The Whalehead Club

This Art Nouveau style home was built in the 1920s by Edward Knight Jr and his wife Marie Louise Lebel Bonat Knight, wealthy industrialists who were some of the first to transform North Carolina's Outer Banks into a destination for the wealthy.

Both devout hunters, the Knights used their residence as a sort of hunting club. After their deaths in 1936, their private residence served a number of different uses.

In the 1940s, the U.S Coast Guard utilized the mansion to house troops tasked with patrolling the North Carolina coast for enemy submarines and landing parties. After the end of the war, the house was turned into the Corolla School for Boys, a summer school for well-off students. During the Cold War in the 1960s, the house was later used as a rocket research and testing facility operated by the Atlantic Research Corporation.

After the Corporation left in 1969 to find a more secluded location, the mansion fell into disuse and was completely restored in the late 90s. The house now stands as a popular landmark and museum, with a great view of the Currituck Lighthouse and sits in the Historic Corolla park along with its original boathouse, a wildlife center, and a maritime museum.