Bellamy Mansion Museum: 30 Years and Counting!

Backyard of the Bellamy during restoration.

In the late 1980s, Preservation North Carolina (PNC), fondly referred to as "the animal shelter for old houses," was first approached about the possibility of working with the Bellamy site by descendants of the family. At that time many people thought that preservation was synonymous with house museums, according to former PNC President Myrick Howard. In the 1970s and 80s, PNC's experience was that many North Carolina towns considered renovating their oldest, biggest or fanciest houses into a museum. This might save them from urban renewal or changing economics, but financial sustainability in the long-term was a tricky proposition.

Bellamy family members had formed a charitable corporation in 1972 named Bellamy Mansion, Inc. to assure the preservation and restoration of the site. However, that year arson in the main house caused this undertaking to be vastly more costly and complex than anyone could have anticipated. Meanwhile, PNC was oriented toward finding private buyers who would restore needy properties into homes or adaptive uses such as offices or B&B’s. They were not really in the business of museums, but the Bellamy site offered a unique challenge and opportunity.

The slave quarters prior to restoration.

Damage to the family parlor from the fire set by arsonists on March 13, 1972.

The site was completed in 1861 and in 1946 the last member of the original family, Ellen Bellamy, passed away in the house. The property was in some disrepair, although it still comprised the house, gardens, former slave quarters and the carriage house. The latter was in such poor shape that it was bulldozed by the City just after Ellen died.

Ellen Bellamy and her sister Eliza (1920).

In her will, Ellen paid special attention to the family possessions in the house, including her father’s portrait, her sister Mary Elizabeth's ("Belle") paintings, and the treasured silk damask parlor draperies, which by this time she had stored in the attic. Most of the furnishings were divided among family members.

For a year and a half after Ellen’s death, Lina Stallings, employed since 1931 as Ellen’s housekeeper and companion, remained in the house, occasionally welcoming visitors. The many Bellamy heirs faced several issues with the estate, including payment of taxes on the property and the larger problem of the future of the old house. World War Two had transformed Wilmington into a military hub. Post-war economic and societal changes spurred more automobile suburbs, social mobility, and ideas of urban renewal. Older buildings in downtowns were not necessarily desirable and it was possible, even suggested in the local paper, that such a prime corner lot could become, say, a gas station?

Lillian Bellamy and architect Leslie N. Boney Jr. held their wedding reception in the mansion's formal parlors in 1954.

​By 1951 a plan to preserve the house was organized by two of John D. Bellamy Jr.’s children, attorney Emmett Bellamy and Eliza Bellamy Williamson. They arranged an auction sale, the house sold, and was then deeded to members of the next generation, Emmett’s eldest daughter Lillian Maxwell Bellamy and Eliza’s daughter Emma Bellamy Williamson. During the 1950s and 60s, these two women and their cousin Hugh MacRae II (also a grandchild of John D. Bellamy Jr.), strove to maintain the house. They employed a caretaker and in 1953 leased the basement rooms as an antique shop, which operated there for some 20 years.

During those decades, Bellamy Mansion, Inc. held fundraising campaigns to stabilize the slave quarters, make essential repairs to the house, had the exterior painted, completed much exterior restoration and raised funds toward restoring the interior. Ideas reported locally for the site included a library, teen center, or an art museum. The family maintained the site and, in 1989, to broaden the identity of the Bellamy property as a public rather than a family treasure, they asked PNC to partner on the project. In 1993 it was donated to become a stewardship property of PNC.

PNC spent four years working with the board of Bellamy Mansion, Inc. to help raise funds for site restoration. The plan was to restore the main house and then the whole site. PNC was committed to doing a “museum in the house” rather than a traditional house museum. This meant not completely furnishing the site but instead leaving room for exhibits, special events and programming. The idea became a hybrid that allowed for both a community hub and place-based learning.

April 1994 marked the official opening of the site as the Bellamy Mansion Museum of History and Design Arts. Festivities kicked off on April 9 with a gala opening, a black tie fundraising event at the museum drawing more than 250 guests from Wilmington, the state and around the country. Music from the USMC 2nd Division Band in their dress blues filled the house. Over $25,000 was raised from the event to help pay for restoration work.

The next day, a Sunday, the general public was invited to join in the Grand Opening Celebration and ribbon-cutting. Playing a key role in the planning, volunteers had worked for eight months to get the museum open to the public. Lillian Boney, a founding member of the Board and great granddaughter of John D. Bellamy, cut the ribbon symbolizing completion of the interior restoration.

Source: StarNews, July 2019, "Myrick Howard 'Birthday Bash' will observe Bellamy Mansion Museum's 25th year"; Catherine Bishir's The Bellamy Mansion.