The Greater Wilmington Business Journal presents annual awards with support from a host of groups, including the City of Wilmington, New Hanover County, FOCUS, Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, Wilmington Housing Authority, Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors, Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association, Cape Fear Housing Coalition, Cape Fear Habitat for Humanity, Cape Fear Land Trust and WARM.

In the Arts, Culture and Heritage area the Bellamy Museum won this important community award for the fifteen year slave quarters project. The restoration of the building is of huge importance to this site and is historically unique to Wilmington. We are so excited for this achievement! 

Wayne Thompson of Heritage Restoration has begun working on the East Wall of the Slave Quarters. Thompson is in the process of repointing the entire wall and while he was prepping the existing joints he found some more debris. He discovered more porcelain tile and some black stones. At first we believed the black stones were coal but after cleaning them up it was discovered that they were in fact Obsidian, which is a volcanic rock. This is very intriguing because it means that someone deliberately found the obsidian and placed it in the wall. Was this part of a ritual to protect the building? More research is needed.

We are excited to announce the completion of the restoration of the Slave Quarters on our site! After a long and labor intensive process, the area will now be open to the public for tours. Many, many thanks to everyone involved. 

The renovation of our rare and historically important urban slave building appeared in a feature on WWAY TV recently. Check out the news here.

http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/play/4207977?wpid=12071

Lumina News featured an article about the Cape Fear Camera Club’s Images of Distinction exhibit, currently on display at the Bellamy Mansion! Click on the link to read.

http://www.luminanews.com/article.asp?aid=12411&iid=389&sud=42

Here’s a quick look at the Bellamy’s past exhibit “Ivey Hayes: A Retrospective”. The mansion was lucky to feature such a broad exhibit of work from the different stages in Hayes’ life. Watch as WWAY 3’s George Elliott and the Bellamy’s Gareth Evans explore this unique collection.

http://www.wwaytv3.com/2013/04/05/explore-george-ivey-hayes-retrospective