A Surviving Witness to Bermuda's First Settlers

The story behind Carter House begins with a shipwreck. In 1609, the Sea Venture — flagship of a relief fleet bound for Virginia — was driven onto Bermuda's reefs by a hurricane. Among the survivors was Christopher Carter, who refused to sail on to Jamestown the following year and stayed behind, becoming one of Bermuda's earliest permanent inhabitants. Carter and his wife were killed in 1624 when the gunpowder store aboard the Sea Flower exploded in Castle Harbour — a vessel whose wreck has never been found. The house that bears his name overlooks the very waters of that disaster, as if the land itself remembers him.↗↗

The farmhouse was built by his descendants around 1700 and remained largely unaltered for over three centuries. By the 1720s, his great-granddaughter Martha Hayward lived there with her husband John, harvesting cedar and palmetto from the surrounding groves to craft the island's famous palmetto hats. She died in 1791 at the extraordinary age of 114. Originally called Southside House, the building was renamed when that family connection was uncovered.↗↗

From Barn to Beauty Salon to Museum

The house survived in remarkable original form through a series of unlikely transformations. In the years before World War II it served as a barn for Howard Smith's Easter lily farm. When the US military acquired Southside in 1941 to build what became Kindley Air Force Base, the surrounding fields were replaced by runways and coastal artillery guns. Carter House was converted into a beauty salon for base personnel. Only after the US Navy took over and recognized its heritage value did it become a small museum depicting the history of St. David's Island and the base itself.↗

When the US Navy left Bermuda in 1995, preservation of the building depended entirely on local determination. The St. David's Island Historical Society was formed in August 1998 under MP Richard Spurling, negotiated a long lease, and — with community financial support — carried out a full renovation that restored the ancient kitchen and fireplace to display as an 18th-century cooking space.↗

What to See Inside and Out

The building itself is the centerpiece of the experience. Look for the original sagging roofline that proves the structure's authenticity, hand-cut cedar beams, and a traditional cedar gutter carrying rainwater to the tank at the rear. The welcoming arms steps and stone buttresses at the front are characteristic of Bermuda's earliest architecture.↗↗

Exhibits inside cover whaling, piloting, fishing, boat building, farming, and sailing — all told through the actual stories of St. David's families. Curators point out the Hayward family tree, the life aboard a ship's pilot boat, the essential 14-foot dinghy, the history of the claw hammer, and genuine ambergris. Outside, a 17th-century garden includes an authentic replica of a 1612 settler's cabben — the crude shelter from which Bermuda's first homes eventually grew.↗↗

For those drawn to the macabre, the house has a genuine ghost tradition. Staff and volunteers describe unsettling presences, a security-camera anomaly on the lower floor, a wife who heard her dead husband's footsteps cross the hall, and a spectral figure captured accidentally in a photograph of the entryway. The seven Carter graves that once stood to the south-east were relocated by the US Base in 1942, and local lore says their spirits have been restless ever since.↗

The View from the Steps

Perhaps the most quietly moving moment at Carter House is standing where its builders stood. Set into the hillside and facing southeast, the house commands a view across the most accessible harbour in the 1600s toward the stone fortifications erected in 1612. Across that water rises Nonsuch Island — refuge of the Cahow, Bermuda's mythical petrel, thought extinct since the 1620s until its rediscovery in the 1950s. The museum considers this largely undisturbed vista the last surviving original view from Carter House and a direct window onto what those first families saw every day.↗

Planning Your Visit

Carter House is on Southside Road, just below the airport terminal tower and about an eight-minute drive from St. George's Town Square. Public transport reaches the area, and free street parking is available directly in front or across the road, with bicycle parking at the entrance.↗↗

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 AM to 4 PM, plus the first Sunday of each month in the afternoon. In winter (November through March), hours are reduced to Wednesdays and Saturdays only. Admission is free — donations are accepted but entirely optional, offered only if you feel the experience has been worthwhile. Gift shop on site.↗↗

If your timing aligns, the museum hosts Bermuda's beloved Onion Day festival — a celebration of the island's agricultural heritage with music, food, and family activities. Check the website ahead for current event dates.↗

Because the building's floors are original timber and stone with narrow historic doorways and no lift, steps and uneven surfaces should be expected. Allow roughly 30 to 60 minutes to read the exhibits and absorb the view from the front steps.

Nearby to Explore

Pairing a visit here with St. George's itself — the UNESCO World Heritage town just across the bridge — makes a memorable half-day. The town's 17th-century churches, narrow lanes, and fortifications share the same era and story as Carter House, and you can easily walk or drive between the two.