29
kept in the New Hanover County Library’s North Carolina Room.
It’s a hand-drawn and painted chart illustrating the battle plan for
the first attack on Fort Fisher in December 1864 with line drawings
to show the Union warships and their projected lines of fire
on the massive earthen fortification that guarded Wilmington.
In the vestibule to the master suite, there is an original engraving
of a portrait of Lord Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, and
an 1882 hand-tinted drawing of William Hooper’s Wilmington
town house.
The inner sanctum — part bedchamber, part sitting room and
study — is the repository for a selection of rare North Carolina
titles. The collector is squiring a research library that will be turned
over to the rare book room of Old Salem and the Museum of Early
Southern Decorative Arts.
Above, far left: Charles P. Bolles, circa
1882 original watercolor of William
Hooper’s Second Street residence.
Hooper, who also owned Finian
Plantation on Masonboro Sound was
one of three signers of the Declaration
of Independence from North Carolina.
Below, far left: Hand sewn by a British
sailor, this circa 1880 woolie picture
depicts the arrival of Queen Victoria
onboard with all signal flags unfurled.
Left: A sailor-carved set of pickup sticks,
circa 1840-1880, mahogany, probably
carved onboard a whaling ship for the
sailor’s child. Above: The collection of
labeled and dated black glass wine
bottles, 1687-1814, with each decade
represented. LTE, dated 1703; Samuel
Smith, 1731.
out the space, including the Westerwald, which is sometimes housed
in a uniquely notched 18th century New England cupboard that was
designed for placement beneath a ceiling beam in its original setting.
Beside it is a 1690 Boston Centennial piece possibly made in 1890.
Made from bird’s eye maple, it is believed to have been fabricated
exactly the way it would have been built in 1690.
Floating in the center of a room rendered in deep yellow with
flashes of red — decorated by Raleigh interior designer Edythe
Medlin — is a drop leaf table surrounded by New England chairs.
And despite an open kitchen counter covered with a stunning slab
of marble extracted from an ancient Brazilian seabed, most of the
meals are taken on laps in front of the television.
The corridors are lined with maps, etchings and paintings under
glass. One map is only one of two in known existence. The other is
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM