R E A L E STAT E
SEA M U S EU M O F T H E
THE GRAVEYARD OF THE ATLANTIC MUSEUM HAS PLENTY TO SHOW, INSIDE AND OUT
W
hen Wilmington-based architect John Parker recalls the idyllic summer days he spent vacationing on Hatteras Island as a child, he thinks of shipwrecks. Washed-up boats stuck on the shore, lying on their sides with exposed, rib-like wooden frames jutting out of the sand. To an eight-year-old, those wrecks were a make-believe paradise – his very own seaside jungle gym. Decades later, nearly 15 years into his career as an architect, John would call on these memories while designing the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras Village – which not only tells the stories of the thousands of shipwrecks off the coast of the Outer Banks, but resembles a massive capsized ship itself. Cruising past the ferry docks and straight down Museum Drive, it’s hard not to take your eyes off the road to gape at the museum. The 18,768-square-foot structure is raised safely above sea level, and, despite its picture-perfect view of a beach access to the east, is only dotted with a few small windows. It almost looks daunting, this massive museum – especially after driving past the rickety old wood-paneled houses in Mirlo Beach and the mega-mansion summer rentals scattered along Highway 12. But there’s a lighthearted feel to the structure as well. The roof has a subtle arch to it, and the front of the museum is dotted with 14 curved beams that mimic the frame of a ship, just like the wooden ribs of the beached boats John often climbed as a child. “I was probably eight or nine when my family would pack up our station wagon and drive out to the lighthouse, where there was always a ship or two lying in the sand on the beach,” John says. “So that imagery was very clear to me.” 42 | S PR I N G 2020
Talks of building the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum began in the mid-‘80s in response to the need for space that could house North Carolina’s historical maritime artifacts – specifically the recently recovered U.S.S. Monitor, the United States Navy’s first ironclad ship that sank in a storm off of Cape Hatteras in 1862. “It was a community effort at the time, like a grassroots movement,” explains Josh Nonnenmocher, the museum’s administrative coordinator. “The Mariner’s Museum in Newport News initially got the Monitor artifacts, and that’s when the community decided it was time to start a local museum so that those things had a place to go in the future.” Over the next 15 years, organizers secured federal, state and local funding, and plans for the museum began to unfold. At first, many pictured a sprawling Victorianstyle structure similar to the Pea Island Lifesaving Station as the ideal place to house the collected artifacts. But after meeting with the museum board while touring old Outer Banks’ duck hunting clubs for a separate architectural project, John had a different idea. Luckily, the board was responsive. Construction of John’s shipwreck-inspired building began
