A commitment to preservation – the protection of buildings, objects and landscapes for the purposes of education and interpretation – is important to the people who call Wilmington, North Carolina, and its three island beaches home. Preserved landmarks, natural habitats and more provide visitors with a glimpse into the past and a better understanding of what the future might hold for this coastal destination.

Here is a guide for visitors looking to explore preservation throughout Wilmington and its island beaches.

A History of Preservation Efforts

Wilmington is no stranger to preservation. In fact, downtown Wilmington is not only listed in the National Register of Historic Places, but the area is home to one of the largest National Register Historic Districts in the South. Wilmington was also the first city in the country to be designated an “American World War II Heritage City” for its efforts to preserve WWII heritage.

Wilmington’s preservation efforts have largely been stewarded by the Historic Wilmington Foundation (HWF). Since 1966, the group has worked to protect and preserve the irreplaceable architectural and historical resources of the region. Today, HWF sponsors educational programs including guided tours, seminars, exhibits and lectures. The organization’s historic plaque program features more than 700 plaques that adorn homes, buildings and alleyways in four colors: brown (75-99 years old); black (100-149); gold (150-199); blue (200+ years). Each year during National Preservation Month (May), the organization announces its Preservation Awards, which honor the people and places enacting its mission through exemplary preservation efforts in adaptive reuse, rehabilitation and restoration.

 

Structure Preservation

If the walls of the preserved buildings throughout Wilmington could talk, there would be a lot to learn. Take, for example, the Children’s Museum of Wilmington. An HWF Preservation Award winner for restoration, the museum is the steward of the 1945 St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which is one of three buildings that form the museum’s campus of adaptive reuse historic structures. As the museum has made updates and repairs, it has taken care to maintain the tone and appearance of the original building.

 

Another HWF Preservation Award winner for restoration, the Temple of Israel – North Carolina’s oldest Jewish house of worship – recently underwent a large rebuilding and refurbishment project. The restoration allowed the Jewish cultural heritage asset to reopen and hold High Holy Day services for the first time in four years in the historic sanctuary that is now preserved for generations to come.

One of North Carolina’s most spectacular examples of early 1800s architecture, Bellamy Mansion Museum of History & Design Arts includes an exquisitely restored and recently renovated 10,000-square-foot house with period grounds that include one of the few preserved urban slave quarters in the country. The museum is currently celebrating its 30th anniversary since Preservation North Carolina (PNC) had the vision to preserve it for future generations. Not only are the buildings and surrounding areas preserved for learning, but the museum has adapted to ensure it can meet all types of visitors and learning needs: It offers accessible, virtual and guided or self-guided on-site tours, as well as neighborhood walking tours.

 

Wilmington Walking Tours offers a daily, 1.5-mile History & Architecture walking tour loop through Wilmington’s residential, church and commercial districts, showing off many of the city’s significant buildings from colonial settlement to current day.

At nearby Carolina Beach, the Federal Point Historic Preservation Society hosts seasonal weekly Historic Boardwalk Tours of the Carolina Beach Boardwalk. The guided tour takes visitors on a walk through time as it reveals interesting facts and points out landmarks from Carolina Beach’s past, from the largest dance floor south of Washington, D.C., to the birthplace of shag dancing, among others. In honor of Carolina Beach’s Centennial during 2025, visitors can enjoy a QR code self-guided CB100 Then & Now Walking Tour.

 

Restaurant and Bar Preservation

Several downtown Wilmington restaurants and bars that serve up fresh, local dishes and craft cocktails are also previous winners of HWF Preservation Awards.

Olivero, featuring Spanish and Italian cuisine from Chef Sunny Gerhart, a 2025 James Beard semifinalist for "Best Chef Southeast," operates out of a restored 1940s building that retains the original construction’s exposed masonry walls, steel beams, steel windows and aluminum doors. The adaptive reuse of the former Mill’s Grocery Store into Olivero ultimately reactivated the prominent corner of S 3rd and Castle Streets, further strengthening the integrity of downtown Wilmington.

 

Dedicated to highlighting North Carolina's coastal bounty, Seabird is located in the rehabilitated Solomon Building. In revamping the 1920s Italianate structure, the project team recreated an authentic look, including matching the storefront windows with a picture of the building’s original façade. Seabird is helmed by Chef Dean Neff, a 2024 James Beard Foundation finalist for "Outstanding Chef" and former semifinalist for "Best Chef Southeast," and his wife, award-winning pastry chef, Lydia Clopton.

The Eagle’s Dare, an edgy retro-rockabilly-themed beer garden and craft cocktail oasis, is located inside a re-purposed c.1970 service station that connects the central business district to the historic Brooklyn Arts District. By adaptively repurposing the structure, the project team preserved one of downtown Wilmington’s rare examples of mid-century modern architecture, with the decor and reclaimed materials inside maintaining the mid-century aesthetic as well.

 

Known for creating internationally award-winning ultra-premium and limited-release spirits, End of Days Distillery is housed in a WWII Quonset hut. Originally designed in the 1940s, the building’s transformation from wartime relic to vibrant community hub mirrors the distillery’s dedication to revitalizing the past, while crafting something extraordinary for the present.

Serving customizable boba teas out of one of the only Tudor Revival commercial buildings in Wilmington, Tap Tea Bar features a rehabilitated street façade. The project took Tap Tea Bar’s entrance from a recessed, mid-century masonry look to a more historically appropriate, wooden façade featuring symmetrical display windows and a decorative cornice, along with rehabilitating the building’s character-defining slate roof and copper trim.

 

Natural Preservation

A visit to Wilmington isn’t complete without an outdoor adventure to one of its many preserved natural habitats. Halyburton Park is a 60-acre nature preserve featuring an accessible 1.3-mile walking and biking trail, picnic shelters, playground equipment and a unique environmental education and events center. The park is 70% undeveloped, mainly consisting of gently rolling sandhills, a habitat which is rarely found in the coastal Carolinas. 

A part of Piney Ridge Nature Preserve, the Stanley Rehder Carnivorous Plant Garden is made up of a  collection of native carnivorous plants, such as Venus flytraps and pitcher plants. The garden has an ADA-accessible pervious concrete walking trail and wooden observation decks to allow for easy viewing of this unique, local flora.

 

Just off the coast of nearby Wrightsville Beach is Masonboro Island Reserve. The longest undisturbed barrier island ecosystem in southern North Carolina, it protects coastal habitats for long-term research, education and stewardship. The island is only reachable by boat, kayak or canoe, and it showcases pristine examples of barrier island, salt marsh and tidal creek ecosystems. Zeke’s Island Reserve off Kure Beach is one of the most important shorebird feeding habitats on the East Coast. A National Estuarine Research Reserve, the island is similarly committed to research, education and stewardship, as well as only accessible by local waterways. Bird species such as dunlin, black-bellied plovers, short-billed dowitchers, white ibis and great blue herons, as well as black ducks, mallards and pintails, have all been recorded at Zeke's Island.

 

When it comes pioneering the preservation of natural habitats, the Cape Fear Audubon Society – a rapidly growing local chapter of the national group – is dedicated to preserving natural areas through education, as well as helping connect people to nature. Similarly, the Pleasure Island Sea Turtle Project is comprised of volunteers dedicated to the preservation and protection of threatened/endangered sea turtles. Members of the group patrol the southern end of Kure Beach to the northern end of Carolina Beach each summer, as well as give educational Turtle Talks at both Kure Beach’s Oceanfront Park & Pavilion and Carolina Beach Lake Park. Similarly, the Wrightsville Beach Sea Turtle Project works to protect the endangered and threatened sea turtles of Wrightsville Beach and their nests. Each summer, trained volunteers walk the length of the shore looking for signs of sea turtle nesting activity, as well as sponsor Turtle Talks on Tuesday evenings at the Fred and Alice Stanback Coastal Education Center.

 

Whether visiting Wilmington’s National Register Historic District or one of its nearby island reserves, the area is filled with preservation efforts and activities that will allow for and promote research, education and stewardship for generations to come.