September 2022

Adapted from a multi-section, two-part series on The History and Construction of Thalian Hall originally published by Wrightsville Beach Magazine in June and July 2010, written by Dorothy Rankin and Lee Lowrimore. Condensed and edited by Pat Bradford. For 164 years Thalian Hall has been the cultural center of Wilmington. Her story is the Port…

Every year between July and November, farmers and home gardeners in North Carolina harvest a wide variety of peppers. From sweet bell peppers to the famed Carolina Reaper (the hottest commercially available chili pepper in the world), these flavorful local beauties add extra spice to any dish. The spiciness of a pepper depends on the…

Six students with blow torches is a pretty cool sight. “That seems to be my popular class,” laughs Susan Nuttall. Nuttall is an award-winning artist whose work is on exhibit in galleries across the U.S. and at Wilmington’s Gallery of Fine Art. Her class on texture relief in her Carolina Beach studio involves an encaustic…

Members of the Historic Wilmington Foundation stood on the steps of City Hall in 2019 and announced the list of the year’s most threatened historic places. Topping the list was the Richard Langdon home on Orange Street, adjacent to First Presbyterian Church. “A property like that, that’s a special one, there aren’t many like it…

In the spring of 1957, before he became The King, before there was an Arnie’s Army, and before he was golf’s greatest ambassador, Arnold Palmer had only four PGA Tour victories. Number five came at the 1957 Azalea Open. Palmer shot an aggregate 6-under 282 to win the tournament by one stroke over Dow Finsterwald.…

In October 2020, Wrightsville Beach Magazine published a Fish Tale, our first piece of fiction written by then-92-year-old George Clark Jr. Over the last 20 years, George may have been in our magazine more than any other Wrightsville Beach resident outside of our Social Seen pages. He just may hold the distinction of being our…

In 2009, Richard Johnson was looking for board members for a start-up nonprofit called masonboro.org that was going to take on the uphill task of keeping Masonboro Island from being closed to visitors by policing the trash and mayhem from public drunkenness ensuing every holiday. When Lumina News was founded in 2002, I resigned my…