New Hanover County Public Library issued the following announcement on Aug. 26.
One of the many uses of the New Hanover County Public Library is researching the history of homes in the Port City. There are a number of different resources through the Local History Room that assist in better documenting the rich cultural history of these homes and their residents. The information that can be gleaned from these resources include such facets as when the house was built, who built the house, and who resided at the location. This information is gathered from a wide variety of sources including city directories, street indices, cross reference directories, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, telephone books, online databases, newspaper clippings, and maps for the local area. One of the organizations with which the library partners is The Historic Wilmington Foundation, which awards plaques to historic homes in the area.
Seen here are several of these resources for the Jacob J. Weil House at 21 S. 6th Street, built 1896-1897. Born in Germany to a Jewish family, Jacob J. Weil (1842-1918) moved to the Port City from Wilson, North Carolina in 1874 to operate a dry goods store. The Weil family lived in several different locations before settling in this house. In the 1880 Federal census, the family was living on Chestnut Street very close to where the Main Branch of the New Hanover County Public Library sits.
Original source can be found here.
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