TIME AND TIDE

Wilmington, North Carolina, is evolving into a 21st-century destination, even as it comes to terms with its complicated past.

- John Jeremiah Sullivan

THERE IS A CERTAIN VAGUENESS about our national awareness of Wilmington, NorthCarolina. It is a significant American city, a 300-year-old colonial port that played a determining role in American history at more than one juncture, yet a striking number of people have never heard of it. I have been here for 20 years and am used to being met with a kind of blankness when I tell someone from another town where I live.

Some remember Wilmington from their youth as a pretty beach town with an interesting "old" section down by the river. It was once referred to as "the Port City of Progress and Pleasure"--but many people who live here pay little attention to the port and the constant activity around it.

Still, even if the city's identity is fuzzy, there is an undeniable charm that may owe its existence to precisely that quality. Wilmington does not brand itself as aggressively as many other Southern coastal cities. It has chill, as the kids say these days. If you want to get to know it, you have to explore it some. The exploration is worth it.