Published Tue, Aug 24, 2010 05:40 AM
Modified Tue, Aug 24, 2010 04:22 PM
Americana mixes with the freakish
BELHAVEN -- This is the 12th story in our "Open Road" summer series, which looks at unusual spots across the state. Look for it every Tuesday.

In modern times, Mary Eva Blount Way would be considered an extreme hoarder.

But in the early 20th century, Way was championed for her massive collection of odds and ends. She collected everything and had an eye for the unusual, from pieces of the White House's original foundation to wreaths made of human hair.

Over time, her miscellany filled her Beaufort County home. After she died in 1962, residents of Belhaven purchased more than 10,000 pieces of her collection and moved them to the second floor of the old BelhavenCity Hall building, and the Belhaven Memorial Museum was born.

"This is a museum of whimsy," said Robin Caddell, a Wilson resident who stopped by for the first time Sunday.

A foundation runs the museum with financial help from the town, county, the occasional grant and visitor donations. About 1,000 people visit the museum each year, according to curator Arthur Congleton, the museum's only employee.

Some have read about the museum in quirky travel guides, but many more pass through the bizarre exhibit by accident, a quick detour on a road trip to the beach.

Jamie Wilkerson of Wilson said she has been visiting the museum for 20 years. Her family will go boating at the River Forest Manor & Marina down the street, or come down for Belhaven's Fourth of July parade. They stumbled upon the museum on their first visit and go back to discover treasures they might have missed.

"It's just so eclectic," Wilkerson said.

The museum, which dubs itself a cross between the Smithsonian and Ripley's Believe It or Not, maintains the same cluttered aesthetic you might have seen inside the rooms of Way's house. There's no air conditioning and little organization: military memorabilia here,creepy dead animals there.

Yes, there are dead animals. They're in jars, preserved in formaldehyde. A two-headed kitten and a pig with a bifurcated snout are incredible; jars with tumors and fetuses are disturbing.

"Kids and old folks like the gross stuff," said Congleton, 54, who has worked at the museum since 1996. "Old people are just glad, 'Hey, it's not me.'"

Woman of eclectic taste

A descendant of the Blounts, one of the oldest families in the state, Way was born in Beaufort County in 1869, married a farmer and moved to Belhaven. There, she reared five children and lived as a farmer's wife the rest of her life.

She was a bit of a jill-of-all-trades. She wrote poetry and killed rattlesnakes and other pests on the farm. She was interested in politics, especially the campaign of presidential candidate Wendell Willkie, a Republican who lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Way saved everything.

Word of her collection traveled to far-off places, and she started charging admission to see the items at her home, donating the proceeds to the American Red Cross in the 1940s to support the war effort. People offered up their own curiosities to her.

"When you start collecting, sometimes you become the first step before the Dumpster," Congleton said.

There are old typewriters, dresses and tens of thousands of buttons - which Way first collected as a newlywed in 1887.

There's also a copy of The New York Herald from the day President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, a pair of fleas dressed up as a bride and groom and a mustache cup for men to keep their facial hair dry with a matching engraved saucer that reads "A BEARD MAKES A MAN. A RAZOR MAKES A MOUSE."

Congleton calls it a "sippy cup for adults."

The items are a mish-mash, but the memorabilia - from wars, elections, pop culture and even Way's home - come together to form a rich narrative of an American life.

By the end of a visit, you'll think that you've seen it all. But Way was still looking for plenty more before she died.

"She once put in a request for a mummified Japanese soldier," Congleton said. "But you can imagine how difficult that'd be going through customs."