Gone will be the Ferris wheel, the bumper boats and the signs advertising Fun N Wheels. Replacing them will be a trio of high-rise, top-dollar condominium buildings and, perhaps, a new identity for this 68-year-old oceanside community.

What's left of the Circle, the social center of town for nearly all its existence, will begin to disappear when auctioneer Dan "Abe" Morton starts his chant. On behalf of Wilson developer Fred Bunn, he'll sell off everything from the cash register to the NASCAR-themed go-karts to the Ferris wheel itself. He thinks any of the 16 bright red seats would make a fine porch swing.

The change has some in town worried. They remember Atlantic Beach as the place for working families to find brief escapes from tobacco towns such as Wilson, Rocky Mount and Kinston. Atlantic Beach still has a reputation as one of the most publicly accessible places on the coast.

"What we were 30, 40 years ago has drastically changed," said Lee Smith, the town’s planning director. "People realize we formed as a resort community, and we want to stay a resort community."

That, he said, means redevelopment.

Mr. Bunn, 57, spent his childhood coming to his parents beach house here. He recently built Sea Dreams, a 30-home development of narrow, candy-colored houses with balconies and luxury cars in the driveways.

Mr. Bunn said he wants to build something at the Circle that will help Atlantic Beach recapture its past. He wants to build a gathering place called the Grove.

"What we're trying to do down here is extremely important," he said. "The real goal is for anybody to come to the beach and just enjoy it, to have a good time."

For decades, it was the Circle that drew people into the center of Atlantic Beach. There were dance clubs and amusements for families and young couples.

Mr. Morton, the auctioneer, grew up in Morehead City and took a job working the bumper cars when he was 12.

Officials say the Circle went downhill in the late 1970s and '80s, when it was ringed by bars pumping out music that could be heard half a mile away. Town Manager Chuck Cooper would bring his children to the amusements during the day, then skedaddle by nightfall.

"You didn't let kids go there at night," Mr. Cooper said. "It was a rough crowd.”

"The glory days are over for the Circle, I'm afraid," said Jim Willis, who wrote the town's official history for its Web site.

Still, like many who grew up in Atlantic Beach, he worries about its future.