The Southern Shores Historic Flat Top Tour features 13 iconic mid-century cottages this year and takes place in just two weeks, Sat., April 25, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Tickets are $10 apiece and may be purchased online at http://bit.ly/4lnhTab (service fee added) or on the day of the tour, from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the Flat Top Tour’s box-office tent in the Southern Shores Crossing, 1 Ocean Blvd. (Cash or check only.)
Shore Coffee Roasters, which is in the Crossing, is offering all ticket holders a complimentary cup of coffee on tour day.
The flat top tour is self-guided. Maps and cottage histories will be emailed with tickets that are purchased online and may be picked up at the box-office tent and in the participating cottages.
While you may access many of these distinctive flat-roofed cottages by parking in one spot and walking, you will have to drive to see all of them.
There will be “Tour Parking” signs on the tour route, and attendees will be able to park on the Southern Shores side streets without a town permit, but not on N.C. Hwy. 12.
The 13 cottages on the tour, from south to north, are:
- 13 Skyline Road
- 78 Skyline Road
- 43 Ocean Blvd.
- 69 Ocean Blvd.
- 113 Ocean Blvd.
- 23 Porpoise Run
- 156 Wax Myrtle Trail
- 159 Wax Myrtle Trail (shown above)
- 157 Ocean Blvd.
- 169 Ocean Blvd.
- 170 Ocean Blvd.
- 18 East Dogwood Trail
- 218 Ocean Blvd.
Photographs of all of the cottages are depicted on the Tour’s website in roughly the same order.
Artist, real estate developer, and visionary Frank Stick, who bought in 1946 the 2,600-acre tract of untouched land that he later named Southern Shores, designed the flat top to withstand the harsh Outer Banks weather and to be affordable. He used materials in the area, such as beach-sand-and-mortar building blocks and juniper for the interior walls and ceilings, and sought to blend his clean-lined, practical, and unostentatious houses into the natural coastal environment.
Like cottages he had seen in Florida, Stick built the flat tops on the ground, not on pilings. Beach houses in Southern Shores were not built on pilings until the 1970s.
We thank all of the owners who maintain Southern Shores’ remaining flat tops and thus preserve some of our town’s architectural and social history.
Proceeds from the flat top tour benefit the Outer Banks Community Foundation Flat Top Preservation Fund. For more information about the tour and the fund, please contact sshistoricflattops@gmail.com.
The tour will be held, rain or shine.
A FINAL REMINDER . . . BULK TRASH PICKUP IS NEXT FRIDAY
The spring bulk trash collection in town occurs next Friday, April 17. Items for pickup should be out by the roadside the night before.
For the do’s and don’ts of the items you may set out for removal, see:
Some of the “don’t” items we routinely see by the road are lumber, building materials, windows, screens, carpets, and rugs. We also suggest that you put items near the road so Bay Disposal workers do not overlook them.
AVOID EAST DOGWOOD TRAIL: We strongly urge you to avoid using East Dogwood Trail in the Southern Shores woods now. It is being repaired and resurfaced and is subject to closures without notice. We have seen too many drivers wishing to turn right on to East Dogwood Trail from South Dogwood Trail compelled to turn around because of a road closure. It’s best not to assume that you will be able to use Hickory Trail.
THE SOUTHERN SHORES BEACON, 4/11/26
The Southern Shores Beacon 