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Old Neck National Register Rural Historic District
Dating to a 1663 land grant, 
the Old Neck Historic District is one of America's earliest English settlements. On your drive through the district, reflect on the open fields and historic architecture that recall an earlier time.
In 1672 George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends or Quakers, traveled to this area and from his visit Perquimans County became the site of the beginning of organized religion in North Carolina.
The Old Neck District is primarily open farmland with five major plantation homes and seven smaller houses and farms. The five remaining antebellum homes in the district are:
- Riverside, William Jones Plantation, circa 1815
- Francis Nixon Plantation, circa 1815
- Swampside, Fletcher-Skinner-Nixon House, built circa 1815
- Cove Grove, Benjamin S. Skinner Plantation, built circa 1830
- Elmwood, Thomas Nixon Plantation, built 1849
Old Neck's significance stems from the blending of the natural and historic rural landscape with the exceptional quality and range of the historic buildings within the agricultural environment. In Old Neck, the family ties established in the early nineteenth century extend to the present day with descendents of the original owners continuing to own the land.
Almost 350 years after first settlement, the Old Neck Historic District maintains its rich agricultural character and deep agrarian roots. Consider staying a spell in one of the antebellum homes, Fletcher-Skinner-Nixon House, built circa 1815, and today operated as the 1812-on-the-Perquimans Bed & Breakfast Inn.
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