Eastern North Carolina is not known for its hills, but every now and then a few pop up along a winding country road. Fewer rise, then tumble toward the river in a rolling motion, a green wave of manicured lawn spilling into the wide expanse of the Pamlico River.

This is where Russell Morgan lives, at the top of the hill on six acres of lush land that ends at 800 feet of unbroken beach. Swan Point is a distant place across the river. Around the bend is Blounts Bay. The sun and the moon both rise over the meandering path of the Pamlico to the east.

“The man who sold me this place — he used to tell me, it should be against the law for any one many to own such a pretty place and so much beach,” Morgan said. “There’s no place like this. I’m not saying that just because it’s mine. There are so many facets to it.”

It’s well within Morgan’s rights to own a parcel of land that seems to invite river breezes straight up the long hill onto the massive deck that hugs two sides of the 4,208 square feet house. From the driveway, this circa-1979 Williamsburg-style home looks like a modest, single-story brick home. From the river side, however, it’s another story: three levels of living, each floor with views to rival any to be found on the Pamlico.

Morgan bought the house in 2005, remodeling the basement level and first floor, but not touching the second story, at all.

“I left it that way on purpose because that’s what the owners did. It’s very nostalgic,” Morgan said.

Indeed it is. There’s no amount of wasted space. Three bedrooms upstairs are the bedrooms of old — not huge, just meant for sleeping — and a full bath there was built to be shared. Bedrooms on the east and west ends of the house boast partially angled ceilings, mimicking the roofline, while the one in the middle has a fireplace for those chilly nights on the south side. Every room is floored with wide virgin pine, grown and milled in coastal Carolina by a friend of the couple who built the house.

The nostalgia in design, in wallpaper, in closets tucked into little alcoves, wherever space allowed, is augmented by Morgan’s collection of memorabilia.

It’s everywhere. Vintage photos of 1930s movie stars, an autographed black and white image of Bette Davis in her prime, a letter from Bing Crosby addressed Morgan’s mother shares space in a matted frame with his headshot and the envelope they came in. In the hall is a cabinet crank phonograph in mint condition — it works, it plays and plays loudly. Beside it sits a box full of old records just waiting to take a spin.

Downstairs, Morgan has made his mark in a different way. As with most river homes, the common areas of the house are oriented toward the river. On the first floor, a combination living and dining room take advantage of the view from the top of the hill. A master bedroom does the same. But even the kitchen, tucked back behind the dining area, has its own view and entrance onto the large deck.

But when one makes the trip downstairs to the basement, with its 1/2-inch thick Mexican terra cotta tiles, that’s where the collector comes out. Everywhere one looks — in the full kitchen and bar, large living room, game room and small bedroom — there are pieces of the past.

“All this stuff has history,” Morgan said.

From every single Boy Scout badge, award and pin Morgan ever earned faultlessly displayed in a glass case-like coffee table, to 1950s-era wall sconces with bulbous shades boasting the Budweiser brand, to an antique wall phone, its bell in perfect working order, to a shelf that holds pieces of Morgan’s past and that of the people he’s met along the way.

Morgan’s a true collector, but a practical one. He’s got the space for the collectibles — and in a place that is pretty close to disaster proof.

“I found this place just riding around, getting acclimated to the area,” Morgan said.

The basement has 21-inch thick walls, and the house sits 40-feet above river level, a factor that played into its purchase: Morgan had no intention of putting his five classic cars in a flood zone. They have their own outbuilding.

But of all of Morgan’s collection, the best piece is the one that holds them. The house at Fort Hill is a matchless collector’s item: what just may be the perfect river house.