In the face of change, one Wilmington neighborhood fights to maintain its identity

In February, the residents of Wilmington's historic Sunset Park neighborhood held their annual Mardi Gras parade.

Vehicles in the procession were decorated with streamers of purple and gold as the line of cars, bikes, golf carts and three-wheelers, as well as at least one boat and one unicycle, made its way through the historic area.

"The floats were pretty janky but endearing," said Sunset Park resident Kristi Ray, who lives in a renovated 1912 house on Central Boulevard with her husband, Cody, and their young child.

The whole production, Ray said, put together by the loosely organized Sunset Park Neighborhood Association, which dates to 1993, included a punk rock band playing in the front yard of a house for the passers-by. It reminded her of the early days of the pandemic, when Sunset Park neighbors would organize outdoor meetups and impromptu concerts.

It also confirmed something to Ray that she said she loves about her neighborhood: "We're just a bunch of misfits."

Most Sunset Park residents seem to love living there, and by all appearances the neighborhood is as vibrant and thriving as it is quirky. (The neighborhood cat, Waffles, has his own Facebook page, "Where's Waffles?", where residents will post updates about the black-and-white feline.)

But with rents and home prices rising all over Wilmington, including in Sunset Park, some worry the character of the historically working-class area could gradually erode.

"House prices have really started escalating. Since 2021 or so it’s skyrocketed," said Amanda Wilson, who's been in Sunset Park since 2013 and rents a home there with her husband and young child. "As soon as we can buy this house, even though it needs a lot of work, we’ll do it in a heartbeat … It’s a wonderful place to raise a kid. It’s quiet overall but still lively if that makes sense. We’ve definitely seen more people our age move in over the years, a lot more people with dogs and young kids."

Many of those couples, kids and dogs wind up at Dram Tree Tavern, a popular, family-friendly spot that opened on Washington Street in 2022 and offers a big yard for kids and dogs to run around in and a covered deck for the parents to hang out on.

Along with new spots like Greenfield Lake Yacht Club, a laid-back, music-friendly neighborhood bar that opened a year ago in the former location of gritty Irish pub The Dubliner, Sunset Park has begun to attract the kinds of food-and-drink businesses that thrive in Wilmington's many "districts," like the nearby South Front district or the Soda Pop District on Princess Street.

Greenfield Lake Yacht Club owner (and former Sunset Park resident) Billy Mellon, who also owns the upscale manna restaurant downtown, said he wanted to match the bar and venue to its Sunset Park setting.

"We think we fit the vibe Sunset Park gives off," Mellon said. "It's a cool section of town, and the homeowners really love living in that community … The beautification is evident. It's reminiscent of neighborhoods people envision when they think about growing up. Kids playing in the yards and the park, families biking, folks in the yard painting or improving their 'stead."

Longtime corner store Dillon's Grocery on Southern Boulevard is a beloved institution. But even the neighborhood's legacy bar and restaurant, Winnie's Tavern — which opened on Burnett Boulevard in 1962 and for decades was known as a rough spot inhabited largely by longshoremen who worked at the nearby port — has became a foodie destination of sorts in recent years, with a line to get in and customers coming from all over to try what the restaurant (and many others) tout as the best hamburger in Wilmington.

"On the one hand, yes, it’s great to have walkable things to do," Wilson said. "On the other hand, I worry too much development will end up pricing a lot of existing residents out, including us."

The change, which has so far been pretty gradual, is "the story of a lot of neighborhoods," said Toby Keeton, who works with Kersting Architecture and has lived with his wife and child on Sunset Park's Jefferson Street for the past eight years. "I hope it doesn't come at the expense of the weirder or more organic side (of Sunset Park). So far I don't think it has, but you never know."

Sunset stories

Of course, Sunset Park has already seen its fair share of changes over the years.

The oldest homes on Central Boulevard date to about 1912, when the neighborhood was originally envisioned as a high-styled suburb with a golf course, tennis courts and even a hotel.

By the early 1940s, however, the neighborhood had taken on more of a blue-collar identity, with many residents moving there to work at the former N.C. Shipbuilding Co., located where the Port of Wilmington now stands.

Gail Ward has lived in Sunset Park since 1987, when she moved into the house on Monroe Street where she still lives.

"When I first moved here, I was in my 20s," Ward said. "There were lot of older people, people who had lived here all their lives."

In recent years she's seen more younger people moving in, "Buying houses and fixing them up."

"There's been a cultural shift," said Collette Tan-Foster, who's lived in Sunset Park since the late '90s with her husband, who's lived in the neighborhood for most his life.

At the five churches in Sunset Park, "there's been a stark decline" in attendance, Tan-Foster said. Slowly but surely, older, mostly white residents are being replaced by younger ones.

The neighborhood also boasts a strong Latino contigent, as well as a church, Primera Iglesia Bautista, that serves the Hispanic community.

The new Sunset Park residents have to make their peace with occasional noise from the nearby port and the trains that run from it.

"People will come over and say, 'What was that?'" Ward said. "And I didn't even hear it."

Most residents learn to tune out the noise, and deal with the occasional airborne debris, that comes with living next to an industrial area.

"We knew what we were signing up for," said Keeton, the architect. "You're going to hear a container (at the port) drop from 40 feet in the air in the middle of the night sometimes … We ended up there because it was affordable," and being next to the port "is one of the things that's kept it affordable."

Whether the neighborhood is still affordable depends on who you ask, but the changes have been brewing for a while. Back in 2007, Sunset Park had already been seeing a decline in renters and a rise in home ownership and home prices, the trend perhaps driven by young families moving in to avoid higher home prices downtown and elsewhere.

Census data for the area (which includes the Woodlawn neighborhood across Carolina Beach Road) actually showed a slight, less than 2% decline between 2010 and 2020, with 2,213 people living in 1,220 housing units in the latter year, although it's possible that new residents have already made up for that dip.

In 2023, Sunset Park was on the Azalea Festival Home Tour for the first time. It had been added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, and with many if not most houses in the neighborhood now at 75 years or older, many have informational plaques bestowed by the Historic Wilmington Foundation.

"There is definitely gentrification," Tan-Foster said. "Houses are going for a phenomenal amount of money."

Jason Ward, who grew up in Sunset Park at his mom's house on Monroe Street and now lives in Carolina Beach, said he's looked into buying a house in his old neighborhood, but his take is that "the prices are a lot for houses that aren't huge," like an 890-square-foot two-bedroom on Alabama Street that's listed for $300,000.

Ward said he had a chance to buy a house in Sunset Park a few years ago and didn't pull the trigger.

"I regret it now," Ward said.

Ray, who renovated the house she lives in, as did several other homeowners on Central Boulevard, said her take is that "some places are getting gentrified, but I don't think that's happening here. I think it's more like doing these charming houses justice."

Rise of Sunset

Since forming in 1993, the neighborhood's unofficial residents' association, along with a number of private Facebook pages, have helped Sunset Park residents establish a sense of community.

"We don't want an HOA, but we do want that communication," Tan-Foster said.

Ilse Henagan, who moved to Sunset Park in 1994 with her husband, Johnnie, who died last year, has been a big part of the neighborhood association for 30 years now.

"I am extremely proud of our neighborhood," Henagan said. "We have worked hard to turn the neighborhood around from what it was. We formed a partnership with the (Wilmington Police Department) and with their help and dedication we are now one of the safest neighborhoods in town."

The Hengans "have been instrumental in leading the neighborhood," Tan-Foster said, epecially in advocating for it to the powers that be at Wilmington City Council meetings and other functions.

Henagan acknowledged that "no neighborhood is perfect, and neither are we. We have challenges like every neighborhood."

There have been a few house fires over the years, and a recent spate of car break-ins has led to Henagan posting regular reminders for folks to lock their car doors at night and to turn on outside lights.

On the other hand, Ray said, "We can sit on our porch and listen to concerts (at Greenfield Lake Amphitheater). It's a nice perk."

As for a large new affordable housing development coming to the site of the former Starway Flea Market, dubbed Starway Village, some Sunset Park residents, especially on the neighborhoo's south side, seem wary about potential traffic impacts. Others seem to welcome it.

Jason Ward grew up in Sunset Park in the late '80s when the Dove Meadows affordable housing project was on Sunset Park's south side, where Sunset South is now. Single-family tract housing now stands where Dove Meadows used to be. As for Starway Village, "Hopefully it will be truly affordable and will help people," Ward said.

Keeting, the architect, said he follows area planning and development as part of his job and that whether Starway Village fails or succeeds could have a big impact on the area.

"The devil's is the details. But the location," Keeting said, "If not here, where? If we're not going to be able to pull it off there, we're not going to be able to."

Change, as they say, is constant. But for now, at least, most Sunset Park residents seem to think Sunset Park is maintaining its offbeat identity in the face of that change.

"I think our neighborhood is still eclectic and approachable," Ray, said, adding that a typical street will have a young family living next door to an artist or musician with "sweet old ladies in their garden" across the street.

"Sunset Park has always had its own flavor," Keeting said. "I think one thing I really like is, it's one of those spots where you get wildly different types of folks right on top of each other. I work for an architecture firm, so not quite a suit and tie guy, but close. And my neighbor has a goat."

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: How Wilmington, NC's Sunset Park keeps identity in the face of change