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www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
The initial idea was to turn it into a
fitness center. We’d inherited some fitness
equipment and hired an architect
to design (the interior).”
“The front was going to be a health
food restaurant,” she adds, noting with
a wry grin that the restaurant didn’t
fare as well as expected, because, she
says, “skinny people don’t eat.”
The fitness club got off the ground,
run by John Poole, from the town’s
Parks and Recreation Department.
During the ensuing decade, the
building’s storefront was leased to
a variety of businesses, including a
florist, and at one time, a delicatessen
that was an extension of Robert’s
Market next door. In 1995, Jerry
Allen Lachman leased the space and
opened Jerry Allen’s Sports Bar and
Grill. More than 15 years later, Jerry
Allen’s thrives.
In October 2002, the Bakers leased
the remainder of the building’s square
footage to Nick and Wanda Kentrolis,
who opened The Crest Fitness; and
in 2004, the Bakers sold the building
to Lachman and business partner
Allan Middleton. In 2006, after The
Crest Fitness moved to the Galleria
on Wrightsville Avenue, and after a
brief time of vacancy, the upper floor
became the walk-up gallery showroom
and studio for Adamantine Art. And
since 2008, Evolution, a mixed martial
arts studio has occupied the former
balcony.
Look, there along the narrow street,
heat twists in the summery air. Behind
the buttery-yellow façade, what was
once the Crest Theater stands as a stubborn
remnant of the Wrightsville Beach
townscape. Faded memories of the movie
palace in its heyday unravel in the
conscious collective, and for those
who fondly remember, a faint
aroma of popping corn
still drifts with the sea
breeze.
304 Fair Lakes Drive
Landfall • $1,150,000
118 Skystasail Drive
$2,000,000
0 Odyssey Drive
Landfall • $1,185,000
11B East Greensboro Street
Wrightsville Beach • $599,000
110 Seven Oaks Court
Boat Slip • $675,000
SOLD
SOLD
— Power of 2 —
Summer Stephenson
sstephenson@intracoastalrealty.com
910.279.6234
Susan Paulson
spaulson@intracoastalrealty.com
910.233.7970
14.45 acre tract
reduced