60 Year Anniversary

On June 15th 1897, the Seashore opened it’s doors serving a splendid supper in the handsome dining room, while an excellent orchestra provided the music for a grand ball.

Owner and Manager, E. L. Hinton, expands the Seashore Hotel to 200 rooms. The Colonial style hotel was three stories with a large dining room, ladies reception room, and sitting room.

In 1935 the Seashore Hotel was acquired and the name was changed to The Ocean Terrace Hotel. The Ocean Terrace Hotel was an imposing Victorian-style hotel, opening it's doors in 1937.

The Ocean Terrace Hotel suffered devastating damage from Hurricane Hazel and a year later was destroyed by a fire, leaving only the brick foundation to mark the site.

Knowing Wrightsville Beach would never make a comeback without a large hotel, former mayor Mr. Michael Brown sold the land to Lawrence Lewis, president of the East Coast Hotel Company.

Construction begins on the Blockade Runner Motor Hotel, the first high-level structure of its kind to be erected in coastal North Carolina in more than 20 years.

The Blockade Runner Motor Hotel opened on March 22, 1964. It had one hundred and twenty guest rooms, each overlooking the Atlantic Ocean or Banks Channel.

Due to the tremendous business that the Blockade Runner enjoyed, the owner was compelled to expand the property after just one year. Adding more rooms to the beachfront annex.

Mr. Lewis sold the hotel in 1971 to Four Seasons Management Services, Inc., a group of doctors headed by Dr. Joseph Baggett of Fayetteville, changing the name to The Blockade Runner Beach Resort.

The largest snowstorms in Wilmington's history hits Wrightsville Beach, the Great Christmas Blizzard of 1989 that dropped 15.3 inches.

Andy Griffith films "The Vacation" episode from season seven of the popular TV show, Matlock, at the Blockade Runner.

Castle Peak Holdings buys the hotel from the Baggett Family with plans for a transformative renovation in late 2024 to become part of the Trailborn family of hotels.