HOME SPOTLIGHT

NAGS HEAD’S STORIED BUCHANAN COTTAGE

A TESTAMENT TO Time

PHOTOS BY CORY GODWIN / STORY BY HANNAH LEE LEIDY

The term “old Nags Head-style cottage” immediately brings to mind a very specific image: a stately cedarshake house, rich brown in color, with shuttered windows and a sprawling porch. This image, and such homes, harkens back to earlier times when people first began to flock to the Outer Banks for vacations – and summer homes subsequently started to dot the oceanfront in Nags Head.

Affluent families from Edenton, Elizabeth City and Raleigh built a significant number of these cedar-shake cottages during the late 1800s and the early 1900s. The beachfront homes lining the corridor of N.C. Highway 12 in Nags Head rapidly earned the nickname “the unpainted aristocracy,” referring to their bare, cedar-shake splendor. That same stretch of road then became the more formal Nags Head Beach Cottage Row Historic District after joining the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 – though for many it’s still known more simply as Cottage Row.

These homes are now some of the oldest coastal cottages in the Unites States, and many remain heirlooms of the families who originally built them – preserving an image of yesteryear’s Outer Banks and brimming with stories from the generations of vacations they’ve housed over the years.

Within this distinguished neighborhood, the Buchanan Cottage in particular has set itself apart since day one. John and Mattie Buchanan of Durham, N.C., had the cottage built in 1936 by Stephen J. Twine, the Elizabeth City architect responsible for many of the old Nags Head cottages. He coined the structures’ iconic L-shape design (with the bend positioned to ward off the northeast wind), and embraced other features such as outward-leaning porch seating and slanted hip roofs. But while Twine’s influence was certainly felt in the plans for the Buchanan Cottage, the original designs for what would become the largest oceanfront house on the Outer Banks were actually first drawn up by a Durhambased architect named George Watts Carr – with Twine coming in afterward in order to bring Carr’s vision to life.

And to this day, this nine-bedroom house remains the largest home on Cottage Row, complete with a covered wraparound porch and 63 windows. “It was terrible to hang curtains,” quipped Mary Frances Buchanan Flowers, the eldest of the Buchanan family’s five daughters and one of the home’s first residents.

Historic photos line the walls of the Buchanan Cottage (far left). The Buchanan Cottage remains the largest oceanfront home on Nags Head’s historic Cottage Row (above).

Though much has changed on the Outer Banks over the intervening decades, Mary Francis and her sisters spent their first memorable summer at the cottage in 1937. To add to the home’s immense majesty during that inaugural season, the Buchanan family also arrived with their own maid, nurse, cook and a driver in tow – each of whom reportedly wore crisp uniforms every day.

But not everything was quite as luxurious. For starters, the cottage initially had no electricity, so power was sourced from a generator and water was hauled from a pump system. That also meant that meals were cooked with a woodstove all summer long – no matter how high temperatures soared in August!

In true Outer Banks fashion, the Buchanans and their employees were swiftly welcomed into the local community as well. Jim Holley, the family’s driver, endeared himself to the neighboring cottages’ children, taking them and the Buchanan girls on regular excursions to the Wright Brothers National Monument, Fort Raleigh and Oregon Inlet to hunt for hermit crabs. In addition to this, the family’s nurse also became the neighborhood’s go-to source for treating burns, cuts and stings.

The Buchanan Cottage’s popularity and distinction even caught the attention of the White House not long after it was built. On August 18, 1937, Mattie received a rather extraordinary phone call: President Franklin Roosevelt intended to travel to the Outer Banks to commemorate Virginia Dare’s 350th birthday and see a production of The Lost Colony on Roanoke Island. Might he come to the Buchanan Cottage for lunch afterward?

The Buchanans had no political nor personal connections to Roosevelt, but the president’s upcoming visit sparked excitement in the Cottage Row neighborhood nonetheless.

To prepare for the historic visit, the White House sent a crew to the cottage to construct a ramp for the president’s wheelchair well ahead of time. On the day of the luncheon, Secret Servicemen lined the Buchanan Cottage from front to back, and Marines created a perimeter around the house. Neighbors waited patiently on the porches of their homes, too, craning their necks to watch the motorcade and hopefully catch a glimpse of the illustrious guest.

When the president finally arrived at the cottage in a Packard convertible, he immediately made himself at home in the company of Mattie, John, a then-18-year-old Mary Frances and the North Carolina Governor, Clyde Hoey. Roosevelt went on to express his interest in

Clockwise, from top left: The wooden desk that President Roosevelt gifted the Buchanan family after his historic visit in 1937; One of the most distinguishing architectural features of the Cottage Row homes includes their outward-leaning porch seats; The Buchanan Cottage presides over a commanding stretch of the beach in Nags Head; With a total of 63 windows, even diners at the Buchanan Cottage can enjoy the oceanfront view from the comfort of their seats.

enjoying a toddy before lunch, but Mattie, a teetotaler, didn’t normally allow alcohol in the house. In light of the circumstances, however, an exception was quickly made – even though it required a last-minute visit to the neighbors in order to procure the necessary ingredients.

Afterward, a grand luncheon for 50 guests – plus 37 members of the president’s security detail – was served. The menu included generous servings of ham, rolls, summer vegetables and Mattie’s special recipe for baked crabmeat casserole – plus blueberry cobbler for dessert. When the meal was complete, Roosevelt retired to the cottage’s generous porch, where he took in the views and continued conversing pleasantly with the Buchanans. Before the president took his final leave, he also rested for a while in the downstairs bedroom, signed the cottage’s guest book and personally shook hands with all of the workers who had helped put together the day’s activities. To further underscore his thanks, the president later gifted the family with a wooden desk that still remains a fixture in the cottage to this day.

“He entertained us,” Mary Frances recalled many years later. “He was so gracious, and a charming man.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the cottage continued to remain a crucial meeting point within the Nags Head community long after the president’s visit. According to Mary Frances, young folks from the neighborhood went dancing at the legendary Nags Head Casino every Saturday night during the summer season. It was a weekly tradition that wasn’t complete until everyone retired for the evening to the Buchanan Cottage, where Mattie always had a midnight pancake breakfast waiting for them. The whole family – including the women – were also avidly interested in fishing, so they welcomed scores of recreational fishermen for visits over the years, many of whom relished the unparalleled oceanfront access.

Over the decades, that prime location did subject the Buchanan Cottage to a number of storms, however. The family had the structure moved back twice as erosion brought the ocean closer and closer, and during the historic Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962, the ocean rushed in and knocked out the cottage’s dining room wall. During that same storm, window panes were also lost in waves that reached 30 feet high…although they were later found about a mile away – still intact! Despite it all, the structure remained sturdy.

The Buchanan girls grew up and continued returning to the house for summers and family gatherings, eventually bringing their own children and grandchildren with them over the next few decades. By 1990, they established a limited partnership to maintain the cottage for a number of years, which included 25 people across three generations.

“We had so much fun here,” Mary Frances remembered fondly during her last interview in 2002. At the age of 83, she sat comfortably on the sofa in the cottage’s main room, surrounded by the original juniper paneling while the late morning light shone brightly through the windows – just as it continues to do today, nearly a century since this remarkable home first graced these shores.