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There is a unique history that accompanies the story of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores. In the South, we consider ourselves storytellers and I would like to tell you the story.
At the beginning, the Town of Pine Knoll Shores was all maritime forest and dunes filled with yaupons, oaks, holly trees and mistletoe. You could only drive so far down the island and from there on you were walking. My mother would take my brothers and my sisters and I as far as we could go and then we would enter the trees and gather holly branches and mistletoe. Afterwards, we would prune the branches and separate the mistletoe to make them ready for delivery to all our friends. Pine Knoll Shores represents a wonderful memory of my childhood and the closeness we once shared as a family.
To most people, the start of Pine Knoll Shores began with a woman known as Alice Hoffman, who was considered quite eccentric. The story of Alice reveals her original intention to be as self-sufficient as possible. She was known to truck in goats, cows and pigs in attempts to attain that self-sufficiency. Apparently, she was successful in some areas and not in others.
In 1918, Alice had purchased substantial acreage when the island was known as "Isle of the Pines." It is now known as Bogue Banks and I believe we lost some of our local color with the change. She lived here until her death in 1953 when she deeded the acreage to her niece, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr and her four children.
The Roosevelts developed an interest in laying out the Town of Pine Knoll Shores and they had the means to do it their way. After hiring a nationally known management company and a prominent local engineering firm, they set about realizing their vision. They planned the Town layout as well as a long range plan that allowed for one phase of development to end and another to begin. They drew up covenants to protect the growth of the town. The vision was for the Town to emphasize residential development, not commercial and that vision remains in the community today.
The island always supported boating and fishing and that continued with the development of bulkheaded canals to eliminate erosion from the soundside of the island. The Roosevelts accepted the cost of bulkheading the property they still owned, while the individual property owners assumed the cost for the work done to their properties.
1982 began a time of tremendous growth in the area. McGinnis Point was developed on 25 acres. Annexation of 65 acres of what is now the Trinity Center and also annexation of properties now known as Ocean Glen and Ocean Bay began. This established the 4.75 miles dimension of the often changing width of only 1/2 mile and an overall area of only 2.3 square miles, This made the entire Town just over 1400 acres.
In 1984, the development plans moved to the western boundaries for a project of 180 acres from soundside to oceanside project to be known as Beacons Reach. This marvelously developed area included residential and condo complexes with pools, tennis courts, hiking and biking trails and a marina with a snack bar. The entire Beacons Reach area has individual home owners associations for each complex and for the single family residents although it is managed by one entity of board members from each of the associations known as the Master Association.
The development of Beacons Reach and the adjoining 300 acres of the Roosevelt Natural Area comprise a large portion of the Town. With this sizeable portion of the Town involved, naturally environmental concerns were dealt with. One of the finest projects allowed in the Town was the North Carolina Aquarium which recently underwent a massive improvement project.
Eventually property for government facilities were necessary. One of the buildings from Mrs Hoffman's original property was donated by the Roosevelts to house Town Hall.
The environment was always on the agenda during the development of Pine Knoll Shores. When you enter the Town, all the homes and condos tend to slip behind a maritime forest barrier. There is none of the massive development seen elsewhere on the island. The project known as Beacons Reach has all the properties tucked behind a maritime forest as you drive down the only road that intersects the Town from east to west. The care taken with the original landscape design of 1982 is still in place and should be seen by all.
The Town of Pine Knoll Shores and it's individual projects originally thought out by the Roosevelts has melded together to present an area enjoyed by all who have had the pleasure of living or vacationing here.
Carol Piner
Many portions of this article were borrowed from "The Story of Pine Knoll Shores," a pamphlet available at Town Hall. Call our office at 800-624-8978 and we will be pleased to send you one.
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