cape lookout national seashore
Outer banks, North Carolina
Cape Lookout National Seashore, a national park comprised of three barrier islands spanning the southern Outer Banks of North Carolina, has been the site of several JKOA projects. Our long-term collaboration with the park began in 2008. Since then, we have worked extensively at three of the park’s most prominent historic sites, the Light Station, the Coast Guard Station, and Portsmouth Village.
Cape Lookout Light Station
Sentinels guiding centuries of sailors through the dangers of the Graveyard of the Atlantic, lighthouses served a pivotal role in the maritime history of North Carolina. Part of the Cape Lookout National Register Historic District, the 1859 Lighthouse stands with a complement of service buildings including an 1873 keepers’ quarters, a 1917 summer kitchen, and a ca. 1924 oil house. The light station complex is one of the most significant and popular tourist destinations of the Outer Banks.
In 2008, the National Park Service (NPS) closed the lighthouse to the public because of concerns over the structural integrity of its iron staircase. NPS commissioned JKOA to assess options for remediation, prepared as part of an Historic Structure Report (HSR). The expanded HSR provided recommendations for specific repairs and modifications in order to once again allow visitation. Significant problems were uncovered during inspection of the lighthouse, including rusting of the tension ring at the top of the fulcrum, causing cracking of the outer brick walls. Our recommendations, analyses, and cost estimates for a comprehensive repair strategy prompted NPS to change management policies and long range planning. In a later project, JKOA completed an updated Condition Assessment Report (CAR) for the lighthouse.
A third project addressed the 1873 Keepers’ Quarters and its outbuildings. JKOA prepared an HSR and condition assessment and cost estimate, completing the historic documentation of the light station complex.
PROJECT SERVICES
Architecture
Historic preservation
Documentation drawings
Historical research
Condition assessment
Building archaeology and forensics
Materials testing and conservation
Structural engineering
Climate change adaptation
Cost estimating
Cape Lookout Coast Guard Station
Preceded by an 1887 Life-Saving Station, the 1917 Cape Lookout Coast Guard Station building is based on the widely-used “Chatham” station prototype plan. Both the 1887 and 1917 station buildings had full complements of support structures. Remaining on site today are a 1917 galley and mess hall and a 1939 equipment building. These were working buildings, as evidenced by the large number of modifications made by the Coast Guard until the complex was decommissioned in 1984.
JKOA completed an HSR and condition assessment with a cost estimate for the all extant buildings at the Coast Guard Station complex: the 1917 station, 1917 galley/mess hall, and 1939 equipment building.
PROJECT SERVICES
Historic preservation
Documentation drawings
Historic research
Condition assessment
Building archaeology and forensics
Cost estimating
Portsmouth Village
Portsmouth Village was established at Okracoke Inlet in 1753 as an important port for an Atlantic trade route. The community flourished well into the nineteenth century with wharves, docks, warehouses, school, post office, houses and an assortment of outbuildings. The population declined until the last citizens left the island in the 1970s. Twenty-six building complexes remain in the village, which is open to the public and within the Cape Lookout National Register Historic District.
JKOA conducted three project phases at Portsmouth. The first phase included the preparation of HSRs for the Gothic Revival church and three residential complexes, entailing archival searches, interviews, documentation drawings, and physical building investigations.
In the second phase, and with hurricane season rapidly approaching and the expectation of stronger and more frequent storms, JKOA suggested an immediate need to address the structures that had never been documented. The short timeline prompted JKOA to devise an innovative prototype for historic structure documentation involving rapid field investigations combined with photogrammetric documentation drawings. This proved highly effective, and has enormous potential for use in other at-risk areas.
The third phase was design of the park’s new interpretive guides for Portsmouth Village. With no full-time park staff on the island, the interpretive guides serve as the primary source of information for park visitors.
JKOA maintains an active relationship with the local community, and frequently provides advice and assistance with post-hurricane repair work.
PROJECT SERVICES
Historic preservation
Photogrammetry / documentation drawings
Historic research
Condition assessment
Building archaeology and forensics
Cost estimating