Washington, NC History

Of the local communities, Washington is second in age only to nearby Bath, and is perhaps the first city erected in America after the collapse of the British government in North Carolina.

There appears to have been life on the banks of the Pamlico River at least one hundred years prior, when a Welsh missionary named Morgan Jones wrote of an encounter with a group of Indians described to have fair complexions and red hair. Speculation has it that these were descendants of a band of Welsh led by a prince, Madoc (or Madog) ab Owain Gwynedd, in 1170.

Incorporated in 1782, (after a first attempt in 1771 never gained approval), Washington had long since been a thriving center of commerce, established "for the speedy decision of mercantile transactions with foreign and transient persons."

One of the first buildings build in the city was Mulberry Tavern, and for more than half a century it provided food and drink for the seaman whose ships docked nearby, and lodging for plantation owners and others in town on business.

As mentioned earlier, Union forces occupied Washington in 1862, and it, along with Plymouth in Washington County, suffered more Civil War destruction than any other North Carolina town.