Like the city that hosts it, the North Carolina Azalea Festival is steeped in local and state history—times, traditions and places of the past that are showcased with one of its signature events, the historic home tour.
Presented by the Historic Wilmington Foundation, this year’s tour features nine historic homes and a church—St. Stephen AME Church on Red Cross Street. Tours will be offered Saturday from 1 to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m., though the Holt-Wise House will only be open Saturday.
That house, situated at 1713 Market St., is included in the tour as an example of the Neoclassical Revival style. Built in 1908, the house was built for cotton manufacturer Edwin Cameron Holt and his wife, Delores Delgado Stevens, and was later owned by Jesse Hargrave Kenan Wise, an heiress, philanthropist and life member of the Ministering Circle and the N.C. Society of Colonial Dames of America, according to a description from the foundation.
The house was later deeded to UNCW and restored by the university’s alumni association in 1993 before it was remodeled in 2007.
Such stories will be shared throughout this year’s tour, which also features the 1904-built Neil M. McEachern House, at 214 N. Sixth St.; the 19th-century Parmele Williams House and Yopp-Goodman House, at 213 N. Sixth St. and 215 N. Sixth, respectively; and the built-through-the-centuries Williams-Belden House, at 116 S. Fourth St.
Also included are the 19th-century Elliott-Brown House and Edward S. Latimer House, at 218 S. Second St. and 208 S. Third St., respectively; and the 20th-century J. Lowell White House and Conrad Meister House, located at 318 N. 18th St. and 1915 Market St., respectively.
St. Stephen AME Church, at 501 Red Cross Street, is included as an example of Late Gothic Revival architecture, designed and built by congregation members in the 1880s. A description from the foundation states the church was built for the local African Methodist Episcopal Congregation, organized in 1865 by a black chaplain serving with Union forces that were occupying Wilmington.
Descriptions of each of the tour sites can be found on the foundation’s website.
To kick off the tour, Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo and New Hanover County Commissioner and Vice Chairwoman Beth Dawson will join the Cape Fear Garden Club Azalea Belles for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the Neil M. McEachern House. Complimentary ice cream will be served to attendees.
Tickets can be purchased in advance for $25 at the foundation office at 2011 Market St., just inside the gate of Wilmington National Cemetery, and at the Azalea Festival office at 5725 Oleander Drive, unit B7. Tickets can also be purchased by phone at 910-794-4650.
More information is available here and here.
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