Surrounded by the day’s last speckles of sunlight, a group gathers on the sandy lane in front of Village Craftsmen.

Just about every picket in the shop’s fence is capped with a whelk shell, and tonight, it’s doubling as a bug spray station. While some armor up, others are already asking questions, eager to find out what the deal is with all the Howard Street signs nailed to the tree they passed on their walk along the road.

This 56-year-old handicrafts shop is the street’s only nonresidential house and the starting point for Ocracoke Ghost and History Walking Tours, where visitors learn about some of the island’s most interesting characters from local couple Amy Howard and David Tweedie.

Philip Howard, daughter Amy Howard, and her husband, David Tweedie, gather at Philip’s 1860s home. photograph by Chris Hannant

Just opposite the store, Amy leads the group toward the Howard family cemetery.

“My dad says they’re the best neighbors because they’re the quietest,” she says, looking back with a chuckle.

Her great-great-grandparents, great-grandparents, great-aunts and great-uncles, grandparents, and more are buried here, while her (living) cousins, parents, and even her own house are just down the way.

Every step beneath the live oaks that border the street holds reminders of Howard family history, and Amy, David, and Amy’s father, Philip Howard, keep it alive through storytelling.

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Around the table in an 1800s story-and-a-jump house — a style with a low-ceilinged second floor popular from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s — Philip and Amy riff about so-and-so’s grandson, whose uncle once lived near such-and-such. As a child, Philip listened through a cracked upstairs window as his father, aunts, and uncles told stories on the porch — pizer, as O’cockers call it — about shipwrecks, hurricanes, and making traditional meal wine at this same house off Howard Street, on Lawton Lane.

He tells those stories to his own grandchildren now — the 10th generation of their branch of the family tree to live on the island — and he’s picked up a few more to share.

In the 1930s, sandy paths and scattered cottages traced the Ocracoke shoreline. photograph by Open Parks Network

For those who aren’t around to hear them firsthand, Philip has been publishing a record since 2000, when he started the online Ocracoke Newsletter. Among the thousands of entries are stories about the earliest known spellings of Ocracoke — including “Wococon” and “Wokokon” — its Pilot Town origins, and tales of iconic island families.

He wrote daily posts for nearly two decades for the Ocracoke Island Journal, authored four books on island history, and, along with Amy, launched a video series sharing fun historical facts.

One of those facts: Howard Street is actually East Howard Street. It originally started near where the village ferry docks today, until the U.S. Navy arrived in the 1940s and paved part of the island’s west side to facilitate the transportation of ammunition. In the 1950s, the state paved more of the western part of the road.

While Village Craftsmen is Howard Street’s only nonresidential house today, it teems with life as a crafts shop and community gathering place. photograph by Chris Hannant

The community has since built up the east side of the street with oyster shells and small rocks, but when Amy was growing up, the sandy path that fishermen once used to reach the harbor was so soft you couldn’t ride a bike through parts of it.

Today, when you pedal or walk down Howard Street, treat it like it’s somebody’s backyard, because it is. Throw your hand up and introduce yourself if you run into Amy, David, or Philip.

It is said that no one is truly gone until their name is spoken for the last time — and on Howard Street, the conversation never ends.

Related: Click here to find out what to see and do on Howard Street & Beyond in Ocracoke.