Home
Reservations
Our History
Our Rooms
The Inn Today
The Island Inn Villas
The Island
Comment & Feedback |
click on pictures to enlarge
|
The
historical Inn is a contributing structure in the Ocracoke
District of the National Registry of Historic Places. The
main two-story, gable-front portion is the original building
and was built in 1901 as an Oddfellows Lodge of Ocracoke.
In 1920, the
building was sold and moved across the road where it was
used as a private dwelling. In 1940, Robert Stanley Wahab
purchased the building and converted the first floor into a
coffee shop and rented the second floor to the construction
crew that was building the Naval Base on the island. The
upstairs later became a Naval officers club called "The Old
Crow's Nest".
After
the war, Wahab moved several Navy barracks to the west side
of the building to create a dance hall. Here the residence
square danced to live music by fiddles, banjos, steel
guitars, wash tubs, spoons and anything else that could
create a musical note, all played by local musicians. In
1950, the East Wing was added with a dining room on the
first floor and guest rooms upstairs. The dining room served
as a restaurant in the summer months and a coffee shop
during the winter. The coffee shop had a soda fountain and
ice cream bar in the center and booths on both sides where
teenagers with bobby socks n' pony tails, gathered every
night.
(To view a panoramic picture of Ocracoke, Silver Lake and
the Island Inn c-1915 click on the following link:
. The view is taken from the Lighthouse looking first
due-south then panning across Silver Lake to the west (Left
to Right). |
|
