And so by the help of the Lord I wish to bring to your prayerful attention some thoughts (1) of retrospect, (2) of respect, and (3) of prospect. I think sometimes we fail to properly respect or prospect because we fail to retrospect. This is one of the important things about history. The respect and ambition of the student is fired by the zeal of those who have lived and wrought before him, and so for the sake of those present today who are descendants of this great ancestry, we will as briefly as possible take a backward look.
—Taken from a sermon by Rev. Myles C. Walton at Masonboro Baptist Church in 1926.
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What is the Masonboro Historical Institute?
We are first and foremost a labor of love. We believe that the history of Masonboro Sound is worthy of a wide audience, not only for descendants of Sounders but those who now live on this once bucolic seashore resort and fishing village. We have chosen as our logo the original Masonboro Baptist Church (circa, 1867) which functioned as the beating heart of this community for more than a hundred years and is an integral part of it to this day. Our goal is to use Crockette Hewlett’s long out-of-print book, Between the Creeks (1971), as a starting point to make her rich history more accessible then expand, through our own research, the history of that land both north and south of Hewlett’s Creek and Whiskey Creek, adjacent to the 8.4 miles of Masonboro Island. We encourage participation in our efforts and will be looking for old pictures, stories and memories of the settlers and hope to add as many oral histories as we can capture.
We encourage your contributions as we are a recognized 501(c)(3) public charity and they are deductible under IRC Section 170.