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Manteo/Roanoke
Island
The last of the old beach-style hotels along the Outer Banks, the First Colony is an anomaly. Its location is the farthest south in the United States for a shingle-style building in the coastal vernacular style. "It’s actually a northern New England-type Victorian building, a pretty weird animal around here," according to Camille Lawrence, the woman responsible for its survival today. The structure was built in 1932 as a 60-room, two-bath inn on the oceanfront near Jockey’s Ridge. A developer had it slated for demolition in 1988 when Camille, her husband Richard and their four grown offspring stepped in. Camille tells a gripping tale of a long Memorial Day holiday weekend of maneuvers as this far-flung family of architects, preservationists and entrepreneurs resolved to stave off the wreckers. A special Planning Board meeting allowed the Lawrences to move the structure against the utility company’s wishes. After the inn was cut into three sections and loaded on trucks, it was moved nearly four miles down the road to family-owned land between the main highway and the coastal road. Here they reconfigured the three-story structure into 26 spacious guestrooms, rebuilt two floors of wraparound porches and completed a meticulous rehab that placed the structure on the National Register. Three years later, appropriately on Memorial Day weekend, the Lawrences opened. Guestrooms vary in size, view and bed configuration. Each is furnished with English antiques and reproductions. A tiled bath with English toiletries and a heated towel rack are standard. So are television, telephone and a refrigerator. Our rear-corner room on the third floor was extra-large, with a view of the ocean. It came with a kingsize fishnet canopy bed, a day bed, a wet bar with a microwave, two armchairs in the dormer, a writing desk and good marine art on the walls. And, thank goodness, the windows opened to let in the sea air. The bathroom, though lacking one of the inn’s several jacuzzis, was sumptuous, from the shaving mirror to the oversize towels. The second-floor veranda that wraps around the inn is great for relaxing. So is a handsome second-floor sitting room/library with old beams, fireplace, a pump organ, games and considerable memorabilia regarding the inn’s history and its move. Iced tea, wine, crackers and cheese are offered here in the afternoon. In the morning, guests gather for a substantial continental breakfast in a snug dining room with fresh flowers in a cream pitcher on each linened table. Sideboards at either end hold juices, pastries and fresh fruit, along with the day’s special: broccoli and bacon quiche one morning, cheese strata the next. A large outdoor pool lies in the rear dunes just beyond the main-floor veranda. A private boardwalk leads past some rental cottages owned by the Lawrences across the road to the ocean beach. (252) 441-2343 or (800) 368-9390. Fax (252) 441-9234. (252) 441-2343 or (800) 368-9390. Fax (252) 441-9234. For more information: www.firstcolonyinn.com Twenty-six rooms with private baths. Memorial Day to Labor Day: doubles, $219 to $299 weekends, $159 to $279 midweek. Rest of year: $69 to $219. Two-night minimum stay weekends most of year, three-night minimum on holidays. No smoking.
Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places in the Southeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2000. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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