ALL IN A
Day’s Trip
Visit Edenton
Story by Miles Layton Photos contributed
Nestled by a serene bay bordering the Albemarle Sound, Edenton offers small town charm, a bit of history and places to stroll and relax. Accolades include Coastal Living Magazine calling it a “Dream Town,” Forbes Magazine naming it one of America’s Prettiest Towns, and it also made the cut in Smithsonian magazine’s America’s 20 Best Towns. There are a variety of things to see and do.
1767 Chowan County Courthouse A Colonial era capital, the first stop on any tour should be the 1767 Chowan County Courthouse located at the corner of Court and King streets. The Courthouse is open Tuesday– Saturday from 10 a.m.– 4 p.m. Guided Docent Tours, $2.50 for adults, $1.50 for children Two early U.S. Supreme Court Justices – James Wilson and James Iredell – practiced law within the courthouse that has been recognized as a National Historic Landmark since 1970 and its classic Georgian style architecture is the finest of its kind in the South. If the large front wooden doors are open, any one of the judges chronicled on the walls could see Edenton Bay as he presided
economy, the plantation was valued at one-
North Carolina’s Supreme Court still
over a justice system that traces its cases
half million dollars. The will became a court
back to the Revolutionary era.
holds sessions periodically within the
case when Johnston left the estate not to
historic courthouse.
According to the North Carolina judiciary,
family, but to three close friends. Luminaries
one of the more interesting early cases at the
of the state bar and former governors were
courthouse happened in 1867, its centennial
participants in the trial.
year. The case was around the will of James Cathcart Johnston and Hayes Plantation. Even in the depths of the post-Civil War
74
And maybe after taking a tour of the courthouse, maybe walk barefoot on the
Perhaps the most noteworthy debates
Courthouse Green, a grassy spot bordered
prior to that were in 1861 around secession
by historic homes, some dating back to the
from the United States.
1700s.
