Hamilton Historic District

Hamilton is a small town on the Roanoke River in northern Martin County, incorporated in 1804 on a site laid out from 140 acres bought from David Clark in 1802 and divided into about 120 half-acre lots. Its economy rested on shipping farm produce downriver to Albemarle Sound and importing goods, and the town's prosperity rose and fell with those trade cycles. The town's houses, stores and churches built during the 1840s to 1860s and in the late nineteenth century show Greek Revival, Carpenter Gothic and Queen Anne styles, executed by local builders whose names are unknown. The Waldo-Darden Hotel, a temple-form Greek Revival building with Ionic-type porch posts, is the most prominent example. Because the town changed relatively little after its major building periods, it preserves an unusually complete picture of a Coastal Plain river community.