After town terminates lease, Wrightsville Beach Museum moves out of one of its cottages

The Wrightsville Beach Museum has until Sunday to vacate one of its buildings after the town terminated its lease.

The museum was notified Friday, March 22 about the lease termination and was given until Sunday, March 31 to move out of the Ewing-Bordeaux Cottage.

The Ewing-Bordeaux Cottage is one of two buildings used by the museum. The museum is still operating at the Myers Cottage, but it is currently closed for maintenance and is expected to reopen April 12.

What led to the lease termination is unclear, with the town and the museum offering different explanations.

The town said in a news release that it discovered that the museum’s lease had expired in October 2021. Town staff met with museum staff to discuss insurance, maintenance, landscaping sub-tenants and other issues, but there was never any further discussion about a lease renewal, the town said.

Jan Brewington, president of the museum's board, said the meeting didn’t involve discussion of a lease renewal. Instead, she said the meeting was about the museum’s decision not to host Camp Chris Stone.

Brewington said after the camp got a permit to continue as a business and nonprofit organization, the museum decided to no longer host the camp because of concerns surrounding insurance and the inability to sublet under the lease.

Brewington said the museum’s meeting with Mayor Pro Tem Hank Miller and acting Town Manager Tony Wilson resulted in a request for the museum to provide a list of conditions for the museum to host the camp, but the museum board stuck by its decision not to host the camp.

When contacted this week by the StarNews, Miller responded to the situation saying that it is “strictly about a lease renewal.”

The Ewing-Bordeaux Cottage was originally located at 405 N. Lumina Ave., but it was moved in 2018 to where it now stands in the 300 block of West Salisbury Street.

The 1924 cottage was donated by Chris and Debbie Strickland to the Wrightsville Beach Museum of History.

Brewington said the town of Wrightsville Beach took ownership of the Myers Cottage and the Ewing-Bordeaux Cottage in 2018, and the museum has been paying the town $1 per year for each cottage.

Both Miller and Brewington said the other party should have initiated the renewal process.

Miller said the museum could reach out to the town at any time to try to renegotiate their future at the cottage.

That appears unlikely, though, as museum staff have been packing up items at the Ewing-Bordeaux Cottage this week.

"I am currently working endless hours to ensure that these precious artifacts are properly transitioned into storage and that they are not lost in this transition," said Diedre Carney, the museum’s director. "It's just truly unfortunate, like it breaks my heart. These are the legacy of this community."

The Ewing-Bordeaux Cottage is one of the oldest fully intact structures north of Stone Street and one of the last of the six cottages that survived the Great Fire of 1934, according to a 2018 StarNews article from former museum Executive Director Madeline C. Flagler.

The move of the cottage saved the cottage because the greatest threat to historic cottages is the steady rise in property values and demand for development, Flagler wrote.

On the move: Wrightsville Beach Museum receives donation of cottage

As for the future, the Wrightsville Beach Museum of History still occupies the Myers Cottage location, which is the original location.

Carney said the museum has been in a rebuilding phase, and she is excited about the projects they have on deck even with the museum's research being briefly interrupted by the termination.

For instance, the museum is working on the first academic study of historic nightlife in Wrightsville Beach and strengthening its relationship with the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Town terminates Wrightsville Beach Museum's Ewing-Bordeaux lease