By Joseph Baneth Allen
Lost Palace of Light
Only memories remain of the Lumina beach resort, but
Wrighlsville Beach isn't likely to forget it.
The year was 1925 and the world,
it seemed, was a simpler place.
On a warm summer evening in
Wilmington, a crowd of young people
gathered at the trolley station to catch
the last car to Wrighlsville Beach.
Their destination: Lumina. the leg¬
endary beach resort known for more
than 30 years as the “Pleasure Palace of
the South." Young and old. rich and
poor, flocked to the magnificently lit
pavilion to see and lx- seen, dance to the
music of Guy bimhardo, and watch
movies in the sand.
From 1910 to 1940. Lumina was “t he
place to go, "according to I larry Warren,
a researcher with the New Hanover
( -ounty Museum in Wilmington. "People
have special feelings about Lumina," he
adds. “Only when it was gone did they
realize what was lost."
The pavilion was demolished in 1973 to
make way for condominiums and apart¬
ment complexes. But its memory' lives on
in New I lanover County, immortalized as
an exhibit at the museum.
For no charge at all. visitors can sit in
wooden “trolley seats" and watch a slide
show of a trip to the resort, circa 1925.
The 10-minute show, complete with
sound efTccts of the trolley chugging
over the tracks and people frolicking on
the beach, makes most viewers wax
nostalgic, even if they’ve never heard
the word Lumina before.
The trolley setting is appropriate be¬
cause if it weren’t for trolleys. Lumina
would never have been constructed. It
all started in 1902. when a company
called Consolidated Railway Light and
Power Company was formed asa merger
of a gas light company, a street-car
company and a railroad. One of its first
decisions was to electrify the railway
line that extended across Banks
Chnnncl from Wilmington to
Wrighlsville Beach.
The resulting trolley led to a building
boom on Wrights villc Beach, but to the
company’s dismay, the beach still wasn't
catching on as an immensely popular
summer resort.
So, in February 1903. Consolidated
bought an expensive ocean-front lot at
“Station Seven." the trolleys last stop,
from the Ocean View Company for $10.
The goal was to attract trolley passen¬
gers to the beach during the day and at
night, and company officials decided to
do this by building a massive resort.
Construction plans called for an
elaborate structure made completely of
heart pine, 300 feet long and two stories
high, stretching from the high-water
mark on the beach to within 20 feet of
the trolley tracks. Total construction
costs ran between $5,000 and $7,000.
Lumina's ground floor consisted of a
promenade running east to west, with a
bowling alley, bathrooms and a ladies’
parlor on one side, and cold drink and
quick lunch booths, moving pictures,
slot machines and more amusements
on the other side. A broad stairway in
the center led to the dance ball on the
second floor. A balcony accommodated
orchestras and big bands on the south
end of the dance floor, and the north end
had a restaurant with open fireplaces
for cool winter nights.
Work was completed in May 1 905 and
on Saturday, .June 3. the building was
opened to the public. The exterior was
brilliantly lit with several thousand
incandescent lights, so Consolidated of¬
ficials named the pavilion “Lumina" —
Latin for “lights."
The majority of patrons were summer
tourists who were well-off enough to
rent cottages and make a seasonal stay
at the beach. But many who swarmed
Lumina’s spacious dance floor were just
Rain or shine, Lumina never failed to draw throngs
from Wilmington and surrounding areas.
r-M,
The Stale Augu'i
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