Bellamy Mansion
The Bellamy Mansion, built between 1859 and 1861, is a mixture of Neoclassical architectural styles, including Greek Revival and Italianate, and is located at 503 Market Street in the heart of downtown Wilmington, North Carolina.
Designed with Greek Revival and Italianate styling, this twenty-two room house was constructed with the labor of both enslaved skilled carpenters and freed black artisans.
[1] Originally built as a private residence for the family of Dr. John D. Bellamy, a prominent plantation owner, physician, and businessman, the mansion has endured a remarkable series of events throughout its existence.
[2] As a young man, John Dillard Bellamy, Sr. inherited a large piece of his father’s plantation in Horry County, South Carolina at about age 18, along with several enslaved workers.
John Jr. attended Davidson College, and the University of Virginia Law School, and eventually became a successful politician in the conservative Democratic Party.
Of the other three daughters of Dr. and Mrs. Bellamy, Eliza and Ellen lived out their days unmarried in the family mansion on Market Street, while Kate Taylor died as an infant in 1858.
The dining room table here was "laden with everything conceivably good," but the Civil War broke out the following month and "ended all entertaining for four long years."
[1] John Jr. described his father as an "ardent Secessionist, Calhoun Democrat, and never after the war ‘reconstructed.’" Dr. Bellamy was so proud of South Carolina’s secession in December 1860 and so dismayed that many prominent Wilmington families "would not take part in the celebration of South Carolina's withdrawal from the Union, he bought all the empty tar barrels in Wilmington and had them strewn along Front Street...and had a great bonfire and procession at night, three days before the Christmas of 1860.
He procured a band of music, and headed the marching column himself, at Front and Market Streets, with his little son and namesake, the author, by his side, bearing a torch upon his shoulder!
Rufus Bunnell noted on January 2, 1860, that "Hundreds of (N)egro slaves huddled about the Market House … sitting or standing in the keen weather" to renew their contracts.
Soon after, the General’s wife Harriet Foote Hawley, an experienced war nurse, arrived in Wilmington in April 1865 to help tend to the wounded.
[1] After the official end of the war in April 1865, the Federal Government seized southern property, including land, buildings, and homes of Dr. Bellamy.
It is assumed that it wasn't easy for Eliza Bellamy to be entertained by a "yankee" in her own home, but it has been reported that she behaved as a proper Southern lady, and acted with politeness.
By August 21, he received a presidential pardon from Andrew Johnson to retrieve his plantation land and commercial buildings, but the Bellamy House on Market Street was still under military control.
[1] Dr. Bellamy finally obtained his property, but he now had to hire freed workers for the turpentine distillery, Grovely Plantation, and the family home on Market Street.
He resumed his practice of medicine to gain the extra money needed to pay off debts brought about by the building of the mansion, the war, and military occupation.
[1] While studying in South Carolina, she had taken a liking to a nearby home in Columbia that featured a similar design, and so she shared her ideas with Dr. Bellamy and eventually with the draftsman, Rufus W. Bunnell.
Dr. Bellamy hired James F. Post, an architect in Wilmington who had been the supervisor of the construction of Thalian Hall, designed by the renowned John M. Trimble.
[3] Drawings for Dr. Bellamy’s new home would be produced through the late summer and early fall months, and in October the excavation of the construction site began and the foundation was laid.
[1] After the New Year most of Bunnell’s drawings were complete and most of the building supplies had been ordered from New York, including the large Corinthian columns, along with various blinds and window drapings.
William B. Gould and other enslaved workers and artisans exhibited their fine skills in the plaster moldings of the interior of the main house and extensive woodwork throughout all twenty-two rooms of the home.
[1] Although Dr. Bellamy wanted his home constructed with classic style, and in an old reliable fashion, he was very much interested in modern utilities and innovations that would allow his family to live in comfort.
The channeled tin roof allows for quick and effective drainage, and insulation; due to Wilmington’s high heat and humidity levels in the summer months Dr. Bellamy also wanted the large, door-sized windows of the first floor to open all the way, disappearing into the wall.
On hot days, the windows of the belvedere were propped open to create a vacuum effect to naturally cool the upper floors of the home.
Although Dr. Bellamy was described as a man with somewhat conservative taste, he needed his home to be both modern and comforting, accommodating to the large number of people living in it.
The smallness of the yards and gardens at the center of the lots seem to magnify the commanding size of the walls and emphasize the calculated isolation of the quarters.
The relentless masonry was broken only by the stark escarpment created by the rear of the adjacent buildings- the backs of kitchens, stables, or neighboring slave quarters.
[1] Through the 1970s and 1980s, Bellamy Mansion, Inc., worked to complete exterior restoration of the main home and the servants' quarters in the rear of the property, and to raise funds for the interior renovations.
[1] Today the Bellamy Mansion is a fully operational museum, focusing on history and design arts, and a Stewardship Property of Preservation North Carolina.
[4] The facility often features changing exhibits of history and design as well as various community events, including the annual garden tour of the famous North Carolina Azalea Festival in Wilmington.
