Two Lost Bellamy Houses

The Robert R. Bellamy House.
​Of Eliza and John Bellamy's 10 children, Robert Rankin Bellamy (1861-1926) was the only one born in what is now the main house of the Bellamy museum at 503 Market St. He grew up in the house and became a successful drug store owner and pharmacist in downtown Wilmington. Robert had his own Queen Anne style home built next door to the original Bellamy mansion around 1895. ​Robert married Lilly Dale Hargrove (1862-1934) and they had one child, Hargrove Bellamy (1896-1994) in the house at 509 Market St. The picture below is approximately 1905. As you can see, it was a large and imposing structure. 

The Rachel Thompson house (513 Market St., far right in the historic image above and painted yellow in the present day image below) was bought by Robert Bellamy in 1890 as a rental property. He enlarged that house over time.

​Robert's house burned on Christmas Day in 1980 while in use as a home for children with disabilities, according to the local paper. At that time the building was known locally as the Tabb mansion. The building was lost but no-one was hurt. ​

Image above from the Wilmington Star News, Dec. 27, 1980. Credit Joe Nesbitt. Other historic images from Bellamy Museum archive.

The visible remnants of the property, now the museum parking lot, are the iron fencing and low, granite-topped wall. The Rachel Thompson House, 1849, survives and is owned by the Bellamy Museum/Preservation NC.

While a tree obscures quite a bit of this colorized streetscape postcard from the early 1900s, you can get an idea of the Bellamy mansion, Robert's house, and the Rachel Thompson house from this image.

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Robert Bellamy's drugstore was in this building - modified but still standing - at the northwest corner of Front and Market sts.

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The John D. Bellamy Jr. House.
One block away from the current museum site, at 602 Market St., sat the John D. Bellamy Jr. house. John Jr. (1854-1942) grew up in what is now the museum's main house. He was an attorney and politician whose election to the US House of Representatives was an integral part of the 1898 massacre and coup. Bellamy had acquired an imposing Italianate, James F. Post designed, 1858 house (Wright-Harriss-Bellamy) on the south east corner of 6th and Market sts. in the 1890s. Around 1899 he massively remodeled it in an extravagant, late Victorian, Queen Anne style. A tower, referred to locally as the ‘German helmet’, and decorative porches were added. The renovation, by noted local architect Charles McMillen, was equally grand on the inside. The local newspaper marveled at the elaborate oak, cherry, and mahogany interior woodwork, a ball room that was created on the top floor, and paneled silk, onyx fireplaces and tapestries by decorators Duryea and Potter of New York. 

The Italianate house owned by John Bellamy Jr. at 602 Market St. in the 1890s. The only visible Italianate elements from this house that remain after the remodel were arched, hooded window treatments, on the northwest and west elevations.

A circa 1901 image shows the enormous changes to the house. As well as the tower, chimneys, porches, roof, gables and many other features that were rebuilt, there was interior paneling, wainscoting, ceiling beams, and mosaic tiles in both the vestibule and new conservatory. Walls and ceilings were either painted with floral designs or covered with paneled silks or tapestries.

An image of the house from the 1960s.

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On Monday, March 13 ,1972 the original Bellamy mansion, now the museum, suffered an arson attack. While there was no evidence of arson, John Jr.'s house burned down on Wednesday, August 23rd, 1972. John Bellamy Jr's grand-daughter, Emma Bellamy Williamson Hendren (1902-1992) lived in the house at the time. Again, fortunately, no-one was injured.

1972 image from New Hanover County Public Library by way of Beverly Tetterton's book, Wilmington: Lost But Not Forgotten. The Wilmington Morning Star for August 24, 1972 reported, "The German helmet is gone now. It was among the first sections of the house to fall. The 'spike' atop the 'helmet' toppled down into the body of the building."

While the digital reproduction of the August 24, 1972 newspaper page is poor, you can make out flames, damage, and the owner, Emma, watching on.

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The 602 Market St. property today. The low surrounding wall and curved driveway are remnants of the historic buildings on the site.

In the rear of this private property sat, until very recently, the walls of an extant building. Some years ago, with the owner's permission, Bellamy staff and preservationists examined the brick and woodwork and surmised it was an historic structure. Carriage houses and slave quarters were not unusual in Wilmington and it is possible - but certainly not proven - that this was such a structure for either John Bellamy Jr's house or the 1858 house he bought and modified. It doesn't appear to be standing today.

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Family members have several salvaged parts of the John Bellamy Jr. house. The most visible of these belonged to Hugh MacRae II. Hugh was another grandchild of John Bellamy Jr. and owned businesses and properties including the Hanover Center shopping mall on Oleander Drive. When the owner of J. Michael's Philly Deli became a tenant, Mr. MacRae provided them the front door of 602 Market St. as their entrance. It remains there today.

Credits for information and images to Beverly Tetterton, Wilmington Lost But Not Forgotten (2005), Susan Taylor Block, Cape Fear Lost (1999), New Hanover County Library North Carolina Room collections, the Wilmington Star-News archives, and the Bellamy Museum archives.