On Ocracoke Island the Howard family is well-known for owning Village Craftsmen, the much-loved craft gallery they have been operating on Howard Street for more than 50 years. Showcasing Ocracoke-inspired fine art and crafts is a passion for gallery founder Philip Howard and his daughter, Amy, who now runs the business.
They are equally passionate about Ocracoke’s history and lore. As eighth- and ninth-generation islanders, they find particular joy in sharing and preserving Ocracoke’s traditions with their fellow residents as well as visitors.
Island stories flow from Philip as if he was born telling them, but it was not until adulthood that he fell headfirst into the depths of Ocracoke history.
As a teenager in the 1950s he loved to listen to his family tell stories on the porch and to participate in Ocracoke’s Saturday night square dances. The islanders were adept at the traditional dances, but visitors often got the steps mixed up. Despite that, everyone had a great time.
By the 1990s the dances had not been held regularly for many years. After interviewing several old-timers, Philip realized the square dance steps and figures had been mostly forgotten. Soon thereafter he gathered musicians and dancers from the past and was thrilled to see that the dancers’ bodies remembered the figures even if their minds did not.
“I decided to document the dance and created a booklet to keep the dance steps and patterns alive,” Philip remembers. “Then I thought, ‘How many other traditions are in danger of being lost?’ That’s how I got started collecting and telling stories.”
He then began doing extensive research, collecting memory fragments from islanders and transferring these snippets into well-rounded stories.
“It’s the puzzles that I like to pursue,” he says of his research. “I hear a bit here and a bit there and then I put it all together. I research dates and facts, and the local color comes from my neighbors.”
By 2000 he had started the monthly Ocracoke Newsletter featuring in-depth articles on local subjects, and in 2004 he added a daily blog, Ocracoke Journal. These thousands of entries are available at villagecraftsmen.com.
In the early 2000s, after attending a ghost walk in Charleston, S.C., led by an out-of-state guide, Philip started Ocracoke Ghost and History Walks. “I thought, ‘If I don’t do this, somebody else will come along and tell our stories for us,’” he says.
In 2008 he published his first book of Ocracoke stories, Digging Up Uncle Evans. It was so popular that in 2015 he produced Howard Street Hauntings. In 2020 Ocracoke Preservation Society awarded Philip their annual Cultural Heritage Award in recognition of his work documenting island life and history. Newly released in the spring of 2024 is his third book, Ocracoke Island Eccentrics, Innovators, and Free Spirits, lively accounts of some of the many interesting people who have lived on or passed through the island.
The same motivation that got him started is keeping him going 24 years later.
“I love celebrating people’s contributions to Ocracoke,” he says. “I like learning the stories, and I enjoy sharing them with others.”
Philip continues to write books, blogs and newsletters and to tell stories to those within earshot, but he has scaled back his public commitments.
“In any gathering he still gets a twinkle in his eye and he’ll say, ‘I know no one asked me to tell a story, but…,’” Amy says.
Amy and her husband, David Tweedie, have taken up the role of sharing stories with island visitors through the Ocracoke Ghost and History Walks, which they lead twice a week in-season.
“This is what you don’t get elsewhere,” Amy says of the tours. “These are the behind-the-scenes stories that give insight into the island and its people and make our visitors’ experiences more personal.”
David and many others also help keep Ocracoke history and culture at the forefront through Ocracoke Alive, the organization responsible for the Ocrafolk Music and Storytelling Festival each June, the Ocrafolk Opry and other events. The Opry is held weekly in-season at Deepwater Theater on School Road and features local musicians in a celebration of the island through story and song. David often shares a story or two between musical sets.
The Howards cherish their role in sharing island history along with other storytellers and authors. The Ocracoke Preservation Society Museum, for example, offers a wealth of informational exhibits as well as genealogical research assistance for on- and off-islanders looking to expand their knowledge of island and family history.
Amy says stories of the past are important to the present and future of Ocracoke.
“The stories remind us of where we came from, and that can be the rudder for how we evolve and grow,” she says. “We have to remember what we loved about the old so we don’t completely destroy what we love about this place as we build the new.”
“It makes for a richer experience when you know a place and its humanness and history,” Philip adds.
While strolling down historic Howard Street, be sure to stop in at Village Craftsmen where you will find an assortment of fine American handcrafts, friendly conversation, maybe a story or two and, of course, all of Philip’s books.
(252) 928-5541
info@villagecraftsmen.com
170 Howard Street, Ocracoke
About the Author Molly Harrison
Molly Harrison is managing editor at OneBoat, publisher of OuterBanksThisWeek.com. She moved to Nags Head in 1994 and since then has made her living writing articles and creating publications about the people, places and culture of the Outer Banks.
