Roanoke Colonies Research Newsletter
Volume 6.2 (May 1999)

Manteo Celebrates 100 Years of Incorporation

On February 16, 1899, residents of Manteo became part of an incorporated county seat when the mayor and county commissioners signed the town charter. On February 16, 1999, Manteo began celebrating its 100 anniversary by signing a “charter for a new century.” And while the incorporation of Manteo may be far removed from the 1580s English attempts to colonize Roanoke Island, the town’s history is filled with connections to those early efforts.

Manteo’s start as a town goes back at least as far as the formation of Dare county in 1870 when land was donated on Roanoke Island for a county seat. With the county being named after Virginia Dare, the first child of European descent born on Roanoke Island, the tradition of using Roanoke-colonization-related names was begun. When the county seat was given a post office in 1873, the community was renamed from Shallowbag Bay to Manteo, for the Native American who befriended the English in the 1580s. Other native American names connected with the English colonization attempts of the 1580s were used for post offices on Roanoke Island, including Wanchese on the southern end of the island in 1886 and Skyco on the southwest side of the island in 1892, though the Skyco post office was closed in 1913.

The town of Manteo plans to celebrate its centennial with events every month from February to December. One program of special interest began in March and will conclude in November. On March 6, a “picture party” was held at the Outer Banks History Center on Roanoke Island Festival Park. People were invited to bring vintage photographs, postcards, family letters, and other documents from the past century. These were shared with Angel Ellis Khoury, who is authoring a coffee-table book tentatively titled Manteo: A Roanoke Island Town based on materials she has already located as well as new items that the picture party brought forward. The book is scheduled for publication in November. The March 6 event was also used to help identify unknown photographs in the Outer Banks History Center’s collection. An exhibit of photographs from the forthcoming book organized buy the Outer Banks History Center went on display in late March at the Manteo Town Hall and will remain up throughout the summer and into the fall.

Khoury’s book was commissioned by East Carolina Bank, headquartered in Englehard, North Carolina, but with offices in Manteo and throughout coastal northeastern North Carolina. East Carolina Bank donated $49,820 towards its publication. The book will be published by the Donning Company of Virginia Beach, Virginia, as part of its Portraits of America series. David Stick, author of Roanoke Island (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1983) and other Outer Banks-related works, will provide a forward for Khoury’s book.

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