The first amenity at The Landings was a view.

I had my first campout at the Marsh Tower when I was 13. I spent countless hours up there after that, doing all sorts of fun things. So this one is personal.

On October 22, The Landings Association announced that the Marsh Tower will remain permanently closed. Portions of the structure have shifted, a platform bolt failed after continued wind and water impacts, and the estimated cost to make it safe exceeds $150,000. The engineer who reviewed it agrees it has exceeded its useful life. Public Works is securing the site with fencing and signage. Safety comes first, and I understand why.

Before we say goodbye, the tower deserves its due. It has a better story than most people know.

The tower that sold The Landings

Richard Burke, a former president of The Branigar Organization, the company that developed The Landings, wrote a series of “Golden Nuggets” for The Landings’ 50th anniversary. In one, he tells how the tower came to be.

Other than bulldozing a road to get there, he writes, the Marsh Tower was among the first things Branigar built in 1972, when The Landings opened for sales. Romerly Marsh was the only amenity actually in place to show buyers.

Picture that. Today a buyer sees homes, clubhouses, golf courses, marinas and a Village Center. In the early 1970s, buyers stood in a dense, empty forest, and it was up to the sales agent to paint a picture of the future strong enough to earn a commitment. The top of the tower, with the marsh and river spread out below, was what Burke calls “an ideal ‘pitch point’ to spin this story.”

A marsh, not a swamp

There was a second reason, and it still makes me smile. Many early buyers came from the Northeast and the Midwest, and part of the pitch was teaching them the difference between a saltwater marsh and a forest swamp. As Burke puts it, “Few, if any, buyers wanted to live on a swamp!”

So what is the difference? A swamp is mostly forested. A marsh has few if any trees; it is grasses and other soft-stemmed plants growing in rich, waterlogged soil. And a tidal marsh like Romerly is flushed by the ocean twice a day, while a swamp like the Okefenokee holds still, dark “blackwater.”

More than a pretty view

Burke ends his nugget with the part I love most. Tidal salt marshes are not just beautiful. He notes they are the breeding ground for 75 percent of fishery species, such as shrimp, clams, oysters and crabs. They protect against shoreline erosion, soften storm waves and flooding, and even reduce greenhouse gases.

The view that sold the first lots is also working hard for every one of us, every single day.

Where neighbors gathered

The tower was a gathering place from the very beginning. Bill and Peggy Foster, The Landings’ longest residents, remembered for the Association’s 50th anniversary that covered-dish suppers were held at the Marsh Tower in the early days.

From the platform in Marshwood, you could take in Romerly Marsh, Wassaw Island, the Wilmington River and the Atlantic Ocean. Generations of us climbed those stairs for sunsets and campouts.

My two cents

Every amenity at The Landings came after this one. The Marsh Tower is a treasure, and losing it will be a real loss. I will miss it, and I hope we can find a way to save our very first amenity.

Do you have a Marsh Tower memory? A campout, a sunset, your first look at the marsh? I would love to hear it.

My thanks to Richard Burke for his Golden Nuggets. I will be sharing more of them down the road.

Questions people ask

Sources