Ask the folks involved with the Perquimans County Restoration Association and they’ll likely tell you that old is good. They’ve been celebrating old, after a fashion, in “the land of beautiful women” for the past 40 years — that is, in case you’re not in the know, the historically accepted definition of the Yoepim Indian word Perquimans.

This year is the association’s 40th anniversary and they want folks to know that not only have they been here, they’re still going places.

“We want to bring attention to some of the great historic artifacts we have here in Perquimans County that are being saved and being used everyday,” says Lynwood Winslow, the association’s 40th Anniversary Committee chairman.

The association is celebrating its 40 years with a series of lectures this month and into February. The lectures will highlight the history of the region’s architecture, going back to early Quaker settlements.

One of the most visible fruits of the group’s labor is the Newbold White House, the historic Quaker settlement house along the Perquimans River.

This house was obtained and restored 30 years ago. It is a fine example of life in early 18th century colonial North Carolina, when the Quakers settled the region.

After Pennsylvania, Perquimans County was a center for Quaker life in the British colony. A Quaker first held the property in the 17th century, but the Saunders family would eventually own the land and construct the house you see today.

Perquimans County, of course, would wind its way through the history of the region and the nation. From the Revolutionary War, to the Antebellum South, the historic architecture of early America is well represented here.

During the early days of Perquimans County, plantation houses such

as the Newbold White House began to pop up around the region. In the early days of the 19th century, however, the classic antebellum period began to take its place across the region.

“You start seeing these much larger houses,” Winslow says of the antebellum period architecture. “There are not a whole lot of them that are still around from the late 18th century.

Yet there are some and they are being or have been restored by area families. And some of those families will be a part of the lecture series that celebrates the association’s 40th anniversary.

Julie and Mark Phelps will be giving one of the lectures in the series.

The Phelps were living in Edenton and had just completed constructing a house there when Julie Phelps found the house she’d been looking for.

“I always loved old houses,” she said.

The house is the Edmund Blount Skinner House, built in 1845. When Phelps found it, the old plantation house was in poor condition, but the bones of the structure were solid, she said.

Phelps called her husband Mark and they went out to view the house. The couple had looked at other old houses in the region but many of them had problems, she said. But this house, well Phelps said it had survived the elements and had somehow avoided the dinner call of termites.

When the couple surveyed the old house, they realized that it was only slightly askew on the foundation, and that most of the structural integrity of the place was intact.

That was in 1994. They purchased the house and continued to live in Edenton while they did work on the house, but in 1996 they moved in and the real work began.

The couple now had a 2-year-old daughter and the family lived in one room for a short time. Eventually, however, the house would begin to take shape and become the family’s residence in full.

Today the couple lives in what would appear to be a completely restored antebellum house. But Phelps says they’re still doing work to the house and imagines they will continue that work for some time.

The Phelps will talk about their experience restoring the Edmund Blount Skinner House Saturday at the Newbold-White House Visitor’s Center, 10 a.m. to noon. For more information about the lecture series and tickets call 252-426-7567.