Bellamy Mansion

Built between 1859-1861 for Dr. John Bellamy and his family, this stunning 22-room Antebellum mansion was constructed by enslaved and freed Black artisans. During the Civil War, yellow fever forced the family out and the Union Army used it as headquarters.

Bellamy Mansion rises on Market Street in Wilmington, a 22-room Greek Revival and Italianate masterpiece that took two years to build and was completed in 1861—just as the Civil War engulfed the nation. Dr. John Dillard Bellamy, an ardent secessionist who owned over one hundred enslaved people across North Carolina, commissioned this grand home for his large family. The mansion was constructed by enslaved and freed Black artisans on land that had previously served as Gallows Hill, where executions were carried out. This convergence of histories—the enslaved, the executed, the war dead—has left Bellamy Mansion thoroughly haunted.

The land's dark past predates the mansion itself. Before Dr. Bellamy built here, this was where Wilmington conducted its executions, a place of death and suffering that may have left its mark on the very soil. The mansion that rose on this ground absorbed still more tragedy: the labor of enslaved people, the upheaval of war, and the yellow fever that would eventually drive the family from their home.

In early 1865, the advancing Union Army forced the Bellamys to flee Wilmington. Their mansion was seized and used as headquarters for Federal officers. One of the most famous stories involves an enslaved man named William Gould, who escaped from the mansion's slave quarters in a rowboat, navigated down the Cape Fear River until he encountered a Union ship, and immediately enlisted in the Union Navy. His diary survives as a testament to his courage.

The hauntings at Bellamy Mansion span multiple floors and multiple entities. Employees have heard heavy boots walking on wooden floors and seen the ghost of a man dressed in black, believed to be a Union officer from the occupation period. Alarms trip without apparent cause. Ellen Bellamy's wheelchair, preserved from her later years, appears in random locations around the mansion—moved by no living hand.

The fourth floor generates the most intense reactions. Used as the children's living area in the Bellamy era, this floor fills visitors with unease. Some are overcome by fear simply climbing the staircase. Staff and visitors report sudden illness, unexplained cold gusts, the sound of piano keys playing without a pianist, and disembodied voices that seem to come from empty rooms.

During restoration of the brick slave quarters, workers discovered talismans hidden in corner walls: a small pipe and an animal's jawbone. These artifacts, likely placed by enslaved people as protective charms against evil spirits, speak to the fear and hope that permeated this property long before the mansion was built.

Paranormal investigators have recorded EVPs and documented unexplained noises and door slams. One visitor who considered himself a skeptic reported seeing a female figure in the corner of his eye on the top floor, assuming it was his wife—only to find himself completely alone.

Bellamy Mansion opened as a museum in 1994, offering tours of the house and gardens. The ghosts of Union soldiers, enslaved people, and the Bellamy family itself seem to have remained, sharing the mansion with the living visitors who walk through their former home.