up front
This month’s issue contains one of
my favorite reoccurring features —
People and Their Pets.
L
ast year, we moved into office
quarters that allow pets and
having Maggie and Bella, my
Chinese pugs, firmly ensconced on a cush-ion
in the office each day has made my
work days more relaxed — and the girls
really prefer coming into the office.
And I made a choice, rather than give
you one more photo of my dogs and
me, having just come from a memorable
trip to Marineland in Florida, with Ethan
and Zoie, my grandchildren; we thought
it more fun to show you one of those
instead. We not only got to pet this
two-year-old dolphin, but, as you see
in the photo, the trainer let us take him
through a few of his paces. It was thrill-ing
to say the least to raise an arm and
have that magnificent animal leap out
of the water. (Maggie and Bella were
sound asleep back at our bed and
breakfast, missing the entire thing.)
This issue also holds our annual look
at the area real estate market. Always a
challenge to compile the data in a timely
fashion, it’s an interesting read on what’s
happening in the market, which is so
indicative of the overall economy here.
Good news for Wilmington: The year-round
housing market is on the increase.
At Wrightsville, it was interesting to dis-prove
my theory that year-round people
were moving off the beach, further erod-ing
the primary home base. With all but
one sale documented, the ratio, in fact,
increased on the side of the year-round
resident by six. And what we’d always
suspected was true, more than 80 percent
of Wrightsville buyers are coming from
in-state. The locales of those from out of
state were attention-grabbing to compile
too. As were the professions of those who
collectively chose to invest over $50,000
million on Wrightsville.
In this issue is part one of the captivat-ing
story of Brunswick Town, by Jason
Frye, the ruins of which can be seen
between Southport and Wilmington. You
can read part two next month.
Also, we have the story of the four
Hieronymus brothers, by Marimar
WBM february 2011
McNaughton, who came here together as
adults to work, play and raise their fami-lies.
In the process, they created a legacy.
And, finally, we had plenty of response
from those that support the medical-relat-ed
field in New Hanover County urging us
to make the January’s Top Doctors feature
more in-depth. A few suggested we left
doctors off the lists.
Top Doctors was an informative piece
that took in a vast amount of information.
The editorial copy on each of these spe-cialties
was short due to the sheer space
limitations of a piece this large. It was
not designed to be a definitive medical
work, just a bit of educational information.
Anything more is impossible to do in the
space allowed. It was an enormous under-taking,
and we learned a lot. Next year’s
Top Doctor’s feature will be even better as
a result.
In all those names, we did have one
omission — Dr. Jeffery Wright with a fel-lowship
in Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
Stay warm; spring can’t be that far
away!
Editor/Publisher