THE ARCHITECTURE OF UPPER NORTH FOURTH
UPPER NORTH FOURTH is a street
with a story. It’s a tale of rebirth through
redevelopment, of a transformation from
neglect to newness, and of a district still in
transition, where trendy condos sit not far
from public housing, where new buildings
coexist with decades-old African-American
barber and beauty shops, and where vacant
lots wait to be developed.
The north side of downtown once was
a vibrant residential and commercial area,
full of immigrant business owners, his-torian
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com 65
WBM
Beverly Tetterton says in her book
“Wilmington: Lost But Not Forgotten.” It
thrived until 1960, when suburban flight
and unemployment after the Atlantic
Coast Line Railroad left town caused the
area to decline.
“It wasn’t ornate and amazing, but it
was a streetscape,” says developer Dave
Spetrino, owner of Plantation Building
Corporation. “Then all those buildings
came down. There was all this vacant land
that had been empty for decades.”
Where others saw obsolescence on the
long-forgotten street and district, he and
partner Dave Nathans, owner of Urban
Building Corporation, saw opportunity.
“Imagine that area without the com-munity
college, without the performing
arts center, without PPD,” he says. “There
was not a lot of demand for residential
downtown at the time. We didn’t know
if it would work. A lot of our approach,
some of it came from ignorance. We were
on the outskirts and the fringe, but we saw
the possibility.”
The balcony on the north side of the (new)
Modern Baking Co. overlooks the elevator
housing of the defunct National Biscuit
Company baking plant (which made salted
soda crackers) next door, epitomizing the
mixture of old and new on North Fourth
Street above Red Cross Street.