4/21/18: It is Saturday, and Beaufort begins their Saturday Farmer’s Market summer season today. YAY! This makes sense to me – it seems like Farmer’s Market time of year. I still haven’t really adjusted to our little Phillipi Farmer’s Market near our home in Florida. Its season runs during the winter: October to May. I guess that’s what we get for living where the whole year’s weather is awesome except for the summer when it’s too hot to even have a farmer’s market! So, we got up, had some coffee, then headed to the market and for a walk about town. Here was our welcome sign: Welcome to Historic Beaufort, established 1709. I didn’t find any history on this church, but it was pretty!
The market was set up at the Courthouse, which is quite an impressive building. But it’s fairly new for this town – built in 1907 – only 111 years old.
The market was colorful and full of life. There were lots of vendors; some with seafood, some with produce, lots with art and crafts.
I saw this statue erected in 1926, honoring the Confederate heros of Carteret county. I hear about various places removing any public display of the Confederacy history, but it is in the very threads of history here.
There weren’t as many food vendors as we thought there might be at the market, so we walked to town and had a nice latte at a coffee shop on the boardwalk. Yum! We haven’t had lattes for a long time.
We sat and watched the waterway and people for a little while. Several boats were here last night, but apparently have moved on. The docks look pretty empty!
Then we went for a photo safari around town. Beaufort is the third oldest town in North Carolina, settled in 1709 by the British. The town was laid out in 1713, and the streets were named just as they are today. I read that there is some influence from the Bahamas in the architecture, as it was a sea port for all sorts of seafarers. One of the funnest facts relates to the white picket fences that are not straight across at the top. This may have a connection to an early law that stated that pigs must be kept in the yard. Any pig found outside the fence could be slaughtered by the finder – although one half must be given to the church to help feed the hungry. Here is an example of a Beaufort pig fence.
The Ann Street Methodist Church from 1854, with stained glass windows from 1898. There are several references in town recognizing Queen Anne of England.
This is the Purvis Chapel, from 1820. It is the oldest Beaufort church in continuous use.
We walked way to the east of town to Hammock Lane, and found the Hammock House. It is on a slight hill and was used as a navigation point on early maps. It is the oldest house in Beaufort -1709. Legend says that even the Pirate Blackbeard stayed here.
Some houses have been updated with vinyl siding…. and this one was probably fun for the installers. Check out how NOT level the bottom of the windows are with the siding.
This home was so narrow at the street, but went back quite a ways. Nice porches with adornment. We have noticed that nearly every house has at least one porch, and they ALL have rocking chairs. Seriously! Beaufort has the quintessential rocking chairs on porches that you might picture when you think of houses in the south! And people really do sit on them and greet you as you walk by. Such a friendly town and way of life!
This is the Allen Davis home, built in 1774, was used by Union Army General Burnside as his headquarters during the Union occupation of Beaufort in 1862 during the Civil War.
This house was just beautiful. I didn’t check the history on it, but we both loved the look. We were surprised that it has a wood shake roof! The home and gardens were so neat and clean. It faced the water, so I’m sure it belonged to a wealthier family.
The Gibble House dates back to during the Revolutionary War in 1772. It really reminds me of homes we saw in the Bahamas. The big porch with West Indies style roof. This helped shade the front of the house to help with cross ventilation.
The Rumley house was originally built using wooden pegs instead of nails. Seriously?! 240 years ago. So cool! Let’s hear it for the awesome wood constructed homes that have withstood storms, hurricanes, fires, multiple wars, and modernization.
We saw these bikes for rent at a little place down on the waterfront. For those of you who remember Simon & Garfunkel…. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, & Thyme were the bike names.
I owed Kenny a beer after all this walking, so we found the Backstreet Pub. It was a neat old brick and wood structure. It had a huge outdoor patio, but the inside was pretty tiny. It really felt like a place that has existed for 200 years! It had a lot of character. The bar was old wood, and walls were old brick.
And this was pretty much all there was inside! It was a fun little place. Captain had some kind of a beer – from California, I think. I had a really good pear cider from Sweden called Rekorderlig. So this wasn’t a local brewery, but it had lots of local character.
We did try a brewery at the far end of town, called Mill Whistle Brewing. They only had beer. They had some good ones on their menu, but they didn’t have them on tap today. Captain tried one, wasn’t very impressed, then we moved on.
Later in the day, we found a Rhum bar in town. We had to go through the Stillwater Restaurant from the street side, and the bar was on the outside overlooking the water and boardwalk. It felt like we were trying to find a speakeasy! It was so cute! They had wooden benches and chairs with cushions and umbrellas all set up for relaxing and just hanging out. We each had a Painkiller and shared a plate of squiddlydiddly (calamari). Very nice way to end our day exploring Beaufort!
Kenny checked his iphone exercise app, and it said we walked over 5 miles today. The town is seriously not that big! But we walked ALL over the place…. twice. Wow! That’s a lot of walkabout! We headed back to the boat, and chef Kenny fired up the Q and grilled us a nice steak for dinner. We really enjoyed Beaufort!
Here’s one more house, just because it was so pretty. Their pig fence is a little different, but still a pig fence.
