Anyone who lived in Wilmington prior to 1968 would be familiar with James Walker Memorial Hospital. Who was James Walker? Why did this Scots immigrant build the most modern hospital in the state and then give it to New Hanover County? The current New Hanover Regional Medical Center was formed when James Walker, the “white” hospital, and Community Hospital, the “Black” hospital, were combined. James Walker, was an extraordinary individual as illustrated below: 

 

James Walker (1827-1901) was a Scots-born builder, contractor, and brick mason who came to Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1857 to supervise construction of the United States Marine Hospital for his brother, John Walker, the contractor for the project. James stayed in Wilmington the rest of his life, becoming one of the leading builders and a noted philanthropist in his adopted city.

​

According to his obituary in the Wilmington Star (March 16, 1901), James Walker emigrated from Scotland to the United States at age twelve, and worked in Washington, DC and other locations. The newspaper said that Walker had resided in Wilmington since coming to the city in 1857 as “contractor and supervising architect to build the Marine Hospital.” Although in actuality his brother John had been the contractor, James was on the local scene managing the work, and doubtless was remembered locally as the contractor.

​

Contracts and correspondence for the Marine Hospital, which survive in the National Archives, document the Walkers’ involvement in the Wilmington project. In 1857 John Walker, then in Petersburg, Virginia, gained the Federal contract to construct the hospital, an Italianate edifice of brick, stone and iron designed by Boston architect Ammi B. Young. John Walker was then working on the Custom House in Petersburg. His winning low bid was for $28,968.25, the only one under $30,000, and considerably lower than that of popular Wilmington builder Robert B. Wood (of Wood Brothers), who bid $37,061.31 and offered letters of local support. Possibly Walker’s low bid reflected his unfamiliarity with local circumstances, most notably that because of the absence of suitable local stone, Wilmingtonians imported their building stone from the north. Although this situation was pointed out by bidder Wood and other local informants to the Federal authorities, whether the authorities or Walker took this information into consideration is an open question.

​

Construction on the Marine Hospital proceeded slowly, owing in part to difficulties in obtaining materials including pressed brick and iron from northern manufacturers. The major problem proved to be getting the necessary stone. Eventually John Walker had to open a quarry near Petersburg, Virginia, from which to send stone to Wilmington. On June 24, 1858, the local superintendent, T. H. Ashe, reported to the secretary of the treasury, “Mr. James Walker—brother to the contractor—under whose supervision the work has been carried on—left yesterday for Petersburg to try and expedite things.” After the project was completed in 1860, John Walker evidently continued his career as a builder in other cities. James Walker, however, decided to continue in Wilmington, where he had evidently made friends and gained local respect.

​

Having supervised the complex Marine Hospital project, James Walker was well suited to build projects involving coordination of local artisans with designs by other urban architects. When antebellum Wilmingtonians commissioned buildings from nationally known architects, they frequently employed builders or superintending architects with urban experience to manage their projects. James Walker served as local architect or superintendent of construction for the ambitious First Presbyterian Church designed by Philadelphia architect Samuel Sloan and completed on the eve of the Civil War.

​

Walker continued his building career after the war. One of Wilmington’s most striking buildings of the 1870s is the Temple of Israel (1875-1876), a twin-towered edifice in bold Moorish Revival style, for which the design has been credited recently to Samuel Sloan, with James Walker as supervising architect. According to a contemporary observer, James Sprunt, Walker made some changes to the design as built.

​

A major opportunity came, as reported in the Wilmington Star of December 28, 1875, when Walker was appointed to serve as “Master Builder” to superintend construction of the immense and complex Western North Carolina Hospital for the Insane, designed by Samuel Sloan, and built near Morganton, North Carolina. Construction took several years (1875-1883). After Sloan’s death in 1884, Walker may have been involved in work on additions in 1886, planned by Sloan’s assistant architect A. G. Bauer. In any case, he was working outside Wilmington in the mid-1880s, for on August 4, 1887 the Wilmington Messenger noted: “Mr. James Walker, the well-known contractor, in again in this city, his former home, and is stopping at ‘the Orton’”.

Over the years, Walker built numerous Wilmington residences and commercial and institutional buildings, of which only a few have been identified. He and a partner also operated a marble yard known as Walker and Maunder.

​

Like many builders of his era, Walker’s professional identity and role were fluid. He was listed in the 1870 United States census as a “house builder” in Wilmington, but in the 1880 census, when he was listed in Morganton, where he was working on the hospital, he was noted as an architect and builder, and he had the same identification in the 1900 census in Wilmington. Wilmington city directories generally showed him as a contractor and a builder, but in 1900 he was listed as an “architect,” with his office at 216 North Front Street and his residence at 1602 Market Street.

​

During his long career in Wilmington, Walker earned a reputation as “one of the most thorough and competent workmen in this section of the country.” As his obituary stated, “His personal and undivided attention was given in every detail of building which he undertook and many handsome structures in Wilmington notably the Marine Hospital, First Presbyterian Church, Y. M. C. A. building, and the splendid State Hospital for the Insane at Morganton testify that he was complete master of his profession.”

 

James Walker never married and he lived, according to the obituary, “a quiet, unostentatious life.” Having amassed “a fortune” as a builder, and after consultation with friends, he decided to give the city a much-needed modern hospital, which he helped build as well as funding its cost of about $30,000. The James Walker Memorial Hospital, completed shortly after his death, was named in his memory. A portrait of Walker painted by a local artist was commissioned and installed in the new facility (the painting is now at the Cape Fear Museum in Wilmington). Walker was buried in Oakdale Cemetery.