historical note
Opera House
Corner of Third and Princess Streets, Wilmington, NC (now 310 Chestnut Street, Wilmington, NC 28401)
Built: 1855-1858 (John Montague Trimble, architect)
Design: a multi-use building to house the town government, the library, and an auditorium known as Thalian Hall
Opened: April, 1858
Seating: 1000 increasing to 1600
Name change: 1867: the Opera House
Name change: c. 1909: Academy of Music
Restored: 1973-75
Expanded: 1988-90
Today: a performing arts complex known again as Thalian Hall
ACCOMMODATION
Purcell House
Front Street, between Market and Princess Streets, Wilmington, NC
Menu 1881
The Daily Review (Wilmington, NC), July 11, 1882, 1
Biographical Note
Charles Manly Stedman who dined with Wilde in Wilmington (above) had served in the 44th North Carolina Infantry during the Civil War on the Confederate side, and was a 41 year-old lawyer when he met Wilde. He became a long-serving Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina's 5th district, and carried his memories of Wilde well into the new century: he died in 1930, aged 89.
Not to be confused with Edmund Clarence Stedman, the Connecticut poet and critic who had snubbed Wilde while working as a journalist in New York.