Qualla: Attmore-Oliver House

Attmore-Oliver House: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit self, CC BY-SA 3.0. The footsteps come from the upstairs hallway, when no one is upstairs. That is one of the stories told about 511 Broad Street, where a tall white house with porches stacked front and back has been watching over New Bern since 1790. The Attmore-Oliver House was built when the United States Constitution was barely older than a toddler, expanded around 1834 as the town's mercantile fortunes grew, and has spent the last two centuries collecting families, parlor furniture, gossip, and - if you believe the New Bern Historical Society members who lock up at night - at least one resident who never quite checked out.

Read more: Attmore-Oliver House on Qualla

Image: self | CC BY-SA 3.0

Attmore-Oliver House: A Federal House Grows Up

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit self, CC BY-SA 3.0. The original 1790 structure was a modest Federal-style dwelling, the kind of restrained, symmetrical building favored by the newly independent republic when it was still figuring out what American architecture should look like. Around 1834, the house was enlarged, gaining the pro...

Read more: Attmore-Oliver House on Qualla

Image: self | CC BY-SA 3.0

Attmore-Oliver House: From Family Home to Society Headquarters

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit self, CC BY-SA 3.0. The house carries the names of two families that owned it across generations. Today, the New Bern Historical Society owns the building and uses it as offices and event space, no longer running the property as a full house museum. The interior still holds period furnishings and fa...

Read more: Attmore-Oliver House on Qualla

Image: self | CC BY-SA 3.0

Attmore-Oliver House: Reputedly Haunted

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit self, CC BY-SA 3.0. The house has earned a reputation as one of the most haunted in a town that takes its ghosts seriously. New Bern stories include a Civil War cannonball that allegedly arrived through one wall during the 1862 Union assault on the town and lodged itself somewhere in the structure. ...

Read more: Attmore-Oliver House on Qualla

Image: self | CC BY-SA 3.0

Attmore-Oliver House: Anchoring the Historic District

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit self, CC BY-SA 3.0. 511 Broad Street sits inside the New Bern Historic District, one of the largest and most intact concentrations of pre-Civil War architecture on the southern Atlantic coast. Federal, Georgian, Greek Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne houses crowd the surrounding blocks, each with...

Read more: Attmore-Oliver House on Qualla

Image: self | CC BY-SA 3.0