Historic Etheridge Home on Roanoke Island to become a park in 2009
Published April 2, 2008 by Sabrina GordonA man named Adam Dough Etheridge built a home out of pit-sawn timbers sometime after 1845 but before the Civil War. The house was two stories high with four main rooms, a fireplace made of English brick and two porch chambers. The house was so nice for it’s day that Etheridge called it his “mansion house” even though the house had no interior walls, only white-washed weatherboards.All the things a farmer would need went up around the house, a kitchen, a livestock barn, a corn crib, a dairy, a privy and a smokehouse. A cabin went up where five slaves with a little boy lived.
On his 420-acre farm Etheridge grew peas, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes and corn. He also raised sheep, pigs and cattle. Etheridge lived with his family on the farm until his death in 1868 when he was 55. The Etheridge farm went from one generation to the next over the years and for some time it was a rental property and was sold to someone outside of the family.
The surrounding buildings on the farm disappeared and the surrounding farmland was bought and developed. Roanoke Island lost all it’s isolation and became a tourist destination and still the Etheridge home survived.
Manteo Mayor John Wilson and three of his cousins all who are descendants of Etheridge, donated the house and half an acre to the Outer Banks Conservationists in the 1980’s. Recently plans for a small visitors center and an 18-space parking lot at the corner of the property have been approved by The Dare County Board of Commissioners.
The outbuildings are back. The half acre has now grown to 11 acres. The group bought surrounding land a little bit at a time. Reconstruction and restoration began in 2001. The two-room slave cabin and kitchen were reconstructed as authentically as possible. Inside the house the modern kitchen and bathroom are gone and the porches are back.
Big looms are in the upstairs rooms and a local weaver turns sheep’s wool into garments. The sheep are kept out front of the house and when the park opens they will stay, and other livestock will join them. The family cemetery is nearby with generations of Etheridges including a sheriff, a state legislator, a life saver, and a witness to the first powered flight and also Adam Dough Etheridge himself. The park will open be open to public in the summer of 2009.
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