Village of Portsmouth has a population of 0…

But it’s not a “ghost town” insists David Frum. He spent many years as the historic preservationist and caretaker at Portsmouth, employed by Cape Lookout National Seashore. 

“No one lives there now, but I feel like there’s a strong presence, something of a closeness to the spirit of the past,” Frum said. “You get the sense that important things happened here.” 

“It’s one of those places that gets in your heart,” he said. “It has a draw on you. If you spend time there, it grips ahold of you.”

 

Frum was interviewed by Molly Harrison of Nags Head, a freelance journalist, for an article published a few years ago in Our State magazine. 

She wrote that the village is silent, “but it has not been forgotten. It may look empty, but it doesn’t feel that way. It feels as if the old villagers will be right back in a minute.” 

“People who have family ties to Portsmouth will tell you they fiercely love the island,” Harrison said. They “laugh about the impracticality of feeling most drawn to the place that’s the least comfortable and the hardest to reach.” 

It was 50 years ago – in 1971 – when the last two permanent residents of Portsmouth threw in the towel and left their homes to move off the island. They were Elma Dixon and her niece, Marian Gray Babb.

 The last male resident of Portsmouth, Henry Pigott, had died earlier that year, so the women’s last remaining family member decided “it was time” to reel them in from the isolated island and move to Beaufort. 

A U.S. National Park Service (NPS) document reported that Henry Pigott’s ancestors came to Portsmouth as slaves. After their emancipation, Henry’s grandmother, Rosa Abbot, became the provider of medical care to the islanders – as a midwife, medic and nurse. 

Of her seven grandchildren, only Henry and Lizzie chose to remain in Portsmouth. 

Lizzie was the village barber and oystered in between “appointments.” She played the accordion, sang like a lark, was the best baker of bread and grew the island’s loveliest flowers. 

Henry distributed the mail. He would “pole out” to meet the mailboat, running up Core Sound from the village of Atlantic in Carteret County, to transfer mail and passengers.

 

The NPS said: “A reporter from New York City once came to Portsmouth to write an article about the village. She was given a tour of the village and was later introduced to Henry.” 

“The reporter began to criticize the island lifestyle, telling Henry that he was crazy to live among the mosquitoes with no electricity and no running water.” 

“Pigott replied that he had been to New York City and seen all the modern innovations. Then he paused and added, ‘And I’m not sure which one of us is crazy.’” 

Today, Portsmouth is preserved and frozen in time. Now fully contained within the boundaries of Cape Lookout National Seashore, the property became part of the NPS in 1976. The 20 or so structures within the village whisper a welcome to all visitors who choose to listen…and take a walk back in time. 

Visitors are advised to take along “everything” you will need…especially bug spray. 

It’s hard to believe that Portsmouth was once a thriving maritime port. But it was.

 

In fact, Portsmouth was North Carolina’s first successful “planned community,” authorized in 1753 by an act of the colonial assembly. Portsmouth was the first town on the Outer Banks…and the largest.