How many people sitting down to lunch at the Black Pelican at Milepost 4 know they're eating inside the building that Kitty Hawk's newest memorial was built to honor?
The Town of Kitty Hawk spent much of 2026 putting up a memorial to the men of the U.S. Life-Saving Service at the Kitty Hawk Bath House Beach Access. The original station building is next door. It stands at 3848 Virginia Dare Trail North and is still in daily use. The memorial is at 3840. The two belong together, and you can see both in a ten-minute walk.
A Memorial at 3840 N. Virginia Dare Trail
The memorial began as a Kitty Hawk Recreation Committee project. In the town's FY 2026–2027 budget it was described as a structure at the Bath House with educational panels and a replica surfboat, expected to be finished in summer 2026. In September, the Outer Banks Voice published the town's announcement of a dedication and ribbon-cutting at the site, set for Friday, September 18, at 3 p.m. The program listed remarks from town officials and community partners, a U.S. Coast Guard color presentation, and historical remarks about the Life-Saving Service and the Kitty Hawk station.
According to the announcement, the site has educational elements about the Life-Saving Service, the men who served at the Kitty Hawk station, and Outer Banks lifesaving history. It also has a 13-foot replica surfboat. The town credited a long list of contributors, including Dare County, the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, the North Carolina Maritime Museum, historical researchers, the surfboat builders, and donors.
"The Life-Saving Service is an important part of Kitty Hawk's history and the history of the Outer Banks," Mayor Charlotte Walker said in the announcement. Town Manager Melody Clopton called the memorial "an opportunity to connect Kitty Hawk's past with its present."
Clopton's line about past and present fits this spot well. The past she's talking about is the building next door.
Eight Numbers North, the Station Still Stands
The Black Pelican sits across from the beach at Milepost 4, and its own history says the building first served as Lifesaving Station #6. Its listed address is 3848 Virginia Dare Trail North. That's next door to the Bath House at 3840 N. VA Dare Trail, where the town lists 50 parking spaces, two of them accessible.
The station is easy to miss because it no longer looks like one. A 2016 Coastal Review history called the building "unrecognizable, disguised as the Black Pelican restaurant." It reported that the station has been moved twice to escape the ocean, and that after many additions, "the gingerbread trim near the peak of the gable roof is the only hint of its past life."
| Stop | Address | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Life-Saving Station Memorial | Kitty Hawk Bath House Beach Access, 3840 N. Virginia Dare Trail | Educational elements and the 13-foot replica surfboat |
| Former Kitty Hawk Life-Saving Station | 3848 Virginia Dare Trail North | Gingerbread trim near the peak of the gable roof |
When you know where to look, the memorial points you to the real building. Stand by the surfboat, then look up at that gable.
What the Men in That Building Did
The memorial honors a crew, and the building next door is where that crew lived and trained. The National Park Service says the first Outer Banks stations were built and staffed starting in 1874, Kitty Hawk and Caffeys Inlet among them. Eleven more stations followed in 1878, including Kill Devil Hills. In 1915 the service became part of the Coast Guard. Sources disagree on the year the Kitty Hawk building went up. The Park Service, Coastal Review, and the Black Pelican all say 1874, while the U.S. Coast Guard Historian's entry for Station Kitty Hawk lists 1878. That same entry says the station was turned over to the General Services Administration in 1964.
Coastal Review described a typical station crew as seven men: a keeper, usually called captain, and six surfmen with experience as mariners, sailors, and fishermen. The crew drilled often, launching their boat from the beach through breaking waves in all kinds of weather. They patrolled up to five miles of beach on foot and stood watch for hours in the lookout tower, where chairs were forbidden. Today's replica surfboat is 13 feet long. In other words, the memorial puts a model of the boat those drills were built around beside the building where the crew lived.
The Coast Guard Historian names four Kitty Hawk keepers:
- W.D. Tate, whom Coastal Review identifies as the station's first keeper
- James R. Hobbs, who replaced Tate a few years later
- Samuel J. Payne
- Avery B.L. Tillett
The crews also worked together along the beach. In a 2024 history series, the Outer Banks Voice retold the 1885 rescue of the Harkaway. Keeper Daniel B. Austin of Caffey's Inlet chose the beach apparatus over a surfboat because the surf was too dangerous. Patrolmen from Poyner's Hill and Paul Gamiel's Hill joined him on the beach, the Poyner's Hill crew came to help, and all 13 sailors were brought ashore. Kitty Hawk's station was one link in that chain of stations along the coast.
The Weather Desk the Wright Brothers Relied On
The building held one more job, and it ties the station to the most famous event in local history. According to the Black Pelican's history, the station also served as an active weather bureau. The Wright brothers used its weather information to plan their flights, and after the first successful flight in 1903, they sent the telegraph announcement from Station #6. Coastal Review tells it a little differently. It says the brothers relied on the station for weather and telegraph service and handed their note to the telegraph operator after the flight. Either way, the news of powered flight went out through this Kitty Hawk building.
The help on the dunes that day came from the next station south. The Coast Guard Historian's entry for Station Kill Devil Hills says that crew assisted with the first powered flight on December 17, 1903, and names keepers Jesse Partridge and Jesse E. Ward. The station's crew list from around 1903 includes John T. Daniels. Wright State University's archive names Daniels as the creator of its "First flight" photograph, dated 12-17-1903.
So the two stations had different roles. Kill Devil Hills surfmen helped with the flight and took the photograph. Kitty Hawk's station handled the weather that went into planning it and the message that came out of it. A memorial at the Kitty Hawk Bath House honors the station that did that work, and the building is close enough to hit with a heaving line. If you want to see the Kill Devil Hills side of the evening loop, our Kill Devil Hills neighborhood page picks up from there.
When to Make the Walk
Timing matters this week. The Town of Kitty Hawk's calendar lists the Bath House closing for the season on October 29, the day this post goes up. The restrooms and showers will be closed until next season. The memorial is part of the beach access, and the station building keeps its own schedule.
The Black Pelican calls itself one of the first year-round restaurants on the Outer Banks. Paul Shaver opened it in 1993, and it stays open all year except Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. This fall its posted hours are 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, with lunch until 4 and dinner after that. A weekday lunch is a good time to see both stops. Look at the surfboat first, then walk next door and check the gable trim before you go inside.
Expect the beach to look different from how it did in September. During the mid-October storm, Dare County warned of dangerous surf, rip currents, beach erosion, and possible overwash along the county coastline. The Outer Banks Voice reported that the National Weather Service expected several days of coastal flooding and dangerous marine conditions into the middle of the following week. Check town notices for Beach Road and beach access conditions before you head over.
The station has been moved twice to keep it ahead of the ocean, which is why it's still standing at Milepost 4 for the new memorial to stand beside. For more on the town around it, see our Kitty Hawk neighborhood guide.
At Luxury Realty Outer Banks, Jessica Evans knows how a house's story, like how many times it's been moved, which way it faces, and what it started out as, shapes what it's like to own on this stretch of Virginia Dare Trail. If you own near Milepost 4 or are thinking about it, schedule a consultation and talk through the stretch with someone who knows it.
