11/07/2023
Had to share this interesting historical article of the Whalehead Club. The Club and Currituck Light house and the original village of Corolla are just a little drive north of . We take all of our guests there to walk the grounds, climb the lighthouse, and especially to see the sunset over the sound.
THE WHALEHEAD CLUB: ONLY A MEMORY
On chill November and December evenings, hunters relaxed over a round of drinks as they sat before a fire raging in the fireplace at any one of a number of clubhouses around Currituck Sound and its Back Bay. Invariably they talked of guns and ammunition, discussing the merits and failings of different brands. They told tales of fine shooting and chided the unfortunate hunter who happened to miss a shot.
Why were men, predominantly wealthy northern businessmen, drawn as if by a magnet to the marshes of Currituck? Carl White, former superintendent of Pine Island Club since 1935, explained, "Men don't discuss business or politics when they come down here; they want to get away from that. When a man is out in a duck blind, there is always something to look for.... what kind of duck will come next. It keeps the mind occupied away from business matters."
In the early years of hunting clubs, they were more eager. "They didn't think there was any limit to the waterfowl population," White said. Early records at Pine Island show 300 to 400 geese killed in a season. By the 1970s the records reveal that the number of geese shot had dropped to 25 to 30 a season.
Even with the conservation measures taken, the goose population in Currituck is not today what it was in the early years of the Twentieth century. The attitude of conservation that has grown among hunters, as well as an increase in affluence, are factors which may have contributed to the decline of the great membership clubs.
Perhaps the greatest of these clubs was the Whalehead Club, in the remote seaside hamlet of Corolla. Edward C. Knight, Jr. was a member of the old Lighthouse Club located on the same property as the Whalehead mansion today. Knight married, and his young bride, wishing to hunt with her husband, induced him to purchase the property.
Women were excluded from participation in the old membership clubs. And so, he built the Whalehead mansion, so large that it could sleep 400 men during World War II, in the 1920s at a cost of $383,000. The Whalehead Club, gabled and magnificent, stands on a parcel of land that was once encircled by a moat. A small harbor and elaborate boathouse remain at the entrance to the property which could only be reached by boat across Currituck Sound, or by a precarious beach route.
When Knight died his heirs were not interested in the secluded palace, and quickly disposed of it to Ray Adams of Washington, D. C., for $25,000. Adams received $30,000 for the art objects alone found in the mansion. For a while, Whalehead was an exclusive hunting and fishing club.
During World War II, the property was leased by the Coast Guard as a transient station for men and materials. The Coast Guard painted all the mahogany paneling, and almost everything else, battleship gray and white.
During the summers of 1959 and '60, Whalehead became the Corolla Academy for boys. The house stood empty until 1962, when it was used as a rocket fuel testing station during the height of the "space race" and the "cold war." Again it went vacant. After over 20 years of abandonment the house was bought by Currituck County in 1992 to be restored back to its original state.
Today, the house is fully restored and now acts as a historic home for the public. Like most of its sister hunting lodges, its past as a gathering point for hunters remains only a memory.
~ adapted from a 1970s article by Hilda Scull
