Cape Fear Club is a private gentlemen's club in Wilmington,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, founded in 1866, making it the 6th oldest in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

after the

Metropolitan Club The Metropolitan Club of New York is a private social club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded as a gentlemen's club in 1891 for men only, but it was one of the first major clubs in New York to admit women, t ...

and before The Oglethorpe Club. It is described as "a business and professional men's club" that was founded in 1866 by former Confederate soldiers and incorporated in 1872 by the General Assembly. The club played an important role in the

Wilmington insurrection of 1898 The Wilmington insurrection of 1898, also known as the Wilmington massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington coup of 1898, was a coup d'état and massacre carried out by white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, on Thursday, Novem ...

, and was fictionalized in Philip Gerard's novel about the insurrection called ''Cape Fear Rising''. In 1892, the club purchased and moved into

John Dawson Jr. John Dawson Jr. (July 8, 1765 – June 3, 1823) was the sixteenth intendant (mayor) of Charleston, South Carolina, serving two terms from 1806 to 1808. Early life Dawson was born on July 8, 1765, to John Dawson and Joanna Broughton Monck. Care ...

's house. The club owns paintings by

Giovanni Battista Moroni Giovanni Battista Moroni ( – 5 February 1579) was an Italian painter of the Late Renaissance period. He also is called Giambattista Moroni. Best known for his elegantly realistic portraits of the local nobility and clergy, he is conside ...

Pietro Liberi Pietro (Libertino) Liberi (1605 – 18 October 1687) was an Italian painter of the Baroque era, active mainly in Venice and the Veneto. Biography Liberi was born in Padua, his earliest training was with Alessandro Varotari (''il Padovanino''). ...

, and

Guido Cagnacci Guido Cagnacci (13 January 1601 – 1663) was an Italian painter originally from Santarcangelo di Romagna. Associated most readily with the Baroque period, his mature works are characterized by their use of chiaroscuro and their sensual subje ...

. The club has served as a filming location. The club is a gentleman's only establishment that has been tied to high-profile events in Wilmington, North Carolina, in some cases related to the city's fraught racial histor

and in other cases related to its prominence in modern politics and controversial political decisions. Recently, a highly-profitable concert series was canceled based on concerns, according to Community Services Director Amy Beatty, that “the noise created by a concert would reasonably cause negative conflicts with events taking place in the Cape Fear Men’s Club (CFC) and potentially Thalian Hall.”

References

{{Reflist Gentlemen's clubs in the United States

Further reading

References