2019: Walking Tour of Southport North Carolina

4/6/2019
No boat travel today.
Walking tour of Southport, North Carolina.

Since we have never had the opportunity to visit Southport, North Carolina on any of our other trips past this area, we decided to take an extra day here to go into town and check out the sights. I had something to mail, so we headed to the post office first and then on to the visitor's center.

Walking into town from the marina ...

Phillips / Aldrige House c. 1905
(one of many older homes along the street
oldest I saw was c. 1839)

Southport in Spring Bloom!

Don't mess with this puppy! "Not a potty stop!"

Azaleas the puppy above was guarding!

Southport Water Tower from two different views ...

Franklin Square Park in Southport, NC ...

We made it to the post office before they closed, so from there after, I could relax and enjoy the town. As we walked towards the waterfront, we found what remains of Fort Johnston and is currently the towns Visitor's Center and a Museum.

On the grounds at Fort Johnston ...

View of water through the trees

Officers Quarters of Fort Johnston

Flag Tower
(Used in 1954 to display hurricane warning flags
as Hurricane Hazel came through town)

Oak Island Light House in the distance

Inside the museum ...

Section of Quilt
City of Southport 1792 - 1992

A lot of films have been made in Southport including "The Secret Life of Bees", "I Know What You Did Last Summer", "Weekend at Bernie's", "Crimes of the Heart", "Dawson's Creek", Matlock, and others.

Movies and TV Series Filmed in Southport

I was most excited to see that scenes from "Hart of Dixie" had been filmed here at Franklin Square Park.

Red, White, and Blue Tiara worn by the
Fourth of July Festival Queen in the 60s and 70s

Around the corner from the Visitor's Center, we found the town's maritime museum.

As I walked through the museum, I automatically knew what would catch Clark's eye ...

Old Outboards
(I knew he couldn't resist these)

The museum has a periscope that is designed to let the user see a 360 degree view of the sights in Southport. Sadly, most of what I saw was leaves of the local trees as they have all grown up to hide the view.

Views supposedly seen through the telescope

At the Visitor's Center, Clark picked up a Walking-tour Map of the area. We decided to take the tour. At the end of the day, my steps tracking device told me that we had covered more than 6 miles on our walk.

Along the waterfront ...

Homes along the waterfront

At Kingsley Park ...

Humorous Poem about Southport Fish Business

As we walked through town, we learned bits and pieces of local news about a funeral happening today. From afar, we saw the open casket and seats at the Community Center before the services began. Then later, we heard the deceased would be buried at the Old Smithville Burying Ground (an 18th Century cemetery). Further along on our journey, we met a local who told us the man being buried was a popular Ferry Pilot. As we strolled along the waterfront, we saw the large number of folks attending the service.

Old Smithville Burying Ground
(Smithville name eventually changed to Southport)

From there we walked to the Old Jail ...

Old Jail

Pillory and Stocks outside jail
(I learned the difference between the two.)

Model Still and Moonshine Quiz

Typical Cell

Typical attire of jailer
who would also be a local farmer

Jailers Living Quarters at the Jail

Jailer's Wife's recipe for Tipsy Cake

Mug Shots ...

Fortunately, they let us out of jail so we could continue our tour. This time we walked through the shopping area.

Toy and Candy Store ...

Candy World with more than 60 flavors of Salt Water Taffy ...

After a stop for ice cream we went back to the waterfront ...

Rocking kept the gnats away

Pilots Assoc. Tower

Next we walked the Historic Riverwalk ...

History of sunken ironclad vessel from the Civil War
-- sunk near Battery Island off Southport waterfront

T. M. Thompson was a successful blockade runner
and river pilot during the Civil War.
He survived the war and lived thereafter in Southport.

Thompson House
(man on lower deck had fun waving at us until
we gave him the thumb's up that we got a good shot)

Built c. 1869
First house in town to have both a Cupola and a Widow's Walk

Keziah Memorial Park came next. The tree here is 400 to 800 years old. It was supposedly bent as a sapling by Cape Fear Indians as a trail marker - thus its unusual growth pattern. The tree has been in Ripley's Believe it Or Not.

Park flowers provided by the Southport Garden Club

Two more houses on the walking tour ...

A collection of Ruark's books are on display at the museum.
Two he wrote about Africa were turned into movies.

Adkins - Ruark House c. 1890
(Now an Inn)

Northrup House c. 1910
(Used for filming of "The Crimes of the Heart" movie
with Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, and Sissy Spacek)

Back to the waterfront ... on our way back to the boat ...

"Alice Belle" NC work boat

Salt Marsh Boardwalk
(we were bothered by gnats all day long. We had
no desire to walk out over the marshes to see what
else might decide to chew on us.)

During the course of our walk today, we grabbed sandwiches at a local eatery for lunch. Later, we found a store selling fresh fish and picked up some snapper for dinner, which I prepared on the boat tonight. After that it was time to update the blog while I had internet to do so.

Tonight's sunset picture ...