#TBT: Wilmington’s escape to the past

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Today the Cape Fear Museum sits on Market Street and is home to treasures of the past that attract thousands every year. But those big wooden doors were’t always the threshold to a museum, the building was initially home to Works Progress Administration era armory.

The Cape Fear Museum has had a number of different homes over the years.   It was housed in one room in the Wilmington Light Infantry Headquarters, 409 Market Street, for its first 10 years of existence (1898-1918).  In 1918, the collection was “temporarily” relocated to North Carolina Hall of History in Raleigh for the duration of World War I.  It took quite a long time to get it back, finally returning in 1929.

From 1929 to 1963, the collection was at the New Hanover County Courthouse Annex on Princess Street.  Between 1963 and 1970, it was displayed at the Wilmington City Police Department, at 115 Red Cross Street, on the third floor.  In April 1970, the museum (which at the time was supported by the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County) moved into its present location, 814 Market Street, into the old armory building.

The armory was built between 1935 and 1937, as a Works Progress Administration project of the New Deal.   The armory was owned by the city, and leased for $1 a  year to the North Carolina National Guard’s Cape Fear Artillery Battery, 252 Coastal Artillery.  The building cost $40,000 to build and officially opened on October 29, 1937.

In 1987, county voters approved a bond issue to support expanding the Museum.   The Museum’s cornerstone was laid on January 20, 1990, and the expanded Museum officially opened to the public on January 18, 1992.