One has to wonder if the 69-year-old lady of the Bellamy house, Miss Ellen, was watching as the Sudan Shriners Drum and Bugle Corps paused for a photo on its way to the Armistice Day parade in 1921. This photo appeared in the November 10 edition of the Wilmington Star newspaper.
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.
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.
The Sudan Shriners Drum and Bugle Corps makes its way past the Bellamy house on November 3, 1921 as part of a 28-block procession through downtown Wilmington in celebration of Armistice Day. Notice the foundation of the soon-to-be-completed Keenan fountain in the foreground. According to Shriners International, in order to become a Shriner, a man must first be a Mason. The fraternity of Freemasonry is the oldest, largest and most widely known fraternity in the world. It dates back hundreds of years to the time when stonemasons and other craftsmen gathered in shelter houses or lodges. Over the years, formal Masonic lodges emerged, with members bound together not by trade, but by their own desire to be fraternal brothers. In 1916, the Sudan temple was established in New Bern serving eastern North Carolina and it has grown to become the fifth largest in the entire Shrine fraternity. Photo courtesy of NHCPL and Bevery Tetterton.
