Burgwin-Wright House

A Georgian style house was built on top of an abandoned jail for John Burgwin (1731-1803), a merchant and lawyer who served as Clerk of Court in Bladen and New Hanover counties, Clerk of the NC Provincial Assembly, Secretary to Royal Governor Dobbs, and Treasurer of the Province of North Carolina. Lord Cornwallis utilized the house in April 1781. In 1799 it was deeded to Joshua Grainger Wright (1768-1811) and his wife, Susan Bradley (1771-1842). Wright was a lawyer, Speaker of the NC House of Representatives, first president of the Bank of Cape Fear, and Judge of Superior Court of Law and Equity and Court of Conference. The house was altered and enlarged c.1845 and remained in the Wright family until 1867. It was saved in 1937 by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of North Carolina and opened as a museum in 1951, with preservation leadership by Historic Wilmington Foundation, Inc. since 1966.

Wilmington, North Carolina · United States