spreads on the twin beds lend just the right touch of coziness. A guest room, usually occupied, is done with striped bed throws in peach and green withwhat else?a parrot mobile. Its hard to visit Gilles and Betty Cloutiers Hammock House and reconcile it with the house described by Maurice Davis as he remembered it from his childhoodstanding outside the settled area of town, unkempt, solitary and stark on a sandspur filled hill.
Betty said, I'm convinced that the spirits that inhabit the house really like having us there and have been very welcoming in every way.
Beaufort Historical Association:
MAKING LIVELY HISTORY
by Diane Lea
The Beaufort Historical Association (BHA), established in 1960, owns and administers the Beaufort Historic Site located on two acres in the 100 block of Turner Street. BHA was originally formed to undertake the preservation of Beauforts older homes and the restoration of the Old Burying Ground on Ann Street. To create an information base for protecting the historic properties, the BHA commissioned preeminent preservationist and architect Dr. Carl Feiss, then director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and his associate, preservation consultant Russell Wright, to conduct a comprehensive survey of the town. The study led to the designation of a Beaufort National Register Historic District and, later to the creation of a local Historic District Commission to oversee alterations to the towns historic structures.
The John C. Manson House (ca. 1825) was the first property donated to the fledgling organization, which now administers and manages a total of 11 restored historic buildings. As it was undergoing repairs in the aftermath of Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd, evidence of original faux painting in the Manson House was discovered, and BHA retained nationally recognized paint conservator George Fore to research the original color scheme and decorative painting. The homes proper historic paint plan is being restored by the firm of Croxson and Ward. In 2004 the project won an award from the American Association of State and Local History.
BHA, which boasts 1700 members from across the country, is now poised to undertake another major project, the implementation of a Master Landscape Plan for the Beaufort Historic Site. Developed by Raleigh-based designer Stephanie Mitchell, the plan will greatly enhance the appearance of the site and incorporate historically accurate plants and gardens to showcase the historic buildings. Under the initial phase of the plan, a herringbone brick walkway, funded by longtime BHA member and supporter Billy Scott, has been installed in front of the John C. Manson House. The Carteret Community Foundation recently awarded the BHA $1150 toward the purchase of appropriate signage for the Site, and new member Sherri Ontjes of Chapel Hill has contributed the funds to purchase and plant two live oak trees.
In addition to the John C. Manson House, the Beaufort Historic Site includes the Josiah Bell House (ca. 1825), Samuel Leffers Cottage (ca. 1778), the R. Rustell House (ca. 1732), Carteret County Jail (ca. 1829), Carteret County Courthouse (ca. 1796), a completely equipped Apothecary Shop, and the 1831 Fuller House, which serves as the BHA Headquarters. The Historic Site is open daily for tours, as well as during the Old Homes Tour and Antiques Show WeekendJune 24-26, when many private homes and gardens are open to the public. (See Coastal Preview in this issue and Coastal News in the May issue for more on the Old Homes Tour and Antiques Show.)