Documentation Regarding NR-Listed Property Amendment: Mattie Midgette’s Store and House, Dare County NC December 23, 2004 (#04001389) Nags Head, 4008 S. Virginia Dare Trail ~ 35°57′23″N 75°37′28″W Prepared by: Chaz Winkler for Dorothy Hope, Owner 4008 S. Virginia Dare Trail Box Three, Nags Head, NC 27959 Prepared for: North Carolina Historic Preservation Office Archives and History Building, 109 East Jones Street, Raleigh, NC 27601 April 16, 2019
National Register Registration Form Amendment for Mattie Midgette’s Store and House, Nags Head NC
The Twifords: William Otis Twiford, December 25, 1870 - June 24, 1929, was born in Nags Head Woods, as was his wife of 39 years, Penelope Ella Russell, April 28, 1870 - April 12, 1930. William served in the US Lifesaving Service at the Nags Head Station, 1897-1907 and the Kill Devil Hills Station,1909-1914. In Edward Outlaw Jr.'s book “OLD NAGS HEAD”, he states that Malachi Russell, Nellie’s grandfather, was the first man to run a hotel at Nags Head. Nellie became the Nags Head Postmistress in 1902. One of their daughters, Mattie Twiford Midgette, January 23,1897- May 11, 1972, opened a small grocery in the old soundside Nags Head Resort in 1914, leading to her store’s listing in the NRHP in December of 2004. In a 11-24-2004 Virginian Pilot article, pre-eminent Outer Banks historian Davis Stick had this to say about the value of this celebrated site: “Let’s put it this way, I would say next to Jockey’s Ridge and the Wright Brothers Memorial, it is the most historically significant place on the northern Outer Banks. It is an integral part of the Nags Head Historic District.”
William Otis Twiford Penelope Russell Twiford
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1942 photograph of the Twiford Midgette House at present location..
The Twiford Midgette House, Nags Head, NC circa 1890
The Road to discovery… The Midgette House, which was described in a 1993 survey of the property as a “dilapidated” structure, has continued to deteriorate to some degree to this day. It was that slow process of deterioration that revealed framing techniques and old “full dimension” lumber that suggested the structure was older than the oral history available at the time of the original Beth Keane NRHP nomination in 2004. In an effort to pin down the actual date of the structure, interior and exterior photographs of the structure were presented to Moyock NC Restoration carpenter Russell Steele in 2012 for an opinion of the true date of con- struction in. Steele used the photographs to suggest a circa 1880-1910 date for the building, which hat led to the pursuit the true history of Mattie Midgett’s House. Some of the information leading to the actual history of the House includes 1) the framing techniques and timbers used, 2) style of the windows and clapboard siding profile, 3) oral history from family members, longtime Midgette friends and neighbors from the NRHP Nags Head Beach Cottage Row Historic District directly across the street, as well as Manteo and Wanchese. These include multiple direct confirmations from discussions they had with Mattie Midgette’s daughter Nellie Myrtle(2). It also fits the known history of the Twifords, who were married in 1890 and died in 1929 and 1930. Family information received from Mattie’s grand niece, Della Perry, including the date of her great grandparents marriage and their dates of passing, support R. Steele’s “circa” window, and fits in with the house being seen in a 1932 aerial photograph of the Jockey’s Ridge area on the Midgette’s soundside property(below). The photograph is from the USACE Research Pier in Duck. ECU geologist Dr. Stan Riggs discovered them their collection and pointed us in that direction where we saw the house and store on the soundside property for the first time, with the aid of the 1933 plat drawing(below). It is likely that a complete restoration of the house will reveal many more indications that will support our conclusion that the structure is the Willie Otis and Penelope Russell Twiford homestead. (2)
1932 USACE Aerial Photograph of Jockey’s Ridge
Close-up detail of Soundside location photo above showing
Mattie’s Store & House
Mattie’s Store was an 18’x35’ one story structure with no living accomodations. The parcel was 100’x100’, which explains the close proximity of the buildings on the lot. (3)
The Twifords’ 16.7 acre parcel seen center left, in an old Nags Head Woods plat.
The Twifords purchased land for their homestead in Nags Head Woods from Van Buren and Matilda Etheridge. A 1898 hand drawn map shows the Twifords paid $20.00 for the parcel. It included 1/4 of 1/3 of 200 acres or 16.66 acres. The parcel was the original location of what has previously been known as the Mattie Midgette House(now the Twiford - Midgette House, circa 1890).
The hand drawn map seen above is from a recently reprinted book about the old Nags Head Woods community, “Everyone Helped His Neighbor: Memories of Nags Head Woods”. Drawn by a longtime resident of the Woods in 1984, it shows the house would have been located at the south end of that community, making it possible to have been moved to the soundside location of Mattie’s Store. (4)
Located directly adjacent to the present day Charles Portner property in Nags Head Woods, the home was rolled out to a soundside lot Jethro Midgette owned. The 100’x 100’ lot is seen in this 1933 “survey” of existing and proposed lots printed by by Cox & Cox Surveyors Engineers from Elizabeth City, NC. The arrow at center shows the soundside lot, top, and current location on the Beach Road lot at bottom.
The House is believed to have been left to Mattie Midgette by her parents, who died in 1929 and 1930, as all her siblings had their own homes at the time. It is the only remaining home
from the old Nags Head Woods soundside community of early "Banker" families. Close-up of plat above showing the Midgettes’ 100’x100’ lot.
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A Legacy Left Behind... Over the years, the Twifords also amassed a 772 acre ocean to sound tract that included Kill Devil Hill, where the Wright Brothers made their historic flight in 1903. They sold it to New Jersey artist, developer, and visionary Frank Stick in 1926. From David Stick's Real Estate History Of The Outer Banks: “Stick was an ardent conservationist and he wanted to preserve both the natural beauty and the historical treasures of the Outer Banks. He became the driving force behind the creation of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and had a hand in establishing the Wright Brothers National Memorial and Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. Stick and his good friend and partner Allen R Hueth were originally from Asbury Park New Jersey. They first came to the Outer Banks on a hunting trip and fell in love with it. As residents of the booming Jersey Shore they envisioned a time when the little resort community of Nags Head could spread from Kitty Hawk to Hatteras. They soon began buying up Outer Banks real estate. Among their earliest purchases was a 772.26 acre, Ocean-to-bay tract they bought from Willie Otis and Nellie Russell Twiford, of Nags Head. Known as the Twiford tract, it included Kill Devil Hill, the site of the first flights in a heavier than air machine by Wilbur and Orville Wright. In 1916, Twiford had bought a 300 acre parcel from fellow Kill Devil Hills Lifesaving Service surfman Robert L Wescott. According to Mickey Shortt, a Park Guide at the Wright Brothers Memorial, Wescott owned the land at the time the Wright brothers were using it for their glider trials at the turn of the century and paid Mr. Wescott a small fee to use the land. Almost immediately, Hueth and Stick sold the Twiford tract to Charles Baker and Susan Sutton, also residents of the Jersey Shore, to raise cash for other real estate activities. A condition of the sale was that Baker and Sutton were required to donate Kill Devil Hill to the federal government if ongoing efforts to have a memorial erected were successful. The oceanfront part of this tract extended north for nearly a mile from the Kill Devil Hills Coast Guard Station. The undeveloped back part is now the site of the Kill Devil Hills town hall, beach library, First Flight Schools complex, and the Baum Bay subdivision.” (6)
A Turning Point Stick and Heuth’s purchase of the 772 acre Twiford Tract in 1926 marks the beginning of the modern era of expansion and development of the Outer Banks resort area, nearly 100 years after inland plantation owner Francis Nixon “discovers” Nags Head in 1830 and purchases 200 acres to use as his summer retreat. The two created “Virginia Dare Shores”, which was the first large scale tourist destination development on the Outer Banks. A decade earlier, after their daughter Mattie had opened her grocery in 1914 , the Twifords seemed to under- stand the potential for property values to rise in the area, spending more than a decade cobbling their large tract together. They were among the first of a number of prescient “Bankers” who acted on their vision of a better life for their children and grandchildren by seeing the potential for bringing more opportunity to the local community by putting their large ocean to sound tract in the hands of Frank Stick and Allen Heuth.
Special thanks to: Dr. Stan Riggs, Doug Stover, Scott Power, Reid Thomas, Russell Steel,
Della Perry, Billy Payne, Duck Research Pier, Dare County Register Of Deeds, the OB History Center, and others for assisting us in this research.
Dorothy Hope & Chaz Winkler Outer Banks Beachcomber Museum
4008 S Virginia Dare Trail, Nags Head NC 27959 ~ 252-564-5317
Mattie Midgette, left, and her daughter
Nellie Myrtle at the old Nags Head Woods location of the Twiford Midgette House
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Miscellaneous Documentation
● Boundaries of the original Nags Head Woods location of the Twiford- Midgette House: The northwest corner of the Twiford Tract was fixed from the description of that point in the 1985 deed, seen below. It is shown here in an aerial view of the location taken from the Dare County GIS website. The house is thought to have been situated near the center of the parcel.
Front page of the 1985 Deed of Trust between Nellie Myrtle Pridgen and Ray White, the current owner of the property. Charles Portner said they remember seeing remnants of concrete stairs and foun- dation during childhood visits to property his father purchased in 1951.
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Property description from deed noting the northwest corner of the Twiford Tract.
● 1993 MMS site survey:
● Edward Outlaw Jr.'s book “OLD NAGS HEAD”: https://www.obxconnection.com/outer-banks-forum/forum-thread.aspx?Thread=45214
● "Everyone Helped His Neighbor": Memories of Nags Head Woods
