A history of Wilmington,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Wilmington from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The city was founded in the 1730s. After going through a series of different names (New Carthage, New London, Newton), its name became Wilmington. In 1739, Col. William Bartram, the uncle of the naturalist, introduced a bill to establish Wilmington, named for one of his patrons, Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington.
The area along the river had been inhabited by various successive cultures of indigenous peoples for thousands of years.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Wilmington’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewCapture of Wilmington North Carol…, 1865: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Wilmington
See all 79 →
Wilmington, decade by decade
1990s
22 historic places in Wilmington
Wilmington has 22 listings on the National Register, and they protect 3,127 historic buildings, because Sunset Park Historic District alone counts 823. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier, which fewer than 3% of listings reach.
Where they are
Architectural styles
When they were listed
LandmarkListed 1982USS NORTH CAROLINA (BB-55) National Historic Landmark
Listed 1970City Hall/Thalian Hall
Listed 1974Federal Building and Courthouse
Listed 1974Wilmington Historic and Archeological District
Listed 1975Market Street Mansion District
Listed 1986Mount Lebanon Chapel and Cemetery
Listed 1987Bradley-Latimer Summer House
Listed 1989Walker, James, Nursing School Quarters
Listed 1992Carolina Place Historic District
Listed 1993Audubon Trolley Station
Listed 1997Wilmington National Cemetery
Listed 1998Hooper, William, School (Former)
Listed 1999Carolina Heights Historic DistrictListed 1999Carolina Heights Historic District (Boundary Increase)
Listed 2001Delgrado SchoolListed 2003Wilmington Historic District (Boundary Increase)
Listed 2003Sunset Park Historic District
Listed 2008Gabriel's Landing
Listed 2009Westbrook-Ardmore Historic District
Listed 2014Brookwood Historic DistrictListed 1981USS North CarolinaListed 1992Masonboro Sound Historic District (Additional Documentation)Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Capture of Wilmington North Carolina 1865 (1865) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (9) and the National Register (3). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.