Home donated, to be moved to Wrightsville Beach Museum Thursday

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC (WWAY) — The Wrightsville Beach Museum of History is expanding thanks to a donation as large as a house, literally.

1924 Bordeaux Cottage on North Lumina Avenue was donated by Chris and Debbie Strickland and will be moved to West Salisbury Street, where the current museum is located, Thursday.

The museum says the move will be done without the traditional truck and beam system, but will utilize remote-controlled dollies. The dollies allow for more flexibility in traversing corners in that the dollies appear to “crab” around corners.

On Thursday beginning at 10 a.m., the museum will provide coffee on the porch of the Chamber of Commerce Building/Visitors Center for spectators who would like to watch the move. Most activity at the Historic Square site is anticipated to be after noon.

The 1924 Ewing- Bordeaux Cottage, located at 405 N. Lumina Avenue, along with its neighbor, the Williams-Bordeaux, are the oldest fully-intact structures north of Stone Street. They are the last two of six cottages that survived the Great Fire of 1934. Currently the greatest threat to historic cottages is the steady rise in property values and demand for development. The museum says moving the Ewing-Bordeaux Cottage will save a rare example of local Wrightsville Beach architecture of which only a handful remain and transition it into a public building to be enjoyed on a much wider scale.

The museum says not only does moving the Ewing-Bordeaux cottage allow them to preserve this special building, but it also makes it possible for the Museum to expand its programs, exhibits and other services to the community. The cottage will allow our growing project, the Waterman Hall of Fame, to have a permanent home to celebrate water sports and professions that are so important to our community and celebrate those who make positive contributions to our way of life.