Downtown Wilmington's historic attractions might even be called organic because they are so integral to the identity of Cape Fear. Sites such as Brunswick Town, Fort Fisher and Topsail Island's Assembly Building convey specific eras and events as no textbook or commemoration can.

The historic district of downtown Wilmington practically groans under the weight of its history, and it is the most varied single attraction in the area, easily explored by foot, by boat or by horse-drawn carriage. By 1850 Wilmington was the largest city in North Carolina. As a port city, it was on a par with other great southern ports such as Galveston and New Orleans. But when the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad company pulled out of Wilmington in the 1960s, the city went into such a rapid decline that even its skyline was flattened by the demolition of several buildings and railroad facilities on the north side of town.

Downtown was all but deserted until a core of local entrepreneurs revitalized and restored their hometown. In 1974, downtown Wilmington became the state's largest urban district listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Many of the images of Wilmington's bustling past are preserved in the North Carolina Room at the public library's main branch at 201 Chestnut Street in downtown Wilmington. Likewise, the Cape Fear Museum and the Wilmington Railroad Museum interpret the region's history in far-reaching exhibits. Together these places, all listed below, are excellent resources for interpreting what you see today or exploring the history further.

Many attractions are typical of the seashore: excellent fishing, fine seafood dining, the many cruise opportunities. No beach resort would be complete without water slides, go-cart tracks or batting cages, so take note of these places listed in the Kidstuff chapter; they are definitely not for kids only. These amusements, as well as miniature golf, movies and bowling, are concentrated along our most heavily traveled routes. In Wilmington, Oleander Drive east of 41st Street is the predominant amusement strip, having several more attractions than listed here. North of Ocean Isle Beach, Beach Drive (N.C. Highway 179/904) is another strip, with its share of go-carts, miniature golf and curiosities. Near the foot of Yaupon Pier on Oak Island stands an arcade and seaside miniature-golf course. Topsail Beach and Surf City share the limelight as Topsail Island's two centers of attractions. It would be redundant to list every enterprise; you're bound to stumble across them as you gravitate toward each community's entertainment center.

Not all local attractions are summertime flings. The world's largest living Christmas tree is decorated and lit nightly during the Christmas season in Wilmington. Not your average Christmas tree, it is a 400-year-old live oak in Hilton Park, a few minutes north of downtown on N.C. Highway 133/U.S. Highway 117. Another great holiday display is Calder Court, a cul-de-sac in the King's Grant subdivision. To get there, drive north on N.C. Highway 132 (College Road) about 1.25 miles beyond the Market Street overpass. Turn right onto Kings Drive and take the next two lefts, then douse the headlights to witness one of the most flamboyant demonstrations of Christmas illumination anywhere. Cars often line up all the way down the street, not one with its lights on. In recent years, the show has been catching on elsewhere in the King's Grant neighborhood.

It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the region's gardens, for which North Carolina is rightfully famous. The fact that the North Carolina Azalea Festival, to which garden tours are focal, is based in Wilmington makes a strong case for the southern coast's horticultural significance. Annual and perennial plantings are well-supported public works. Two privately owned gardens open to the public - Airlie Gardens and Orton Plantation - are simply spectacular in springtime.

The battleship came to its present home in 1961. It took a swarm of tugboats to maneuver the 728-foot vessel into its berth, where the river is only 500 feet wide. Predictably, the bow became stuck in the mud. When the tugs succeeded in freeing the ship, they failed to prevent it from slamming into Fergus's Ark, a floating restaurant moored at the foot of Princess Street. Wilmington gained a battleship and lost a restaurant.

The North Carolina is open for tours every day of the year -- from 8 AM until 8 PM from May 16 through September 15, and from 8 AM to 5 PM from September 16 to May 15. You can drive to it easily enough, but using the Battleship River Taxi is more fun (see the Capt. Maffitt Sightseeing Cruise below). A self-guided tour that takes about two hours leads you above and below decks and includes the pilot house, turrets, a rare Kingfisher float plane, crew’s quarters, radio central, the coding room and the galley. Only the main deck is handicapped-accessible.

Bellamy Mansion Museum of Design Arts 503 Market St., Wilmington • 251-3700 The assertion that Bellamy Mansion is Wilmington's premiere statement of prewar opulence and wealth is impossible to contest. (''Prewar'' here refers to the War Between the States, a.k.a. the Civil War, the War of Northern Aggression, the Great Unpleasantness.) This four-story, 22-room wooden palace, completed in 1861, is a classic example of Greek Revival and Italianate architecture. Its majesty is immediately evident in 14 fluted exterior Corinthian columns. Most of the craftwork is the product of African-American slave artisans, some of whom were granted their freedom on the steps of this very building. Before plans were set to renovate and restore the mansion in 1972, it hadn't been lived in since 1946. Volunteer guides are sure to point out the glassed-in portion of a wall left unrestored to illustrate the extent of a 1972 arson. That event was linked to the disfavor in which the Bellamy Mansion has been held by some locals who see it as a symbol of slavery, which further legitimizes the mansion's value as a historic and cultural landmark.

As a museum, the mansion's exhibits embrace regional architecture, landscape architecture, preservation and decorative arts, and hosts multimedia traveling exhibits, workshops, films, lectures, slide shows and other activities. Ongoing and painstaking restoration qualifies Bellamy Mansion as an important work in progress. Outside, the gardens have recently been restored. Forthcoming restorations will include the slave quarters (a rare example of urban slave housing) and the carriage house.

Bellamy Mansion is open to the public Wednesday to Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM and Sunday 1 to 5 PM. Fees are $5 for adults, $3 for children ages 6 through 12. Members of Preservation North Carolina are admitted free.

Burgwin-Wright House 224 Market St., Wilmington • 762-0570 When Lord Charles Cornwallis fled his slim victory near Guilford Courthouse in central North Carolina in 1781, still in danger of a rebel pursuit, he repaired to Wilmington, then a town of 200 houses. He lodged at the gracious Georgian home of John Burgwin (pronounced "bur-GWIN"), a wealthy planter and politician, and made it his headquarters. The home, completed in 1770, is distinguished by two-story porches on two sides and six levels of tiered gardens. The massive ballast-stone foundation remains from the previously abandoned town jail, beneath which was a dungeon where Cornwallis held his prisoners. Volunteers for the National Society of the Colonial Dames, the building's present owners, can point out the trap door leading to it. Underground, an old brick tunnel communicates to the river. Rumored to have concealed pirate treasure or slaves on the Underground Railroad, it is only a sluice for a stream called Jacob's Run.

The Burgwin-Wright House is one of the great restoration/reconstruction achievements in the state, and visitors may peruse the carefully appointed rooms and period furnishings for $3 (students, $1). The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 AM to 4 PM.

Cape Fear Museum 814 Market St., Wilmington • 341-4350 For an overview of the cultural and natural histories of the Cape Fear region from prehistory to the present, the Cape Fear Museum, established in 1898, stands unsurpassed. A miniature re-creation of the second battle of Fort Fisher and a remarkable scale model of the Wilmington waterfront, c. 1863, are of special interest. The Michael Jordan Discovery Gallery, including a popular display case housing many of the basketball star's personal items, is a long-term interactive natural history exhibit for the entire family. The Discovery Gallery includes a crawl-through beaver lodge, Pleistocene-era fossils and an entertaining Venus's-flytrap model you can feed with stuffed "bugs." Children's activities, videos, special events and acclaimed touring exhibits contribute to making the Cape Fear Museum not only one of the primary repositories of local history but also a place where learning is fun.

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 9 AM to 5 PM, Sunday 2 to 5 PM and is handicapped-accessible. Admission is $2 for adults 18 to 65; $1 for children 5 to 17, college students with valid ID and seniors older than 65. Children younger than 5 and Museum Associates are admitted free. Admission is free to all on the first and third Sundays each month and the first day of each month.

Capt. Maffitt Sightseeing Cruise Riverfront Park, Wilmington • 343-1611, (800) 676-0162 Named for Capt. John Newland Maffitt, one of the Confederacy's most successful blockade runners, this is a converted World War II Navy launch affording 45-minute sightseeing cruises along the Cape Fear River with live historical narration. Cruises set out at 11 AM and 3 PM daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The Maffitt is available for charter throughout the year, and it doubles as the Battleship River Taxi during the summer. No reservations are necessary, and it runs on the quarter-hour from 10 AM to 5 PM outside of cruise times. Also see our listing for Battleship North Carolina, above.

Chandler's Wharf Water and Ann sts., Wilmington • 815-3510 In the late 1970s, Chandler's Wharf was an Old Wilmington riverfront reconstruction complete with a museum and seven historic ships moored at the adjoining docks. More than 100 years ago, the area was choked with mercantile warehouses, its sheds filled with naval stores, tools, cotton and guano, its wharves lined with merchantmen. A disastrous (and suspicious) fire in August 1874 changed the site forever. Today much of the flavor - and none of the odor - of that era remains, and Chandler's Wharf is again a business district; more accurately, a shopping and dining district. Two historic homes transformed into shops stand along the cobblestone street, wooden sidewalks and the rails of the former waterfront railway. You'll find a jeweler/gemologist shop, two restaurants (Elijah's and The Pilot House) and boutiques set amid flowers, a small herb garden, benches and nautical artifacts. On the corner immediately north, a renovated warehouse contains more shops. The tugboat John Taxis, reputedly the oldest in America, sits above the water's edge. For more on wharf businesses, see our Restaurants and Shopping chapters.

Chestnut Street United Presbyterian Church 710 N. Sixth St., Wilmington • 762-1074 This tiny church (1858), originally a mission chapel of First Presbyterian Church (see below), is a remarkable example of Stick Style, or Carpenter Gothic, architecture. Set well back from the road, its exterior details include decorative bargeboards with repeating acorn pendants, board-and-batten construction, a louvered bell tower (with carillon) and paired Gothic windows. When the congregation formed in 1858, the chapel was surrendered by the mother church to the new, black congregation, which purchased the building in 1867. The congregation's many distinguished members have included the first Negro president of Biddle University (now Johnson C. Smith University), publisher of Wilmington's first Negro newspaper, a member of the original Fisk University Jubilee Singers, the first African-American graduate of MIT, and North Carolina's first black physician.

First Baptist Church 529 N. Fifth St., Wilmington • 763-2647 Having lost its stunning 197-foot, copper-sheathed steeple to Hurricane Fran in 1996, this is still Wilmington's tallest church, if only in the hearts of the townspeople, many of whom are rallying to rebuild it. For years this tower, the taller of two, had been known to visibly sway even in an "average" wind. The congregation dates to 1808, and construction of the red brick building began in 1859. The church was not completed until 1870 because of the Civil War, when Confederate and Union forces in turn used the higher steeple as a lookout. Its architecture is Early English Gothic Revival with hints of Richardson Romanesque, as in its varicolored materials and its horizontal mass relieved by the verticality of the spires, with their narrow, gabled vents. Inside, the pews, galleries and ceiling vents are of native heart pine. Being the first Baptist church in the region, this is the mother church of many other Baptist churches in Wilmington. The church offices occupy an equally interesting building next door, the Conoley House (1859), which exhibits such classic Italianate elements as frieze vents and brackets, and fluted wooden columns.

First Presbyterian Church 125 S. Third St., Wilmington • 762-6688 Organized as early as 1760, this congregation continues to have among its members some of the most influential Wilmingtonians. The Rev. Joseph R. Wilson was pastor from 1874 until 1885; his son, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, grew up to become slightly more famous. The church itself, with its finials and soaring stone spire topped with a metal rooster (a symbol of the Protestant Reformation), blends Late Gothic and Renaissance styles, and is the congregation's fourth home, the previous three having succumbed to fire. During the Union occupation, the lectern Bible was stolen from the third church, which burned on New Year's Eve, 1925. The stolen Bible was returned years later to become all that remains of the previous sanctuary. Today, intricate tracery distinguishes fine stained-glass windows along the nave, as well as the vast West window and the chancel rose. The original 1928 E. M. Skinner organ, with its original pneumatic console, is used regularly. Handsomely stenciled beams, arches and trusses support a steep gabled roof. Downstairs is the Kenan Chapel, with its transverse Romanesque arches. The education building behind the sanctuary is quintessential Tudor, complete with exterior beams set in stucco, wide squared arches, casement windows with diamond panes, interior ceiling beams and eccentric compound chimneys. Having undergone major renovation in the early 1990s, First Presbyterian is an impressive sight. Its carillon can be heard daily throughout the historic district.

Horse-drawn Carriage Tour Market St. between Water and Front sts., Wilmington • 251-8889 See historic downtown Wilmington the old-fashioned way - by horse-drawn carriage. This half-hour ride in a French-top surrey is narrated by a knowledgeable driver in 19th-century garb, who offers interesting anecdotes about the historic mansions and waterfront along the way. At busy times such as Azalea Festival and Riverfest, horse-drawn trolleys are used. Tours operate Tuesday through Sunday from 10 AM to 10 PM, April through October. In November, December and March, the carriages roll Friday 7 to 10 PM, Saturday 11 AM to 10 PM and Sunday 11 AM to 4 PM. Ride by appointment during January and February. The individual fee is $8; $4 for children younger than 12.

Henrietta II London Wharf, Wilmington • 343-1611, (800) 676-0162 This 149-passenger sternwheel riverboat offers an ideal vantage point for viewing the riverside sights, or dancing and dining in a dining salon complete with bar. From April through December, the Henrietta II keeps a varied cruise schedule that includes 90-minute sightseeing and moonlight cruises ($9 per adult; $4 for children younger than 12; 2½-hour entertainment dinner cruises Thursday through Saturday during the summer ($29 to $32.50); and 2-hour sunset dinner cruises on Wednesday ($22 per adult, $15 per child. Special events cruises include the Sweetheart Cruise in February, the Azalea Festival Cruise in April, the Fireworks Cruise on July 4, the Riverfest Cruise in October, the Holiday Flotilla in November, Christmas Lights cruises and the New Year's Eve party in December. Private parties are accommodated year round, and six-hour nature cruises run in the summer. The Henrietta II docks along the Riverwalk near the Hilton Hotel. Call for schedules.

Oakdale Cemetery 520 N. 15th St., Wilmington When Nance Martin died at sea in 1857, her body was preserved, seated in a chair, in a large cask of rum. Six months later she was interred at Oakdale Cemetery, cask and all. Her monument and many other curious, beautiful and historic markers are to be found within the labyrinth of Oakdale Cemetery, Wilmington's first municipal burial ground, opened in 1855. At the cemetery office, you can pick up a free map detailing some of the more interesting interments, such as the volunteer firefighter buried with the faithful dog that gave its life trying to save his master, and Mrs. Rose O'Neal Greenhow, a Confederate courier who drowned while running the blockade at Fort Fisher in 1864. Amid the profusion of monuments lies a field oddly lacking in markers-the mass grave of hundreds of victims of the 1862 yellow fever epidemic. The architecture of Oakdale's monuments, its Victorian landscaping and the abundance of dogwood trees, make Oakdale beautiful in every season. The cemetery is open until 5 PM every day. Bicycles are not permitted.

The Riverwalk Riverfront Park, along Water St., Wilmington The heart and soul of downtown Wilmington is its riverfront. At one time a bustling, gritty confusion of warehouses, docks and sheds, all suffused with the odor of turpentine, the wharf was the state's most important commercial port. Experience Wilmington's charm and historical continuity by strolling the Riverwalk. Dining, shopping and lodging establishments now line the red-brick road, and live entertainment takes place at the small Riverfront Stage on Saturday and Sunday evenings from June to early August. Check with the visitors information booth at the foot of Market Street for schedules. Immediately north, schooners, pleasure boats and replicas of historic ships frequently visit the municipal dock. Coast Guard cutters and the occasional British naval vessel dock beyond the Federal Court House; some allow touring, especially during festivals. Benches, picnic tables, a fountain and snack vendors complete the scene, one of Wilmington's most popular.

St. James Episcopal Church and Burial Ground 25 S. Third St., Wilmington • 763-1628 St. James is the oldest church in continuous use in Wilmington, and it wears its age well. The parish was established in 1729 in Brunswick Town across the river (also see St. Philip's Parish, below). The congregation's original Wilmington church wasn't completed until 1770. It was seized in 1781 by Tarleton's Dragoons under Cornwallis. Tarleton had the pews removed, and the church became a stable. The original church was taken down in 1839 and some of its materials used to construct the present church, an Early Gothic Revival building with pinnacled square towers, battlements and lancet windows. The architect, Thomas U. Walter, is best known for his 1865 cast-iron dome on the U.S. Capitol. A repeat performance of pew-tossing was enacted during the Civil War when occupying Federal forces used the church as a hospital. A letter written by the pastor asking President Lincoln for reparation still exists. It was never delivered, having been completed the day news arrived of Lincoln's assassination. Within the church hangs a celebrated painting of Christ (Ecce Homo) captured from one of the Spanish pirate ships that attacked Brunswick Town in 1748. The sanctuary also boasts a handsome wood-slat ceiling and beam-and-truss construction. The graveyard at the corner of Fourth and Market streets was in use from 1745 to 1855 and bears considerable historic importance. Here lies the patriot Cornelius Harnett, remembered for antagonizing the British by reading the Declaration of Independence aloud at the Halifax Courthouse in 1776. He died in a British prison during the war. America's first playwright, Thomas Godfrey, is also memorialized here. The cemetery once occupied grounds over which Market Street now stretches, which explains why utility workers periodically (and inadvertently) unearth human remains outside the present burial ground. Visitors are welcome to take self-guided tours of the church between 9 AM and early afternoon when services are not underway. Informative brochures are available in the vestibule.

St. John's Museum of Art 114 Orange St., Wilmington • 763-0281 Even if St. John's didn't possess one of the world's major collections of Mary Cassatt color prints, it would still be a potent force in the Southeast's art culture. Housed in three distinctive restored buildings (one a former church), the museum boasts a fine sculpture garden, an outstanding collection of Jugtown pottery, touring exhibits, a working studio for art classes, lectures, workshops and an extensive survey of regional and national artists, all of them world-class. Educational programs for children, films, concerts and a gift shop are among the museum's offerings. Admission is $2 per adult, $5 per family and $1 for children younger than 18. Children younger than 5 and museum members may enter free. Admission on the first Sunday of every month is free to all.

St. Marks Episcopal Church 600 Grace St., Wilmington • 763-3210 Established in 1875, this was the first Episcopal church for blacks in North Carolina, and it has enjoyed uninterrupted services since that time. The building (completed in 1875) is a simple Gothic Revival structure with a buttressed nave and octagonal bell tower.

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church 412 Ann St., Wilmington • 762-5491 Numerous historical writers have referred to this Spanish Baroque edifice (built 1908-1911) as a major architectural creation, often pointing out the elaborate tiling, especially inside the dome which embraces most of this church's cross-vaulted interior space. The plan of the brick building is based on the Greek cross, with enormous semicircular stained-glass windows in the transept vaults, arcade windows in the apse and symmetrical square towers in front. Over the main entrance, in stained glass, is an imitation of DaVinci's Last Supper. A coin given by Maria Anna Jones, the first black Catholic in North Carolina, is placed inside the cornerstone. Rose Greenhow, a Confederate spy who drowned off Fort Fisher, was a member of the congregation.

St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church 603 Market St., Wilmington • 762-4882 Responding to the growing number of German Lutherans in Wilmington, North Carolina's Lutheran Synod organized St. Paul's in 1858. Services began in 1861, as the Civil War broke. Construction came to a halt when the German artisans working on the building volunteered for the 18th North Carolina Regiment and became the first local unit in active duty. The building was occupied, and badly damaged, by Union troops after the fall of Fort Fisher in early 1865. Horses were stabled in the building and its wooden furnishings used as firewood. The completed church was dedicated in 1869, only to burn in 1894. It was promptly rebuilt. There have been several additions and renovations since. Today the building is remarkable for its blend of austere Greek Revival elements outside (such as the entablature, pediments and pilasters) and Gothic Revival (such as the slender spire, clustered interior piers, and large lancet windows). Also notable is its color-patterned slate roof and copper finials, and the gently arcing pew arrangement. Paneling removed during renovations in 1995-96 uncovered beautiful stenciling on the ceiling panels and ribs in the vestibule, nave and chancel.

Temple of Israel 1 S. Fourth St., Wilmington • 762-0000 The first Jewish temple in North Carolina, this unique Moorish Revival building was erected in 1875 and '76 for a Reform congregation formed in 1867. Its two square towers are topped by small onion domes, and the paired, diamond-paned windows exhibit a mix of architrave shapes including Romanesque, trefoil and Anglo-Saxon arches. The temple was once shared for two years with neighboring Methodists when the Methodist church was destroyed in 1886.

Thalian Hall/City Hall 310 Chestnut St., Wilmington • 343-3664 Since its renovation and expansion in the late 1980s, the name has been, more accurately, Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts. And yes, it does share the same roof with City Hall. Conceived as a combined political and cultural center, Thalian was built between 1855 and 1858. During its first 75 years, the hall brought every great national performer, and some surprising celebrities, to its stage: Lillian Russell, Buffalo Bill Cody, John Philip Sousa, Oscar Wilde and Tom Thumb, to name a few. That tradition continues today. Full-scale musicals, light opera and internationally renowned dance companies are only a portion of Thalian's consistent, high-quality programming. Today the center consists of two theaters - the Main Stage and the Studio Theater - plus a ballroom (which doubles as the city council chambers).

With its Corinthian columns and ornate proscenium, it's no wonder Thalian Hall is on the National Register of Historic Places. Historic tours are offered at 11 AM and 3 PM Monday through Friday and at 2 PM Saturday. The cost is $5 for adults, $3 for children. Group rates are available.

Wilmington Adventure Walking Tour The foot of Market St., Wilmington • 763-1785 Lifelong Wilmington resident Bob Jenkins, the man with the straw hat and walking cane, walks fast but talks slowly, passionately and knowledgeably about his hometown. Expounding upon architectural details, family lineage and historic events, Bob whisks you through 250 years of history in about an hour. You'll see residences, churches and public buildings. Tours begin from the foot of Market Street at 10 AM and 2 PM daily, weather permitting. A $10 fee is charged. Although no reservations are required, it's best to call ahead, especially in summer. Tours begin at the flagpole at the foot of Market Street.

Wilmington Railroad Museum 501 Nutt St., Wilmington • 763-2634 The dramatic transformation that Wilmington underwent when the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad closed its Wilmington operations in the late 1950s are clearly borne out by the museum's fine photographs and artifacts. Beyond history, the Railroad Museum is a kind of funhouse for people fascinated by trains and train culture. And who isn't?

For $2 ($1 for children ages 6 to 11), you can climb into a real steam locomotive and clang its bell for as long as your kids will let you. Inside, volunteers (some of whom are walking histories themselves) will guide you to exhibits explaining why the 19th-century Wilmington & Weldon Railroad was called the "Well Done," and that the ghost of beheaded flagman Joe Baldwin is behind the Maco Light - at least one volunteer claims to have seen it. Ask about the museum's Memories book in which visitors are encouraged to share their favorite train memories; it includes entries by famous people who have visited Wilmington.

The museum building was the railroad's freight traffic office and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors can run the model trains in the enormous railroad diorama upstairs, maintained by the Cape Fear Model Railroad Club (for membership information contact the museum). Children will also enjoy the railroad theaterette. Adult programming, children's workshops and group discounts are available. The museum also invites you to "conduct" your birthday parties on their caboose. The rental fee includes souvenirs and a tour of the museum, and train-theme refreshments can be arranged. Museum hours are 10 AM to 5 PM Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 5 PM Sunday.

Zebulon Latimer House 126 S. Third St., Wilmington • 762-0492 This magnificent Italianate building, built by a prosperous merchant from Connecticut, dates from 1852 and is remarkable for its original furnishings and art work. The house boasts fine architectural details such as window cornices and wreaths in the frieze openings, all made of cast iron, and a piazza with intricate, wrought-iron tracery. Behind the building stands a rare (and possibly Wilmington's oldest) example of urban slave quarters, now a private residence. What sets the Latimer House apart from most other museums is the fact that it was continuously lived in for more than a century, until it became home to the Lower Cape Fear Historical Society in 1963. It has the look of a home where the family has just stepped out.