You’re Invited to the Southern Shores Flat Top Tour on April 30

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The Southern Shores Historic Flat Top Cottage Tour is back! The 2022 tour will be held on Saturday, April 30 from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Tour tickets are just $10.00 per person and will be sold on the day of the tour beginning at 1:00 PM at 156 Wax Myrtle Trail or 13 Skyline Road. The ticket covers all of the cottages on the tour.

Fifty years ago, flat top cottages abounded across the Southern Shores landscape. Known for their distinctive cinder block walls, flat roofs, jewel-toned soffits, juniper paneling, and vertical shutters, Southern Shores flat tops were designed and inspired by Frank Stick (1884-1966), the visionary developer, painter, outdoorsman, and architect (whose son David founded the Outer Banks Community Foundation). Today, less than two dozen flat tops remain, most built from indigenous Outer Banks materials.

Thirteen of Southern Shores’s remaining historic cottages will be open for the tour on April 30:

  • 156 Wax Myrtle Trail (Clarke Cottage, and Tour Headquarters)
  • 13 Skyline Road (Outer Banks Community Foundation, and Second Tour Headquarters)
  • 40 Skyline Road –  the Beach Box flat top
  • 43 Ocean Boulevard – the Powell/Harritt Cottage
  • 69 Ocean Boulevard – Sea Spray – Trisha Farinholt Cottage
  • 113 Ocean Boulevard – the Knight Cottage
  • 157 Ocean Boulevard – Sea Breezes Duplex- Ellie Doyle
  • 170 Ocean Boulevard – Pink Perfection – the Edith Pipkin Cottage
  • 176A & B Ocean Boulevard – the Price Cottage
  • 218 Ocean Boulevard –  the Mackey Cottage
  • 23 Porpoise Run – the Sokol/Clements Cottage
  • 159 Ocean Boulevard – the Falconer Cottage

There are two headquarter cottages where tour tickets will be sold: 156 Wax Myrtle Trail (entrance facing Porpoise Run) and 13 Skyline Road (Outer Banks Community Foundation). Sorry, advance tickets are not available. Maps will also be available at headquarter cottages, detailing the addresses of each open house. Brief histories of the cottages will also be provided. Pinwheels will mark cottages that are open on the day of the event.

All proceeds from the tour will benefit the Flat Top Preservation Fund of the Outer Banks Community Foundation. The Flat Top Preservation Fund is a perpetual endowment that helps fund the maintenance, protection, and preservation of the Community Foundation’s flat top headquarters at 13 Skyline Road. Built in 1953 by Frank Stick, the cottage was donated to the Community Foundation in 2007.

For more information, please contact Sally or Steve Gudas at 804-399-8342 or seatide1@gmail.com.