Whalehead Sunset And Grass_01

Title

Whalehead Sunset And Grass_01

Artist

Greg Reed

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

Whalehead in Historic Corolla History

As popular as the Outer Banks are today, specifically the northern regions of Corolla and Duck, it's hard to believe that less than a century ago, the area was all but deserted, and populated with just a small handful or residents and employees of the lifesaving station and the Currituck Beach lighthouse.

That remoteness was changed, albeit gradually, with the discovery of the area by a handful or wealthy and adventurous vacationers who were on the trail for exceptional wildfowl and small game hunting. The northern regions of the Outer Banks proved exceptional hunting grounds for geese, ducks, and a number of other migratory waterfowl, and the information was spread around the wealthy 1920s circles leading to a minor but gradual popularity of the otherwise deserted area. (In other words, there's a reason why the town of Duck is named "Duck.")



One such future resident who caught wind of this information was Edward Collings Knight, Jr., a devout waterfowl hunter and nature lover, as well as a wealthy industrialist, who fell in love with the area and purchased a 4.5 mile section of the northern Outer Banks, called the Lighthouse Hunt Club. Newly married, he brought his wife Marie Louise Lebel Bonat Knight to the area for their honeymoon, and the couple began to lay out their plans for the modern day Whalehead in Historic Corolla. The pair had lavish residences in both Philadelphia and Middletown, Rhode Island, and they envisioned their new winter home to be a mirror of these properties in both size and amenities.

The Knights spent the majority of the mid-20s building their dream home, with architectural features that paid homage to Pennsylvania farmhouse and French-Canadian country, but which most modern visitors recognize as the 1920s style of Art Nouveau. Structurally, the majority of materials had to be shipped in to Corolla to complete the 21,000 square foot structure, which included five chimneys and was easily the largest residence that the northern Outer Banks had ever seen.

Despite its grand size, the true achievements in design were arguably the little details, and the new home featured curved rooflines, ornamental chimneys, striking paint colors, Tiffany lighting, distinctive porches, and all the little touches that made it distinctively unique to its era. Even today, the Whalehead in Historic Corolla is considered one of the best standing representations of Art Nouveau ornamentation in the country, making it a must-stop for Great Gatsby lovers everywhere.

The end result was a decadent home that the Knights were tremendously proud of, and for a few years, they lived the beach life in style with miles of privately owned beaches that spanned from the ocean to the Currituck Sound, with no other neighbors except for a small community of villagers.



In fact, the Knights were even the first residents to have electricity and running water on the northern portion of the island, with a special diesel motor and 2,200-gallon pumping system that provided them with these amenities almost four decades before mainstream electricity came to the rest of the northern Outer Banks.

Unfortunately, the Knights did not enjoy their carefully built home for long, and both passed away in 1936. After their death, the Whalehead in Historic Corolla served a number of purposes that were well outside of the realm of luxury that the Knights originally intended.

In the early 1940s during World War II, the Whalehead in Historic Corolla served as a residence and bunker for the US Coast Guard, the new branch of military service that had replaced the life saving service, which had formerly guarded the North Carolina coastline.

After the war, and after a property ownership change, the property was leased to an educator who created the Corolla School for Boys, which essentially was a summer boarding school for relatively wealthy students that focused on education and outdoor recreation, and remained in operation until 1962.

At this juncture, the school closed, and the property was leased again, this time to the US Government that was entangled with the growing cold war between the United States and Russia. The site essentially became a rocket fuel test site, under the management of the Atlantic Research Corporation of Alexandria, Virginia, and was eventually purchased by said company in 1964 due to the property's secure and off-the-map location. The venture eventually led to the successful development of large booster rockets, which proved to be instrumental additions to the nation's growing space program.



The property was sold in 1969, however, so the company could find a new remote locale, and in the years that followed the area developed and more sections of that original 4.5 mile tract were sold off to interested investors and developers. The recent additions of electricity, running water and paved roads, coupled with the northern Outer Banks close proximity to the already popular vacation destinations of Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills, made the area very popular with new community investors. As a result, for a time, the Whalehead in Historic Corolla was in danger of being completely sold off, with nothing left of the original Knight parcel of property.

Luckily, in 1992, Currituck County was able to purchase the property, and secure public sound access as well as one of the region's greatest treasures. By 1994, the county was able to acquire 39 acres which included the original residence, the lighthouse, and acres of waterfront property. Renovations to the house began In 1999 to make it a focal point of the new park, and by 2002, the restoration was complete, and the Whalehead in Historic Corolla was back to its original grandeur.

Source: https://www.outerbanks.com/the-whalehead-club.html

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March 21st, 2022

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