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Thursday, March 28, 2024

More renovations for Williams-Bordeaux house

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Wrightsville Beach’s Williams-Bordeaux Cottage, built in 1922, needs more extensive renovations than property owner Margaret Daughtry originally thought when she applied with the town’s historic landmark commission in November 2014 to repair the home.

The cottage at 407 N. Lumina Ave. is designated as a historic property, so the commission must approve any significant alternations. Last year, Daughtry received permission to make changes to her back porch steps. On Sept. 14, the commission approved her request to replace her side porch steps too.

The current stairs are old cement blocks. Wayne Black, the contractor in charge of renovations, plans to replace the blocks with a wooden platform and two sets of steps leading off either side of the platform. The configuration matches stairs on the adjacent house, he said.

When he started working on the house in June of this year, he encountered several places on the house where aging or damaged material was patched up instead of repaired. He said he looked into repairing the side porch stairs but they really need to be replaced.

“They seem to be about 100 years old,” he said. “We talked about dressing them up, but if you do that you’re out of code.”

The cement stairs are a safety hazard, too, town building inspector Bill Squires added, because the blocks are uneven.

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