Bellamy Mansion
Plaque Text:
BELLAMY MANSION
1859-1861
James F. Post, Architect
Rufus Bunnell, Draftsman
Classical style house, built by slaves and free black artisans, for John Dillard Bellamy (1817-1896) physician, planter, and business leader; and wife, Eliza McIlhenny Harriss (1821-1907). After the fall of Fort Fisher, in 1865, commandeered as Union Army Headquarters during the occupation of Wilmington. Remained in family until 1972 when transferred to non-profit Bellamy Mansion, Inc. Opened as a museum of history and design arts by Preservation/North Carolina in 1993.
Historic Wilmington Foundation, Inc.
In the Lower Cape Fear region, there are more than eight hundred structures that have plaques from the Historic Wilmington Foundation, with most of them being limited to fourteen lines of text. The historical sites that have these plaques range from well-known landmarks, like the Bald Head Lighthouse, to places of residence that are overlooked by the general public, such as the Chadwick House on Nun Street in Wilmington. However, regardless of the level of public awareness regarding these places, one aspect that they all share with each other is that they all have stories behind the structures being acknowledged, as well as for the people who lived, learned, worked, or worshiped in these spaces. This is certainly the case for the Bellamy Mansion, one of Wilmington’s most well-known tourist attractions, and a crucial link to the antebellum South. In this essay, both the Bellamy Mansion and the people who were connected with it will be dissected, in order to shed light on the role the structure has played throughout its existence.
The Bellamy Mansion, which has become a museum in modern times, is actually split into three sections across a lot, which include the main house itself, the slave quarters, and the gardens. However, for the purposes of this essay, the main house will be primarily focused on, due to the fact that it depicts a particular style of architecture, as well as the fact that it is where the structure in which the people that will be dissected here actually lived. The main house was designed by the architect James F. Post and constructed from 1859 to 1861, and when it was finished, it stood 10,000 square feet, contained twenty-two rooms in total, and was five stories tall.[1] The entrance to the structure is locked by a sturdy black gate, and is led up to by a respectable white staircase, reflecting the grandeur of the residence as a whole. One of the most notable aspects of the mansion is its striking white color, which allows it to attract a viewer’s attention when one is walking by it on the nearby road, due to how the color makes for a striking visual when paired with the green trees that surround it. Aside from the belvedere, which lies at the top of the mansion, perhaps the most prominent feature of the structure are the columns which wrap all the way around it, with them stretching from the porch to the roof above.
[1] “The Place,” Bellamy Mansion Museum, accessed February 14, 2024, https://www.bellamymansion.org/the-place.html.
The most important aspect of the Bellamy Mansion to examine is the architecture itself, as its style speaks to the times in which the building was first constructed. The mansion does not boast a pure architectural style that is instantly distinguishable, but most feel that it shares elements of the Classical Revival, Greek Revival, and Italianate styles, though the research I have done indicates it is much more of the former.[2] The Classical Revival style, otherwise known as the Neoclassical style, is one that first became prominent in France during the mid-18th century, and it differed from previous styles due to the fact its roots were based in Greek and Roman architecture, rather than architecture that was a derivative of the Renaissance. The style is defined by its use of Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns, its heavy utilization of symmetry, references to Classical architecture, and the repetition of elements such as windows.[3] An indication that the Bellamy Mansion’s architecture is in the Classical Revival style is through the previously mentioned references to Classical architecture, such as with the decision to erect columns all around the base of the structure, which makes the mansion resemble famous architectural achievements of the ancient world, such as the Parthenon in Athens, and the Pantheon in Rome. The usage of columns themselves is an indicator of the Classical Revival style, with the twenty-foot Corinthian columns being constructed in such a way that they draw a viewer’s attention to the ornate wood trimwork located above them, which includes dentil molding and a motif of an egg and dart.[4] Finally, not only are all the structure’s components perfectly symmetrical with one another, a hallmark of the Classical Revival style, but the mansion also demonstrates the style’s repetition of the elements, as shown with the mansion’s numerous windows and parallel matching chimneys on the roof.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Suzanne Waters, “Classical/Classical Revival/Neo-Classical,” Royal Institute of British Architects, accessed February 14, 2024, https://www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/knowledge-landing-page/classical-classical-revival-neo-classical.
[4] “The Place,” Bellamy Mansion Museum, accessed February 14, 2024, https://www.bellamymansion.org/the-place.html.
While the structure of the Bellamy Mansion itself is noteworthy, something that is also worth examining is the people who are associated with the structure itself, specifically those who were responsible for its construction in the first place. Four individuals can be credited when it comes to this, and they are also the four people listed on the historical plaque for the mansion itself. The first individual, John Dillard Bellamy, who is responsible for giving the structure its name, was born to a wealthy family in South Carolina in 1817, and at a young age, he inherited his father’s plantation, along with his slaves. However, he desired to become a physician, and moved to Wilmington, North Carolina to study under Dr. William Harriss, before going to Philadelphia to receive his full medical degree in 1837. When he returned to Wilmington, he married his mentor’s daughter, the second person mentioned on the plaque, Eliza Harris, and eventually had eight children with her. By 1860, Bellamy decided to transition into working as a merchant, involving himself in founding banks, investing in the railroad industry, and operating a tar and turpentine business. All of these ventures required a large amount of slave labor, with his force numbering around 115 at its peak in 1860, making him one of the largest slaveholders in the state of North Carolina.[5]
Around this time, the Bellamy family ordered the construction of their Wilmington mansion, leading them to hire the two remaining people mentioned on the plaque, which are the architects James F. Post and Rufus Bunnell. Post, who was originally from New Jersey and moved to Wilmington in 1849, was responsible for supervising the construction of the city’s most prominent buildings, with a large amount of them being the residences of Wilmington’s most prominent citizens and families. Post, who alternated between calling himself an architect, a carpenter, and a contractor, also was responsible for constructing the Thalian Hall theatre and the New Hanover County Jail. When Post was hired to build the large and costly Bellamy Mansion, he enlisted the help of his young assistant and draftsman, Rufus Bunnell, who was from Connecticut. From 1859 to 1861, the two worked together on constructing the mansion, with Post designing its layout and determining the materials that would be used, while Bunnell produced drawings of Post’s designs and inspected the construction.[6] As relayed in the plaque, even after the Bellamy family moved into the house in 1861, its story was not over there, with the house being commandeered as Union Army headquarters after the fall of Fort Fisher in 1865. With John Bellamy dying in 1896, and Eliza Harriss in 1907, the mansion remained in family hands until it became owned by a nonprofit in 1972, and became the museum we know it as today in 1993.
[5] “The People,” Bellamy Mansion Museum, accessed February 14, 2024, https://www.bellamymansion.org/the-people.html.
[6] Janet K. Seapker, “Post, James F. (1818-1899),” North Carolina Architects & Builders: A Biographical Dictionary, accessed February 14, 2024, https://ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu/people/P000212.
I feel that this essay has sufficiently dissected both the architectural style of the Bellamy Mansion, as well as the individuals who are most commonly associated with it. However, researching the Bellamy Mansion has led me to the conclusion that there are important people who have connections to the structure that are entirely missing from the plaque itself, and they are the enslaved men and women who worked and lived at the Bellamy Mansion. It is noteworthy that the plaque acknowledges the fact that slaves and enslaved artisans played a crucial part in the mansion’s construction, with Elvin Artis, David Sadgwar, and William B. Gould I being among the names who assisted in the task. However, something that is really surprising is the fact that the plaque hardly recognizes the slaves who worked at the Bellamy Mansion, even despite the fact they were a necessity in ensuring the residence’s daily operations were completed. One may believe this is a decision purely made in order to save space on the plaque, but that doesn’t explain why they acknowledged the slaves and artisans who took part in the mansion’s construction. Interestingly, the erasure of these enslaved workers is not present on the Bellamy Mansion Museum website, with even the names and positions of certain ones being listed. Examples include Rosella Bellamy Simmons, who was the laundress, Mary Ann Nixon, who was the housekeeper, and Joan, who was a wet nurse and nanny.[7] This discrepancy between the information found on the plaque and on the website leads me to believe that the erasure of enslaved domestic workers in the former was a conscious decision, possibly done out of shame of informing visitors of how the Bellamy Family utilized them. While this is certainly an understandable position, I personally believe that it does a disservice to the memory of these enslaved men and women to not acknowledge the role they played, even if it is just for a summary on a plaque. There has been a lot of debate in recent years over the merits of “rewriting” history to make it fit more modern sensibilities. Whether or not you agree that this should be done, I feel like something that should be standard across all aspects of history is acknowledgment of the more embarrassing and darker aspects of humanity, with slavery being a major example. Due to this, even though some members of the public may disagree, I feel updating plaques, like the one at the Bellamy Mansion, should be done because it is important for people to come to terms with their past, and historically acknowledge those who were never given a chance to be recognized when they were alive.
[7] The People,” Bellamy Mansion Museum, accessed February 14, 2024, https://www.bellamymansion.org/the-people.html.
