Changing Castle: Why Wilmington's 'antiques district' is morphing into something else

When Anthony Durret was growing up in Charlotte in the 1990s, he'd come to the Wilmington area every summer to visit his father, who's from Navassa in Brunswick County.

Inevitably, Durret would find his way to Castle Street.

"I'm a Black man, so it was one of the main areas," Durret said. "Kind of rough as well."

Durret recently moved to Wilmington to be closer to his father, and when looking to start a new business, he returned to Castle Street again.

"I saw a different Castle Street," he said. "Me being a Black man, I feel like I want to be a role model for others" to open businesses on the historic stretch.

Durret is now preparing to open a trio of businesses in the coming weeks, all in the 600 block of Castle. With Ian Simpson, Durret is launching the Velvet Room microcinema, a 50-seat theater and bar, in the former Second Skin vintage shop. (They're currently in the midst of a crowdfunding campaign to complete renovations.)

In the back of the same building, in the former Cape Fear Playhouse, he'll have The Hideaway Lounge, a speakeasy-style bar. And across the street will be the Sip & Chill, a cocktail lounge with a laid-back jazz vibe.

The businesses, which could bring more nightlife to a street that doesn't currently have a ton of it, are emblematic of the new face of Castle Street.

A changing street

For most of the past 20 years the stretch between Third and Seventh streets has been branded the "Castle Street Arts and Antiques District." But the street is beginning to explore a new identity.

There are well over 100 new housing units potentially coming to various points along Castle. Then there's business developer James Goodnight Jr., who helped renovate the restaurants Seabird downtown and Olivero at Third and Castle, and who purchased five properties on the 500 block of Castle last year.

Castle Street feels like it's on the cusp of what could be transformative change — a microcosm, perhaps, of the change the entire Wilmington area is seeing.

Michael Moore Antiques is the last antiques shop left standing. There were once close to dozen, Moore said, after he moved his shop to Castle from Front Street in 2004, helping to establish an antiques district there.

Moore sold his building to Goodnight last year, and while he's currently leasing it back from Goodnight, Moore said he plans to close his shop by the end of 2024.

"I started it, and now I'm going to finish it," Moore said from his shop on a recent afternoon. "It's been a great place and I've loved being here. Sales have been great. Access has been great, and it's a very visible street. It's also a neighborhood. I know all the people around here, and they know me."

Castle Street is "becoming a little more retro vintage" than antiques, said Terry Espy, a Wilmington real estate broker who's also on the board of the nonprofit Downtown Business Alliance. Espy said that when Moore moved in 20 years ago most of Castle Street was zoned for mixed-use development, which prohibited bars.

Now that much of the street has been changed to urban mixed-use, "Bars can come in now where they couldn't before," Espy said.

"We want to see this street continue to turn around," Espy said, and part of that vision includes expanding on the diversity of businesses that Castle has always been known for. The Station No. 2 event space at Fifth and Castle, for example, recently added early-evening bar hours on Wednesdays.

"On Castle Street you should be able to walk your dog, grab a beer, or find somewhere to eat lunch or dinner three days a week," she said.

Of course, change and growth often beget growing pains, and some worry that the changes coming to Castle, the exact nature of which remain cloudy, could dilute a stretch long known for its racial diversity, the diversity of its businesses and a kind of gritty charm.

"Castle Street is awesome. Castle Street has always been awesome," said Matt Keen, who owns Gravity Records at 612 Castle St. and is also the president of the Castle Street Collective (which Espy helped start). The nonprofit is "dedicated to the beautification and mixed-use development on the street and within our community," according to its Instagram page.

They also work with businesses to help bring in regular events like the popular monthly Curated on Castle Vintage Market, which picks back up on March 9.

"Of all the districts," Keen said — like the Brooklyn Arts District on North Fourth, the Soda Pop District on Princess and the burgeoning Cargo District off 16th and 17th streets — Castle Street "gets the least attention from the city. It's also the most diverse … We're all trying to bring everyone along for the ride."

A brief history

Castle Street has been around at least as long as Wilmington has, if not longer.

"Due to Castle Street's gentle slope to the (Cape Fear) river, it was the site of an 18th century landing," writes historian Beverly Tetterton in her 2005 book, "Wilmington: Lost But Not Forgotten." A theory on how the street got its name, Tetterton writes, is that it's named for "Wimble's Castle," which appeared on a 1733 drawing by James Wimble, first owner of the property at the foot of Castle.

Or, since Wilmington was originally called New Liverpool, maybe the street takes its name from Castle Street in Liverpool, England. (Which, as it happens, is just a block away from the legendary Cavern Club where The Beatles got their start.)

Over the past century, Castle Street has had a few different identities. In the early and mid-20th century it was a commercial center for the residents of Dry Pond, as the surrounding neighborhood was once widely known, with markets, furniture and clothing stores, laundries, restaurants, pharmacies, professional offices and more.

As those businesses closed or moved to shopping centers in the suburbs starting in the 1960s, Castle Street saw some lean times. Many buildings sat vacant for years.

Local history: Take a ‘visit’ to 1973 on Wilmington's Castle Street: 50 years later, what's changed?

Frank Walker has worked as a barber on Castle Street for some 59 years. These days he can be found at Just Cut It at 616-A Castle St., sometimes playing checkers at slow moments on a hand-crafted wooden board with fellow barber Lawrence Riddles.

Walker can point up and down the street to where different businesses were located: Black and white barber shops and beauty parlors, a furniture store, clothiers, a Black laundry, Black-owned grocery, a bike shop, a motel, a TV repair shop, an ABC store, the old Winn-Dixie supermarket at Fifth and Castle.

Walker said businesses on Castle Street have long had a mix of Black and white owners.

"It was for everybody," he said.

Asked about the changes he's seen on Castle recently, and about new ones that might be coming, Walker shrugs.

"Businesses change," he said. "Times change. Situations change."

Downs and ups

One of those changes came in the mid-2000s when Castle was rebranded as the arts and antiques district and saw the opening of several antique shops, the Jester's Java restaurant and some clothing stores, with many business owners drawn by cheaper rents than could be found in downtown Wilmington or other areas.

A mosaic from that era on the side of the old location of the Luna Caffe coffee shop was created by students in the DREAMS arts program, who also decorated trash cans on the 600 block of Castle. It touts the "New Castle Arts and Antiques District."

Luna moved a couple of doors down in 2022 and its former building with the mural is supposed to be torn down and transformed into a new development with some 30 apartments, though no work has been done on the site as of yet.

The financial crisis of 2008 proved a setback for the area, and many others, and a number Castle Street businesses closed.

Ben Erichsen, who recently opened the Wilmington Dispensary on Castle, said he bought some nearby rental properties in the mid-2000s, around the time the Castle Street Arts and Antiques District was coined. He lost them in the financial crisis of 2008.

"I was way too early," Erichsen said. "I checked online to see what some of those places are worth now, and I've done the math. It's depressing."

Over the course of the last decade or so, however, as Castle became "cool," for lack of a better word, things followed a familiar trajectory and rents began to rise.

Just Cut It, where Walker works, is owned by Cedron Emerson, who opened there about seven years ago. It's one of a half dozen Black barber shops or hair salons on Castle.

Emerson, who used to work cutting hair at a Castle Street barber shop called Barfield's, said he's seen his rent nearly double in seven years.

"The way things are going, it's pricing us out," Emerson said. "You can only charge so much for a haircut.

"We have a lot of history here. We want to keep being here, too. I wish we had more of an ownership (in Castle Street). That would keep us in this area for years down the road."

Emerson's next-door neighbor, with whom he shares a front door, is Adrian Varnam, who opened his music store, Varnam Strings, at 616-B Castle St. in 2017.

"There definitely is gentrification," Varnam said, adding that it's been going on for close to 20 years on Castle. "I don't know what the solution is."

Keen moved to Castle Street in 2013. He said he "almost feels a little guilty" for Gravity's part in making Castle Street an attractive destination for businesses and new residents, something he talked about when he was interviewed for the short film "wilminGton: A Historic and Modern Account of Gentrification in Downtown Wilmington," which screened in 2022 at the Cucalorus Film Festival.

"We came here because it was cheaper" than other parts of town, Keen said.

With the Castle Street Collective, which was started by Wilmington Wine owner John Willse, who recently relocated to Seventh and Castle, "We want to be part of the community as opposed to just trying to make some dough," Keen said.

Varnam said he thinks that most of the small businesses on Castle "are trying to serve the community" and be part of it.

Durret, who's opening the microcinema and two bars on Castle, said "I go to the Castle Street meetings ... I'm usually the only Black person there. But I've not felt like there's anything where Black people should be feeling like we shouldn't get involved.

"Let's step up a little bit. Let's go with the grain, not against it."

A new Castle

"If you define Castle as an antiques district, that's probably changing," Varnam said.

He said he sees it as more of a small business district where everyone has own niche.

Unlike, say, the Soda Pop District, which is almost entirely eating or drinking establishments, Castle Street is home to a diverse array of businesses. There are restaurants and coffee shops for sure, but also clothing stores, convenience stores, barbershops, a record store, a yoga studio, event spaces, plenty of residential and even a funeral home.

The Kids Making It nonprofit also has a large footprint, and "I'm the only violin shop for 100 miles," Varnam said.

He admits "we see a lot of turnover," but said that's the nature of the beast when it comes to small businesses. "Margins are small. You're always projecting month to month."

"That's the charm of Wilmington," he added, these communities of small businesses, wherever they're located.

One thing that's relatively new, Varnam said, is the development to his east in the area of 10th and Castle. The popular On Thyme restaurant does a brisk business and is driving pedestrian traffic and later hours, and the under-construction, 100-unit Midcastle development at 12th and Castle will bring even more people and serve as a kind of bridge between existing Castle Street businesses and the nearby Cargo District.

Tiffany Hertz opened her 42 & Ink screen printing shop in a strip next to On Thyme in January of last year. The building, which in the 1980s housed the Black-owned Finley's Driving School and other businesses but later fell into disrepair, now has a book store, a Latin market and the Lavender Rain "creative space."

Hertz said she chose the area "because of how it's up and coming," and that it's more than met her expectations.

"I don't need a lot of foot traffic," she said, but has gotten new and more business since she moved to Castle. "I used to just be in my garage."

Hertz said she "would love to see more restaurants on Castle," and she might soon get her wish.

Goodnight has not announced any plans for the properties he purchased on the 500 block of Castle, including the under-renovation 555 Castle St., which until recently was an antique shop. Given his past work in helping to create spots like Seabird and Olivero, some think Castle Street could become a new restaurant row of sorts.

"It sounds like there will be quite a few restaurants. Hopefully some will serve lunch," said Jess James, who opened her vintage clothing store, Jess James + Co., at 511 Castle St. in late 2016. "People find their way to Castle Street from New York or Los Angeles, 'Oh I'm so glad I found my way to Castle Street, I was looking for something more unique or eclectic.' We've got something special going on here."

Goodnight, son of billionaire SAS founder and CEO James H. Goodnight, is known for maintaining the historical integrity of the buildings he works on. James said she sees that as a good sign, and she thinks more businesses on Castle could only draw more people.

"I'm super happy that (Goodnight) is here," she added, "but I wish there was more of a public statement from him just to know what his vision is."

Reached via phone, Goodnight said he's "still in the early stages" of his work on Castle.

"When we first got to Wilmington 10 years ago, people were hyping Castle Street as the big thing," Goodnight said. "Then it never really happened."

Goodnight didn't want to talk about specific plans for the properties he's purchased on Castle, including at least one empty lot he said will likely be developed.

"Ideally," he said, "it would be diverse" in terms of the types of businesses in these properties. "We're excited to be there."

Back at the under-construction Velvet Room microcinema, Ian Simpson shows a visitor where the bar will be along with the collection of vintage film posters and projectors he and his partner Durret will be using for decor.

The idea is to open by mid-2024, though Durret said it could be sooner. He said he sees the business ventures that he and Simpson, who is white, are embarking on as symbolic of Black and white people and communities being able to work together on Castle Street to create an area that's safe and offers a mix of drinking, dining, shopping and entertainment.

"Who wouldn't want that?" Durret said. "Change is not always bad. If you're trying to run a business, it's got to be good for everyone."

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: What's changing on Castle Street in Wilmington, NC?