Louis T. Moore

Louis Toomer Moore (1885–1961), preservationist, author, historian, photographer, and civic promoter, was born in Wilmington, NC, on May 17, 1885.

Biography

Paternally, Louis T. Moore descended from “King” Roger Moore, a Colonial land baron who created Orton Plantation in nearby Brunswick County, NC. Louis T. Moore’s mother was Susan Eugenia Beery Moore. Her grandfather moved to Brunswick County in the 1790s. Her father, Benjamin Washington Beery, along with his brother, W. L. Beery, owned Beery Shipyard, on Eagles Island, just west of downtown Wilmington. Several Confederate iron-clads were built at the Beery Shipyard, including the North Carolina. Benjamin Beery built another shipyard, Cassidey & Beery. Like Orton Plantation, the 1853 Beery home still stands, but is no longer owned by the Moore family.

Louis’s father, Col. Roger Moore, served as commanding officer of the Forty-first Regiment (Third Cavalry) during the Civil War, protecting the railroad line and surrounding properties from Wilmington to Weldon. Col. Moore also led his men in battle at Reams Station, Virginia, August 25, 1864, an effort that won praise from Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Louis T. Moore was educated in Wilmington public schools and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a corresponding journalist for the Raleigh Evening News, wrote for the Daily Tar Heel, and served as "Chief Cheerer" for athletic events. He returned to Wilmington in 1906 and became City Editor of the Wilmington Dispatch.

Due to an earlier bout with polio that left him with a paralyzed foot, Moore remained in Wilmington during World War I. On July 1, 1921, he was named executive secretary of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, a position he held for two decades. Despite the tension and tragedy of the Great Depression era, he pressed on in pursuit of the civic good. Louis T. Moore single-mindedly promoted Wilmington’s industries and tourist attractions while others pessimistically were writing off both the city and their own prospects for improvement.

From 1941 until his death in 1961, he continued to research, promote, and protect the historical integrity and natural beauty of his hometown. Being a pioneer in some of his efforts, it took years before his work was recognized for its worth. Lack of praise never seemed to impede his efforts.

Moore got little credit for his creative work as well. Often published without a byline, his lengthy historical essays were quoted and sometimes reprinted in full without the slightest credit. His photos likewise, printed in newspapers and magazines nationwide carried no credit line. His name does not appear on the thousands of postcards that were made from his photographs. Mr. Moore was in part to blame for the anonymity. Eager to honor others, he usually gave credit away.

While willing to take a back seat as an individual, he could be brash in his efforts to focus attention on the city of Wilmington. Indeed, he parlayed his writing experience and knack for public relations into engaging the power of the press in his efforts to promote Wilmington and to preserve its natural beauty. While Louis T. Moore was executive secretary of the Chamber of Commerce not only did he contribute full-length articles and a steady stream of announcements to state magazines and newspapers, but he convinced Star News publisher Rye B. Page to become the Chamber’s president for several years in the 1930s. At times, Moore's public relations work extended beyond state borders. In 1929 and 1930, he secured weekly broadcasts over KDKA radio in Pittsburgh to promote Wilmington and the North Carolina highway system. His promoting of Wilmington led him to publish articles in national magazines ranging from Popular Mechanics to Better Homes and Gardens to Literary Digest. His advertising skills spotlighted Wilmington so brilliantly that area industries basked in the glow. Louis T. Moore was said to be the single strongest champion of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, the giant system that was headquartered in Wilmington at the time. Although local history and preservation were Mr. Moore’s chief preoccupations, he also worked diligently to increase revenue for the City of Wilmington. Acting unselfishly for the good of the Cape Fear area, he was a far sighted businessman who worked tirelessly to promote improvements that filled municipal coffers. He saw trade and tourism hampered by an antiquated ferry system, a port that was too shallow and lack of a maritime protected inland passage. He set about to create change, a process that took decades of oratory, writing and political wrangling. The City of Wilmington and County of New Hanover eventually profited beyond measure from the dreams Louis T. Moore helped turn into reality. Louis T. Moore was ahead of his time in the field of nature conservation. He used his talents as writer, speaker, and photographer to spotlight and preserve southeastern North Carolina's natural beauty. Though he cared about many aspects of Wilmington's natural environment, he was best known as a champion for tree preservation. Moore, whose nickname was "Bully," saw trees as community heirlooms and saved his harshest words to hurl at those who destroyed them mindlessly in the names of modernity and economic progress. He carried his fight to save Wilmington's historic live oak trees to state legislators in Raleigh, and appealed to arborists in New York City for help in his campaign. For the last fourteen years of his life, Mr. Moore served as head of the Historical Commission. He worked as hard as ever, until the very end: educating and promoting his hometown. He published a book entitled Stories Old and New of the Cape Fear Region, in 1956, and authored several brochures during his retirement. In 1960, he received the Charles A. Cannon Cup award from the North Carolina Society for the Preservation of Antiquities. Louis T. Moore died the following year, on November 30, 1961. Louis T. Moore’s work in the preservation field does live on in many ways, the most delightful being the 1000 panoramic photographs he took in the 1920s and 30s. Years after he left the Chamber of Commerce, he retrieved the pictures and donated them to the New Hanover County Public Library. His life and photographic work was celebrated posthumously with the release of Wilmington Through the Lens of Louis T. Moore, a 336-page book, published in 2001.

References

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