12 must-see museums that dive into NC’s quirky history, from cats to Bigfoot to Andy Griffith
North Carolina has dozens of museums and historic sites with curated collections and well-spoken docents telling a version of the state’s official history. From the storage trunk of time, they present what might be considered the fine china of museums, trotted out for company.
But in cities and towns across the state are many more less formal repositories of the relics of the state’s past, souvenirs obsessively collected — or hoarded — and now on display, sometimes by appointment only or for just a few hours per week. They offer up the local dish without the fancy dishes.
Here are a dozen offbeat museums worth a side trip during your summer travels, because they also help tell the story of North Carolina.
N.C. State University Insect Museum
Housed in Gardner Hall on the NCSU campus in Raleigh, the insect collection at N.C. State’s University Insect Museum includes more than 1.9 million specimens gathered and cataloged since 1951. Students and professors from the university’s Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology use the collection, but it’s also open to the public by appointment and it has an outreach program through which graduate students will bring the bugs to you.
The N.C. Museum of Dolls, Toys & Miniatures
This 4,000-square-foot museum at 108 Fourth St. in Spencer, near Salisbury, has a wide-ranging collection of things we played with as kids, or wanted to. Barbies, Raggedy Anns, Ginny dolls; doll houses; Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars; Lionel trains; airplanes; figurines and many more coveted toys and tiny things. The N.C. Museum of Dolls, Toys & Miniatures is open Thursday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Aurora Fossil Museum
The Aurora Fossil Museum at 400 Main St. in Aurora, northeast of New Bern, displays some of the oldest relics you’ll find in the state: Fossils from creatures that lived in eons past in North Carolina or around the world. Sift for relics in the sand pit, spoils of nearby phosphate mining. Through Sept. 1, open Sunday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Cryptozoology & Paranormal Museum
A former journalist started the Cryptozoology & Paranormal Museum after moving to Littleton, in Halifax County, and hearing people’s reports of seeing a huge, long-haired creature running around that wasn’t a bear or a coyote. The collection includes varied reports of what many hope is the elusive Bigfoot, along with some ghost stories and UFO reports. The museum is at 300 N. Main St. and is open more or less daily from 1 to 7 p.m.
Pepsi Museum
In the actual pharmacy building in downtown New Bern where Caleb Bradham invented Pepsi in 1898 is a museum celebrating North Carolina’s favorite cola drink. Hit the gift shop, which sells bumper stickers admonishing: Friends Don’t Let Friends Drink Coke. Open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 256 Middle St.
Missiles and More Museum
This collection of photos and ordinance tells the story of how Topsail Island was used by the military for a secret operation after World War II, and explains those tall concrete bunkers that still stand on the island. The Missiles and More Museum is housed in the circa-1946 building the military used at 720 Channel Blvd., Topsail Beach, and is open Monday-Friday through the end of September from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Hours change in the off-season.
Country Doctor Museum
Containing more than 5,000 medical artifacts, the Country Doctor Museum preserves the history of rural medical care. Housed in two historic buildings at 7089 Peele Road in Bailey, northwest of Wilson, it includes an apothecary, doctor’s office, sick room and a display on polio and, in season, a medicinal garden. Now part of East Carolina University’s Laupus Health Sciences Library, the museum offers guided tours offered Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Andy Griffith Museum
This is one of several stops pilgrims make when they visit Mount Airy, the childhood home of actor Andy Griffith and the model for Mayberry, where Griffith reigned as sheriff on “The Andy Griffith Show.” The Andy Griffith Museum at 218 Rockford St. is full of artifacts collected and donated by Griffith’s lifelong friend, Emmett Forrest. You can hear Griffith, also famed for his starring role on “Matlock,” sing “The Fishing Hole” on a loop. Open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Vierling House/Doctor’s House at Old Salem
Part of the Old Salem Museum and Gardens, the house was home to Dr. Samuel Benjamin Vierling, educated in Berlin in he 1780s and sent to Salem serve the Moravian community as a doctor at age 24. Vierling’s apothecary was in the home, as well as the hospital, and he performed operations including mastectomies and brain surgeries here. His tools are displayed. The house is included in a tour of Old Salem, which is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 900 Old Salem Road in Winston-Salem.
American Museum of the House Cat
Cats aren’t mere pets, they’re objets d’art, according to the American Museum of the House Cat, billed as a one-of-a-kind educational, historical, multimedia art collection dedicated solely to the feline. It traces the history of house cats from ancient Egypt. Fitting that it’s located in an old school at 5063 U.S. Highway 441 South in Sylva, southwest of Asheville. The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday Noon to 5 p.m.; admission helps support one of the state’s largest no-kill cat shelters.
Brady Jefcoat Museum of Americana
After the death of his wife, who told him not to bring his old junk into their Raleigh house, Brady Jefcoat began collecting with abandon. By the time he died, he had a collection valued at $5 million that included radios, music boxes, old tools, washing machines, irons, taxidermy, jukeboxes, air rifles and so many other items that visitors had trouble walking through the place. Before he died, he specified that whoever received the collection had to agree never to break it up, and to display it in its entirety. The Murphreesboro Historical Association agreed and hauled it all to he old Murfreesboro High School at 201 High St. You can see the Brady Jefcoat Museum of Americana there on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Old Bridge Museum
People who visited Sunset Beach in the second half of the 20th century have fond memories of the pontoon bridge that carried cars across the Intracoastal Waterway to the island, swinging to the side to allow boats to pass. When it was replaced by a fixed high-rise structure in 2010, many bemoaned the loss of the slower pace of life that went with it. If you’re nostalgic, you can visit the old bridge and tender house, which were hauled downstream a ways and now sit on land at 109 Shoreline Drive West. The museum is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
This story was originally published June 20, 2024 at 12:03 PM.
