After second owner Ray T. Adams died in 1957, the Whalehead Club served as a summer boys' school, housed a rocket fuel testing facility, and was proposed for resort development. Currituck County purchased the club in 1992 with restoration in mind and by 1994 owned the surrounding 39 acres. By the time the county acquired the property, the main house had holes in the roof and a flooded basement filled with snakes. Aggressive restoration began in the spring of 1999. The copper roof was replaced using the original techniques of folding and interlocking the shingles, and as patination occurs the new copper roof will slowly become the green color many remember. During the restoration, most of the cork floors were replaced, the basement was drained and cleaned, and the snakes were evicted. After expert testing, the house was painted in the original colors used by the Knights in 1925. In 2002, the first phase of the restoration was finished, and the Whalehead Preservation Trust moved into the next major phase of restoration, focused on exhibits and furnishings and on finding as many of the Knights' furnishings, fixtures, accessories, artifacts, and photographs as possible.