Morehead City Historic District

Morehead City's historic core is a grid of blocks laid out in 1857 around the terminus of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad, with a central thoroughfare and H-shaped alleys behind 50-by-100-foot lots. The district holds frame houses of the late 1850s through the early 1950s, most built between about 1900 and 1930. Notable examples include the Elijah M. Dudley House, built about 1857 at 810 Fisher Street, and the Headen-Norris House, built in 1905 at 806 Arendell Street. Two houses on Fisher Street built about 1915 illustrate the 'Morehead Special' cottage, a local variation of the pyramidal-roof type. The 1930 Charles S. Wallace Graded School, a brick Neoclassical Revival building, anchors the west half of the district, along with several churches. The district's development was tied to the railroad, to resort hotels such as the Atlantic Hotel in Beaufort, and to the fishing and canning industries that employed many residents.