Without question, the Battleship North Carolina is the centerpiece of the Wilmington Riverfront. A majestic symbol of this country's hard-earned naval victories in World War II, the battleship is a must-see attraction. Enshrined in a berth on Eagles Island across the Cape Fear River from historic downtown Wilmington, this awesome vessel is the Memorial to the 10,000 North Carolinians of all the armed services who gave their lives during World War II. Commissioned in 1941, the 45,000-ton warship wields nine 16-inch turreted guns and carries nickel-steel hull armor 16 to 18 inches thick. The USS North Carolina Battleship survived a direct torpedo hit in 1942, a tribute to the strength of its construction. In fact, the "Immortal Showboat" is known for the relatively small number of casualties it suffered during the war. The Battleship North Carolina came to its present home in 1961. It took a swarm of tugboats to maneuver the 728-foot vessel into its berth, where the river is only 500 feet wide. After much effort and tribulation, the city of Wilmington gained a majestic and irreplaceable piece of history that continues to provide visitors with an enlightening journey into the past. You can drive to it easily enough, but using the river taxi is more fun. (See the write-up for Capt. Maffitt Sightseeing Cruise below.)

You can absorb all the Battleship North Carolina has to offer at your own speed and see what is most interesting to you with a self-guided tour that takes you to more than nine decks. Included are the crew's quarters, galley, sick bay, gun turrets and exhibits that reveal the heart of this World War II Battleship, including new visual displays with first-person accounts of daily life aboard the battleship. These individual stories help bring history to life, capturing the imaginations of children and adults alike, who may have only read about World War II in textbooks. More features to check out are the engine room, the plotting rooms, radio central, the Admiral's Cabin, the bridge and combat central. Don't miss the Kingfisher float plane, one of the last of its kind to survive, located on the stern of the battleship's main deck. Plan on taking at least two hours to enjoy the tour. Spend some time in the visitor’s center, where you can view the fascinating displays related to the Battleship North Carolina , its place in WWII history, as well as the memorabilia and personal belongings of the people who lived and worked on board. On your way out, don’t forget to visit the Ship’s Store, a gift shop filled with Battleship North Carolina souvenirs and gifts with a nautical or military theme. Ample parking adjoins the berth, and Battleship Park includes a sheltered picnic area. Please note that only the visitor’s center and the main deck of the battleship are wheelchair accessible.

Tours cost $12 for those ages 12 and older and $6 for children ages 6 through 11. Children 5 and younger get in free. The cost is $10 for seniors 65 and older as well as retired and active-duty military personnel. The battleship is open every day. From Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day, hours are 8 AM to 8 PM. From Labor Day to Memorial Day weekend, hours are 8 AM to 5 PM. Ticket sales end one hour before closing. There is no extra charge for unscheduled appearances by old Charlie, the alligator who makes his home near the battleship at the river’s edge.

The assertion that the Bellamy Mansion is Wilmington's premier statement of prewar opulence and wealth is impossible to contest. ('Prewar' here refers to the War Between the States, a.k.a. the Civil War, the War of Northern Aggression, the Late Unpleasantness.) This four-story, 22-room wooden palace completed in 1861 is a classic example of Greek Revival and Italianate architecture. Its majesty is immediately evident in 14 fluted exterior Corinthian columns. Most of the craftwork is the product of both free and enslaved African-American artisans, some of whom, it is said, were granted their freedom on the steps of this very building.

Before plans were set to renovate and restore the mansion in 1972, it hadn't been lived in since 1946. Volunteer guides are sure to point out the glassed-in portion of a wall left unrestored to illustrate the extent of a 1972 fire set by an arsonist. That event was linked to the disfavor in which the Bellamy Mansion had been held by some locals, who saw it as a symbol of slavery, which further legitimizes the mansion's value as a historic and cultural landmark. The mansion's museum exhibits embrace regional architecture, landscape architecture, preservation and decorative arts. The museum hosts multimedia traveling exhibits, workshops, films, lectures, slide shows and other activities. Ongoing and painstaking restoration qualifies Bellamy Mansion as an important work in progress. Behind the mansion, the rebuilt carriage house houses the visitors center, gift shop and mansion offices. Adjacent to the carriage house, the Bellamy Mansion slave quarters show a rare example of urban slave housing. Future renovation plans include this unique five-room, two-story brick dwelling.

Bellamy Mansion Museum is open to the public Tuesday to Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM and Sunday 1 to 5 PM. Tours, both guided and self-guided, begin at the carriage house with a brief film on the mansion's history and preservation efforts. Please note that the last guided tour begins at 4 PM. Admission is $10 for adults and $4 for children ages 5 through 12. Children younger than 5 enter free of charge. Friends of the Bellamy Mansion are admitted free. Call ahead for group rate information.

When Lord Charles Cornwallis, still in danger of a Rebel pursuit, fled to the coast after the Battle of Guilford Court House in central North Carolina in 1781, he repaired to Wilmington, then a town of 200 houses. He lodged at the gracious Georgian home of John Burgwin, a wealthy planter and politician, and made it his headquarters. The home, completed in 1770, is distinguished by two-story porches on two sides and seven levels of tiered gardens. The massive ballast-stone foundation remains from the previously abandoned town jail. A free-standing outbuilding houses the kitchen and a craft room and is located behind this beautifully preserved Colonial home. A tunnel from the garden area runs down toward the Cape Fear River, and the dungeon, located beneath the cellar, has been opened for viewing. The Burgwin-Wright House, currently owned by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of North Carolina, is one of the great restoration/reconstruction achievements in the state, and visitors may peruse the carefully appointed rooms and period furnishings.

Admission is $10 for adults and $4 for children ages 5 to 12. Children younger than 5 are admitted free. Group tours are available by appointment. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 AM to 4 PM, with the last tour at 3 PM on all days.

Colonial Christmas is a special event at the house during the second weekend in December. The house is filled with the music of the 1700s and decorated for the holiday season with greenery and fruit, while the art of open-hearth cooking is highlighted. There are performances by dancers in full colonial costume and demonstrations of colonial weaving/tapestry in the craft room, and you can even take a peek in to the old jail's dungeon. And for history buffs, a colonial surgeon demonstrates surgery as it was performed on the battlefield. Admission for Colonial Christmas is $10.

For an overview of the history, science and cultures of the Lower Cape Fear region, from prehistory to the present, Cape Fear Museum stands unsurpassed. Established in 1898, Cape Fear Museum is the oldest history museum in North Carolina. The skeleton of a 20-foot-tall Giant Ground Sloth greets visitors to the museum. A miniature re-creation of the second battle of Fort Fisher and a remarkable scale model of the Wilmington waterfront c. 1863 are of special interest. Learn all about Wilmington's most famous basketballer before entering the Michael Jordan Discovery Gallery — an interactive science exhibit for the entire family. The Discovery Gallery includes a giant, crawl-through beaver lodge, Pleistocene-era fossils and an entertaining Venus flytrap model you can feed with stuffed "bugs." Children's activities, concerts, special events and acclaimed touring exhibits contribute to making Cape Fear Museum not only one of the primary repositories of local history, but also a place where learning is fun.

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 9 AM to 5 PM and Sunday 1 to 5 PM. During the summer season (Memorial Day through Labor Day), the museum is open Mondays from 9 AM to 5 PM. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and students with valid ID, $5 special military rate with valid military ID; and $3 for children ages 3 through 17. Children younger than 3 and Cape Fear Museum members are admitted free. Admission is free to all New Hanover County residents on the first Sunday of each month. Groups of 10 or more may be eligible for a discount on admission fees and should contact the museum for details. Cape Fear Museum is disabled accessible, and it offers an interesting, well-stocked Museum Store for visitors.

Named for Capt. John Newland Maffitt, one of the Confederacy's most successful blockade runners, the Capt. Maffitt is a converted World War II Navy launch affording 45-minute sightseeing cruises with live historical narration along the Cape Fear River. Cruises set out at 11 AM and 3 PM daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Off-season weekend cruises are available from May 1 to Memorial Day and from Labor Day to mid-November. Cruise tickets cost $10 for adults and $5 for children ages 2 to 12. The Capt. Maffitt is available for charter throughout the year, and it doubles as the Battleship River Taxi during the summer. No reservations are necessary, and it runs on the quarter-hour from Wilmington's riverfront to the Battleship NORTH CAROLINA and on the hour and half-hour for the return trip except at 11:30 AM and 3:30 PM during the sightseeing cruise times. River taxi fees are $4 per person and free for children younger than 2.

This elegant, refurbished riverboat is a large, three-level, paddle-free vessel with a capacity for 600 guests. In fact, the Henrietta III is so spacious that it can accommodate three separate events — wedding parties, dinner cruises, themed cruises, etc. — at once. Cruise the Cape Fear River in style on this beautiful riverboat with a variety of options that include a 90-minute narrated sightseeing cruise, narrated lunch cruise, "Murder Mystery" dinners, dance cruises and more. Most cruises are available from April through December, while others only go out during the summer season. Rates vary according to the type and length of the cruise. Prepaid tickets are required for cruises that include meals. The Henrietta III also offers special events cruises throughout the year. Contact Cape Fear Riverboats at the phone numbers or the website above for more information on current rates, cruise schedules and special events cruises. The boat's elevator makes all decks handicapped accessible. The Henrietta III is U.S. Coast Guard–approved.

Featuring more than 100 species of snakes, most of them deadly, the Serpentarium boasts the largest collection of venomous reptiles in the world. The owner is the major breeder of the spectacular South American bushmaster, the world's longest and deadliest pit viper. The Serpentarium boasts the world's only breeding colony of the nearly extinct blackheaded bushmaster, among other rare finds. The dangerous reptiles of every continent are represented, including king cobras, spitting cobras, Australian taipans, black mambas, Gaboon vipers, gigantic pythons, Gila monsters, Nile crocodiles, 7-foot monitor lizards, and dozens of others, living in lush dynaramas developed for the Serpentarium by the movie industry. The Serpentarium is open daily 11 AM to 5 PM, but in winter months, it is closed on Tuesdays. All tickets cost $8. Group tours are available, and school groups are welcome.

More than 100 years ago, Chandler's Wharf was crowded with mercantile warehouses, its sheds filled with naval stores, tools, cotton and turpentine and its wharves lined with merchantmen. A disastrous (and suspicious) fire in August 1874 changed the site forever. In the late 1970s, Chandler's Wharf became an Old Wilmington riverfront reconstruction site, a positive turning point for downtown revitalization. Today much of the flavor of the 1870s remains, and Chandler's Wharf is again a business district, or, more accurately, a shopping and dining district. Two historic homes transformed into shops stand on the cobblestone street, beside wooden sidewalks and the rails of the former waterfront railway. The original ship chandler warehouse has been converted into popular boutiques, galleries and a bakery; a pictorial history of Wilmington is displayed there. Elijah's and The Pilot House restaurants overlook the Cape Fear River, and the Riverwalk provides a delightful waterside stroll that connects Chandler's Wharf with the rest of downtown. (See our Restaurants and Shopping sections for more about Chandler's Wharf.)

This tiny church, built in 1858 and originally a mission chapel of First Presbyterian Church, is a remarkable example of Stick Style, or Carpenter Gothic, architecture. Its exterior details include decorative bargeboards with repeating acorn pendants, board-and-batten construction, a louvered bell tower (with carillon) and paired Gothic windows. When the congregation, then slaves, formed in 1858 under the auspices of the mother church, the chapel was surrendered by the mother church to the new, black congregation, which purchased the building in 1867. The congregation's many distinguished members have included the first black president of Biddle University (now Johnson C. Smith University), the publisher of Wilmington's first black newspaper, a member of the original Fisk University Jubilee Singers, the first black graduate of MIT, and North Carolina's first black physician.

The goal at this multi-faceted museum is to "stimulate children's imagination, curiosity and innate love of learning" through play. Climb aboard their pirate ship, experiment in the science lab or make a special souvenir in the art room. You can count on the Children's Museum for fun, affordable, educational, play-centered programs that both children and their adult friends are sure to enjoy. They have art and science programming all day, every day. Toddler Time is on Fridays from 9 to 11 AM. To learn more about what's offered, check out our Kidstuff chapter.

Even having lost its stunning 197-foot, copper-sheathed steeple to Hurricane Fran in 1996, First Baptist was still Wilmington's tallest church. For years this tower, the taller of the church's two steeples, had been known to visibly sway even in an average wind. The steeple's repair was completed in early 1999. Being literally the first Baptist church in the region, this is the mother church of many other Baptist churches in Wilmington. Its congregation dates to 1808, and construction of the red-brick building began in 1859. The church was not completed until 1870 because of the Civil War, when Confederate and Union forces in turn used the higher steeple as a lookout. Its architecture is Early English Gothic Revival with hints of Richardson Romanesque, as in its varicolored materials and its horizontal mass relieved by the verticality of the spires, with their narrow, gabled vents. Inside, the pews, galleries and ceiling vents are of native heart pine. Sunday School classes occupy an equally interesting building next door on Fifth Street, the Sidbury House, which exhibits such classic Italianate elements as frieze vents and brackets and fluted wooden columns. The church offices are located in the Taylor House next door on Market Street.

Visiting clergymen held services occasionally for Presbyterians in Wilmington in the 1700s, and the First Presbyterian Church was organized here in 1817. This congregation has long had among its members some of the most influential Wilmingtonians, and that is still the case today. The Rev. Joseph R. Wilson was pastor from 1874 until 1885; his son, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, grew up to become slightly more famous in the nation's history.

The church itself, with its finials and soaring stone spire topped with a metal rooster (a symbol of the Protestant Reformation), blends Late Gothic and Renaissance styles and is the congregation's fourth home, the previous three having succumbed to fire. During the Union occupation, the lectern Bible was stolen from the third church, which burned on New Year's Eve 1925. The stolen Bible was returned years later to become all that remains of the sanctuary. Today, intricate tracery distinguishes fine stained-glass windows along the nave as well as the vast west window and the chancel rose. The 1928 E. M. Skinner organ, with its original pneumatic console, is used regularly. Handsomely stenciled beams, arches and trusses support a steep gabled roof. To one side is the Kenan Chapel, with its transverse Romanesque arches. The education building behind the sanctuary is quintessential Tudor, complete with exterior beams set in stucco, wide squared arches, casement windows with diamond panes, interior ceiling beams and eccentric compound chimneys.

Having undergone major renovation in the early 1990s, First Presbyterian is an impressive sight. Its carillon can be heard daily throughout the historic district.

Visitors and locals alike enjoy this nightly walking tour of downtown Wilmington. The tour meets year round by the Riverfront at the foot of Market Street. From April 1 through October 31, tours are held nightly at 8:30 PM, with additional tours Tuesday through Saturday at 6:30 PM. In November and March tours are held Tuesday through Saturday at 6:30 PM. In December, January and February, tours are held Thursday through Saturday at 6:30 PM. Special Halloween times vary, and you're advised to call ahead. Cost is $12 for adults and $10 for seniors, students and military; it's free for children ages 6 and younger. Tours for groups of 15 people or more can be arranged year round; please call ahead.

Partake in an evening of spirited adventure on a journey to Wilmington's most wildly haunted pubs. Revel in the seamy red-light district of yore and uncover startling truths of life in an eighteenth-century port city. From the disreputable obsession of the merry wench, "Gallus" Meg, to the barbarous haunts of a notorious madman, this is a fun-filled night of levity and libations. Reservations are required. The tour begins at 7:30 PM. Nights vary; call the number above for the most current schedule. The Haunted Pub Crawl is a great way to add some excitement to a special event or party, or to just get together with some friends for a scary good time and a touch of grog. Group tours for 10 or more adults can be arranged year round. Cost is $15 per adult.

See historic downtown Wilmington the old-fashioned way — by horse-drawn carriage or trolley. This half-hour tour in a fringed-top surrey (open-air trolley) is narrated by a driver wearing nineteenth-century garb. At busy times, such as during Azalea Festival and Riverfest, these horse-drawn tours are especially popular. Don't miss the memorable seasonal events, including the romantic horse-drawn Valentine ride in a French evening coach, an "Easter Bunny"–drawn ride, the Halloween Ghost Trolley ride, the "Thanksgiving Turkey"–drawn ride, or the Caroling by "Reindeer" Christmas ride. Carriage rides are also available for weddings, private parties and other special occasions. Call the number above for reservations and rates. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. From April through October, tours operate Tuesday through Saturday from 10 AM to 10 PM and Sunday 11 AM to 4 PM. In November, December and March, the carriages roll Friday and Saturday 11 AM to 10 PM and Sunday 11 AM to 4 PM. During January and February, call for hours. Expect to pay $11 for adults and $5 for children age 11 and younger; rates are subject to change without notice, however.

When Nance Martin died at sea in 1857, her body was preserved seated in a chair in a large cask of rum. Six months later she was interred at Oakdale Cemetery, cask and all. Her monument and many other curious, beautiful and historic markers are to be found within the labyrinth of Oakdale Cemetery, Wilmington's first municipal burial ground, opened in 1855. At the cemetery office, you can pick up a free map detailing some of the more interesting interments, such as the volunteer firefighter buried with the faithful dog that gave its life trying to save his master, and Mrs. Rose O'Neal Greenhow, a Confederate courier who drowned while running the blockade at Fort Fisher in 1864. Amid the profusion of monuments lies a field oddly lacking in markers — the mass grave of hundreds of victims of the 1862 yellow fever epidemic. The architecture of the monuments, the Victorian landscaping and the abundance of dogwood trees make Oakdale beautiful in every season. The cemetery is open from 8 AM to 5 PM daily. Oakdale Cemetery office hours are Monday through Friday 8:30 AM to noon and 1 to 4:30 PM. Admission is free.

The heart and soul of downtown Wilmington is its riverfront. Once a bustling, gritty confusion of warehouses, docks and sheds — all suffused with the odor of turpentine — the wharf was the state's most important commercial port. Much has changed today. Now you can experience Wilmington's charm and historical continuity by strolling The Riverwalk. Dining, shopping and lodging establishments line the walk, and live entertainment takes place at the small Riverfront Stage on Saturday and Sunday evenings from June to early August. Check with the Visitors Information Booth at the foot of Market Street for schedules. The third Sunday of each month from 4 to 7 PM in the spring and summer months, Riverfront Park is the site of the Sundown Shindig, a street fair with merchants, food vendors and entertainment with the Cape Fear River sunset serving as a lovely backdrop for the festivities. Immediately to the north, schooners, pleasure boats and replicas of historic ships frequently visit the municipal dock. Coast Guard cutters and the occasional British naval vessel dock beyond the Federal Court House; some ships allow touring, especially during festivals. Benches, picnic tables, a fountain and snack vendors complete the scene, one of Wilmington's most popular.

St. James is the oldest church in continuous use in Wilmington, and it wears its age well. The parish was established in 1729 at Brunswick Town across the river (also see the write-up for St. Philip's Parish). The congregation's original Wilmington church wasn't completed until 1770. It was seized in 1781 by Tarleton's Dragoons under Cornwallis. Tarleton had the pews removed, and the church became a stable. The original church was taken down in 1839, and some of its materials were used to construct the present church, an Early Gothic Revival building with pinnacled square towers, battlements and lancet windows. The architect, Thomas U. Walter, is best known for his 1865 cast-iron dome on the U.S. Capitol. A repeat performance of pew-tossing took place during the Civil War, when occupying Federal forces used the church as a hospital. A letter written by the pastor asking President Lincoln for reparation still exists. The letter was never delivered, having been completed the day news arrived of Lincoln's assassination. Within the church hangs a celebrated painting of Christ (Ecce Homo) captured from one of the Spanish pirate ships that attacked Brunswick Town in 1748. The sanctuary also boasts a handsome wood-slat ceiling and beam-and-truss construction.

Church offices are in the McRae House, built in 1900 from a design by Henry Bacon, who also designed the Lincoln memorial in Washington, D.C. The cemetery at the corner of Fourth and Market streets was in use from 1745 to 1855 and bears considerable historic importance. Here lies the patriot Cornelius Harnett, remembered for antagonizing the British by reading the Declaration of Independence aloud at the Halifax Courthouse in 1776. He died in a British prison during the war. America's first playwright, Thomas Godfrey, is also memorialized here. The cemetery once occupied grounds over which Market Street now stretches, which explains why utility workers periodically (and inadvertently) unearth human remains outside the present burial ground. Visitors are welcome to take self-guided tours of the church on weekdays between 9 AM and early afternoon when services are not underway.

Established in 1869, this was the first Episcopal church for blacks in eastern North Carolina, and it has conducted services uninterrupted since that time. The building (completed in 1875) is a simple Gothic Revival structure with a buttressed nave and octagonal bell tower. All visitors are also welcome to attend worship services on Sunday. Please check local Saturday newspapers or call the church at the number listed above for the schedule.

Numerous historical writers have referred to this Spanish Baroque edifice (built 1908–11) as a major architectural creation, often pointing out the elaborate tiling, especially inside the dome, which embraces most of this church's cross-vaulted interior space. The plan of the brick building is based on the Greek cross, with enormous semicircular stained-glass windows in the transept vaults, arcade windows in the apse and symmetrical square towers in front. Over the main entrance, in stained glass, is an imitation of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. A coin given by Maria Anna Jones, the first black Catholic in North Carolina, is placed inside the cornerstone.

Responding to the growing number of German Lutherans in Wilmington, North Carolina's Lutheran Synod organized St. Paul's in 1858. Services began in 1861 as the Civil War broke. Construction came to a halt when the German artisans working on the building volunteered for the 18th North Carolina Regiment and became the first local unit in active duty. The building was occupied and badly damaged by Union troops after the fall of Fort Fisher in early 1865. Horses were stabled in the building and its wooden furnishings were used as firewood. The completed church was dedicated in 1869, only to burn in 1894. It was promptly rebuilt. There have been several additions and renovations since. Today the building is remarkable for its blend of austere Greek Revival elements outside (such as the entablature, pediments and pilasters) and Gothic Revival (such as the slender spire, clustered interior piers and large lancet windows). Also notable are its color-patterned slate roof and copper finials and the gently arcing pew arrangement. The removal of paneling during renovations in 1995-96 uncovered beautiful stenciling on the ceiling panels and ribs in the vestibule, nave and chancel.

The oldest Jewish temple in North Carolina, this unique Moorish Revival–style building was erected in 1875–76 for a Reform congregation that was formed in 1872. Its two square towers are topped by small onion domes, and the paired, diamond-paned windows exhibit a mix of architrave shapes, including Romanesque, trefoil and Anglo-Saxon arches. Another notable feature is a magnificent chandelier, brought to the United States from Landau, Germany. Believed to be more than 500 years old, the chandelier was originally lighted by oil, later by candles and finally by electricity. The Pilcher-Tracker organ, constructed in 1901 and restored in 1990, is one of only three such organs known to still be in operation. When the Front Street Methodist Episcopal Church was destroyed by fire in 1886, the Temple of Israel congregants offered their building as a substitute until a new church could be erected. The offer was accepted and the Methodists met in the Temple for a little more than two years. During the week, you may stop by the office at 9 S. Fourth Street between the hours of 9 AM and noon to request a viewing of the temple's interior.

Since its renovation and expansion in the late 1980s, the name has been, more accurately, Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts. And yes, it does share the same roof with City Hall. Conceived as a combined political and cultural center, Thalian Hall was built between 1855 and 1858. During its first 75 years, the hall brought great national performers and some surprising celebrities to its stage: Lillian Russell, Buffalo Bill Cody, John Philip Sousa, Oscar Wilde and Tom Thumb, to name a few. That tradition continues. Full-scale musicals, light opera and internationally renowned dance companies are only a portion of Thalian Hall's consistent, high-quality programming. Today the center consists of two theaters —the Main Stage and the Studio Theatre — plus a ballroom (which doubles as the city council chambers). With its Corinthian columns and ornate proscenium, it's no wonder Thalian Hall is on the National Register of Historic Places. Private and group tours are offered Monday through Friday by appointment and include the Main Stage, backstage, the Studio Theatre, the ballroom, gallery and City Hall. Contact Thalian Hall's administrative offices, (910) 343-3660, to schedule a tour and for tour rates. A self-guided tour is also available from noon to 6 PM Monday through Friday and from 2 to 6 PM on Saturday. Admission for the self-guided tour is $1.

For the past 22 years, lifelong Cape Fear resident Bob Jenkins (the man with the straw hat and walking cane) has been leading the Wilmington Adventure Walking Tour, speaking passionately and knowledgeably about his hometown. Expounding upon architectural details, family lineage and historic events, Bob whisks you through 250 years of history in about two hours. You'll see residences, churches and public buildings. Tours begin at the flagpole at the foot of Market Street at 10 AM and 2 PM daily, weather permitting, April through October. Cost is $10 for adults and $5 for children ages 6 to 12. Children younger than 6 go along for free. Although no reservations are required, it's best to call ahead, especially in summer. Off-season (November through March) group tours are by advance reservation only.

In 1866-67, immediately after the Civil War, the United States Congress enacted legislation to create national cemeteries to honor and protect the remains of U.S. soldiers who fell in battle or died of disease. The Wilmington National Cemetery was established in 1867 on five acres of land about a mile east of downtown. The cemetery originally contained the remains of more than 2,000 Union soldiers, many of whom died at Fort Fisher and were later interred here. More than 1,300 are unidentified; many are black, identified as U.S.C.T. (United States Colored Troops) or U.S. Col. Inf. (United States Colored Infantry). Markers with round tops indicate known burials, and stones with flat tops indicate unknowns; nearly all are government issue. Following the Civil War period, the Wilmington National Cemetery received the remains of Americans through the Vietnam conflict. The cemetery no longer has room for additional deceased soldiers; however, spouses and family members of soldiers already interred there may still be buried near their loved one. Visitors interested in finding a specific grave may use the locator at the entrance of the cemetery. Grounds are open daily from 7:30 AM to 5 PM.

The history and heritage of railroads in Wilmington is clearly borne out by this museum's fine photographs and artifacts. Beyond details of more than 130 years of history, the Railroad Museum is a kind of fun house for people fascinated by trains and train culture. For the price of admission, you can climb into a real steam locomotive and clang its bell for as long as your kids will let you. Inside, volunteers will guide you to exhibits explaining why the nineteenth-century Wilmington & Weldon Railroad was called the "Well Done" and that the ghost of beheaded flagman Joe Baldwin is behind the Maco Light — at least one volunteer claims to have seen it. Ask about the museum's "Memories" book, where visitors are encouraged to share their favorite train memories; it includes entries by celebrities who have visited Wilmington.

The museum building was built in 1882 as a freight warehouse and is one of just a few remaining reminders of the golden era of railroading. Visitors can run the model trains in the enormous railroad diorama upstairs, which is maintained by the museum's model train committee. Downstairs, the children (both young and not so young) will enjoy the Lionel trains and a small scale HO model, and on the first floor lies a new, unique HO scale train set worth approximately $10,000. Also on the second floor is the hands-on children's corner. Adult programming, children's workshops, model train workshops, an Annual Train Show in October and group discounts are available. The museum also invites you to book your birthday parties on its caboose; the rental fee includes souvenirs and a tour of the museum. April 1 through September 30, the museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM and Sunday from 1 to 5 PM. October 1 to March 30, it's open Monday through Saturday from 10 AM to 4 PM. The museum is closed New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Admission fees are $6 for adults, $5 for military personnel and senior citizens age 60 and older, and $3 for children ages 2 to 12. Children younger than 2 are admitted free.

Located near the Henrietta III at the foot of Dock Street, the Wilmington Trolley offers a 45-minute guided tour of historic downtown Wilmington over a course of about 8 miles. Available daily, April through October (weekend tours are available in November and March), the tours leave on the hour from 10 AM to 5 PM. There are some evening tours available during the summer months, with the last tour leaving at 8 PM. Fees are $11 for adults and $5 for children ages 2 to 12. Call ahead for evening and off-season tour availability.

This magnificent Italianate building, built by a prosperous merchant from Connecticut, dates from 1852 and is remarkable for its original furnishings and artwork. The house boasts fine architectural details such as window cornices and wreaths in the frieze openings, all made of cast iron, and a piazza with intricate, wrought-iron tracery. Behind the building stands a rare (and possibly Wilmington's oldest) example of urban slave quarters, now a private residence. What sets the Latimer House apart from most other museums is the fact that it was continuously lived in for more than a century, until it became home to the Lower Cape Fear Historical Society in 1963. It has the look of a home where the family has just stepped out. The Historical Society is one of the primary sources for local genealogical and historical research. For information on membership, write to 126 S. Third Street, Wilmington, NC 28401. The Society's archives are housed at the Latimer House and are available to the public Monday through Friday from 10 AM to 4 PM. The Latimer House is open Monday through Friday from 10 AM to 4 PM and Saturday noon to 5 PM. The last guided tour is at 3:15 PM. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students. Walk & Talk Tours, which require reservations, encompass about 12 blocks of the historic district and last two hours. The tours are given every Wednesday and Saturday at 10 AM and cost $10.