Wilmington, North Carolina

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Wilmington, North Carolina
File:Wilmington flag.jpg
City Incorporation December 31, 1739
City Tree Chestnut
City flower Azalea
City colors Blue & White

Location of Wilmington

Mayor

Bill Saffo

County

New Hanover County

Area

  - Total

41.5 mi²

Population City Proper (2006) 100,000
Metro (2006) 362,166
Population density (200) 2,069.3/mi²
Time zone Eastern (UTC−5)
Coordinates 34°13′24″N 77°54′44″W / 34.22333°N 77.91222°W / 34.22333; -77.91222
Sister Cities

Wilmington is a city in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 100,000 as of 2006;[1] 2005 Census Bureau estimates indicate a population of 95,476. The 2006 Census Bureau estimates set the population of the Wilmington MSA at 326,166, making it the seventh largest metropolitan area in the state. It is the county seat of New Hanover CountyTemplate:GR. It was named in honor of Spencer Compton, the Earl of Wilmington, who was Prime Minister under George II.

Wilmington was settled on the Cape Fear River and is located in North Carolina's Inner Banks region. Wilmington offers its historic downtown as a main tourist attraction and business center and is minutes away from nearby beaches. The city residents have the advantage of living nestled between a river and the ocean.

Wilmington is also known as the childhood home of basketball great Michael Jordan and journalist David Brinkley; famous Wilmington natives include Kevin Beasley, Sonny Jurgenson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Charles Kuralt, Charlie Daniels, Roman Gabriel, Meadowlark Lemon, Trot Nixon, and Alge Crumpler and famous author Joseph M. Corrigan who is the author of "The Patriot's Way- Everything You Need To Know About The POW MIA Issue" settled here from New York. It is also home to the WWII Battleship USS North Carolina (BB-55). Now a war memorial, the ship is open to public tours and is on display across from the downtown port area. The town is home to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, the Wilmington Hammerheads USL soccer team, the training camp site for the Charlotte Bobcats and the Cape Fear Museum. The city has become a major center of American film and television production; motion pictures such as Blue Velvet and The Crow as well as television shows such as The WB's Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill have been produced there.

Geography

Welcome to Wilmington

Wilmington is located at 34°13′24″N 77°54′44″W / 34.22333°N 77.91222°W / 34.22333; -77.91222Invalid arguments have been passed to the {{#coordinates:}} function (34.223232, -77.912122)Template:GR.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 107.4 km² (41.5 mi²). 106.2 km² (41.0 mi²) of it is land and 1.2 km² (0.5 mi²) of it (1.16%) is water.

File:Wilm4.jpg
Wilmington

History

Although there had been attempts to settle the Cape Fear region in the 1600s, the first permanent English settlers established themselves in the area in the 1720s. The town of Wilmington was incorporated in 1739. A number of the first settlers of the region came from South Carolina and Barbados. Slavery came early to the region, as landowners used slave labor to exploit the region's natural resources. The forest provided the region's major industries through the 18th and most of the 19th century: naval stores and lumber fueled the economy both before and after the American Revolution.

Captain William Gordon Rutherfurd, (1765 - 14 January 1818), who commanded HMS Swiftsure in Nelson's victory at Trafalgar, was born in Wilmington.

Thomas Peters, an early founder of Sierra Leone, escaped from slavery in Wilmington during the American Revolution.

Civil War

Main article: Wilmington, North Carolina, in the Civil War

During the Civil War the port was a major base for Confederate blockade runners. It was captured by Union forces only in February of 1865, approximately one month after the fall of Fort Fisher had closed the port. Since almost all the action was some distance from the city itself, a number of Antebellum homes and other buildings are still extant.

Insurrection of 1898

Main article: Wilmington Insurrection of 1898

In November 1898 Wilmington was the scene of a violent attack by a well-organized group of whites who destroyed the printing press of the African American newspaper The Daily Record and set fire to the building in response to an editorial that "insulted white womanhood", which was credited to editor Alex Manly. The mob then went to the north side of town, where an unknown number of African Americans were killed and many hundreds more were run out of town. No whites were killed during the incident.

At the same time, the Republican mayor and city council were forced to resign their offices and the leader of the white mob was then installed as mayor, leading many to characterize what happened in Wilmington as a coup d'état. The events in Wilmington—which was the largest city in the state at the time—helped make North Carolina into a Democratic Party-controlled state. They also helped institute Jim Crow and disenfranchisement which lasted until the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the United States in the second half of the 20th Century.

In 2006 the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission completed its official report on the event. Comprised of thirteen commissioners appointed by the legislature, the governor, mayor and city council of Wilmington, the commission was assisted by the staff of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. They used the experience of the Rosewood Report (completed 1993), and the Tulsa Report (completed 2001) as a model and set out to provide detailed explanations for the causes and effects of the riots and to propose a series of recommendations to address the wrongs perpetrated by earlier generations.

1918 panorama of Wilmington

Demographics

Aerial view of Wilmington

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2005, there were 96,354 people, 40,649 households, and 19,398 families residing in the city; according to census bureau estimates, the 2004 population is 93,292. The population density was 714.2/km² (1,849.8/mi²). There were 38,678 housing units at an average density of 364.2/km² (943.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 70.57% White, 25.82% African American, 0.35% Native American, 0.90% Asian, 0.09% Pacific Islander, 1.14% from other races, and 1.13% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.63% of the population.

There were 34,359 households out of which 20.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.5% were married couples living together, 14.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.5% were non-families. 36.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.10 and the average family size was 2.77.

In the city the population was spread out with 18.4% under the age of 18, 17.2% from 18 to 24, 28.5% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 15.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 87.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $31,099, and the median income for a family was $41,891. Males had a median income of $30,803 versus $23,423 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,503. About 13.3% of families and 19.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.9% of those under age 18 and 12.0% of those age 65 or over.

Passenger transportation

Port of Wilmington
The port in Wilmington on the Cape Fear River estuary
   24/7 Dispatch Line 910-264-9506 Website

<a href="http://www.aaronstaxicab.com">http://www.aaronstaxicab.com</a>

Media

Newspapers

The Star-News is Wilmington's daily newspaper, owned by the NY Times and is read widely throughout the Lower Cape Fear region. Two historic African-American newspapers are distributed and published weekly -- The Wilmington Journal and The Challenger Newspapers. Encore Magazine is a weekly arts and entertainment publication.

Television stations

The Wilmington television market is ranked 136 in the United States, and is the smallest DMA in North Carolina. The broadcast stations are as follows:

The region is also served by a cable-only affiliate of The CW, WBW, Channel 29 on Time Warner Cable and Channel 17 on Charter Cable.

Radio stations

  • 88.1 FM WGHW - Christian Programs from Church Planters Of America
  • 88.5 FM WZDG - Christian Rock ("88.5, The Edge")
  • 88.9 FM WKVC - Contemporary Christian ("K-Love")
  • 89.7 FM WDVV - Worship & Praise Music("The Dove, 89.7")
  • 90.5 FM WWIL - Christian("Life 90.5")
  • 91.3 FM WHQR - Public Radio
  • 92.3 FM WQSL - Variety ("92.3, The Party")
  • 92.7 FM WBPL - Catholic Programs("Relevant Radio")
  • 93.7 FM WNTB - Talk Radio ("The Big Talker FM")
  • 94.5 FM WKXS - Classic Hits("94.5, The Hawk")
  • 95.9 FM W240AS - Christian Programs from WOTJ-FM, Morehead City
  • 97.3 FM WMNX - Hip Hop ("Coast 97.3")
  • 98.3 FM WSFM - Alternative ("Surf 98.3")
  • 98.7 FM WILT - Variety Hits ("98.7,Will FM")
  • 99.9 FM WKXB - Oldies ("Jammin' 99.9")
  • 100.5 FM W263BA - Contemporary Christian ("K-Love")
  • 101.3 FM WWQQ- Country ("Double Q, 101")
  • 102.7 FM WGNI - Hot AC ("102.7 GNI")
  • 103.7 FM WBNE - Classic Rock (103.7,"The Bone")
  • 104.5 FM WRQR - Classic Rock ("Rock 104.5")
  • 105.5 FM WXQR - Rock ("Rock 105")
  • 106.3 FM WLTT - Talk Radio ("The Big Talker FM")
  • 106.7 FM WUIN - Variety Hits ("The Penguin")
  • 107.5 FM WAZO - Top 40 ("Z 107.5")
  • 630 AM WMFD - Sports ("ESPN Radio, AM 630")
  • 980 AM WAAV - News, Talk, Sports ("News, Talk, & Sports 980 The Wave")
  • 1180 AM WMYT - Spanish Christian ("Radio Alegre")
  • 1340 AM WLSG - Southern Gospel ("God's Country, 1340")
  • 1490 AM WWIL - Urban Gospel ("Gospel Joy, 1490")

Music

Wilmington is also home to one of the largest DIY festivals, the Wilmington Exchange Festival, which happens over a period of 7 days around Memorial Day each year. It is currently in it's 11th year.

Sports

The Wilmington Sea Dawgs are a Premier Basketball League (PBL) team in Wilmington that began its inaugural season with the American Basketball Association (ABA) in November of 2006. The Wilmington Hammerheads are a professional soccer team based in Wilmington, North Carolina. They were founded in 1996 and currently play in the USL Second Division. Their stadium is the Legion Sports Complex.

Shopping

Connections to film and the entertainment industry

Sister cities

Wilmington is a sister city with the following cities:

Points of interest

The USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial, seen from downtown Wilmington, looking across the mouth of the Cape Fear.

Educational institutions

Notes

  1. ^ Star News Online (September 26, 2006). "[1]". Wilmington at 100,000: A 'big town growing into a city'?
  2. ^ IMdb.com "[2]". Titles with a location of Wilmington, North Carolina

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wilmington,_North_Carolina&oldid=147556569"