Newspapers / State Port Pilot (Southport, … / June 13, 1962, edition 1 / Page 7
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s±t i aupon neach— Impressive Improvements »y jukaitx'un COOPER “A family beach with good substantial commercial develop ment”—“A quiet place where we can feel like we’re getting away from the hustle and bustle of the city”. These are two descriptions of the same place, Yaupon Beach, given by residents of the area on the same day. They may be some what conflicting in their scope, but they are both adequate in summing up the fast-growing re sort community near Southport. In 1954, when the late G. V. Barbee, Sr., first began promoting and developing this relatively short stretch of the North Caro lina coast, there was nothing but scrubby pines, glaring sand, and a road running through headed toward another beach. Today, nearly 10 years later, Yaupon Beach can boast of a year-round popultaion of 200 resi dents, plus a well-planned, ade quate shopping area, and a com munity of attractive homes. Gib Barbee, son of the founder of Yaupon, is carrying on the work his father started when the family moved here in 1954. “My father saw the possibilities inher ent in this part of the coast after travelling from Maine to Florida looking for a place to settle”, young Barbee declared. The elder Barbee was connect ed with real estate in the town of Wake Forest, N. C., when the bottom literally fell out of his market. This sudden depression in real estate in the Piedmont town was caused by the removal of the college of Wake Forest to Winston-Salem. The family moved to Bruns wick, purchased the section of the beach which is now known as Yaupon, and started to work. “This is the only work I’ve ever known,” the younger Barbee went on. The quiet-spoken, but ener getic real estate entrepreneur at tended the University of North Carolina, but came back home to take over the reins of Yaupon follownig his father’s death in IP*. This is a scene on the strand at Yaupon Beach with the fishong pier in the background. There is a life guard on duty full time at this bathing area. i»oa. “Frankly,” Barbee continued “there was nothing here in ’54 absolutely nothing.” It was evi dent even to just a casual on looker that a lot of time, energy and money has been put into the beach since then. “We feel we have a well-round ed community building here. It isn’t anything flashy or specta cular, but we do believe that it is sound, and will continue to grow well in the next few years,” Bar bee continued. There was none of the usual promotional sales talk one associates with inter viewing land developers. But what about Yaupon’s FOY ROE & CO. PHONE RO 2-5923 9 North Front St. WILMINGTON, N. C. growth m the past eight years? What does this beach have to offer today? To find this out, we took a leisurely tour of the beach, and its surrounding area, and talked with several people who are now making their homes there. Practically all of the available land on the ocean side of Yaupon has been sold. A good many of these lots already have substan tial looking homes built on them. “We would much rather have a family come in, spend a few days looking around, and find just what they" want in the line of a lot. This way they’re satisfied with what they’ve purchased, and usually are ready to start on a house,” Barbee told me. Consequently, there is no high pressure sales promotion going on at Yaupon. Of course, there is land to be bought, plenty of it, but the visitor isn’t bombarded with billboards and gimmicks. At the present, the company is opening up new lots on the in land waterway side of the island. There well over 300 lots in this area of the development. New streets are being cut through the trees now, and eventually a canal will be dredged so that small boats can be launched. Some building has already started on these lots, but most of the progress of Yaupon can be seen on the ocean side. Driv ing down to the water's edge, one notices first of all the two large motels. These buildings have an unhindered view of the sea, and there is nothing to block the cool breeze the perpetually blows in from the water. There are three motels in Yau pon, one on the highway, and the other two on the beach. Of the three, the largest is the Yau pon Motel, owned by Gib Barbee. The three motels have a com bined total of over 75 units. "This is just right for conven tions,” Barbee pointed out, "and we’re already beginning to do some business of this type here.” Within the past few months a medical convention has been held at Yaupon, and a group from the Pilot Life Insurance Company is scheduled In a few weeks. One of the motels, the Ocean Front, is the proud possessor of Brunswick county’s only coastal motel swimming pool. The pool, installed in Clarence Murphy’s motel, is already a big drawing card for persons who prefer to do their swimming in the quiet, fresh waters rather than in the surf. Across the way from the mo tels is the amusement area. Here the younger members of families visiting the beach can spend their idle hours. There are bumper cars, a universal attraction for young and old alike, along with a narrow-guage railroad, a fish ing pier, and a small, but popular, pavilion. Added since last season is an asphalt parking lot for the amusement area. “This is really one of the biggest improvements we’ve made,” Barbee stated. While the young real estate executive stopped to talk over a business problem with an em ployee of the snack bar in the pier, we strolled out over the blue waters of the Atlantic. Sev eral men were there fishing. One of them, a native of Lexington, N. C., told me that he started coming to Yaupon several years ago on the advice of a friend. "It’s a place where all of us can have a good time,” another fisherman chimed in. “It’s small enough that we don’t have to worry about the kids getting lost, but large enough that there’s something to do,” he added. The beach was not overly crowded on this early June af ternoon, but a good number of sun-lovers were stretched out on the sand starting on the summer tan. One girl, in her late teens, and already a well-done shade, splashed into the surf, adjusting her swimming cap as she went. Barbee joined us about that time, and seemed to take a per sonal interest in the fishing luck the patrons of the pier were hav ing. Almost everyone seemed to know him. “By the way, we’re the only beach in the county that has a full-time certified life guard on duty all summer long,” he men tioned as we walked back toward the car. Leaving the pier, and driving back toward the highway, we passed several new homes that would be a credit to any com munity. “This is the type home we like to see built here,” Bar bee said. “We averaged slightly over one new house getting under construction per week this past spring, and most of them were of this type.” He pointed to a newly finished house of average size, but very neat and liveable looking. Near Yaupon itself is the site of the new Oak Island Golf and Beach Club. Here, on land pur chased from the original Barbee tract, a group of men are opening a highly restricted real estate de velopment centered around an 18 hole championship golf course. Construction was started this week on the club house at the course. “This will be a tremendous boost for our beach,” Barbee continued. “We hope to begin playing on the course by the first of July.” As we returned to his office, Barbee answered a question about the philosophy behind his de velopment. “I’ll be quite truthful with you,” he began. “When you speak of philosophy, you’re speak ing of motivation, and the prime motivation in any real estate de velopment is to make money. But we believe that a certain respon sibility goes along with this, too.” “We have a responsibility to the person who buys property here and builds a home on it to provide him with a good com munity in which to live,” he con tinued. “We’d like to see a well rounded development here where people can come who are both semi-retired, as well as ambitious and young.” "You can say that this is the goal we’re shooting for: to have a community where people can come as a family group to vaca tion, or to live. We don’t want a beach that is populated by a bunch of ‘rough-necks’, but one where the whole family can have a good time without worrying.” It was refreshing to hear him state this as the purpose of his Continued On Page 2 Waterfront » Sheldon Nelson, a 17 year old visitor from Greensboro hooked a large fish Saturday afternoon on the fishing pier at Yaupon Beach. After a two and one half hour battle, the fish snapped his line and got away. Ideas on the specie of the fish ranged from a stinger ray to a tarpon. Sheldon was us ing a spinning reel and monofila ment line. We are sorry he had nothing to show for his battle but all of the hundred spectators who witnessed the fight realized he had really done a good job han dling the fish. We often think that crabbing is a much neglected sport in and around Brunswick, and when we have an eager bunch of upstate visitors who not only want to have some fun, but who are in terested in crabs to eat, we know that this is a form of entertain ment that should be encouraged. Like Friday afternoon when a party of teenagers from Raleigh visited the Southport city dock to try their luck at crabbing. They were using meat scraps ob tained from a local butcher shop, but all the time they were com plaining that fish heads would be better. We explained that you only have fish heads when you have fish, and that the local sup ply for a couple of days had been cut short by a northeast wind. “Then they ought to do like TEMPEST PONTIAC HARRIS PONTIAC, Inc. Next Door to Bus Station Wilmington, N. C. Pontiac - Tempest - GMC * ROger 3-8231 they do at Moreehad City,” one of the much-traveled girls de clared. “Up there they freeze them when they have a big sup ply and they sell them to folks who want to go crabbing.” For a moment we had a feeling that she was pulling our leg, but she insisted that this does happen. So if it happens at Morehead, maybe it is worth considering at Southport, Long Beach, Holden Beach, Shallotte Point and other favorite fishing places alogn the coast of Brunswick. For the past week, whenever the weather would allow it, John ny Barbee and his family have been sailing in the ocean on the new sailboat that Johnny has re cently purchased. We heard sev eral people comment that it look ed like so much fun that they would certainly like to have one. Someone asked the Rev. Dray ton Cooper this week what is the probable mortality rate on the palmetto trees planted on the Presbyterian church grounds sev eral weeks ago. “We’ll surely save one, and maybe the other,” he predicted. “Both of them would Continued On Page 2 I Distributed In This Area By Electric Bottling Co., Inc. WILMINGTON, N. C. I 1 KAlrlb U.b.D.A. BLACK HAWK BEEF } CHUCK ROAST 39c ih i SHOULDER ROAST 59c Lb iCHUCKSTEW 45c Lb ! Fresh Frozen NICK BONES 2 lbs 25c Red & White ‘ SHORTENING 3ib can 69c \ Duke's MAYONNAISE Qt 49< Fresh PEACHES lb li« LEMONS doz 35c Southern Pkg. of 12's PAN ROLL 10< Southern 6-Layer 69c Value Chocolate Cake 49c For Outdoor Living get |,= Famous Brand Gifts WWi_%l>- — _ «w_I free with Top Value Stamps ffi Choose the gifts you want and plan now I far summer fun- Shop at our store. We give 1 lop Value Stamps <-» one stamp fac every I <Sme you spend* ASK FOR NEW STAMP CATALOGUE DEL MONTE—46-Oz. Can 4-CANS Pineapple-G‘ Fruit Juice $1,00 RED S WHITE n8.0Z. 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State Port Pilot (Southport, N.C.)
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June 13, 1962, edition 1
7
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