Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Ray T. Adams Papers #4430-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from Nicola McKenna of Washington, D.C., in Novmeber 1985.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

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• Adams, Ray T., d. 1957.
• Corolla (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Hunting and fishing clubs--North Carolina--History.
• Photograph albums.
• Scrapbooks--North Carolina.
• Whalehead Club (Currituck County, N.C.).

Ray T. Adams (d. 1957), a wealthy Washington, D.C., meat wholesaler, purchased the Whalehead Club near Corolla, N.C., in 1939. On 6 August 1942, Adams leased his property for the duration of World War II to the United States Coast Guard. After the war, he tried unsuccessfully to promote the property as a luxury resort area.

Prior to Adams's purchase of the Whalehead Club, the property was owned by Edward C. Knight, Jr., a noted Detroit architect. Knight had been a member of a hunting club, the Light House Club, from whom he purchased the land in 1922. Knight and his wife built a huge and elaborate mansion which served as Adams's hunting lodge and remained standing as of 1972.

Upon Adams's death in 1957, the Whalehead property was sold to Portsmouth contractor George T. McLean, who leased the house in 1959 as a boys' summer school, Corolla Academy. The school closed after only two summers. In 1962, the land was leased and later sold to the Atlantic Research Corporation for use as a solid fuel rocket testing station. Abandoned later in the 1960s, the property was purchased again in 1972 by private investors, Whale's Head Development Corporation, who planned to convert the property into a resort area.

The collection includes scrapbooks, a guestbook, photograph albums, newspaper clippings, and other material of Ray T. Adams, relating to the Whalehead Club, in Corolla, N.C.

Oversize volumes (SV-4430/1-5)

Photograph albums (PA-4430/1-2)

Photographs (XOP-PF-4430/1)