It was 1950, post-war and pre-tourism on the Outer Banks. That was the year Dale Wescott was born. It was also the year her father built the Cavalier by the Sea Motel. And 65 years later, both still are going stronger than ever.

A visit to the 54-room Cavalier feels like a family reunion, with guests who have come every summer for decades greeting Wescott with gleeful shouts and warm hugs.

“The most special thing about this place is the generational business,” Wescott says, showing off old photographs of the motel on a wide-open beach. “Right now, we have three sisters with some of their family, and they started coming here as little girls with their families.”

Wescott remembers one recent night during the motel’s weekly hot dog social. In between cooking, she started chatting with an elderly woman nearby.
“I said, ‘I bet you never thought you’d see your grandchildren here,’” Wescott recounts.

The woman then beckoned her closer. Leaning toward Wescott, she whispered, “My first child was conceived here!”

A petite woman with an easygoing smile and buoyant energy, Wescott delights in talking about the regulars who come back as predictably as the migratory turtles and birds on their seasonal jaunts to the Outer Banks; at least 80 percent of the in-season business is returnees. Most of them book the same prime real estate at the motel: one of the 14 oceanfront rooms – seven of those have kitchenettes – or an ocean side cottage.

“You can’t get people to change,” Wescott says cheerfully.

Amy Beasley, the front desk clerk who has worked at the motel for 12 years, says regulars see the motel as an extended family base. “It’s like home away from home. They watch your kids and theirs grow up together. They all come at the same time.”

Beasley said the legendary loyalty of repeat customers for “their” oceanfront room can be daunting to guests late to the scene. All 14 of them, in fact, are fully booked until November.

“They’ll say, ‘Does someone have to die for me to get an oceanfront?’” Beasley says, imitating their frustrated tone. “And I’ve said, ‘I’m sorry to say – yes.’”
Dale’s father, Roy Wescott, also built Manteo Furniture as well as the Port O’ Call restaurant across from the motel. He worked up until the day before he died at age 93.

As a child, Wescott says she would live all summer in what was originally called the “motor court,” a title created to boast the novel amenity of allowing guests to drive around the court and park right in front of their rooms.

“Oh, it was awesome,” she exclaims, smiling at the memory. “I still have friends whose family came here every year. I had the best of both worlds. I was on the beach or the pool with friends who came back every summer. And then, in the fall, I’d have school friends in Manteo.”

Sis Tucker, from Roanoke Rapids, met Wescott when they were both cheerleaders of opposing teams in high school. They hit it off and soon reconnected at the Cavalier when Tucker stayed there with her family.

“You can’t help fall in love with her,” Tucker says of her old friend, chatting recently during her annual family vacation at the Cavalier.  

Elaine Gessner, 84, from St. Marys, West Virginia, has been coming since 1972, missing only a few years before resuming the annual Cavalier family convergence in 1996. This year, four generations of her family came from Pittsburgh, Boston, Charleston, and Charlotte to gather together.

“We used to bring my mother,” Gessner says, proudly. “This place, they love it, and they’re always anxious to get here.”

Nodding agreeably, Aileen Owens, from Pittsburgh, says she practically raised her kids at the Cavalier where children can play outside all day without parents having to worry they’re in danger.

“I think it’s very family-oriented,” Owens says. “It’s very safe. I think it’s wonderful at night how everyone gathers on the porch. It’s kind of the heart of our vacation.”

As an adult, Wescott – who has three children – lived away from the Outer Banks for 30 years, but she came back at the end of her father’s life to take care of him and the business. Now she has no plans to leave the Cavalier.

The motel, which is open year-round, is one of the few traditional Outer Banks motels still standing, and Wescott says she is determined to keep it that way.

The motel, is arranged in a “U” shape, with two pools, a shuffleboard court, and a playground in the center. There’s a lifeguarded ocean beach with a volleyball net at the far end.

The rooms may be smaller than newer motels, Wescott says, but they’re tidy and have modern amenities. A fortune of nature has kept the beach in front of the motel wide with less erosion – a blessing that has protected the building from severe storm damage.

“We hope to keep it,” Wescott says, watching from the second story deck as her guests frolicked in the pools. “Now, after I’m gone, that’s going to be in my children’s hands. Because the minute they sell it, [and it leaves the family] , they’re going to mow it down, because that’s what they do.” ♦

Catherine Kozak is a full-time, freelance writer who has been covering the Outer Banks since 1995. She lives in Nags Head where she enjoys running after sunset and strolling the deserted beach in the off-season.

Author: Catherine Kozak

Catherine Kozak has worked as a writer and reporter on the Outer Banks since 1995. She lives in Nags Head and enjoys running in the woods with her dog, Rosie.