ELIZABETH CITY — Frank Stick was an artist when he arrived on the North Carolina Outer Banks in the 1920s. Today, however, he’s best known as one of the developers who helped turn the once remote barrier islands into the tourist mecca that now draws millions of visitors each year.
Stick is also known for creating what’s known as the “flat top” home on the Outer Banks, and that creation was the subject of April 3rd’s “History for Lunch” program at Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City.
Tama Creef of Roanoke Island Tours and retired archivist for the Outer Banks History Center and Tammy Woodward, director of the Outer Banks History Center, were the presenters for “Frank Stick’s flat-Tops: A Vision for the Outer Banks.”
Between the 1920s and 1960s, Stick and his partners, Allen R. Heuth and Bill Koerner, bought up thousands of acres of then-undeveloped land between Kitty Hawk and Hatteras Island, Woodward said. Their investments spanned what would become the towns of Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head.
Stick eventually bought 2,600 acres that he developed in the 1950s into what later would become the town of Southern Shores.
According to organizers of the annual Southern Shores Historic Flat Top Cottage Tours, Stick not only supervised the platting of lots in the resort area, he also oversaw the design and erection of its flat top homes and the installation of roads to get to them.
“These now quaint architectural houses were reminiscent of the cottages he had seen in Florida, and were of cement block construction, with wide overhanging soffits, propped up shutters, and flat tar and gravel roofs, and made primarily of local materials,” the tour organizers said in a press release.
Stick’s creation of the flat rooftop cottages, 25 of which remain today, is probably the most unique structural mark Stick left on the landscape. Creef and Woodward suspect at one time there were as many as 100 of Stick’s flat-topped cottages in Southern Shores alone.
“These are the houses you would have seen in the ‘50s,” Creef said. “Some were one-story, others were two-story homes. The design changed a little. As time went on, they had an arch to allow rainwater to roll off.”
Woodward said David Stick, Frank’s son, founded Southern Shores Realty to sell his father’s flat-tops.
“I believe they had moved their operations to Kitty Hawk and Southern Shores,” she said.
By the time Frank Stick created the flat top home, he’d learned valuable lessons after attempted real estate projects in Hatteras and Nags Head. The Southern Shores homes were made of concrete blocks, which Creef said were cheap to acquire at the time.
Developing the lots himself was the solution to another challenge Stick ran into in the late 1940s.
“He had struggled to sell (empty) Southern Shores lots to customers so he developed the lots and sold them,” Creef said. “Families kept these homes for generations because that’s where great memories were formed — at the beach.”
The homes were constructed with low ceilings, screened porches and shutters owners could lower to cover windows when the inevitable storms arrived.
“The ceilings were either of juniper or pine, which made them sell really good,” Creef said.
Creef noted that Stick’s design of smaller, simply designed cottages eventually gave way to much larger constructed homes, condos, and eventually the numerous multifamily homes and rental properties now common on the Outer Banks.
During his life, Stick took on many projects and business ventures, some of which brought him to Elizabeth City. Woodward said she’s not sure why Stick had offices in Elizabeth City.
“It may have been due to the remoteness of his land holdings or perhaps Elizabeth City provided more commerce,” she said. “I’m also not sure if he had separate ventures in Elizabeth City apart from these companies” he owned or was a part of.
Today, the Outer Banks History Center, administered by the State Archives of North Carolina at Roanoke Island Festival Park in Manteo, maintains the Frank Stick papers and artwork, including his fish water colors, landscape and naturalist oil paintings. It also features documentation of his efforts to establish the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Virgin Islands National Park as well as his plans for his signature flat top cottages.
Creef and Woodward’s presentation at Museum of the Albemarle this week comes as organizers of the Southern Shores Historic Flat Top Cottage Tours are planning their sixth annual tour. Scheduled for Saturday, April 27, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., the tour will feature 14 of Stick-designed flat top homes on the Outer Banks.
Tickets are $10 in advance and can be purchased online at https://southernshoreshistoricflattops.ticketleap.com/. Tickets may also be purchased the day of the tour with cash or check at organizers’ tent at Southern Shores Crossing from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Proceeds benefit the Outer Banks Community Foundation Flat Top Preservation Fund, which provides funding for preservation and maintenance of the Stick-designed flat top home at 13 Skyline Road now owned by the town of Southern Shores.
The other 13 cottages on the tour include:
• Mackey Cottage at 218 Ocean Boulevard;
• Oh So Sandy at 18 East Dogwood Trail;
• Pink Perfection (Edith Pipkin Cottage) at 170 Ocean Boulevard;
• Atlantic Breezes at 169 Ocean Boulevard;
• Sea Breezes at 157 Ocean Boulevard;
• Sokol/Clements Cottage at 23 Porpoise Run;
• Clarke/Gudas Cottage at 156 Wax Myrtle Trail;
• Falconer Cottage at 159 Wax Myrtle Trail;
• Seaquel at 142 Ocean Boulevard;
• The Knight Cottage at 113 Ocean Boulevard;
• Sea Spray Cottage at 69 Ocean Boulevard;
• Powell/Harritt Cottage at 43 Ocean Boulevard; and
• Lambroff Cottage at 78 Skyline Road.
Most Popular
Comments / 0