The Bragg-Howard House
30 Lawton Lane, Ocracoke, NC 27960
November, 2025
- Basic Information
- Built ~1865 by Thomas (“Thomps”) Bragg (1837-????).
- This is a typical “story and a jump” house.
- Originally two rooms downstairs and one large room upstairs. Kitchen was a separate building behind the house. No indoor bathroom.
- Original location: on present-day School Road, about where Books To Be Red is today.
- Purchased in 1898 by James and Zilphia Howard as a wedding present for their son, Homer Howard (1868-1947), and his wife, Aliph O’Neal (1876-1950). Dragged to its present location by a team of horses.
- Thirteen children born in the house.
- Owned today by Philip Howard, grandson of Homer and Aliph Howard.
- Flooded in the storms of 1899, 1930, and 1944.
- Elevated ~1955.
- Elevated again in 2005.
- Flooded during Hurricane Dorian in 2019.
- All doorknobs and locks, except the added lock on entrance door, are original (entrance door and rear door locks are salvaged from a ship).
- Front Porch
- Original porch posts.
- Swing was originally hung on the other end. In years past, this orientation provided an unimpeded view of Silver Lake Harbor.
- Small windows above the ceiling open into the upstairs, and were designed to promote air flow before A/C.
- Living Room
- Floor, beadboard walls, and beadboard ceiling are all original.
- Directly ahead of the entrance, on back wall, is evidence of the original back door.
- Repaired ceiling boards indicate location of original staircase.
- Hand-hewn ship’s knee on floor beside gas log stove is one of several used to frame the floor joists.
- Photo on wall (~1940) shows Philip’s father, Lawton, and Philip’s brother, Buddy, standing in front of the original round water cistern.
- Black and white shore birds on mantel were carved by Lawton Howard.
- Pastel sketches above mantel (Stefen and Amy Howard) were made by Philip Howard.
- “Hunting scene” Oriental rug was part of the Sam Jones collection.
- Platform rocker, a reproduction of the captain’s chair from the steamboat Ariosto which wrecked in 1837, was made by Lawton Howard from driftwood.
- Under the tall table (made by David Tweedie) beside sofa can be seen three floorboards that were cut and removed to allow the sea tide to enter the house during the storm of 1933 and prevent the tide from washing the house off its foundation.
- Clock on manel belonged to Homer and Aliph Howard.
- Wooden grave marker hanging just inside the entrance door is the original marker for Philip’s maternal great grandfather, Tilmon O’Neal. The marker reads,
IN
MEMRY
OF TILM
ON ON
EAL
BORND
JULY 1845
AGE 40 Y
TWO MUN
TH 27 DAY
- Downstairs Bedroom
- Floor, beadboard walls, and beadboard ceiling are all original.
- Wall between Living Room and Bedroom is only one board thick.
- Evidence of door to outside is behind bed.
- This room has the only closet in the house, obviously an afterthought. The house was built before the invention of the wire coat hanger in 1903.
- Ship’s model was made by Roy Parsons.
- On the walls:
- Photo of Homer and Aliph Howard is in horizontal oval frame.
- Photo of Philip’s mother, Kunigunde (with bow in hair), daughter of Hungarian immigrants, and her siblings is in vertical oval frame.
- Kunigunde’s 1914 German-language baptismal certificate is on wall.
- Downstairs Bathroom
- 2005 addition.
- Shelf above toilet was salvaged from a ship; floor salvaged from the Milon Williams house.
- .
- Dining Room
- Rear addition was built before 1911.
- Beadboard walls and ceiling are original; floor has been replaced.
- Spice shelves are built where original back door was located.
- Lazy Susan table, dental cabinets, and bronze plaque are from the Sam Jones collection.
- Photo of Kunigunde (Connie) and Lawton Howard is in oval “tramp art” frame.
- Rubbing is of James W. Howard’s tombstone on Howard Street. James was first keeper of the Cedar Hammock Life Saving Station at Hatteras Inlet (1883).
- Kitchen
- Originally a small open porch.
- Porch closed in and kitchen installed in early 20th
- Door opens into stairway to upstairs.
- Screened-in back porch
- New addition, 2005
- Original location of water cistern and boardwalk to outbuilding.
- Stairs
- Narrow and steep, with no railing.
- Relocated here after rear addition built.
- Upstairs
- Originally two bedrooms.
- Original beadboard walls and ceiling; floor has been replaced
- Small windows at floor level open under front porch roof.
- Bathroom added in 2005; floor salvaged from the Milon Williams house.
- Documents on wall: photo of ship my Hungarian-born grandmother sailed on from Europe to New York in 1912, and ship’s manifest (Juliana Pohlmüller listed on line 16).