The Inn History

The Aerie is a historic site in North Carolina that has been called home by a justice of the peace and hotelier, a State Senator, a social worker, and tenants that included a WWII nurse, a cousin of the Wright Brothers who happened to share Orville’s name, and the son of Pepsi-Cola inventor Caleb Bradham!

The Street-Ward House is the historical name of this Victorian inn in New Bern, NC. Built by Samuel R. Street Jr. in 1882, who occupied the home until 1900. The Alfred D. Ward family resided here for the better part of the 20th century. The earliest map to show the house, dated 1888, shows it to have had a typical open one-story front porch in the position of the present enclosed two-story porch. The porch was enclosed in the mid-1920s and the second-story porch was added. The three-sided bay windows, ornamented with pediment style hoods and apron panel are the original features of the home.

As constructed for Street, the house followed a center-hall plan, which was altered during the 20th century by the removal of a partition wall between the staircase and parlor. The original double entrance doors (left), now obscured by the porch enclosure, still retain their handsome etched-glass panels. The two centrally positioned interior chimneys served fireplaces in the front and rear rooms on both floors. Several of the original Victorian mantels were replaced during the Ward ownership with interesting Federal-period mantels. Rising to the rear of the hall, the stairs have a massive turned and faceted newel, turned balusters, and delicately sawn step-end brackets.