{"nrhp_refnum":"97001496","name":"Bald Head Creek Boathouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Smith Island, mouth of Cape Fear R","address_restricted":false,"city":"Smith Island","county":"Brunswick County","state":"NC","lat":33.86149719700006,"lon":-77.98612233999995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1997-12-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Maritime History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story, side-gabled frame boathouse on wooden pilings along Bald Head Creek on Smith Island, Brunswick County, North Carolina, believed to have been built about 1915 for the United States Lighthouse Service.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is an extremely rare early twentieth-century structure tied to the maritime history of the Cape Fear region. It served as a landing and transfer point for supplies and people bound for the Cape Fear Lighthouse keepers' cottages and the Coast Guard station. It also recalls the isolated life of lighthouse keepers and lifesavers on the island.","narrative":"Standing in the salt marshes of Bald Head Creek on Smith Island, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, this small wooden boathouse dates to about 1915. The United States Lighthouse Service is believed to have built it as a landing and transfer point for supplies headed to the east end of the island, roughly a mile and a half away. It is a plain, single-craft, gable-roofed frame building on wooden pilings, with a west-facing boat entrance wide enough for masted sloops. Original boat lifting machinery remains inside. The creek has since shifted south, leaving the building slightly north of the water. The boathouse served the Cape Fear Lighthouse keepers' families and the nearby Coast Guard station, and it survived the lighthouse's demolition in 1958. It is listed for its link to the maritime history of the Cape Fear region and as a rare reminder of the island's early twentieth-century outpost life. Weather has caused deterioration, and repairs are planned.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1915-1937","architect_builder":"U.S. Lighthouse Service","architectural_style":"OTHER: frame boathouse","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Listed function is vacant/not in use. The owner, a development company, plans to shore up the deteriorated structure by replacing beams, pilings and the cedar shingle roof. It is not open to the public.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:49.89948-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/11/7191/47719111/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/97001496.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97001496/11e12e8da3-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97001496/11e12e8da3-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Rhgibbs","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bald_Head_Creek_Boat_House.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Rhgibbs</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bald_Head_Creek_Boat_House.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719111","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_Head_Creek_Boathouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17985720"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/brunswick-county/bald-head-creek-boathouse-97001496/"}