FIVE FACTS

The

Black Pelican

LIFESAVING STATION #6

PHOTO BY CORY GODWIN STORY BY KATRINA MAE LEUZINGER

THE OUTER BANKS HAS AN ABUNDANCE OF HISTORY, but not so many historical buildings – mostly because the longer a piece of architecture sticks around here, the more it tempts fate to sweep it into the Atlantic. That’s what makes the Black Pelican restaurant in Kitty Hawk particularly unique, since swarming seas are the very reason its main structure exists in the first place. Long before it was a place known for its seafood specials, the Black Pelican was Station #6 of the first seven lifesaving stations constructed on the North Carolina coast in 1874 – and in the 148 years since then, its (now considerably expanded) walls have weathered more than most…and have plenty of stories to prove it. 1 Bad Blood By all accounts, a local man named Theopolis Daniels and James Hobbs (the second person to be appointed keeper of the Kitty Hawk Lifesaving Station) hated each other. Possibly because he coveted the keeper position, Daniels repeatedly accused Hobbs of things such as pillaging a shipwreck – and the insults continued until Daniels reportedly spat tobacco juice on Hobbs’ wife. The feud finally came to a violent end in 1884, when Daniels reached for a pistol during an official investigation, and Hobbs beat him to it by grabbing the shotgun that ended Daniels’ life. To this day, numerous Black Pelican staffers claim to have seen blood dripping down the walls, doors slamming shut of their own accord, and sometimes – particularly on Halloween – the spectral form of a vengeful Daniels himself.

2The Wright Stuff Though the Wright brothers were a curiosity when they first arrived on the Outer Banks, the surfmen at both the Kitty Hawk and the Kill Devil Hills lifesaving stations became quite keen to see the so-called flying machine in action – which was good because the brothers needed all the assistance they could get. On December 17, 1903, the brothers hung a white sheet on the side of their shed, which was a prearranged sign that they could use any extra hands the local surfmen could spare. Three surfmen, a dairy farmer and an 18-year-old boy showed up that bitterly cold morning – and subsequently became the first to witness (and photograph!) the successful flights before others working at the Kitty Hawk station helped the brothers telegraph the historic news later that evening.

3A Peaceful Protector A since-debunked belief that mother pelicans will bleed themselves to nourish their young in times of need made pelicans a potent symbol of selflessness that’s persisted since at least the 13th century – so it’s perhaps understandable that when some early Kitty Hawk surfmen repeatedly spotted a black pelican sweeping through the air just before they were called to action in a storm, many took it as a sign. During nor’easters, the dark bird was credited with braving the elements in order to draw the crew’s attention to vessels in peril, and to hover over survivors protectively until help arrived. W.D. Tate, the station’s first keeper, maintained a record of those encounters, and praised the pelican as being the “watchdog” of the seas.

4The Man Behind the Myth The station’s longstanding legend made finding a good name easy when Outer Banks entrepreneur Paul Shaver opened its doors as the Black Pelican restaurant in 1993, complete with several structural additions that had grown around the building since it was decommissioned. No stranger to investing, Paul and his business partner, John Lancaster, had already launched several other local businesses, including a nightclub called Oz, Nags Head Realty, Barrier Island Station Resorts and J. Fleming Munde’s Restaurant (which later became Kelly’s). But aside from his visionary contributions during the decades that transformed this area from a collection of sleepy fishing villages into a popular vacation spot, Paul was also a beloved adventurer who spent time motor racing internationally, mountain climbing and even running with the bulls in Spain.

5A Perfect Storm Before author Sebastian Junger dubbed it The Perfect Storm in his bestselling book turned Hollywood blockbuster, Outer Banks residents called the cataclysmic fall weather event of 1991 “The Halloween Storm.” Caused when the remnants of Hurricane Grace and a robust high-pressure system clashed with a massive south-moving low, the surprise storm rocked much of the Eastern Seaboard. Under deceptively blue skies locally, strong winds and days of crushing 12-foot surf caused severe flooding that particularly affected the area around the old lifesaving station, where ocean overwash even reached the bypass. While nearly 100 local structures were condemned in the storm’s aftermath, the building that would be renamed the Black Pelican only two years later stood strong – almost as though its namesake was still watching over it.

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