It’s no secret that Washington’s rich history is one of its greatest, and perhaps most interesting, assets. At every turn, one meets with pieces of the past, reminders that the City of Washington dates back hundreds of years.

This deep, all encompassing sense of history is the focus of a new publication from the Washington Tourism Development Authority and the City of Washington Planning Department; a handy guidebook offering information on more than 40 locales that make up Washington’s Historic Walking Tour.

“It has a wealth of information in it,” said WTDA Marketing Assistant Paula Stephenson. “It’s been several years in the making putting it together.”

While some may remember a small, spiral bound red book from years past that offered the same, the new publication comes in a brochure form, making for easy carrying. It’s available for residents and visitors alike at the Washington Visitor Center on Stewart Parkway at a cost of $2.

The tour spans from Jacks Creek on the east side of town to Hackney Avenue on the west end, bounded by Third Street to the north and the Pamlico River to the south. A map in the publication helps visitors orient themselves to their surroundings.

Each location on the tour has a sense of character, and the purpose behind each building varies widely. Many were built as private residences and continue to serve that function today, sometimes centuries later. Some were built and intended as places of business and have hosted countless shops and merchants since their construction.

Others were hubs of industry and commerce on the Pamlico River in the days before the revitalization of the waterfront as a public space and tourist hub. Others still are some of Washington’s oldest houses of worship.

“The biggest change from the old book to the new book was the burning of the First Christian Church,” Stephenson said. “That was a huge historical, architectural loss for downtown Washington.”

All the locales fall conveniently under one term — they are Washington’s places of interest. From the perspective of the WTDA staff, these historical hotspots are yet another reason people want to come to Washington. In Washington and statewide, history and heritage tourism are on the rise, with visitors spending at local businesses as well.

“A lot of people that come to town will see the architecture and realize that it’s old,” Stephenson said. “But they don’t know just how old, and they don’t understand the stories that each building can tell.”

While the WTDA and Planning Department paid for the booklet’s publication, Stephenson says it took a collaborative effort between those organizations, Brown Library, the Beaufort-Martin-Hyde Regional Library and the Washington Area Historic Foundation to make it happen.