By Miles Layton

Hyde County Banker Publishes Book Honoring ECB, Region’s History

SWAN QUARTER — For decades, W.F. “Bill” Plyler II waited for someone else to tell the story. Nobody did.

So the retired banker — who spent four decades in North Carolina banking before relocating to Dearborn, Michigan — took it upon himself.

“I waited all these years for someone to tell this story and honor the people of Hyde County but since no one did, I tried,” Plyler said.

The result is Intertwined, a new book that braids personal memoir with regional and financial history. “Intertwined combined my history coming out of the mountains to working and learning with the big banks before enjoying great success with my team at ECB, the history of Hyde, and several major banking and credit events into an intertwined story of triumphs and tragedy,” Plyler said.

Plyler’s four-decade career in North Carolina banking — from 1966 through 2006 — forms the book’s backbone. He was recruited to The East Carolina Bank in 1995 as Chief Credit Officer and member of the Senior Management Group, a role he held through 2006. “I was recruited in 1995 to build a credit culture at ECB,” he said. “We did that and through 2006 were a highly ranked community bank growing at 8-10% annually and had credit losses of less than 1/4 percent of loans.”

The book also reaches back further into the industry’s past. “For reference I also covered the history of community banking from 1919 through 2009 including the Savings and Loan crisis and the Morris Plan Banks history,” Plyler said.

His tenure at ECB ended just before the financial crisis that would devastate much of the industry — a fact Plyler doesn’t shy away from addressing. “I among others saw the 2007 mortgage crisis coming and positioned ECB to thrive not just survive,” he said. “Greed and incompetence of others lead to my early retirement at the end of 2006, the very best year ever for ECB.”

Plyler’s exit, though bitter, frames what may be the book’s emotional core: the people of Hyde County and the institution that served them.

He plans to return to Swan Quarter on April 25 for a book signing hosted by the Swan Quarter Volunteer Fire Department. In a gesture consistent with the book’s spirit, he is donating his proceeds. “I will be taking no royalties from these sales and am providing the books at cost,” he said.

For Plyler, a banker who made his name on the coastal plain, the project closes a long-open chapter — on his own terms and in honor of the community that shaped him.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Subscribe —it’s free!

Community Square Fully Protected Under Historic Preservation Agreements

Other Hyde County news – If you haven’t been to Ocracoke, maybe take a trip. If you have, the Community Square is that row of shops downtown bordering a wide spot in the road (NC 12) by Silver Lake, where you can get a cup of coffee, certainly a good meal and park your bike – a few years back, I fed a fish to a pelican by the dock.   

The last of Ocracoke’s Community Square properties has come under historic preservation protection, shielding a cluster of vintage waterfront buildings from demolition or redevelopment.

Preservation North Carolina announced April 14 that the entire square — situated on the north shore of Silver Lake in the heart of the historic village — is now covered by legally binding easements. The agreements protect five historic commercial buildings, including the Community Store, built in 1950; the William Ellis Williams House, dating to around 1900; Will Willis’ Store and Fish House, built in 1930; and both the Electric Office and the island’s first electric generator plant, each built around 1936.

The effort traces back to 2009, when the previous owner listed all five properties for sale at $1.6 million. Fearing the buildings could be purchased and demolished, the nonprofit Ocracoke Foundation took out loans to buy them along with adjacent docks, then worked to place preservation easements on each. Once recorded, those easements become part of the deed and guarantee the structures are protected regardless of future ownership, according to the Charlotte Observer.

“The previous owner was interested in preservation, but at the same time, it’s prime waterfront property and someone could purchase it and tear the buildings down,” Ocracoke Foundation President Scott Bradley told the Charlotte Observer.

The foundation’s strategy has since served as a working model for how rural communities can preserve historical assets while putting them to productive use. The historic buildings and adjacent boat slips are now leased to tourism-facing businesses, allowing the foundation to reduce its original $1.6 million loan to $200,000, the Observer reported.

The stakes for preservation are heightened by Ocracoke’s geography. The village covers roughly 800 to 900 acres, with the remainder of the island designated as National Seashore.

“The village can’t grow out. It grows in,” Bradley told the Observer. “And we’ve got more and more homes being built on lots.”

The foundation is now working to extend preservation efforts beyond the Community Square. Negotiations are underway to acquire the Ocracoke Seafood Company, a working fish house where local watermen and women sell their catch.

“We’re working with the owner to purchase the property,” Bradley told the Observer. “It’s not a historic building — it’s maybe from the 50s. But the idea of Ocracoke as a quaint fishing village without a quaint fishing house would be a little weird.”

The goal would be to keep the fish house operational without risk of demolition or major renovation, preserving not just the building but the working waterfront culture that has defined the island for generations.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​