As Paul and Michelle Dowdey drove up the long driveway to The Flyway Lodge for the first time — gravel crunching beneath their tires, a breeze off Currituck Sound rustling the branches of the towering oak trees that lined their approach — their anticipation soared. When they saw the patinaed copper cupolas of the property’s Colonial Revival-style farm building peeking out above the tops of the surrounding trees, Michelle got goosebumps.

“When we came up closer to the lodge, to the point that you could look out and see the water and the horizon, that took our breath away,” she says. “It seemed like we had stepped back in time.”

Just a half-mile south of the Virginia state line, The Flyway Lodge is perched where the North Landing River — part of the Intracoastal Waterway — meets Currituck Sound. photograph by Chris Hannant

The Flyway Lodge is one of the few remaining hunting lodges established in early 20th-century Currituck County. New York Herald Tribune editor and president Ogden Reid and his wife, Helen — who also served as president and chairwoman of the newspaper’s board — built the Knotts Island duck hunting retreat as the Flyway Club in 1920. Although a fire destroyed the original house in 1958, the Reids rebuilt it to nearly the same design just two years later, using Nelson Rockefeller’s architect.

The northeastern corner of North Carolina had become a popular destination for duck hunters beginning in the mid-19th century because of its location along the Atlantic Flyway, a major avian migration path. Huge flocks of geese, ducks, and other waterfowl swarmed the area each fall and winter, and the hunters followed. Wealthy Northerners — including William E. Corey, president of U.S. Steel; Joseph P. Knapp, publisher of Woman’s Home Companion; and George Hill, president of American Tobacco Co. — built or bought rustic but spacious hunting clubs along Currituck Sound.

In the main house’s lodge room, with its original built-in bookshelves, a seat in the bay window offers a cozy respite. photograph by Chris Hannant

Like fellow hunting club owners in the area, the Reids used their retreat as a place to socialize with other influential and wealthy people. Their elite guests included presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Herbert Hoover. Even Prime Minister Winston Churchill came to convince Ogden to support the U.S. joining World War II.

It’s easy to imagine a time when the big bay window in the wood-paneled living room — or lodge room, as the Dowdeys call it — served as the backdrop for conversations between the Reids and the powerful guests they hosted in their 19-room, 5,500-square-foot retreat. Today, the Dowdeys look out that same window at a view of the North Landing River and Currituck Sound that remains largely unchanged.

• • •

In 2016, the Dowdeys were living on a beef cattle farm outside Charlotte, where they’d both grown up, when Michelle began to long for a beach house. Paul soon came across the website for The Conservation Fund, a nonprofit that acquires at-risk land and resells it to public and private conservation partners, where he saw a listing for a Colonial Revival-style lodge located on Knotts Island. It wasn’t a beach house, and it wasn’t in their budget, but they drove to the remote island to take a look anyway. Although the house and farm building were in disrepair, the couple was enchanted. “We could see past all the work that had to be done,” Michelle says.

In the dining room, the Dowdeys eat around an oak table formerly used by the New York Herald Tribune. photograph by Chris Hannant

In addition to its stunning architecture, the lodge’s story pulled the Dowdeys in: While Paul appreciates the history of the property, Michelle particularly values the memorabilia left behind by the Reids.

“I’m a very sentimental person,” she says. “I don’t like things. I like things that are meaningful — things that meant something to someone else.”

The house still contains many relics from when the Reids owned it. The oak table in the dining room where the Dowdeys now eat dinner as a family was once used at the New York Herald Tribune for layout. Perhaps typesetters would have hunched over it as they assembled individual letters to print the newspaper’s pages. The Dowdeys found the table pushed into a corner and covered with junk. When they learned of its history, they wanted to give it a place of honor in their home.

In the lodge room, an iron compass in the ceiling — attached to a weathervane on the roof — once helped Ogden Reid determine which direction the ducks might be flying. photograph by Chris Hannant

Adjacent to the dining room is the lodge room, with its solid oak paneling, a large brick fireplace, exposed beams, and the bay window overlooking part of the 8,320-acre Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge nearby. Across from the window is a trunk bearing Helen’s maiden initials — HMR — which the couple transformed into a table by adding a glass top.

Above the trunk, an iron compass attached to a beam in the ceiling extends to a weathervane on the roof. Ogden and his guests used the contraption to determine which direction the ducks would be flying.

Seeing these vestiges of the Reids’ lives, the Dowdeys knew it would be worth the time and effort to restore the property to its former glory.

• • •

The Dowdeys are no strangers to hard work, particularly home renovations and construction. The high school sweethearts bought their first land as teenagers in the late 1980s and had to build a bridge over a creek to access the building site on the property. They’d never built a bridge before, but Paul was confident they could figure it out. They found steel I-beams sitting unused behind the Lance factory and bought them for cheap. “Anybody else would have hired a crane to lift those up,” Paul says. But the ingenious couple saved money by using a boat winch to load the beams onto a trailer.

After building the bridge, they constructed a live-in barn piece by piece as they came up with the money. “People were shocked because we were so young and stupid and full of energy and adventure,” Michelle says. The Dowdeys held their wedding reception in the barn a couple years after buying the land, went on to build another home, and then bought and fixed up the farmhouse. The year the first of their three children was born, Paul started a home-building business.

The Flyway Lodge is a family affair for Paul and Michelle Dowdey (center), whose sons Tanner (far left) and Clay, along with daughter-in-law Savannah (far right), all work on the property. photograph by Chris Hannant

So when they saw the state of the lodge — overgrown with vines and weeds, with a leaky roof and water damage, and with no central air-conditioning — they were undaunted.

After purchasing the property, the couple repaired the roof, refinished the floors, installed air-conditioning, and upgraded the wiring. They removed downed trees and regraded the driveway. They made cosmetic improvements, like updating the kitchen and turning the original diamond-paned windows, which they found in the attic, into indoor shutters. They also built a seawall along their 1,500 feet of waterfront to halt erosion. They’d never built a seawall, but they learned by watching online videos and bought an excavator on a government auction site.

Aside from cosmetic improvements, the Dowdeys preserved many of Flyaway Lodge’s original fixtures, like the copper cupolas that top the 1920s farm building. photograph by Chris Hannant

“I think that’s why [the property] sat on the market for so long, because people just looked around and said if they had to pay someone to do all of the things that we’ve done, it would have been outrageous,” Michelle says. “It’s just what we love to do.”

Michelle explains that their decision to take on these big projects was influenced by near-death experiences. Paul broke his neck, punctured a lung, and broke multiple ribs in two bad falls he had while working in construction. He also fell into a tree while riding a powered parachute. Michelle was struck by a hit-and-run driver while training for a triathlon and had to be airlifted to a hospital. “So we just kind of look at life as an adventure or it’s nothing. You’re not promised tomorrow, so do what you want while you can, and do what you can while you can,” she says. “It’s a lot of work, but what are you going to do if you don’t work, right?”

• • •

Today, the Dowdeys share their labor of love with couples and guests at weddings held beneath a towering oak, along the waterfront, and elsewhere on the sprawling property — and during receptions in the property’s old farm building. Paul and Michelle replaced the remaining 100-year-old cedar shake shingles on its roof, but many features of the building are original.

The rooms upstairs, which once housed farm workers who cared for livestock and peach trees on the property, are still intact, and the Dowdeys plan to upgrade them into accommodations for wedding guests or visiting duck hunters. The old marble feed troughs once used by the Reids’ cows now hold ice, bottled water, and sodas for guests. Bartenders even stand inside the stalls and hand cocktails, wine, and beer to guests through the metal bars. “We’re always trying to contrast rustic with elegant,” Michelle says. “That’s why we put the chandeliers in next to the engine hoist and the old radiators on the wall.”

The sprawling farm building — which escaped damage from a 1958 fire — once housed servants, vehicles, farm animals, and machinery. photograph by Chris Hannant

The Dowdeys also try to make weddings as meaningful and memorable as possible. They plant a tree to commemorate every ceremony, inviting the newlyweds to pick out a species that’s special to them, as long as it’s native. If it rains on a wedding day, Michelle will collect the rainwater in an antique crystal decanter — she finds them at flea markets — and give it to the newlyweds. Some of the couples have gone on to use the water to baptize their children.

• • •

A map in the lodge’s gun room shows Flyway’s boundaries in 1930. When the Dowdeys purchased their 26 acres, the remaining almost 400 acres became part of Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge to provide habitat for migratory birds, cementing Knotts Island’s legacy as a duck-hunting destination and continuing the tradition of the Flyway property that began more than a century ago.

Paul and Michelle are still working on the lodge and the farm building. They don’t think it will ever be complete, and they like it that way. “We’re not the sitting-around kind of people,” Michelle says.

For more than a century, The Flyway Lodge estate has been witness to spectacular sunsets over the water. photograph by Chris Hannant

But when the Dowdeys take a moment to relax, they look out over the North Landing River and the Intracoastal Waterway as a coastal breeze blows. They sip steaming mugs of coffee while watching bald eagles fly over from the refuge and ospreys swoop down to snatch fish in their talons. The lodge’s spirit as a retreat lives on, even if it is a lot of work. The work is just what makes The Flyway Lodge another grand adventure for the Dowdeys — one that requires a bit of ingenuity, a lot of elbow grease, and a great deal of love.

The Flyway Lodge
220 Marsh Causeway
Knotts Island, NC 27950
(252) 548-7398
flywaylodge.com