Location: SR 1233 (Arendell Street) in Morehead City
County: Carteret
Original Date Cast: 1962
What is today known as the North Carolina Association of Educators was organized in 1884 at the White Sulphur Springs Hotel in Waynesville. From 1888 to 1900 the group, then known as the Teachers’ Assembly, met annually in Morehead City in a building constructed as the association’s permanent headquarters. Guiding the building committee was M. C. S. Noble, later a professor at the University of North Carolina.
The Morehead City building stood alongside the Atlantic Hotel, site of the 1887 meeting. The architect was A. G. Bauer of Raleigh, and the contractor was J. A. Wilson and Company. The two-story structure was completed at a cost of $2500 and featured long halls on both floors. The building, the cornerstone for which was laid on May 1, 1888, was also known as “The Sea Breeze.” Two thousand people attended the Assembly meeting in the new building, June 13-29, 1888.
Once the building was no longer being used by the Teachers’ Assembly, it changed hands and was acquired as a summer home by Frank Barnes of Wilson. Around 1934 the aging structure was dismantled by R. E. Highsmith. The cornerstone from the northeast corner of the building was moved to the yard of a residence, first owned by Highsmith and later by Theodore Hall, at Camp Glenn just west of Morehead City.
The Teachers’ Assembly changed its name to the North Carolina Education Association in 1922. The North Carolina Association of Educators was formed on July 1, 1970, by the merger of the North Carolina Education Association, formerly the professional educators group for whites, and the North Carolina Teachers Association, formerly the counterpart organization for black teachers.
References:
F. C. Salisbury, “Our Very First Professional Home,” North Carolina Education, XXIII, 5 (January 1957), 24-25, 53-55
North Carolina Teacher, IV, 10 (June 1887), 501; V, 2 (October 1887), 95
Letter, H. L. Joslyn to Carl Cannon, November 2, 1959, marker file, Research Branch, North Carolina Office of Archives and History
North Carolina Association of Educators website: http://www.ncae.org