CAROLINA BEACH – Tucked away among a rapidly developing portion of Federal Point, a piece of deeply rooted local Civil War history will now be preserved as a long-awaited park.
On Thursday, the Town of Carolina Beach and Federal Point Historical Preservation Society will unveil the Joseph Ryder Lewis Jr. Civil War Park, built on land donated by its namesake that features original Sugar Loaf earthworks manned by soldiers during the final days of the War Between the States.
Before Lewis Jr.’s passing at age 84 in 2010, the life-long Carolina Beach resident, U.S Army veteran and member of the Federal Point History Center bequeathed the 10-acre patch of land to the town on the condition it be turned into a park that preserved and highlighted the site’s significance to the Confederacy’s effort to hold off Union soldiers as Fort Fisher became threatened in 1865.
WILMINGTON – Thumb through any local historian’s personal library and you’re likely to find a dog-eared, well-worn copy of Beverly Tetterton’s book, “Wilmington: Lost but Not Forgotten.”
A guide to the built history that defined Wilmington but fell victim to its progress and time, the book is an essential text on this region from its most essential historical voice of the last quarter century.
As the former special collections librarian and chief of the New Hanover County Library’s North Carolina Room, Tetterton has brought history to the masses in a way her predecessors didn’t. The likes of celebrated historians James Sprunt and Louis T. Moore preserved the Cape Fear’s stories in written accounts that have served as the backbone of local research for 100 years.