Johnnie Mercers Fishing Pier
by Paulette B Wright
Title
Johnnie Mercers Fishing Pier
Artist
Paulette B Wright
Medium
Photograph - Digital Fine Art Photograph
Description
Johnnie Mercer was the long-time proprietor of the fishing pier at Wrightsville Beach that bears his name.
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The original pier was built in the 1930s by Julian Morton, the father of Hugh Morton, who went on to become owner of Grandfather Mountain.
Morton sold the pier to developer Luther Rogers, who sold it to Mercer in 1939.
In a 2002 story in the Wilmington StarNews, a longtime employee of the pier, Annie Bryant Peterson, recalled Mercer working night and day at the pier and the stories swapped on chilly days by fishermen gathered around a wood-burning stove in the pier house.
She also remembered a fire at one of the pier houses and seeing Mercer�s wife, who was pregnant at the time, escape the blaze.
Mercer died in 1964 when his car veered into the opposite lane on Eastwood Road and collided head-on with another car. The wreck also killed a young woman who was a student at Wilmington College (now UNCW).
In 1969, Bob Johnson bought the pier from Mercer�s widow. He kept the name Johnnie Mercer�s Pier. Johnson�s son, Matt, runs the pier now.
Uploaded
December 10th, 2013
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