Historic Windsor

Created by the Colonial Assembly in 1768, New Windsor was established on the site known as Gray’s Lading where William Gray had offered 100 acres for a town. Today, the National Register Historic District encompasses that same area.A scenic boardwalk from the Cashie-Roanoke River Interpretive Center to the Cashie River Bridge borders the waterfront that was once a busy port with a customs house and a branch of the State Bank serving West Indian and coastal water trade.Artifacts from the archaeological dig authorized by the NC Deparment of Transportation in 1996 at the site of the Chowan River Bridge on US 17 North are displayed in a small museum at the Interpretive Center where artifacts confirm once speculative evidence that earlier permanent settlement in North Carolina was in what is today known as Bertie County on a point between the Roanoke and Chowan Rivers and the Albemarle Sound. Bricks from the cellar of a home that once stood on that site have been removed and reassembled at the center.A self-guided walking tour through the Historic District encompasses the area of the town as it was first laid out in 1768 and includes the traditional commercial district and the oldest residential section of the town where some of the houses date to the 18th century.Two early churches, Cashie Baptist and Windsor United Methodist Church which have been modernized stand on the original sites. Grave markers in the church yard cemeteries attract genealogists regularly. St. Thomas Episcopal Church, built in 1839, retains most of its original architecture.Sandy Point Baptist Church just acress the Cashie River on US 17 North was formed in 1835, but the original structure is much older. The framework of the church was constructed in 1776 as a house of worship for the congregation of Cashie Baptist which included both blacks and whites. The building and grounds were purchased by members of the black congregation who had founded Sandy Point Missionary Baptist Chruch when the white congregation moved to Windsor.Other points of interest in the town include the Livermon Park and Mini-Zoo, the Cashie Wetlands Walk, and the Tuscarora Indian Musuem and the 19th century Freeman Hotel which houses the office of the Windsor Chamber of Commerce.Historic Windsor is one of many sites on the Historic Albemarle Tour (www.historicalbemarletour.org).