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Though some of the rooms are small, the house just rambles around,
has lots of space and lives really well. Every part gets used,”
explains Alison Davis Thorp.
She is one of three Davis siblings who own the vintage
Wrightsville Beach cottage on North Lumina Avenue between
the bridges on Banks Channel, also affectionately known as
“the sound.”
“The whole point of the cottage was so that we could all be together,” Alison says.
Scattered from North Carolina to Texas, this is where the children of J. Holmes
Davis II—sisters Alison and Ashley, and brother J. Holmes Davis IV—share the cottage
retreat year-round with their spouses, their children and friends.
“It’s almost like a second home to us,” Alison says. She’s the spokesperson for the
group.
Alison and her husband, Jimbo, live in Charlotte with their children Peyton, 19,
and James, 17. Ashley Davis Burlingame and husband John also live in Charlotte
with Marshall, 18, Mary Corbin, 16 and Hannah, 12. Originally from Charlotte and
Raleigh, Holmes and wife Cammy now travel from Dallas, Texas, with their three
children—Holmes,13, Eliza, 10, and Marguerite, 6—perpetuating a family tradition
of togetherness in Wrightsville Beach.
Their father was the only one of three brothers to leave the Wilmington and
Wrightsville area to rear his family elsewhere. For 20 years, he rented a summer
cottage on the sound to be near his brothers, Peter Davis and Michael Davis, who
owned their own cottages. After his death, his children continued to rent the home.
Inverted net buckets stacked on a wooden post topped with a silver leaf
star marry recycled rustic seacoast styling with a holiday twist around
the porch swing, sometimes used for overflow seating during dinner on
the porch, but most often used by the family kids.
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