The Col. Walker Taylor House

Image of the Col. Walker Taylor House.

Text of the plaque at the Col. Walker Taylor House:

Queen Anne style house built for Col. Walker Taylor (1864-1937), owner of insurance agency, civic leader, and founder of Brigade Boys Club; and wife, Rose Lily Cumming (1873-1946). From 1947 to 1986, residence of Lee Porter (1899-1996), native of Lancaster, SC and chief clerk with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad; and wife Ethel Orrell (1897-1992). The house was expanded in the Neoclassical Revival style in 1915.[1]

[1] “Colonel Walker Taylor House - Port City Architecture - New Hanover County Public Library Digital Archives,” accessed February 12, 2024, https://cdm16072.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15169coll2/id/3193/rec/136.

Physical and Architectural Description

            The architect Henry Bonitz designed the house in the Queen Anne style in 1898, with elements of the neoclassical revival style added in a 1915 expansion. The house sits at 714 Market St. and is a two-story house with a tower/turret attached to the front left side facing toward the road.[1] The architect, Henry Bonitz, was born in Goldsboro in 1872 to German parents and became a prolific architect in Wilmington and other towns in the state of North Carolina. His parents moved to Wilmington in 1886 or 1887, and young Henry attended Tileston School before attending the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in 1889, today, North Carolina State University. He graduated in 1893 with a bachelor's degree in engineering. Bonitz worked under another architect in Wilmington named James Post and initially favored the Italianate style but changed to the emerging Queen Anne style as he became independent. Bonitz's hallmarks were windows of various sizes. By the turn of the twentieth century, Bonitz adopted the neoclassical style, as did other architects. Bonitz died in 1921 following an operation and showed a penchant for helping orphanages in his will.[2]

                    Queen Anne style was prominent from 1880 to 1910, making the Walker Taylor House fit in the middle of the trend. Associated with the Victorian Age, houses with this style typically share elements like intricate detail, a corner tower/ turret, large porches, and extensively patterned walls. Because of the opulence associated with Queen Anne-style houses, they are easily recognizable for locals and tourists alike. The style originated from English architects in the late 1800s and was inspired by medieval designs from the English Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, not the Queen Anne era its name bears. The design made its way to the United States through architectural pattern books. Once in the United States, the Queen Anne style morphed into a distinct variation of the English one with regional differences. Three-dimensional wood trim or "spindle work" was a uniquely American addition to the design, being possible through mass production and the proliferation of railroads. The Queen Anne style gave way to the neoclassical revival style.[3] The Walker Taylor House has some neoclassical revival elements, a popular style from 1900 to the 1940s. An identifiable feature of this style is the columned porch with a Greek portico.[4]

                        The plaque is hindered by its cap of fourteen lines of text and requires individuals to research the history that the plaque cannot address. Henry Bonitz is a well-known architect in Wilmington and used his expertise to design many of the historic buildings in the Wilmington area. The plaque also insufficiently explains, or omits, what the Queen Anne style is. Once known, the style is easily recognizable from the tower attached to the house. Of course, the plaque designers must prioritize what is important enough to go on the plaque, but that makes the legwork of a curious individual more necessary.

[1] “Colonel Walker Taylor House - Port City Architecture - New Hanover County Public Library Digital Archives.”

[2] “Bonitz, Henry E. (1872-1921),” accessed February 12, 2024, https://ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu/people/P000244.

[3] “Queen Anne Style 1880 - 1910 | PHMC > Pennsylvania Architectural Field Guide,” accessed February 12, 2024, https://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/architecture/styles/queen-anne.html.

[4] “Neoclassical Revival,” Architectural Styles of America and Europe (blog), October 17, 2011, https://architecturestyles.org/neoclassical/.

Walker Taylor

                    Col. Walker Taylor was born in Marion, SC, in 1864. At age fourteen, he worked as an office boy for de Rosset & Northrop Insurance Agency and later established his own insurance company.[1] Taylor was nationally known for his insurance rate improvements. Taylor married Rosa Cumming in 1893.[2] Taylor led the local community and created the Wilmington Boy's Brigade in 1896; he taught in Sunday School when he grew concerned for kids.[3]

                    The darker story of Taylor that the plaque does not cover is his involvement in the 1898 Wilmington Coup. On November 10, 1898, the day after the election in Wilmington, which brought African Americans into prominent positions, a coup overthrew the city government and put Democrats in power. Two groups planned the coup in secret months prior to the execution: the Secret Nine and Group Six, both composed of elite whites. Tayor was a member of Group Six.[4] Taylor's role in the coup was to convene sympathetic whites at the armory of the Wilmington Light Infantry. The mob requested Taylor to have the militia officers under his command lead the way to the Daily Record, an African American newspaper that stirred controversy prior to the coup. Taylor refused as the militia was temporarily federalized and on leave from the Spanish-American War.

Taylor understandably did not want the federal government involved. Taylor sent word to Raleigh that the situation was dire in Wilmington. When the governor replied, he ordered Taylor to restore order with the Wilmington Light Infantry and some naval reserves. Under Taylor, the state militia roamed the city, committing acts of terror on the African American population under the pretext of searching for weapons or possible insurgents. The militia also did not intervene to save African Americans from harm by the white mob. Afterward, newspapers framed it as an upsurge in spirit, not a violent coup.[5] Taylor's involvement in the coup is not widely known and does not seem to have impacted his career, as in 1913, President Woodrow Wilson elected Taylor to be U.S. Collector of Customs for the port of Wilmington. Under this position, Taylor oversaw the construction of the Customs House on Water St. Taylor also enjoyed traveling abroad. At the same time, he met with notable individuals in Europe like Benito Mussolini and Pope Pius XI. Taylor died in 1937 of a heart attack at age 72.[6]

                    As with the architect and building style, the plaque barely scratches the surface of the complex character of Taylor. Again, the plaque designers had to choose the most critical information to use minimal room. The fact that Taylor was involved in the 1898 Coup also makes for an unsavory discussion about the house's history, which homeowners may not want to be linked to their property. The life of Col. Taylor cannot be readily ascertained by looking at the plaque currently, which means that if someone wanted the whole story, they would have to do their research.

[1] “Col Walker Taylor Sr. (1864-1937) - Find a Grave...,” accessed February 12, 2024, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/35378322/walker-taylor.

[2] “Col Walker Taylor Sr. (1864-1937) - Find a Grave...”

[3] “Collection: General William MacRae and Colonel Walker Taylor Biographies | UNCW Randall Library,” accessed February 12, 2024, https://archivesspace.uncw.edu/resources/sc-ms-039.

[4] Caleb Crain, “What a White-Supremacist Coup Looks Like,” The New Yorker, April 20, 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/27/what-a-white-supremacist-coup-looks-like.

[5] Crain, “What a White-Supremacist Coup Looks Like.”

[6] “Collection: General William MacRae and Colonel Walker Taylor Biographies | UNCW Randall Library.”

Lee Porter

                    Aside from a few pieces of information, not much is known about Lee Porter. Porter was born around 1900 in South Carolina and was listed as living in South Wilmington, New Hanover County, NC, in 1940. He was married to Ethel Porter and had two daughters and a son. He lived on a farm in a rural environment and worked as a chief office clerk at a railway station. The value of his home was listed as $5,000, and his salary was $2,235.[1]  The station railroad that Porter was a clerk of was most likely the Atlantic Coast Line (ACL), which the plaque covers. The "standard railroad of the South" ACL ran from Southern Virginia to Florida and Westward to Georgia.[2] The railroad was headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, from 1900 to 1960 before moving to Florida. It would make sense for Porter to work at an ACL station during the 1940s when ACL was the prime railway company in the region. As a chief clerk, Porter handled tickets and funds at the station. Porter died in 1996.[3]

                        Porter's son, Lee W. Porter Jr., Was born in Wilmington in 1934 and attended UNC Chapel Hill in 1957. He was a pilot in the Navy on Okinawa from 1957 to 1962 and remained in the reserves until 1994. After his tour on active duty, Porter Jr. returned to Chapel Hill and graduated from the School of Dentistry. Among other activities, Porter Jr. served as Cape Fear Community College faculty. Porter Jr. died in 2012 and had a son, daughter, and four grandchildren.[4] Not much is known about the Porter family compared to Col. Taylor, but the plaque only covers the work of Porter Sr. with the ACL. Further underscoring the need for further research on behalf of the average person who wishes to know more about the history, a plaque merely offers a glimpse.

[1] “Ancestry.Com - 1940 United States Federal Census,” accessed February 12, 2024, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-02950-00401?ssrc=&backlabel=Return&pId=151961522.

[2] Glenn Hoffman, Building A Great Railroad: A History of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company (CSX Corporation, 1998). Pg. 207.

[3] “Colonel Walker Taylor House - Port City Architecture - New Hanover County Public Library Digital Archives.”

[4] “Obituary for Dr. Lee Warwick Porter, Jr at Market Street Chapel,” accessed February 12, 2024, https://www.andrewsmortuary.com/obituary/5136199?lud=8B5A6B8FFD493E0C12B4E49B01B57492.