Bath Historic District

Bath is a small rural community on a flat point of land between Bath Creek and Back Creek in Beaufort County, North Carolina. Incorporated in 1705, it was laid out, probably by John Lawson, as a triangular village of seventy-one lots with a wide waterfront main street meant for business. Bath became a port of entry in 1715 and served as the colony's principal mart until 1730. The colonial assembly met there in 1744 and 1752, and several early governors and officials lived nearby. Three eighteenth-century buildings survive: St. Thomas Church, begun in 1734 and the oldest church building in continuous use in the state; the Palmer-Marsh House, a two-story brick townhouse of about 1750; and the Van Der Veer House. Nineteenth-century houses such as the Williams (Glebe) and Bonner houses line the quiet, tree-lined streets, which have few modern intrusions. The town declined after Washington became a port and the courthouse moved there in 1785.