You Can Help

A famous quote from the 1953 novel The Go-Between by British author L.P.Hartley, “The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there” guides activities of the Pine Knoll Shores History Committee.

Travel back to that country. Investigate the history of our island and our county. Capture the stories of locals. Discover old photographs and paper records. Learn how people and events in local history connect with life and events in the larger world. Then, contribute to our Blog, our archives and our community exhibits.

The History Committee meets monthly, usually on the first Mondays at 10:00AM at the A.C. Hall Municipal Building (town hall) in Pine Knoll Shores. To be certain of date and time, call 252-247-4353 x 10.  You are invited to join us!

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Interested? Read On.

The committee is proud of its visible accomplishments:

• History Website – pineknollhistory.blogspot.com

• PKS History Exhibits

• History exhibit at Bogue Banks Library celebrating the Town’s 40^th Anniversary, June 2013 

• "Beach Town in a Forest" - award winning exhibit at the History Museum of Carteret County, March 2016

• History exhibits for the Town's 50th Anniversary Celebration, Town Hall and Bogue Banks Library, April 2023

• Exhibits of A.C. Hall, Master Planner, Atlantis Lodge, and Town Hall history for the Dedication of the A. C. Hall Municipal Building, September 2024

• Permanent and temporary history displays in town hall lobby and boardroom

• Monthly history articles in The Shoreline

• State TAP Grants to improve preservation of our archives

• 2019 photo wall calendar of town sights and history

• Speaker programs

• PKS Self-Guided History Tour of 28 historical sites 

• Tour booklet & map

• Tour recordings via QR codes at each site

• Publications

• The Story of Pine Knoll Shores - booklet, pub. 2023

• Coloring Around the Town - coloring book, pub. 2023

• Self-Guided History Tour - booklet & map, pub. 2023

• Who is Alice? - brochure, pub. 2024

• John Allan Croskeys Royall - brochure, pub. 2025

• Powerpoint Presentations and Videos

• History of Pine Knoll Shores, pub. 2023 

• 50th Anniversary of Pine Knoll Shores, pub. 2023

• Oral History Videos

But, not all we do is so visible. This article provides information about efforts underway behind the scenes.

The committee’s activities are grouped into five main categories.
Maybe you could be interested in helping with one or more of the following:

Archive Management: This is the basic building block of much of our activity—gathering material pertinent to the history of the town and what came before the town. When individuals, groups or businesses make donations, the material is assigned a unique accession number, entered into our database, filed and stored in an appropriate location with attention given to any special preservation the material may require. The focus of this task is to preserve the material and to make it accessible to the public. Of course, a formal letter of acknowledgement and thanks is provided to each donor. The Pine Knoll Shore History Archive is located in Town Hall at 100 Municipal Circle Drive.

Oral History: The history of our town is documented in the written word and in vintage pictures; however, it can also be captured in the words of those who lived it. There are many individuals still here who witnessed the earliest developments of PKS, some who knew and worked with the Roosevelts and a few who knew Alice Hoffman and visited her home. They are resources that, as time goes by, are quickly fading, and we are working to record their memories and make them available for the future.

Historic Research: The process includes the use of personal knowledge and experience, searching material in our archives, and reliance on many resources in our nearby communities. We also search the Internet to get new insights, discover links, develop conclusions, answer questions and solve mysteries! The Internet provides material in a few hours that in the past would have taken days, months or years of dedicated work to uncover.  Exploring a research subject today is nothing like it was when you were in college! You’ll be surprised where a search leads and the links that you’ll uncover.

Writing, Publication, Presentation, Display: This category covers how we communicate and share our finds with the larger community. Writing a compelling story based on research material is the starting point of good communication. The committee has an editorial board that reviews all written items for content and copyediting. The committee publishes an article in The Shoreline most every month and provides historic background write-ups for various town publications. We have provided history presentations to several community groups including the Citizens Academy. We’ve displayed parts of our archive collection in the Town Hall Board Room and Lobby display cases, and exhibits and publications at the Bogue Banks Public Library and the History Museum of Carteret County.
The newest tool for communicating the history stories is our website pineknollhistory.blogspot.com. Check it out.

Website Management: Developing and maintaining the website are ongoing tasks. Keeping the site fresh and up-to-date is vital. In response to changing technology and trying to make the site more accommodating, structural and format changes are made from time to time. The underlying structure for the site is a development tool called Blogger, a relatively easy-to-use and robust product.

In Conclusion:
If you’ve read this far, perhaps some of the activities discussed interest you. The committee welcomes visitors at all times. We meet monthly, usually on the first Monday of the month at 10:00AM in town hall, but it's best to call to check for changes in the schedule. Come join the fun. We generally review progress on current research and projects, plan for future activities and share stories. Contact the committee at pkshistory@gmail.com.