The struggle centered around essential requirements: cemeteries, fire companies, sanitation, housing and health care.

In colonial times, people were buried in a town cemetery near Fourth and Market Streets, and in the St. James Church Cemetery.  After 1840 there was such growth that it was no longer desirable to bury the dead in the city and numerous cemeteries were established in various parts of the growing city.

Often the buried were relocated to new cemeteries as land use patterns changed.  Cemeteries included the ones at Campbell Square, Pine Forest, the National Cemetery and Oak Grove Cemetery.

A description in the 1917 Star put it this way: 'Old and tattered toys...a rusty bugle...a shaving mug...brush...scissors...a worn truss...a broken rapier.  There is no grandeur.  It is simply the resting place of those who have fallen in the battle of life.'

Volunteer fire departments provided most of the protection from the devastating fires that ravaged cities in the 19th century.  Wilmington had its share of fires, which usually began on board a vessel in the harbor or on the docks.  The large amounts of lumber and barrels of tar, pitch and turpentine were quick to catch fire.

Institutions of many kinds were set up to begin to take care of other community needs, too.  Old Folks Homes and housing projects were begun, and health and sanitation projects, too.

A drive for a black-owned hospital began in 1920, and in 1921 about four thousand people attended the cornerstone ceremony of the new Community Hospital.  By 1929 it was out of space and the New Community Hospital cornerstone laid in 1939.

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