Chowan Beach was an African American playground founded in 1926 when Eli Reid of Winton, in Hertford County, North Carolina, converted an abandoned fishing beach along the Chowan River into a family-oriented resort for African Americans. The area was originally settled in the Colonial era but the ravages of the American Revolution and later the U.S. Civil War eventually broke the linkage to the original settlers.?? By the mid-1920s when Reid acquired the land from Hertford County, the old fishing village, the last known settlement, had long been abandoned. Under Reid???s ownership Chowan Beach became a place of quiet dignity where middle class African Americans could vacation for a day or a week.?? Reid, a World War I veteran and trustee of First Baptist Church of Winton, used his veterans and church connections to attract the first visitors. Many of those visitors would continue to return to Chowan Beach for the next four decades.?? In the 1920s and 1930s the area???s sandy beaches were the main attraction.?? By the 1940s, Reid built guest cottages, bathhouses, and a dance hall to accommodate a growing number of regular visitors.?? By the end of World War II Chowan Beach had taken on the […]