520 Orange Street
The lot (190’x80’) was sold in June 1851 to Duncan K. MacRae for $1000.[1] McRae was a 31 year old successful lawyer from Raleigh. McRae had been born in Fayetteville, had studied at UNC and graduated from William and Mary. He had passed the bar, been a minister to Mexico under President Tyler, served in the NC House of Commons (1842-43), and edited a Democratic paper in Raleigh. He served as US attorney for NC from 1843-1850. He had married a judge’s daughter in Raleigh in 1845 and had 3 young daughters. He moved to Wilmington in 1851, age 31, to take up a banking venture and continue his practice of law.
McRae contracted with James F. Post and the Woods brothers to construct his home. The Woods brothers had already built St. James Church, St. Thomas Church, Front Street Methodist Church and were no doubt constructing the Latimer House on 3rd Street and another cottage similar to the house they built for McRae, also on 3rd St, all three being completed in 1851.
In October 1851 McRae posted a bond of $3000 to Strange and Dublin of Cumberland Co. for the property.[2] In January 1852 DK McRae to the NC Mutual Insurance Company, $2500 for a brick house, tin roof, kitchen and storehouse of wood, all new—his dwelling house.[3]
“This Italianate house is one of three in Wilmington that follows almost exactly the elevations, plan, and ornamentation for the ‘Cubical Cottage in the Tuscan Style’ given by AJ Downing in The Architecture of Country Houses, published in 1850. Built on a side-hall plan, these stucco brick dwellings are two-story with low hip roofs supported by brackets. Window surrounds are like those Downing call ‘Italian.’ He recommended that the verandah be allowed to be overgrown with grape or other vines. Here, the foliage and decoration is of permanent cast-iron in the form of trellises that carry a canopy roof.”[4]
In 1853 McRae ran for Congress from the Cape Fear District against William S. Ashe, a favorite of the Pierce administration. As a result, largely through the efforts of a colleague of Ashe, North Carolina-born Secretary of the Navy James C. Dobbin, McRae was offered the post of consul to Paris in return for his withdrawal from the race. McRae later claimed that he was drugged into capitulation.[5] He claimed when he came to normalcy he was on the Atlantic Ocean, with his commission in his pocket, bound for Paris.[6] Duncan MacRae, Esq. United States Counsul, 13 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, Paris.[7]
Thus McRae and his young family spent a very short time in the new home. In 1853 DK McRae executed to Rhoulac and Moon of Wake Co. a bond for $2500.[8] By 1856 the tax lists shows JG Bynum at E. corner Orange and 6th, 1 lot $3,500.
Gen. John Gray Bynum was born 1813 in Stokes Co. He graduated from UNC in 1832 and then studied law, being admitted to the bar in 1834. He practiced law in Rutherford County; served in the state militia and reached the rank of general in 1844 after serving with the NC militia in the action against the Cherokee. Bynum’s grandmother was a sister to the Revolutionary War Gen. Wade Hampton, making Bynum the first cousin once removed of the SC senator and Confederate Calvary Officer Wade Hampton. Bynum married Louisa McDowell from a prominent western NC family. He served in the state house and senate from Rutherford Co. He was a commissioner of the town of Rutherfordton, and a trustee of UNC. He authored a geological survey of NC. He was said to have “ the finest legal mind in western North Carolina.” He and his wife had one son, John Gray Bynum, (born 1846) when they moved to Wilmington in 1854 or 1855. It is not clear why they moved or exactly when (the tax lists JG Bynum, 1 lot $3500, E. corner Orange and 6th in 1856) but their stay was also short. Bynum died 17 Oct 1857 in Wilmington. He was taken to his wife’s family burial ground, Quaker Meadows in Burke County, for burial. In December 1858 the court gave the property to Mary L. Bynum, $3500 value: house and lot known as the mansion house of John Gray Bynum, corner of 6th and Orange, adjoining Bishop Atkinson.[9] Mary Bynum remarried in 1859, Richmond Pearson, Chief Justice of the NC Supreme Court.
In October 1860 William P. Bynum (John Gray Bynum’s brother), Court of Equity to William R. Utley of New Hanover Co., $3580.[10]
We don’t know much about Utley or even if he ever lived at 520 Orange St. The City Directory of 1860-61 lists Wm. R. Utley of Hathaway & Co., h. corner of 4th and Red Cross. James L. Hathaway, a native of Fall River MA sold shoes and boots at Hathaway & French and coffee and Molasses at Hathaway & Utley located on Water St. close to the Market St. corner. Jas. Hathaway and Utley as Hathaway & Co. advertise themselves as importers of molasses and sugar and commission merchants, Wilmington.[11] Hathaway came to Wilmington in 1858 buying the Wessel, Hathaway, Boney House on S. 5th Avenue. Did Utley come south with Hathaway? What happened during the War? Utley is paying taxes 1860, 61 and 62.[12] In the 1860 census WR Utley is listed age 32, a commission merchant along with Mary, age 22 and Thomas, age 3, all born in North Carolina, suggesting that he did not come South with Hathaway but was a native. There is an amnesty document for William R. Utley of Wilmington from President Andrew Johnson in 1865.[13] Did this mean he was a soldier? In the city directory of 1865 Utley is not listed. Walter H. MacRae, commission merchant, lives on the corner 6th and Orange, (presumably at 520 Orange). In 1866 Hathaway sold his home and moved to NYC and operated a successful commission business with Edward Hartwell Kidder.[14] Utley apparently left Wilmington for NY as well. September 1866, William R. Utley of NYNY sold 520 Orange St. to AA Willard, $6000, 80’x190’.[15]
While things seem to be quiet at 520 Orange Street during the Civil War, the house’s former residents are serving the Confederacy. See the story of the McRae family and of the Bynum family.
The Willard family would live at 520 Orange Street for the next century. See the Willard family story.
The Martin Willard children (Glen Higgins, Martin and Emerson Willard) sold the house in 1959 to EC and Mary B. Lennon[16]. The property was diminished in size. The house at 204 S. 6th St. was now a separate piece of property. Ernest Lennon worked for the Terminal City Oil, 1961-1964.[17] In 1969[18] Lennon sold the house to Jessie L. Windom, Jr. and his wife Fannie D. but in 1970 the Windoms were foreclosed, a note of $17,500.[19] In 1971 Lynn B. Sullivan, single, of Wake County bought the house with a note for $16,500.[20] 1971 was the year of the riots in Wilmington and a store one block away (6th and Ann) was firebombed allegedly by the Wilmington Ten. With the defection to the suburbs by the families who had lived in the downtown, this area was no longer considered an acceptable place to live for most people. It is said that a black (African American) night club was operated in the house at some point. In 1973 Lynn Sullivan of Atlanta sold the house to Larry D. Sauls and his wife Mary M. They assumed a mortgage of $16,500.
In 1931 the Colonial Dames proposed to the Wilmington City Council an architectural review board. The Council did not act. Charleston in 1932 became the first to establish an architectural review board. The other city to embark on preservation early was New Orleans. In 1925 to protect the picturesque and romantic colonial survivor from the “encroachment of modern business,” the New Orleans city government created the Vieux Carré Association. Ambitious but ineffective, it was renamed the Vieux Carré Commission and strengthened in 1936 and 1937 by state and city laws that stipulated preservation regulations and officially delineated historic district boundaries.[21] In Wilmington, preservation would have to wait. In 1956 the Lower Cape Fear Historical Society was organized. In 1962 the City Council approved a historic district for 38 blocks of Old Wilmington and established a Board of Architectural Review. In 1966 the Historic Wilmington Foundation was organized and in 1973 the Residents of Old Wilmington was organized. In 1974 a 200 block area of Old Wilmington was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.[22]
Larry Sauls and his wife began the process of restoration of 520 Orange St. They lived in the downstairs and rented two apartments upstairs. In December 1977 Landon and Connie Anderson came to Wilmington and purchased the house for $68,500[23]. They returned the house to a single family dwelling and continued the restoration of the house. The Andersons raised their 3 children. Lanny (1978), Tinsley (1981) and Luke (1984) there. In 1981 Connie Anderson opened Wilmington’s first bed and breakfast, The Anderson Guest House, in a new building in the rear of the main house. This continued until 2002. In 1994 the house was featured as Dad’s house for the movie ‘One Christmas’ by Truman Capote, staring Katherine Hepburn (billed as her last movie) and also staring Henry Winkler, Swoosie Kurtz, Julie Harris and TJ Lowther. The house was again used a couple years later for the Lifetime chanel movie, ‘Sophie and the Moonhanger.’
The house (510 Orange St.) to the west of 520 was for the last half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century the home of the Bishop of Carolina and later Bishop of East Carolina (1883-1983). Bishop Atkinson was in residence at least by 1858.[24] The Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina purchased the property from James Green about 1870 and by 1873 Bishop Thomas Atkinson was in residence using the dwelling already on the property. Bishop Alfred Watson lived there from 1884 until his death in 1905. In 1905 at the annual convention of the diocese in June it was decided to tear down the existing dwelling and construct a new residence. A Neoclassical Revival house was built for the new Bishop, Robert Strange.[25] It was completed in 1908. He died in 1914 and was succeeded by Bishop Thomas C. Darst[26] who lived there until he retired in 1945. Bishop Thomas H. Wright lived there from 1945 until the structure was sold in 1966.[27] The property was sold to the Dunleas who used it as a radio station. Richard Dunlea established WMFD (We Make Friends Daily). The Federal Communication Commission licensed it 15 April 1935. They began broadcasting from the top of Hotel Wilmington on 21 Apr 1935 at 318 N. Front St. They planned to enlarge their operation on Orange St. and also bought the rear section of the Willard property which was at that time the Whitted home on S. 6th St. They demolished the Whitted house but never developed the property further. The radio station sold the property in 1983, and the new owners moved after a short stay, selling 510 Orange St. with its added property to John Bahr and his Ecuadorian wife, Tonja, in the early 80’s. They restored the yellow brick color and rebuilt porches and porticoes and added a tall iron fence around the property. They raised their three children: Little John, Vivian, and Tiana, at 510. John Bahr died in 2016.
[1] The
block was sold in 1808: heirs of William Wimble on behalf of Anna Jane
Mitchell, wife of Robert Mitchell to Nathaniel Hill and John Mitchell. 1816, Hill and Mitchell to James S. Green,
lots 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90 on the southern side of Orange St. 3 acres. Book
KK, p. 452, 18 June 1851, Jas S. Green to Duncan K. McRae, $1000, part of lot
65, 80’x190’
[2] Book II,
p. 147. payable 3 yrs. after date with int. Robert Strange (McRae studied law
under Strange ), James C. Dublin and John McRae and Cameron F. McRae (John
McRae was Duncan’s father and Cameron F. McRae was his uncle.) did become the
sureties.
[3] Deed
Book II, p. 305. Insurance against fire, on dwelling house, $1,500 at 10%, on
his household furniture $350 at 10%, on kitchen $300 at 12.5%, on the contents
of kitchen $200 at 12.5%. Amt. Of
premium $247,50, #% to be paid. House of
brick, tin roof, kitchen and store-house of wood, tin roof, all new, scuttle in
house with ladder. House 4 stories (this
appears to be an error) 33x28 ft. 2 chimneys, 4 fireplaces. Kitchen 1 story
28x14 ft. with one chimney, 2 fireplaces. Storehouse 1 story 11x11 ft. no
chimney. No stove in either. House and kitchen 20 ft. apart, on the west
of storehouse, distance 20 ft. is a 1 story wooden kitchen. No house nearer than 100 ft. Encumbered by
mortgage of $3000. 28 Jan 1852.
[4]
Wilmington North Carolina, An Architectural and Historical Portrait, by Tony P.
Wrenn with photographs by Wm. Edmund Barrett, p. 244.
[5] Dict. of
NC Bio. p. 190
[6] Reports,
NC Bar. p. 55, 27th Annual Session
[7] Lower
Cape Fear Historical Society, Inc. Bulletin, October 1987, p. 1.
[8] Book LL,
p. 61. DK McRae to Joseph BG Roulac and
Bartholomew Felloon of Wake Co. Date 28 June 1853. Said DK McRae hat become
indebted to the Pres. And Dir. Of the NC Mutual Ins. Co. $2,500 due by bond
with interest from the 30th day of June, said JBG Rhoulac and said
Bartholomew Felloon have become surties.
[9] Deed
Book, LD, p. 252, Land and Dowers A
[10] DB QQ, p. 756.
[11] Kelly’s
Wilmington Directory, 1861-61. (Hill,
Taylor Collection).
[12] Thomas
Howey’s tax book 1860, 61, 62. I860 Wm
R. Utley, $31 Sept 15 Pd. 1861 Wm R.
Utlery $65.80, June 5 Pd. 1862 Wm R. Utley, $181 Pd.
[13] UNC,
Wilmington NC papers 1769, 1800-1865
[14] Susan’s
747’s Blog, Susan Taylor Block
[15] DB VV,
pg 240.
[16] DB 655,
p. 187
[17] City
directory.
[18] DB 856,
pg 355.
[19] DB 896,
pg. 714.
[20] DB 906,
pg 549
[21] Classic
Ndw Orleans by Wm. R. Mitchell Jr. p. 67.
[22] Old
Wilmington Guidebook, Junior League.
[23] DB
1122, pg 402
[24] Court
documents re 520 Orange, the house of John Gray Bynum.
[25]
Interestingly he is the first cousin, twice removed of Duncan K. McCrae who
built 520 Orange St.
[26] Martin
Willard married Bishop Darst’s housekeeper (who was also his niece) in 1916
after his first wife died.
[27]
Wilmington North Carolina, An Architectural and Historical Portrait by Tony P.
Wrenn, p. 243-44.
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