Ashley’s Adventures: The Bellamy Mansion Museum

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) – Slavery, wars and a fire. Over the past 150 years the Bellamy Mansion has seen it all.

Now the house is seeing a new era, as a museum.

You can see it all, too, during one of the museum’s daily tours.

Guided tours start on the hour, with a short video inside the reconstructed carriage house. The video gives you a brief overview of the family, the home and American politics at the time.

Next, you’ll head to the Bellamy Mansion Negro House. It’s one of the only standing slave quarters in the entire country open to the public. You’ll tour bedrooms, the washroom and even an 1800’s restroom.

Inside the actual mansion, you’ll learn about the house’s unique features, like running water,  the top-of-the-line lighting and the house’s cooling system.

But this tour is about more than a house.

“The story we tell as a museum is how the lives of all the people involved here changed over time,” said Gareth Evans, the museum’s executive director.

Perhaps no lives changed more than the people who built the home. Those who moved in as slaves and left as paid workers after the Civil War.

The Civil War also meant a change of residents, as Union Soldiers moved in.

And then there is Ellen, the home’s last resident, who made many of the upgrades and changes to the home throughout the decades.

The guided tours last about an hour, but there are several more learning options available.

The mansion also offers self-guided tours and video tours for those who are physically unable to make it up and down the home’s many stairs.

Even after touring the mansion, there’s always a reason to come back.

From jazz concerts, to tea parties and haunted houses, the mansion continues welcoming gusts, century after century.

Click here to learn more about the mansion and its tours.