Explore Our Diverse History

The Bellamy Mansion is one of North Carolina's premier architectural and historic treasures. Built as the city residence of prominent planter, Dr. John D. Bellamy, the Bellamy Mansion is Wilmington's most spectacular example of antebellum architecture --a mixture of Greek Revival and Italianate styles. The mansion is now a stewardship property of Preservation North Carolina.

In 1859, Dr. Bellamy hired local architect James F. Post to design his new residence. Post, assisted by young Connecticut draftsman Rufus Bunnell, supervised the talented enslaved carpenters and free black artisans who built the Mansion. Although Dr. Bellamy owned plantations in nearby counties, the 22-room landmark was the main residence of Dr. and Mrs. Bellamy and their numerous children. The Bellamy family moved into their new home on the eve of the Civil War, only to be displaced initially by a raging yellow fever epidemic and later, by the conflict itself. Early in 1865 Wilmington fell to Federal troops and the occupying military administration commandeered the house as their headquarters. When Union General Joseph Hawley refused to return the house to the family after the war, Dr. Bellamy traveled to Washington and was able to personally obtain a pardon from President Andrew Johnson to reclaim his property.

Dr. Bellamy was a prominent, successful and influential Wilmington citizen, and his children went on to success in politics, law, business and medicine. The Bellamy Mansion remained the family residence until 1946, when the last of the children, Ellen Douglas Bellamy, died.

After Miss Ellen's death, dozens of heirs had some claim to the residence, but eventually two descendants owned it outright. Except for a rare renter and an antique shop (which occupied the basement), the house was vacant for many years. In 1972, a nonprofit corporation, Bellamy Mansion, Inc., was formed to restore and open the house as a museum. Just weeks later, a devastating fire nearly gutted the interior of the home. Preservationists stabilized the structure and maintained the exterior until efforts to open the house began anew in 1989. Interior restoration commenced in late 1992, and in the spring of 1994 the Bellamy Mansion opened to the public.

The mansion operates today as a museum of history and design arts, and is now a stewardship property of Preservation North Carolina. Gallery spaces feature changing exhibits on architectural history, historic preservation and the design arts. The recently reconstructed carriage house and restored gardens add greatly to the ambience of the setting. Future plans include the restoration of the original slave quarters, one of only a few urban examples of this kind of structure still in existence.