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The old Coast Guard Station use to be at the foot of the bridge that crossesthe Pamlico River and runs onto Highway 17.  It was so clean and neat andgave you the appearance of a hospital.  The buoy yard was always so

orderly and well organized.  For years it was the home of Carol Farrow

McCracken, who grew up there and went to school in Washington up until

her father retired.  They then moved to Cape Hatteras, where she finished high school and later moved to Winston-Salem, N.C.

The ship was a buoy tender and it was called the Verbena. Only buoy tenders were named after a shrub or plant common to the area where it was built. There are verbenas growing in our yard on the river.  This is according to Larry Jones, who filled out his military service in the United States Coast Guard. The Verbena was well kept and did not have dirty spot on it, despite sitting in the muddy water beside the bridge.

The Coast Guard Station had a crew of 16 men and navigated the waters of the Pamlico Sound as well as the Neuse River and Alligator Rivers.  It ran routes to Ocracoke Island, Belhaven and Aurora.  The Coast Guard checked buoys all along the rivers and replaced them.  The busiest time was early in WWII where there were sinking of ships in the Pamlico Sound.  The late Herbert Bonner was a member of Congress and he saw to it that the rivers were kept clean.

Terry Smithwick recently told me that there was original pilings in front of Rudy’s apartments that belonged to Coast Guard Station when it was demolished and a seafood restaurant was built in place of the Coast Guard Station.

If you need a book, send me your address and $25.00 and I will send one to you.  They will make perfect Christmas presents! We have T-shirts ordered.  Order yours now.

They were the best of times with the best of friends in the best of places, Washington, N.C.! The Original Washington!

Harold Jr.