There are 235 houses, 122 condominium units, 42 apartments, and, at least, one alligator “surfacing occasionally, sunning himself on the sand” in Brock Basin.
Photo from by Debbie Morris taken in North Carolina
but not in Pine Knoll Shores
but not in Pine Knoll Shores
It’s 1974 in Pine Knoll Shores. The Shore-line newsletter has lost its hyphen and become Pine Knoll Shore Line. High spirits of being a new town and publishing a new paper are still evident, but so are the challenges of both endeavors. At no time does the paper become political or negative, but a statement at the end of the first paragraph of the January issue suggests a theme: “…many voices were heard, many viewpoints aired.”
Mary Doll and Betty Hammon are stillShore Line writers and editors, but Doll is sometimes writing from faraway locations, and other residents begin to submit articles from town and abroad. The 1974 Shore Line also contains a few editorials; they hint at local conflict.
The year begins with commissioners’ passing a controversial zoning ordinance addressing both the height and density of structures in Pine Knoll Shores. “No building or other structure of any kind shall exceed either five stories or fifty feet in height….” The “density clause” limited “…all structures to no more than ten dwelling units per acre…” and specified additional limits for commercial buildings and off-street parking.
Pine Knoll Shores is clearly functioning as a governing entity, but it is not until May 1974 that the state recognizes it as an incorporated town. The Shore Line proclaims, “We are a town!” The North Carolina General Assembly “…ratified, confirmed and validated the incorporation election of last August.” We aren’t told exactly what obstacles prevented earlier ratification, but Hammon and Doll do indicate the 1973 local election in favor of incorporation “had recently been contested, and “The battle was over.”
In the same month, the first official club of the new town begins to form with Martha Odell Flynn as its first chairperson. After meeting with a leader of the Garden and Civic Department of the Women’s Club of Morehead City, Flynn and a small group of Pine Knoll Shores women decide to affiliate with the Garden Club of North Carolina, a member of the National Council of State Garden Clubs. In the following month, the group officially becomes the Garden Club of Pine Knoll Shores.
In May,aShore Line has the first “Letter to the Editors,” anonymously attributed to “A Citizen.” It compliments individuals by name for “joining in efforts to work on the many jobs that need doing…” while making a plea for residents to be “less critical and little more willing to lend a hand….” One person named for her “outstanding contribution” is Ruth Bray, a member of the town’s first Board of Commissioners and manager of the Atlantis, which played a notable role in the town’s early history as the location of the first Pine Knoll Shores’ town hall.
Readers also learn in the May issue that Don Brock, a representative of the Roosevelts in Pine Knoll Shores, has left “the building” he was using for an office in Pine Knoll Shores and has moved to a location in Morehead City. This will prove to be a temporary move for Brock.
I was hoping for more information since other historical records document a controversy over the structure’s not being in accord with local covenants. We know a portion of Alice Hoffman’s house served as Brock’s office and was later moved from Yaupon and Salter Path Road to become a temporary town hall. Although there is no confirmation of either detail in the May 1974 Shore Line, the structure in question is probably the same building referenced in this vague passage in the June 1974 issue: “The deed to the Town Hall site has been received from the Roosevelt interests and has been duly recorded, so that, in the near future, the building will be moved to its new spot on Bridge Rd.” (today’s Municipal Circle).
Photo from Pine Knoll Shores' town album by Phyllis Makuck.
The July newsletter reports on the annual meetings of two homeowner associations: Pine Knoll Association (PKA), the town’s first HOA, and Pine Knoll Shores Corporation (PIKSCO), holding its second annual meeting in 1974. July also marks the beginnings of the Welcome Wagon in town, started by Sycamore Road resident Jeanne Miller.
In 1974, almost every Shore Line devotes considerable space to introducing newcomers, to the good work of volunteers and to the beauty of the natural environment—to tides, shells, birds, and wildflowers. So, we can feel Mary Doll’s pain when she writes an editorial in September:
Just over a year ago, we became a Town, full of hope and an almost child-like idealism because we saw that we had a beautiful island paradise and a group of clear thinking residents. In this past year our Town has grown; its people have come to know each other better. Differences of opinion have arisen, facades have dropped, irritations have erupted, territories have been threatened. We are still essentially the same group but with our self-awareness sharpened. We ought to be able to stop ourselves, then, from becoming petty and picky as we hang together trying to make our Town hum happily….
Doll continues:
We all have our one little life to live; it’s not very long either. Do we have time really to study the dark gloomy aspect of everything, dwelling on what seems to us to be the inadequacies of others? Anyway, sometimes those who are the target of complaints are not even aware of it; so then, isn’t it the growler himself who suffers the most, bogged down in his own mumblings? Cheer up, you guys! Go catch a fish or watch a sunset. Let’s keep ourselves channeled and be the rare community where dreams can be accomplished.
Parenthetically, Betty Hammon adds: “This editorial is addressed to each of us who has ever found himself on the other side of a question from his friend and that includes absolutely everyone.”
Post Author: Phyllis Makuck