Progress is a contradictory term, one that inherently means an improvement of luxury and an advancement of technology, yet usually at the expense of a community's identity, traditions and history. Though many buildings survived the Civil War skirmishes and Northern occupation during Reconstruction, these same structures did not escape the plans of ambitious entrepreneurs and thus disappeared from Wilmington's landscape, only to be replaced, over time, by shopping plazas and nationally recognizable commercial facades.

Cape Fear Lost celebrates places that have vanished from present-day Wilmington. In this volume of more than 200 photographs, you will be able to explore the Wilmington of a bygone era, one punctuated by unpaved tree-lined streets and architecturally diverse dwellings. As you thumb through these pages, you will experience firsthand the beauty of the many former mansions scattered throughout the downtown area, familiar churches, civic buildings and schools that once dotted the cityscape, the many businesses that utilized the pedestrian, horese-and-wagon and shipping traffic along Market Street, and the transformation of Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach from humble summer bungalows into major tourist retreats. These varied scenes allow you an extraordinary insight into this coastal community's charming character over the past century and a half.

In this book Susan has compiled a wonderful collection of images, matched with informative captions that describe the unique histories surrounding each of these forgotten places. Cape Fear Lost is truly a treasure for all readers, whether natives of the area who have spent their enter lives in Wilmington or those who come often to enjoy the scenic splendor.

“While Susan Taylor Block’s book Cape Fear Lost is aptly titled, she has done a superb job of at least pictorially salvaging much of the architectural heritage that has vanished from Wilmington and its environs. She skillfully has selected and annotated about 180 photographs and drawings depicting structures that are physically removed from the landscape but are visually preserved in this volume.

“Dividing the book into four chapters titled; “Home Sweet Homes,” “Cape Fear Foundations,” “The Marketplace,” and “Along the Shore,” Block gives the reader more than an architectural tour of buildings lost to fire, storm, and the wrecking ball of progress. She also provides well-researched descriptions of the replicated images that bolster this book’s value as a photographic history. The work is further strengthened by the presence of a bibliography, an enumeration of photograph donors, and a useful index covering both the pictures and descriptive entries.

“The author’s introduction relating the story of local historian Elizabeth F. McKoy’s poignant 1939 article extolling the value of historic preservation and championing the survival of the old city hall from destruction is brief, but it is most effective in setting the “bittersweet: tone of the text. Block has ably produced an anthology of images and descriptive text that testify to the Cape Fear region’s architectural heritage. The diversity and beauty of what once existed in Wilmington is vividly depicted, and the harsh reality of the losses to “progress” is cogently conveyed in these pages."