COURTESY OF BURGWIN-WRIGHT HOUSE PHOTO BY ALLISON POTTER
59
Lynch works in the Burgwin-Wright House gardens (top). The building became known as the Cornwallis House when British general Lord Charles
Cornwallis used it as his headquarters in 1781.
House, says the NSCDA’s mission can be summed up in three
words: “Preservation. Patriotism. Education.”
That includes saving, restoring and interpreting Colonial-era sites
like the Burgwin-Wright House.
English-born planter and merchant John Burgwin built the house
in 1770 in the Georgian architecture style of the day. It became
known as the Cornwallis House when British general Lord Charles
Cornwallis used it as his headquarters while he and his troops occu-pied
Wilmington in 1781. Thomas Grainger Wright purchased the
house in 1799, and it remained in the Wright family for 90 years.
The North Carolina Colonial Dames purchased the histori-cally
important property in 1937 after “an eight-year campaign
to save it” from demolition, Lamberton says, and began to restore
the mansion to its original glory. It opened as a public museum in
1951, becoming a central component of the Colonial Dames’ edu-cational
mission.
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM