Pantego Academy Historical Museum
In June Lydia and I visited the Pantego Museum, formerly the Pantego Academy. This historic school was built about 1874 and enlarged and altered to its present appearance about 1910. The main block is a two-story, five-bay frame structure with a hipped roof. The building itself was what interested me, but when we were offered a tour I was so impressed by the collection and history that Martha, a docent at the museum, shared with us.
When she asked why we were visiting I answered, "I've never been to Pantego so we just had to visit!" Pantego is in Beaufort County, North Carolina, and the museum is open on Saturdays from 2-4pm.
I’ve asked Martha to give me some of the highlights of the Museum Tour.
The Museum does have a Facebook page if you’d like to contact them: https://www.facebook.com/PantegoMuseum
The Pantego Academy was established in 1874 by a group of men that thought their children needed an education. It was the first school to offer education to both male and female students in North Carolina. Tuition was between $1 and $2.50 a month. That was a whole lot of money in that period of time for mostly farmers.
It is the only building in existence with a horse shoe staircase that we can find. The rule was that the fifth grade had to go up one side and the six grade the other.
Steps are a little wider on one side.
The room to the right are class rooms that started in 1874. One room goes from 1874 until 1907.
The other room goes from 1907 until 1981 when the brick high school closed.
Inside we have a farmer’s country kitchen. Where wives cooked on wood stoves and the activity in the house was mainly around the kitchen table where they ate and children got their lessons. Most homes had a Bible on the table and it was read before eating.
Then we have the Academy room where diplomas are framed on the wall that people have donated because they were so precious to them and they wanted everyone to see their academic achievement. Many pictures of people who walked the halls of this unique building.
Pantego had the best basketball team in the area. There is proof because of the many, many championship trophies that is in the show cases. In 1977, 80 and 81 the boys team won l-A state championships.
There is a military section that tells of people who went to World War Two and some that didn’t come home.
The school bell that used to hang in the belfry is now on display. In 1876 a group of ladies got together and bought the bell for the school. It rang every morning that school took in and could be heard ten miles.
There is a bedroom on display, with a metal bed and the necessary under the bed. A wardrobe to hang your clothes and a wash stand to clean up with. Most people were farmers in the area and people were poor.
There is a replica of an old country store, with penny candy, groceries and clothes. Across the street was Pat Johnson’s store. He had most anything that you needed. People charged things and paid for it once a year when the crops were taken in.
Here at the Museum, we try to show our visitors how people lived in Eastern North Carolina as well as the Academy.
This is Martha showing us a “two seater” outhouse.
There were so many things we saw and learned about in our tour with Martha, so I’m adding a gallery of what we saw.
