History with ‘Hud’: A piece of symmetry sitting along 3rd Street for more than 170 years

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — There are numerous historical houses lining Third Street in Wilmington. But there’s one at the corner of Orange Street which catches the eye for it’s balanced dimensions.

The Latimer House was built in 1852 as an upper-class Victorian home by local businessman Zebulon Latimer. It was designed to be symmetrical in every way, with a central hallway on each floor opening to identical layouts on each side.

The first floor is split into a formal sitting and dining area with less formal sitting rooms on the opposite side. The outside is just as balanced, with an equal number of pillars and windows on all four sides.

Latimer moved into the estate shortly after marrying his wife Elizabeth Savage down the street in St. James Episcopal Church. Savage would go on to be the oldest woman in Wilmington upon her death at age 86.

The couple would become one of the most prominent and influential families in Wilmington, filling the 14-room home with their 9 children, of which only four would survive to adulthood. One of those, William Latimer, would go on to install electricity in the home near the end of the 19th century.

The grounds contain gardens in the back as well as slave quarters from a darker time in Port City history.

Many of the Latimer’s slaves were cooks, with some being coachmen, and others under lease to work. A number of artifacts from that period have been unearthed by archaeologists since the 1970s and are carefully displayed inside the home today.

Herbert Latimer Jr. was the third and last Latimer generation to live in the mansion. In 1963, Herbert Jr. sold the house to the Lower Cape Fear Historical Society, who has owned and operated the home ever since.

The Latimer House is open to the public for paid-admission tours on a handful of hours each Tuesday through Saturday. While no one lives in the historical structure any longer, the legacy of the home continues strong.

Meteorologist Matthew Huddleston (‘Hud’) has always had two major loves – weather and history. While you can watch him talk about weather each morning on WWAY, he looks forward to bringing you a little piece of history each Thursday on WWAY’s website.

To read other History with ‘Hud’ segments, click HERE.