Roanoke River Lighthouse restored as an onshore dwelling

Shortly after Emmett Hofler Wiggins planted his 1886 Roanoke River Lighthouse firmly on his land near Filberts Creek west of Edenton in 1955, he began repairs to “fix nearly 15 years’ worth of neglect.” 

The Roanoke River Lighthouse had been decommissioned in 1941, its lamp extinguished forever. The structure was in pretty bad shape when Wiggins was gifted the deed to the lighthouse by a friend. 

Anchored in the Albemarle Sound at Batchelor’s Bay, the lighthouse had been abandoned. It was just “sitting out there” near the mouth of the Roanoke River – uncared for and unloved.

 

Wiggins, an experienced waterman and a savvy engineer, miraculously salvaged the structure and floated it to Chowan County. 

It meant a lot to the folks in Edenton, the seat of government in Chowan County, that Wiggins rescued the historic lighthouse. He was hailed as a local hero by the citizenry for saving the structure from drowning in the sound. 

Wiggins made the lighthouse building his permanent residence. 

Wiggins was 73 years old when reporter Jason Peters of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, dropped by the Wiggins place for a visit in 1995. 

Peters wrote: “Out of place and forlorn,” an 1886 former lighthouse with “a long-blind eye now broods over a backwater of Edenton's waterfront.” 

“The old wooden structure is a home now, not a beacon, and dwelling within the former lighthouse keeper’s quarters is a Renaissance sailor who would surely feel comfortable in several other centuries besides this one,” Peters said. 

“Emmett Wiggins has spent a long life looking for whatever…seemed interesting.” He’s worked as an aviator, a deep-sea diver, a tugboat captain…and more. 

Peters said that hiding in the deep grass of the Wiggins yard is “a silvery 1946 Luscombe seaplane that he used to fly to scout logging sites in the gloomy backwaters off the Albemarle Sound.” 

Frank Habit, a real estate developer, said: “Emmett was a fine pilot, but you were never sure what would happen next. One time he took me to see somebody he knew in Greenville, and he splashed down on the Tar River in front of the guy’s house…like everybody came to call that way.” 

Peters noted: “Now, Wiggins has churned up a complicated discussion about moving his lighthouse, home and all, to Plymouth, where a local historical society wants to install it on the Roanoke riverfront grounds of the Port o’ Plymouth Roanoke River Museum.” 

“I want Plymouth to have the lighthouse,” Wiggins told Patricia Jane Monte, curator of the museum, “but I want to put it on a barge or an old ferryboat so we can move it around, up and down the coast, as a display of marine history.” 

That could be a costly logistical nightmare, Monte explained, adding that “we want it moved over to the Plymouth waterfront, and we have no objections if you keep on living in the house below the lighthouse,” she said. 

Monte’s position was: “The lighthouse will always be associated with Plymouth and the Roanoke River. This structure was built because of Plymouth.” 

She was right. The original lighthouse guided ship captains into the mouth of the Roanoke and up to the port at Plymouth. 

Wiggins was ready and willing to transfer the lighthouse ownership to the museum in Plymouth, but he died later in 1995, before he could sign off on the deal. 

Hence, the plot thickens. Which community would win a potential tug-of-war to possess the prized Roanoke River Lighthouse – Edenton or Plymouth? 

 

Dual lighthouses are part of the Albemarle Sound ‘charm’ 

Each community is a winner in the effort to preserve the heritage and culture of the historic Roanoke River Lighthouses. Plural is correct.

 

In May 2007, the Edenton Historical Commission purchased the 1886 lighthouse and had it moved to Colonial Park at Edenton’s downtown waterfront area. After an extensive restoration effort, the lighthouse opened to the public in August 2014.

Plymouth in Washington County has an exact replica of the original 1866 Roanoke River Lighthouse…and Edenton in Chowan County has the restored 1886 version of lighthouse. 

Dr. Kraig Anderson of Lighthousefriends.com said that Wiggins’ heirs wanted much more money for the property than the museum could afford. 

Community leaders in Plymouth decided they could build their own lighthouse for much less money than “the new asking price” for the Wiggins lighthouse, according to Dr. Anderson. 

So, that’s exactly what they did – but they selected plans from the original 1866 Roanoke River Lighthouse to construct their replica. The original structure was one-and-a-half story, cottage-style lighthouse.

 

It was twice destroyed, once by fire in 1885 and again in January 1886 when ice floes on the sound crashed into the lighthouse base, toppling the lighthouse into the drink. 

The 1886 version of the lighthouse reflected a new design with two stories. The light was housed in a tower rising from a corner of the building, rather than mounted at the center of the roof. 

Dr. Anderson said it was “rather brilliant” for the people in Plymouth to choose the original design and not duplicate the 1886 version that was over in Edenton.

 

A site was selected in a grassy field along the Roanoke River in Plymouth. Dr. Anderson said: “Much of the project’s cost in 2001 was covered by $515,000 in federal funding.” The replica opened to the public in 2003. 

Harry Thompson, the museum curator, commented: “Lighthouse enthusiasts rival Civil War enthusiasts in their passion.” He envisioned Plymouth as “the first stop on a tour of North Carolina lighthouses,” Dr. Anderson added. 

Meanwhile, the Edenton Historical Commission came up with the funds to purchase Wiggins’ lighthouse in 2007. In 2009, the State of North Carolina provided $1.2 million for the restoration of the 1886 lighthouse and its relocation to the town harbor. The refurbished lighthouse opened to the public in 2014. 

The “lighthouse siblings,” as such, are regional tourism assets that could be connected through a public-private ferry service operation known as the Harbor Towns Project. 

The idea is to run passenger ferries between the river harbor towns along the Albemarle River, beginning with Plymouth and Edenton. Other ferry stops could include Hertford in Perquimans County, Elizabeth City in Pasquotank County and Columbia in Tyrrell County. 

The state has budgeted $5 million to launch the initiative this summer with three vessels. One would accommodate 50-100 passengers and offer dinner cruises and sightseeing tours. Two speedy 30-passenger “excursion boats” would complete the fleet. 

Harbor Towns project will not be an affiliate of the N.C. Department of Transportation Ferry Division. 

Dr. Nick Didow, adjunct associate professor of marketing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is assisting with the formation of Harbor Towns Inc., a nonprofit organization to manage the ferry service and coordinate with the participating towns and counties.