For the 21st time, Wrightsville Beach will take a look back at its history, while raising money to preserve it, with the annual Lumina Daze celebration this weekend.
“With the Blockade Runner Beach Resort as its backdrop, Lumina Daze reflects not only the past that we love and cherish, but the present that is also dear to our hearts,” said Wrightsville Beach Museum of History Director Madeline Flagler.
Lumina Daze will begin at 5:30 pm and run until 9pm across the ballroom, lobby, patio and pool areas, and Nighthawk Room of the Blockade Runner Beach Resort. The music lineup includes: Wilmington Big Band in the Lee Ballroom, Dixieland All Stars in the Nighthawk Room, and The Imitations by the pool under the stars.
This year the museum has added a swing dance competition to run two hours before the Lumina Daze event. The competition will run from 3 to 5 pm with a $10 admission. The competition categories include swing, ballroom, jive, and shag. The museum will have dancers demonstrate at times throughout the Lumina Daze festivities from 5:30-9 pm.
“Lumina was all about dancing and we embrace that spirit emphatically,” Flagler said.
The museum will feature an exhibit about our Mailbox Project at the event, with the project manager on hand to discuss the project and will have a video of her interview with the founders of the mailbox, the Nykannens.
The museum will also have a lineup of silent auction items include a beachfront rental, a sunset catamaran cruise, a Porter’s Neck Country Club golf package, a large, exotic plumeria tree with those delicious-smelling flowers for your home or business, a cruiser bike for keeping those legs beach-worthy, an oyster roast at Wrightsville Beach Brewery, a year of Port City Java coffee, hand painted beach plaques by Sea to Shore Designs for locals as well as those who may not live here but still love this place, a Wrightsville Beach painting by acclaimed artist Perry Austin.
Lumina Daze was held annually until it ran into a dry spell when it was on hiatus for a couple of years until it was revived in August of 2009.  2017 marks the 21st Lumina Daze to benefit the Wrightsville Beach Museum. In 1994 the Wrightsville Beach Preservation Society held the first Lumina Daze on the evening of the July full moon to raise money for local historic preservation with the dream of opening a history museum. This set wheels in motion that resulted in setting aside Town of Wrightsville Beach property to become its Historic Square with space to place several historic buildings scheduled for demolition. These buildings were required to be used by non-profits. The society’s fundraising also began the effort to move the Myers Cottage, at the time the 3rd oldest cottage on the beach, to the Square to be the dreamed-of history museum.
The 2017 Lumina Daze has a common thread with those first celebrations in that the museum is working to move to the Historic Square an historic cottage that is scheduled for demolition, Flagler said.
Debbie and Chris Strickland, builders and preservationists, have donated the 1924 Ewing-Bordeaux Cottage to the Wrightsville Beach Museum of History. Betty Bordeaux (1937-2010), who lived in this house most recently, was a Wilmington native who was devoted to the idea of preserving the spirit of as well as the built landscape of the Wrightsville Beach that she loved.
The 1924 Ewing- Bordeaux Cottage, located at 405 N. Lumina Avenue, along with its neighbor, the Williams-Bordeaux, are the oldest fully-intact structures north of Stone Street. They are the last two of six cottages that survived the Great Fire of 1934. Moving the Ewing- Bordeaux Cottage will save a rare example of local Wrightsville Beach architecture of which only a handful remain.
This expansion allows the museum to:
- Grow our Waterman Hall of Fame that celebrates water sports and professions that are so important to our community and recognizes those who make positive contributions to our way of life.
- Have space to display more of our growing photo, oral history, and artifact collections
- Increase our ability to hold workshops and demonstrations that tie into our exhibits and programs.
- Enlarge our outdoor area for children’s activities.
