What a nice surprise to read about our dedicated volunteer coordinator and ace guide Wade Toth in the January 27 issue of the Star News! Here is the article in full by D.J. Bernard:

GUIDE LEADS BELLAMY MANSION JOURNEY

Walking into the Bellamy Mansion Museum in downtown Wilmington is a profound journey back into the antebellum South. And guiding you on the trip is the museum's chief volunteer, Wade Toth.

Toth is the backbone of the volunteer program at the historical mansion, which has been preserved to replicate the world of the Bellamy family. Physician and planter John Dillard Bellamy began construction of the house in 1859 to house his wife, nine children and nine slaves.

Toth is particularly passionate when describing the life of the Bellamy slaves, who were housed in separate quarters restored in 2013. The main house was built using slave labor and their craftsmanship is seen in the decorative plasterwork throughout the house.

"I want to interpret the entire property, not just the Bellamy family but also the other group of people who lived here," Toth said on a recent chilly winter day. "We are telling stories of both blacks and whites."

Toth said the U.S. census in the 1860s did not list the names of slaves, so finding out who the slaves were in the Bellamy mansion took some digging.

But Toth has managed to bring the slaves' reality to life during his tour of their quarters, which are in a separate brick building behind the house. Not many urban slave dwellings still exist and Toth's tour emphasizes the close quarters and having to live next to a privy and steaming wash room.

Toth has been with the Bellamy House since moving to Wilmington from New Orleans in 2007. In the Big Easy, the former educator, who was a dean of students in Louden County, Va., before retiring, gave tours of another antebellum home and is well versed in Southern history.

"I like to think of what I do here at the Bellamy House as an extension of my career in education," Toth said.

Toth especially likes engaging children and the occasional tourist who looks like he was dragged into the house.

"I ask them to look around the house and compare it with their houses today. What do you see that you have in your own homes?," Toth said. When they point out something that seems ordinary, like the mirrors in the parlor, Toth points out that the mirrors served a double role. Before electricity, people put up large mirrors to reflect candles to create more light in the room.

"My joy is helping people find out what went into the house, the technology and the people. I like to take what people know and give it context," Toth said.

In addition to giving tours and training volunteers, Toth serves as a liaison to the museum's board of directors. He dedicates his time to training and coordinating more than 150 active volunteers.

"My role is to recruit, retain and recognize," Toth said.

Toth said volunteers do much of the work at the mansion, from gardening to putting up Christmas decorations to organizing concerts.

He wants them to know they're valued. Every year the Bellamy House has a catered dinner for all volunteers, along with a lecture series, free walking tours in downtown Wilmington and evenings at Thalian Hall with free performances and wine and cheese.

"They've given so much to the mansion," Toth said. "We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for volunteers."

After his lecture on his experiences staying in sixty such properties across the country,  Joe McGill stayed in the Bellamy slave building. You can read about this unique experience from the students and others who stayed the night in the Star News article.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20150201/ARTICLES/150139984?p=1&tc=pg

“Most of what we know about the layout of the garden pathways and beds comes from a grainy photograph that dates from the 1920s. Taken from the 5th floor of the Carolina Apartments across from the Bellamy Mansion, it shows a light-colored pathway running between a series of elliptical and circular beds. While it’s no Ansel Adams, this photo is singularly the clearest piece of visual evidence that addresses the design of the landscaping. However, this image does not aid in determining what plants formed those beds.”

Noffke continues by saying: “Fortunately, we do have a group of street-level photographs spanning nearly a century that show large pyracantha, yucca, palmetto, decorative grass, and possibly oleander. Today, the only plants surviving from the early landscape are yucca, palmetto, yew, some lilies, a myrtle, and five large magnolias. Narrative descriptions of the plantings are virtually non-existent. Yew and magnolias are mentioned, but little more. Some older Wilmingtonians remember the Bellamy gardens, recalling that the scheme included varieties of myrtle, moneyplants, and borders of candytuft.”

We uncovered some interesting photos recently and thought you'd enjoy them. Over the years, the Bellamy Mansion has served as a location shoot for television shows and movies, but it appeared as a backdrop on a very special day nearly 100 years ago -- Armistice Day, November 3, 1921. Few of us celebrate this holiday these days, but consider this: the First World War had ended just three years prior.

The November 10 edition of the Wilmington Morning Star reported, "It was the biggest thing of its kind Wilmington ever staged. That is the verdict of all Wilmington in regard to the Armistice day celebration held here yesterday when the rest of the population of the city looked on as approximately 6000 people participated in a parade that was but little less than two miles long."

Patriotic speeches were made from the steps of city hall, choirs comprising hundreds of children sang, an enormous banquet was held providing lunch for 600 former servicemen, and during the afternoon on the Strange gridiron, at least 4,000 people watched the Wilmington Light Infantry "crack" football team beat the Davidson College second team, which had "not known defeat in five years."

According to the Star, the last “number” on the program was by no means the least in interest to many. It was a street dance staged on Third street between Princess and Chestnut. This continued until around midnight and during the evening several hundred couples participated. The music was furnished by Grainger’s orchestra. Without doubt, the 1921 Armistice Day parade was the largest ever held in Wilmington.