Homes for the Holidays
Please join Ocracoke Preservation Society on Saturday, December 6th for this fun holiday tradition. OPS is highlighting some of Ocracoke's wonderfully preserved buildings in the National Historic District. This year's tour features eight historic structures starting at the Island Inn, heading down Lighthouse Road, and around Creek Road to the Castle B and B. (You may also start at the Castle and go around to the Island Inn!) The houses will be decked out in their holiday best, and will be open to view from 3 – 5 pm.
We'll keep you posted with a final list of participating historic homes as the day draws nigh.
Purchase or reserve your tickets for this event at the OPS Museum in person, or by calling 252-928-7375. Ticket prices are $15 for non-members and $12 for OPS members.
The homeowners are graciously opening their doors for Homes Tour participants. There’ll be refreshments, too! Ticket sales will benefit Ocracoke Preservation Society. OPS needs volunteers to help with decorating, hosting, and clean-up. If you can lend a hand, please call Amy at the Museum.
To get you excited about what you'll get to see on the tour, here's an article I wrote in 2007, when Paula and Michael Schramel (owners of the Flying Melon Restaurant) won the annual OPS Historic Preservation Award. They still live in and love the house, and are excited to show it off during the Historic Homes Tour.
Historic Renovation on Lighthouse Road (originally published in The Ocracoker in 2007.)
Since 1989, Ocracoke Preservation Society has presented an annual Historic Preservation Award at their fall membership meeting. The award recognizes a home or building in the Ocracoke National Historic District that has been maintained, restored, or rehabilitated to preserve the architectural features that make it a contributing structure to the historic district.
During the November 7th OPS meeting, Historic District Committee chair Philip Howard presented the 2007 Historic Preservation Award to Paula and Michael Schramel in honor of their painstaking work on renovating the James Henry Garrish home on Lighthouse Road.
Paula Schramel humbly accepted the bronze plaque for her house with a laugh. “It’s almost done,” she said.
The Schramels have been working on renovations since the spring of 2005, and their love for the house shows in every detail. They have both preserved its historic character and made accommodations for modern living.
The Schramels’ house is a classic, one-story, hip-roofed cottage with a wrap-around porch. It still has its original weatherboarding on the exterior and original beadboard paneling on the interior. The house was built for James Henry Garrish (1877-1947) in 1905, and served as a home and then a rental cottage until the Schramels bought it in 2000. Schramel operated her antique shop, The Blue Door, in the house, but closed it when renovations began. Now the former shop is home to Paula and Michael, their daughter Maddie, and son Nat.
“I just love this house,” she said. “I plan to live here for the rest of my life.”
Following the historic renovation guidelines provided by the state, the Schramels saved as much of the original house as possible. That was easy, Schramel said, because the house was in such great shape. It needed a new foundation and a new roof, but the walls and floors in between were still sound. The house was raised and given new footers and piers, which look like traditional brick piers, but are actually made of concrete with a red brick façade.
Creatively mixing the old and new has been an important part of the renovation. The porch rails are another good example. After restoring the wrap-around porch to its original 115 ft., Schramel set out to replace the missing spindles in her porch rails. Some of the spindles are original to the house; some came from the dump in Swan Quarter (courtesy of John Fletcher), some from Sally Newell’s house on Hatteras, some from Julie Howard’s yard sale, and some from eBay. A few are new – Schramel purchased those online – but all the spindles along the front of the house are old. The porch floorboards were replaced with more traditional tongue-and-groove boards. Len Skinner carved the pineapple newel posts on the new porch steps. A walkway of salvaged bricks leads up to the porch steps from the front gate, and a picket fence runs the length of the property in front of the house.
The North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office allowed a small addition on the back of the house for a bathroom and laundry room. It was designed so that its rooflines echo and complement the old part of the house.
One of the striking changes they made was replacing the asphalt shingle roof with a standing seam galvanized aluminum roof, which is expected to last fifty years or more. Metal roofs were not as common on older houses as cedar shake roofs, but there were some on Ocracoke, and the Schramels preferred its historical look to modern shingling.
The historic interior of the house has also been preserved. The only sheetrock in the house is on the kitchen ceiling. In the traditional Ocracoke fashion, the drywall seams are covered with strips of wood. The Schramels left the ceiling in place because it represents another era of Ocracoke construction style. When they were renovating the kitchen, they found evidence of a long-ago fire. After the soot was removed, the walls were in good shape.
The home also has two original chimneys and mantelpieces. The rear ell of the house is connected by an enclosed breezeway, which now opens onto a new deck and screened porch. The Schramels have filled their new/old home with antiques and heirlooms, and even the ghost seems pleased.
“It’s supposed to be haunted,” Schramel said. “We’ve heard stories. But if there’s a ghost, he’s a happy one.”
Because the Schramels followed state guidelines for historical preservation, they’re eligible for state tax credits. For more information please visit the North Carolina Historic Preservation Office website at: www.hpo.dcr.state.nc.us
