WILMINGTON — A well-known historic structure in downtown Wilmington has been ruled condemned after an accidental fire engulfed it for the second time in two years. However, the owners are not ready to call it quits on saving the structure.
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The fire at the 119-year-old Bridgers Mansion — better known to area residents as Graystone Inn — was ruled as an accident by the Wilmington Fire Department on Monday. The fire spawned from ongoing construction work amid renovations, according to the WFD.
New Hanover County inspection department deemed the structure condemned due to liability from the fire and bad conditions of the walls. However, inspectors are also visiting the site Tuesday to further evaluate, according to a county spokesperson.
Insurance will determine if the building is a total loss.
Owner Jamie Alfalla said even though the interior has been destroyed after the roof collapsed on the three-story inn, she is hopeful not all is completely squandered in the end.
“The limestone held,” she told Port City Daily Sunday.
Alfalla added it doesn’t look like the limestone is bowing, though the joists and dormers are gone. She and her husband and business partner, Ace, will bring in a structural engineer to assess the building’s integrity, and learn how and if it can be saved.
“I know that there are a lot of people posting on social media: ‘The building’s toast’ and ‘the building’s gone.’ When the building was burning, we knew the limestone would likely hold. It would take a lot more than fire to take it down,” Alfalla said, adding she is also appreciative to everyone who has reached out. “The thing that we are the most grateful for is that the outside structure survived — it’s part of Wilmington’s history that would just be catastrophic to lose.”
Bridgers Mansion is a name Alfalla also wants to make more well-known moving forward, “for history’s sake.” She prefers it over Graystone or Graystone Inn, as the building’s been commonly referred to and named for the last four decades.
The historical marker at S. Third and Dock streets explains its background. Construction began in 1905 and finished in 1906, with the mansion named after Elizabeth Haywood Bridgers, who was married to Preston L. Bridgers. Elizabeth’s family was part of the Wilmington/Weldon Railroad and eventually Atlantic Coast Railway business. Built with Indiana limestone, the mansion is one of the few stone houses built in Wilmington, from architect Charles McMillen and contractor Joseph Schad.
Preston died before the mansion was finished, though Elizabeth continued to live there with her children thereafter. Then the mansion was briefly owned by a Greek shipping magnate, and in the 1940s was used as an American Legion Post. In 1982, it became an inn.
The Alfallas purchased it in 2021 for almost $2 million and completed a multi-million renovation for the 15,000-square-foot, nine-room bed-and-breakfast.
“When we saw the Greystone and all the charm and beauty and the history, we just knew right away we wanted to move to Wilmington,” she said upon leaving New York during the pandemic.
The Alfallas — who also own and operate Sugo Italian Steakhouse, Concorde Espresso Bar and Oklahoma Burgers — opened the fine-dining Preston Restaurant inside the BnB in June 2023. However, shortly after, a kitchen fire started and wrecked the new renovations with water and smoke damage.
The setback cost millions more. While insurance covered some of the 2023 fire damage, Alfalla said it didn’t fully finance it, so they had to secure $1.8 million for the rest.
“Being we were halfway through the renovation,” Alfalla said, “and half the loan was used, I think people just don’t realize how much sacrifice people make to do things like this.”
How they will move forward now remains unknown, but Alfalla said she expects it could cost at least another million-and-a-half just to stabilize the structure and ensure it’s safe.
“I mean just the demo alone is a lot,” she said, referring to pulling out steel beams, removing soggy wood, and all items inside, including a piano that fell through the floors.
She called the project a “serious labor of love” — and one they hope to put back together again. However, the original trim and fireplaces don’t seem salvageable at this time.
“We were scheduled to open by summer 2026,” Alfalla said, thankful there were no injuries or damage to other nearby structures during Friday’s fire; the mansion is surrounded by historic homes.
She was driving downtown, turning onto Dock Street when she got the call shortly after 1 p.m. about the fire. Looking up in the blue sky, she saw billows of gray and black smoke blanketing downtown. Fire crews were already on the scene as she arrived.
Alfalla said the fire started in the basement, with one tradesman even attempting to go in and contain it. But it had escalated.
“And the smoke was too much,” Alfalla said. “It went up so fast.”
According to WFD, the fire spread quickly due to void spaces created from construction. Alfalla said some areas had new insulation, with drywall set to go in next week as the framing was finished.
“We passed almost all of our rough-in inspections,” Alfalla said.
Rough-in inspections refer to plumbing, electrical wiring, HVAC and other systems that require meeting code before walls are closed in.
Fire crews contained most of the fire within a few hours; hotspots restarted Saturday and it wasn’t fully extinguished until around 11 p.m. on Nov. 15. The fire caused power outages and left some water lines compromised due to crews hooking up to downtown hydrants.
“It was a three-alarm fire and we had more than 50 firefighters on scene, some of which were from Leland and New Hanover County,” according to WFD spokesperson Rebekah Thurston.
Alfalla said, despite the slate roof collapsing, one room survived — the bourbon room.
“We call it the safest room in the house,” she said, as it stays locked and managed to remain standing from both the 2023 and 2025 fires.
All the mahogany wood and a mural of the downtown Wilmington skyline from the early 1900s remained intact, Alfalla said.
In the bourbon room are also portraits of Elizabeth and Preston Bridgers, which, for the most part, are unscathed. Alfalla said they were a bit wet and somewhat dirty, and when she told her husband she wanted to get them restored, he cautioned her on where they would reside in the meantime.
“You’re not bringing those to any of our properties,’” she recalled him saying. “He said: ‘I’m not superstitious, but I just can’t.’ … there’s power to be said about keeping a door shut during a fire.”
One thing Alfalla is grateful for is all the documentation and photographs they have of the original building, its interior and the like. If they do decide to fully renovate back to Bridgers mansion original history, they have a lot of imagery to work with.
“But it increases the cost of a project, too,” Alfalla said, unknowing what’s realistic right now.
While the hope is to return the building to its former glory, if that isn’t feasible, Alfalla said they would rebuild the interior as best they could — perhaps modernize it, and keep the exterior the same. It could attract more investors if costs are less.
When asked if the option of selling may be on the table, Alfalla said it’s not necessarily what she wants.
“But that’s the tough part,” she said. “It’s a tough market to try and sell a building that’s burned down twice. Unless they’re just a history lover and have a real appreciation for historic buildings, … We’ll know more in the next three to four weeks and our next steps.”
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