Carteret County native son Earle Wayne Webb, Sr. moved to New York and served as general counsel to General Motors and the CEO of Ethyl Corporation, but he never forgot his hometown, Morehead City. He built a handsome, Colonial Revival-style office building there in 1930. When his son, a student at Duke University, died of pneumonia in 1932, Webb established a memorial foundation. In 1934 the foundation arranged for the growing public library, established by the local Woman's Club, to use space in the office building. By 1936 he had rehabilitated the office building at the corner of Evans and South Ninth Streets to house the Earle W. Webb, Jr. Memorial Civic Center and Library. After the death of Webb's wife, the former Eva Arnold, the foundation was expanded to honor her memory as well. A landmark in the civic life of Morehead City, the building is also a good example of the Colonial Revival style, a nationally popular idiom with few surviving examples in the region. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in August 2021. A copy of the nomination can be found here.