20 WBM march 2014 There has been a hotel in this location for 117 years. The Blockade Runner also has a rich history intertwined with that of the Cape Fear coast. The property where the Blockade Runner Beach Resort now stands was first established as a double-waterfront hotel in 1897, facing both the Atlantic Ocean and Banks Channel, called the Seashore Hotel. This hotel stood until 1918 when a fire spread through the building, leaving it in ashes. After the Seashore Hotel burned, all that remained was the steel pier, which eventually was washed away in 1921. However, it wasn’t long until the value of the property was remembered and in 1922 a charter was issued to develop and build a state-of-the-art hotel in its place — the Ocean Terrace Hotel. In 1954, Hurricane Hazel, the most destructive recorded hur-ricane to hit North Carolina, greatly damaged the Ocean Terrace Hotel. Without insurance or outside help, the owners were unwilling and unable to make the repairs needed to bring the Ocean Terrace back to its former glory. So the structure stood, devastated by the storm, as a reminder of the power of coastal hurricanes, until 1955 when the remains burned to the ground, leaving nothing but the foundation in its ash. “After the hurricanes and storms, the beaches were all struggling financially,” says Bill Baggett, one of the Blockade Runner’s owners. “There wasn’t FEMA, there wasn’t support, and there wasn’t even flood insurance.” The property was purchased for $40,000 by the former Wrightsville Beach Mayor, Michael C. Brown, from the town of Wrightsville Beach. He subsequently deeded the property to Lawrence Lewis Jr., Don Foster 910-686-4807 o • 910-619-1103 c • 910-686-4822 f www.dfosteryachts.com • rfoster@eastnc.twcbc.com From Soot to Swank
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