Follow the luminaries that will lead you from the Emma and Simon O’Neal (c. 1900) house to the Fleig house (c. 1950), both of which will be open to the public on Saturday, December 5, from 3–5pm, for the annual Ocracoke Preservation Society’s Historic Homes Tour. Both homes are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Emma and Simon O’Neal house, located across from the Assembly of God Church at 458 Lighthouse Road is a classic story-and-a-jump, built for fisherman Simon O’Neal near the time of his marriage to Emma Styron. In 2009, OPS purchased the house with money from the David and Geraldine Beveridge estate designated to help preserve an island structure. Five years later, OPS sold the house (complete with conservation easements) to new owners Will Purvis and Jamie McGaskill, who undertook the renovation project.

 

The Fleig house at 107 Live Oak Lane is a relatively young historic structure, having been built in the 1950’s for Felix and Sue Fleig. It is one of the last houses built on Ocracoke that qualifies to be in the historic district.

At the OPS fall membership meeting, president Philip Howard presented the Historic Preservation Award to the owners, Wayne and Trudy Clark. The award, which was established in 1989, is given annually to homeowners of a “contributing structure” (a building that makes Ocracoke’s National Historic District historic) who have maintained or restored historic features to the house. In the past year, Wayne and Trudy completed an historic renovation to the Fleig House (which they call Light Keeper’s Duck Cottage).