SUMMARY DESCRIPTION
OMB No. 1024-0018
Bald Head Creek Boathouse Brunswick County, NC
The ca. 1915 Bald Head Creek Boathouse is situated on Smith Island, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. The weathered, one-story, side-gabled structure is a lonely sentinel in the surrounding salt marshes that recalls t~e isolated lives of lighthouse keepers and coast guard personnel in the early decades of the twentieth century. Believed to have been built about 1915 for the United States Lighthouse Service, years of exposure to the harsh coastal atmosphere has scoured the building to a faded, weathered gray, making it seem a part of its natural surroundings. Smith Island is actually a complex of small islands with forested dune and beach ridges, salt marshes, and tidal bays and creeks. From north to south, the three named islands of the Smith Island complex are Bluff, Middle, and Bald Head. Bald Head Creek is the southernmost tidal waterway on Smith Island and is located between Bald Head and Middle islands.It begins near the coastal beach above Cape Fear and flows in a northwestern direction into the Cape Fear River. Built as a landing and transfer point for supplies which needed to be hauled from this point to the east end of the island, a distance of approxmately 1.5 miles, the boathouse was constructed as far along the creek as possible while still allowing boat passage. It is presently located approximately mid-point along the northwest to southeast length of Bald Head Creek, but some eighty-four years ago, it was situated adjacent to the creek’s south bank. Due to a southwardly migration of the creek, a common natural phenomenon in a salt marsh environment, the boathouse now rests slightly north of the meandering creek. A simple single-craft, rectangular, frame, gable-roofed structure, the Bald Head Creek Boathouse rests on wooden pilings. The gable end boat entrance of the boathouse faces west, looking toward the Cape Fear River. The entrance is a simply framed opening, designed to allow broad-beamed, masted sloops to dock inside.