Cape Fear Unearthed

We talk with longtime Wilmington resident Elaine Henson about what shopping downtown in the 1950s and '60s was like.

Wilmington filmmaker Kent Chatfield talks about his 1898 documentary "McKinley's Guns," which will be available for streaming online Nov. 10.

For this week's episode, we talk with Margaret M. Mulrooney, author of "Race, Place and Memory: Deep Currents in Wilmington, North Carolina," a comprehensive deep dive into Wilmington's long and troubled racial history.

The tourists who stay there might not know, but the Holiday Inn at Wrightsville Beach sits on the former site of Moore's Inlet. We take a look back at the days when Wrightsville's north end, Shell Island, was actually an island.

We talk to Wilmington native and North Carolina jazz historian Larry Reni Thomas about The Barn, a club that shone brightly during the days of segregation in the 1940s and early '50s.

As Wilmington decides whether to bring development back to the west bank, we take a look at the history of the area, including its dark associations with slavery.

Before the rise of chain grocery and convenience stores, dozens of mom-and-pop stores run by independent merchants could be found in nearly every Wilmington neighborhood, most of them downtown.

We talk with retired StarNews sports reporter Chuck Carree about Jordan's days in the '70s and '80s playing high school basketball in Wilmington.

We talk with Mark W. Koenig, the former director of the Wilmington Railroad Museum and author of "The Wilmington, Brunswick and Southern Railroad,"  which uncovers the history of the long-forgotten railroad line.

A 1983 study commissioned by the city of Wilmington documented more than 100 historic sites and structures of significance to the Black community. The study was shelved, and more than two dozen structures have since been demolished.

This week, we take a deep dive into more than 15,000 historic Wilmington photographs the Cape Fear Museum recently made available to the public on its website. Some photos date back to the 1860s, and together, they help tell the story of Wilmington -- the good, the bad and the ugly -- in a way words never could.

Built in 1876 at Fourth and Market streets, Wilmington's Temple of Israel is believed to be the oldest synagogue in North Carolina and the 10th oldest in the United States in continuous use.

The tale of the Christmas flounder has captured the imagination of Wilmingtonians ever since the story began running in the StarNews every Christmas Eve back in the early 1980s. We look into the Christmas flounder's rather murky origin story.

Preserving history, one window and door at a time

Commemorating 1898, and the search for descendants