Museum of the Albemarle — Attraction in Elizabeth City

This is our second time back to this local Museum. First time we went was pre-covid for a program which the kids had a blast at. This time was a random rainy day decision. We brought our two daughters, ages 11 and 4, to view the local history and see what's new. The museum itself is free, donation bin available and focuses mostly on local history and artifacts found from the region, but also has other exhibits that they switch out from other areas, in this case it was artifacts found in ancient middle east.

What made this visit special is that not only is the building clean and fun to walk around, but the people who work there are informative and will stop and take the time to talk with you, whether for information on the exhibits or local area, programs coming up, and a good conversation. We were even surprised to learn that this museum has a local archeologist whom we were able to speak with for a few minutes. You might think it is silly for us to be excited about that, however my oldest wants to be an archeologist and a geologist when she grows up, so her meeting this wonderful woman who talked about what she has done in her life and how to get there was like my daughter met a famous person. Her excitement when we left couldn't be contained. We were also told about a teen volunteer program within the museum in which I will be asking questions on later, as I have a very interested girl.

I'm happy that a rainy day decision became something more enjoyable than...

This whole area is actually very interesting and even though Elizabeth City and Edenton are small towns, they have been well documented over the years including what has happened in the other surrounding counties nestled here along the Albemarle. Unfortunately our history stands in the shadow of places like the Outer Banks, and the Colonial Triangle (Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown) so you would be amazed at how much history is right under your feet.

The museum is a great place to visit for both adults and children and I've never seen it all that busy which to me is a good thing. I'd say the building is split in half with one part being recent and the other half is the truly historical stuff. They have a good collection of recent history (just cool objects from the early 1900s that give you an idea of what life was like in a small southern farm town) and the second part I spoke of has a ton of information ranging from the civil war all the way to colonial times where this area was used for secret hideaways for pirates and merchants. Also they cover some aspects of the natives...

This museum was well worth the long drive and visit. It took us about 3 hours to see everything and there was a section that was closed off.

In addition to the regular sections of the museum they had special exhibit on the contributions of women and one called High on the Hog which was about the history of slaughtering and processing pigs. It was really interesting. Aside from those there was a section on the history of Native Americans as well as the history of the area.

The museum is fully accessible and has benches throughout. I was able to easily navigate it with my scooter. One thing that was disappointing was the first floor bathroom. There was a handicap sign on the outside but no handicap stall inside. Then when I looked a little further I found a door that said “nursing room”, when I looked inside there was a handicap toilet set up. It was strange.

The staff here are really nice and helpful. The gift shop was really nice, I spent way too much in there. I was also able to buy gifts from the local area.

Take the time to enjoy this gem...