Cape Fear Club

Gentlemen's club in Wilmington, NC, USA

The Cape Fear Club

The Cape Fear Club

Founded| 1866; 158 years ago (1866)

Location|

* 206 Chestnut St, Wilmington, NC

Cape Fear Club is a private gentlemen's club in Wilmington, North Carolina, founded in 1866, making it the 6th oldest in the Southern United States after the Metropolitan Club and before The Oglethorpe Club. It is described as "a business and professional men's club"[1] that was founded in 1866 by former Confederate soldiers and incorporated in 1872 by the General Assembly.

The club played an important role in the Wilmington insurrection of 1898, and was fictionalized in Philip Gerard's novel about the insurrection called Cape Fear Rising.[2]

In 1892, the club purchased and moved into John Dawson Jr.'s house.[3]

The club owns paintings by Giovanni Battista Moroni, Pietro Liberi, and Guido Cagnacci.[4]

The club has served as a filming location.[5] The club is a gentleman's only establishment that has been tied to high-profile events in Wilmington, North Carolina, in some cases related to the city's fraught racial history.[6][1] and in other cases related to its prominence in modern politics and controversial political decisions.[7]

Recently, a highly-profitable concert series was canceled based on concerns, according to Community Services Director Amy Beatty, that “the noise created by a concert would reasonably cause negative conflicts with events taking place in the Cape Fear Men’s Club (CFC) and potentially Thalian Hall.”[8]

## Further reading[edit]

* Dickson, Alfred G. The Cape Fear Club, 1866-1966, The club, 1966.

## References[edit]

1. ^ Steelman, Bennett L. "Cape Fear Club". Encyclopedia of North Carolina. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
2. ^ "1898 Wilmington Race Riot". 1898 Wilmington Race Riot. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
3. ^ Block, Susan Taylor. Cape Fear lost. Charleston, SC: Arcadia. p. 19\. ISBN 0738501921.
4. ^ Mazaroff, Stanley (2010). Henry Walters and Bernard Berenson : collector and connoisseur. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 121\. ISBN 9780801895128.
5. ^ "Sleepy Hollow 'war' invades prestigious Cape Fear Club". Port City Daily. August 7, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
6. ^ "Residents are working to help Wilmington, N.C., heal racial divisions that persist 100 years after whites ran blacks out of town". Christian Science Monitor. September 3, 1988. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
7. ^ Kelley, Pam (September 30, 2022). "Disquiet at Cape Fear Community College". The Assembly NC. Archived from the original on September 30, 2022.
8. ^ Schachtman, Benjamin (May 12, 2022). "Wilmington staff cancel free downtown concert series, citing 'undue burden' on Cape Fear Club". WHQR. Retrieved March 10, 2023.