By Simon Gonzalez
A little piece of history was crushed on Tuesday. The oldest house on Wrightsville Beach was rapidly demolished, flattened under the weight of a 22-ton excavator.
The Bluethenthal House at 217 S. Lumina Ave. had stood on the beach since 1898. It survived hurricanes, wars, tides, and time. But it couldn’t survive the profit motive.
It was destined for destruction last June, when it was placed on the market.
The house was large — the original main building and a three-bedroom annex added in 1998 together totaled 3,333 square feet, with an additional 2,500 square feet of decks — and beautiful, according to those who had been inside it, with authentic pine walls and hardwood floors.
But historic, quaint and original aren’t key selling points for oceanfront homes these days. The house never had a chance of remaining in its current configuration. Or even of being renovated. Not when there are plenty of well-heeled buyers willing to pay a premium for an opulent mini-mansion at the beach.
It sold in September for nearly $3.5 million to investors who intended to raze the house, divide the large lot into two, build a couple of 5,000-square-foot manors, and sell at a profit.
To be fair, at least one of the old owners knew the importance of the house and explored ways to preserve it. There were dreams of relocation to Wrightsville Beach’s historic square, but the reported $500,000 price tag was prohibitive.
A Realtor quoted in the February issue of Wrightsville Beach Magazine said the new owners looked into lifting and moving the structure 17 feet onto one lot and just building on the second. But that too apparently proved to be prohibitive.
And so the new owners filed for a permit to demolish the building, and nearly 120 years of history and a monument to a bygone age was destroyed in hours.
The Lumina News posted a video of the demolition on Facebook. It was hard not to get a little sad watching the house be crushed, listening to the sounds of windows shattering and wood snapping, even for those of us who didn’t grow up in Wrightsville Beach.
It was tragic for those who do have deep roots here, reading a sampling of Facebook comments. “I have walked by this house for many, many years. Slowly, each summer, we have watched the fine old homes that were part of WB history disappear. The realization that no one sees value in the renovation and rehabilitation of these lovely old girls but only see the value in the new new new!!” … “That’s too bad. The property is gold but the history isn’t. But Wrightsville made this decision long ago.” … “The non-locals should not be able to buy up our hometown just because they have money… and greed will end this world.” … “Greed has ruined the town that I grew up in.” … “Heartbreaking, another precious reminder of Wrightsville’s glory days bites the dust.” … “That’s what non-locals do they don’t care about history.” … “Money has no conscience.”
Some of the comments are a little harsh. Like it or not, the land has a value, and the value is in an oceanfront home, not in preserving history. Nostalgia has a great deal of worth and can certainly factor into our emotional wellbeing, but it’s always going to be trumped by the bottom line — especially when the bottom line is measured in millions of dollars.
Greed is a problem as old as the world — the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils — but there’s nothing intrinsically immoral in making a profit. It’s the motivation behind starting businesses, the impetus to job creation, and what fuels our economy.
In truth, the “old” Wrightsville Beach faded into the mists of the past a long time ago. Common folks can’t afford to live in the town anymore, not when even a very modest two-bedroom, 1,100-square-foot house that’s over 65 years old lists for half a million.
In another story in the February Wrightsville Beach Magazine, people who grew up on Wrightsville in the 1970s lamented that middle-class families have been priced out of the town.
The demolition of the Bluethenthal House is not tragic — it’s a tale of greed winning out over history. However, it is very sad, because it’s yet another reminder of old ways and old days passing away.
