Wrightsville Beach Museum could return to historic cottage after eviction

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC (WWAY) — After the Wrightsville Beach Museum was evicted from the 100-year-old Ewing-Bordeaux Cottage last month, it seemed the museum would be unable to return to the structure, but that may soon change. 

Museum Board President Jan Brewington believes the eviction came after the museum stopped allowing Camp Chris Stone to use the building during the summer. 

But on Tuesday, Brewington received an unexpected message.

Emails obtained by WWAY reveal that Acting Town Manager Tony Wilson emailed Brewington about renewing the lease for the museum’s other building, the Myers cottage. At the bottom of that email, Wilson added that the Ewing-Bordeaux cottage was now available, and asked if the museum would be interested in returning.  

Wilson gave Brewington until April 30 to respond. Though Brewington worries there may be a catch. 

“I sent a message back and said, ‘will this offer require us to host any other entity?’ and he didn’t respond.”  

After not receiving a response for a few hours, Brewington sent Wilson another message.  

“I thought, well I better let him know we definitely want our building back, we spent $300,000 on it,” she said. “So, I sent another email and said ‘yes, we would definitely love to look at what you have to offer as far as a lease on Bordeaux;’ and his response was ‘okay this will take some time.”  

Wilson also wrote that he will inform the board that the museum is interested, though no word yet on when the board will discuss the matter.  

We reached out to Tony Wilson and the board of alderman but have not heard back as of Wednesday evening.