Catherine Lake Historic District

Catherine Lake is a small community of frame houses, stores and outbuildings on the south shore of a spring-fed pond in the pine woods of Onslow County. Its nineteenth-century character grew from turpentine distilling, which began at the lake around the 1840s under John A. Avirett, Sr. The district's centrepiece is the Avirett house, a T-plan Italianate dwelling of about 1850 with a circular stair, molded plasterwork and original interior colours. Nearby stand the Duffy house of 1896, a large late Victorian dwelling, and the Greek Revival Boggs house of about 1873. Stylish houses were built on the south side of a greensward, with stores on the north side, a pattern that survives in the historic core. The district reflects how distilling, merchandising and residence were combined at a small lakeside settlement.