Washington, NC History

Sometimes I need to revisit my own genius. Today I checked into the local county hospital to visit renowned historian Spencer Montgomery. He revealed his secret and previously published history of my fair town. I encourage those who wish to take a journey to eastern North Carolina to peruse the following and to find the nearby monuments at their leisure.

History of Washington, NC

Time was when all roads in America led to Washington, North Carolina. Over the years the marquee above the city has proudly proclaimed it to be the Little Switzerland of the South. Charming picturesque homes line the banks of the Pamlico River and gondola captains sing southern spirituals to their passengers as they pole down toward Bath on midnight river cruises. This lovely area, surrounded by majestic mountains and cold, clear running streams, has long been known as the Southern Alpine Region.

Cletis Musketberger remarked, on his July 1999 visit to the area, “I would think I was in my home town of Minsk if it weren’t for the mosquitos and humidity. What a charming town. I will come here now and I will come here often.” Tourists from all over the world echo Musketberger in their praise of the quaint Swiss village known as Little Washington.

The city of Washington, founded in 1907, is named after Swiss explorer, Larry Darnell Washington. Larry D. (as the locals call him) discovered the town’s first emerald mines on his grandfather’s farm near Goose Creek. When news of the “strike” reached Raleigh, scores of settlers came east to find their fortunes at the rear-end of the Great Dismal Swamp. Washington laid out the town in typical Swiss fashion, with larger home lots located on the high bluffs above the Pamlico River, streets created in a circular fashion, and the industrial and commercial areas located on the banks of the ever-flooding river. A town hall, constructed in 1932, featured Italianate architectural details and neo-gothic interior design. The town quickly became the Beaufort County seat and a governmental complex spanning over twenty-seven square miles in the center of town was completed in 1942. This complex, known to local residents as the BeaufCo Pentagon, houses the county sheriff, the jail, courtroom facilities, indoor swimming pool, a complete gymatorium, and semi-pro baseball stadium with bleachers seating 15,000 fans. Soon after the completion of the governmental complex, the federal government moved the Library of Congress to Washington.

The town of Washington’s first industrial enterprise, the Leiberman Wool Sock Factory, employed 7,200 men, women, and children in its heyday. The invention of tube socks led to the decline in production of woolen socks and the factory closed its doors in 1957.

As with any boom town, laying down the rails… the building of the railroad… followed economic expansion. Washington became the central hub for the Dismal-Northern Railroad. Unable to contain the enormous volume of traffic, the railroad CEO, Elbert P. Fitzman, decided to supplement the rails with an international airport. The Pearl Mason Fitzman Memorial Field was constructed in 1948, just as the post-war economic madness reached eastern North Carolina. Unfortunately, the dirigible hanger was destroyed by Hurricane Lamont in 1949.

The 1950s brought prosperity and goodwill to all residents. Although the emerald mines played out by 1953, new visions of economic bliss loomed on the horizon. One major development would soon change the landscape of this once peaceful mining community. Economic advancement came in the form of education. Carlton Littlefield secured funding for the establishment of the Eastern Carolina Stump Grinding Academy. Within two semesters the Academy enrolled over 750 students and expanded its curriculum to include degree programs in: mayonnaise production and quality control; modern methods of smelt preservation; snipe breeding; and tractor tire recycling.

Public schooling, at this time, suffered major setbacks. The school’s location (according to local history Washington and the Pamlico by Ursula Loy and Pauline Worthy) wandered about from place to place, occupying any sort of house which could be had for the least amount of money and generally in a house which was unfit for anything else. As Washington’s finest young men enlisted to fight the Huns, the need for a reasonable educational system diminished. Young women in the town were encouraged to assist their grandmothers in the cultivation of collards and winter cabbage rather than learn to read and write.

Coffee became a scarce commodity in Washington in the early 1960s. The coffee plantations outside the city were totally destroyed by a peat fire which spread from Hyde County across Beaufort County and burned for weeks. Residents rationed coffee (once again, according to Loy and Worthy) so that no one would receive more than a pound of the beverage once every five weeks. Rallying to the cry of “Tea for the Tillerman” local youths ravaged area restaurants, stealing the sweet iced tea pitchers and dumping their contents into the Pamlico River to protest the coffee rationing.

Washington Cultural Events: When the U. S. Supreme Court struck down the Butler Bill as unconstitutional, Washington’s Fundamentalist Founder’s Society declared it would not roll over and “play dead.” For over seventy years, snake handlers, holy rollers, and opponents of the teaching of evolution in public schools meet twice a year on the Washington waterfront to hold a two-day prayer fest. Bob Jones, noted evangelist and major stockholder in the Kool-Aid Corporation, attended the fest in 1947 on his way east from Cleveland, Tennessee.

For years the town held The Kumquat Festival, celebrating during leap year and whenever June had five Sundays. The Festival was the inspiration of Mrs. Richard (Patches) Perriwinkle. The town dressed to the hilt for this affair. Over the years, the Festival became a true international celebration. The influx of Dutch settlers who arrived in Washington following the 1984 Tulip Famine, helped to foster the popularity of this worldly event. From the oldest to the youngest almost everyone in town wore a Dutch costume. Feminine dress consisting of starched white bonnets and aprons worn over billowing flowered skirts and men and boys wore ballooning trousers with colorful vests. Hundreds of pairs of wooden shoes were ordered from The Netherlands and many blistered feet were the result. The Festival was discontinued in 1998 when the Swiss took up arms against the Dutch and killed their leader, Hans van Blinkertoon.

The Washington Summer Festival, 2001, was held in the old Lowe’s Building near the edge of town. Locals are hoping to utilize the soon-to-be closed Heilig-Meyers Store for residual tourist traffic. The Festival, traditionally held on the macadam of Stewart Parkway in the most gawdawful part of summer, the third weekend in July, had to be moved due to the downtown sewers. Next year, 2005, the festival will be held at Thelma Sue Morris’ mama’s trailer, she’s got a big yard there over near Pactolus, just at the Beaufort County line.

More history in a while. We haven’t made it up yet.