I’d like to take a moment to say thank you to ‘Raleigh Boy’ who has filled in many of the gaps of the history section of the site as well as other posts about lesser known parts of the city. For a good read, check out the Raleigh Connoisseur’s post about the old Meredith College. I’ve wondered about that particular “set of stairways to nowhere” for a long time now.
The point of mentioning Raleigh Boy is that he provided great insight to another longstanding curiosity of mine–the history of the building at the Hillsborough St/Morgan St split:
The building at Hillsboro/Morgan is the old Staudt Bakery. The Staudts began operating a bakery in Raleigh in the 1910s. This building was put up ca. 1940 and was very “modern” for its time. (It’s been vacant for decades.) The Staudt family home, a substantial brick house, stood up on the corner @ Hillsboro St. where a small parking lot is now. It was demolished in the late 1970s when when Morgan St was converted to one-way and the traffic connector put in, usurping the old Harrison Ave., which once occupied this route. You can still see a small section of Harrison Ave. down by the tracks at Charlie Goodnight’s building (which was originally built as an ice plant and icecream factory)
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This topic has come up several times at work between people on my team, so I thought I should finally create a post about it.
Beer enthusiasts far and wide know of Peace Street Market. I don’t know of another shopping outlet in the area that has the diverse array of beers that they have. The 6-12 in the Mission Valley Plaza comes close, but a couple of years ago I got burned by getting stale beer. Could have been bad luck, but Peace Street is closer. It is now where I go to get something out of the ordinary. It received an A- from Beer Advocate too. Check it out sometime if you’ve never been. The phrase on the sign has been unchanged for as long as I can remember:
BIG ENOUGH TO TO SERVE U - SMALL ENOUGH TO KNOW U
804 W Peace St
Raleigh, NC 27605
(919) 834-7070
Get directions
David McKnight has been playing beautiful music on Hillsborough Street for a long time. Many street performers are somewhat transient in nature with regard to where they play, but David isn’t. He is always near the stairs to Mitch’s Tavern.
Dana over at gogoraleigh suggested that the “no hands king” should get a statue dedicated to him, or at least agreed with the idea. While I don’t disagree with the awesomeness of the no hands king, I think that David is slightly more deserving of such an honor. He has exposed college kids to music they would otherwise never hear, in addition to adding an element of class and sophistication to an area that is usually devoid of it. I’ve been wanting to get a photo of him for some time, but the spring semester Hillsborough Hike presented the first opportunity for me to do so. He’s almost out exlusively during the day.
This was David’s tenth Spring Hillsborough Hike performance. For the past 10 years he has graced passersby with his playing. He plays lunch sets at Global Village on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Pictured above are Kaci Torres and Katie Magee while performing during the Hillsborough Hike on Friday night. Just recently they were featured in the News & Observer. They are a part of Streelight Productions, which is a group of street performers that aim to
Cultivate public space to promote the arts, strengthen community, and enrich downtown business
For more Hillsborough Hike photos, check out the ones from last Halloween.
UPDATE: Kaci was also featured on this blog back in October in the Sadlack’s Heroes post.
It was in business at least as late as the fall of last year. Like many of the other clothing outlets on Wilmington Street, this one has gone out of business.
Isaac’s Menswear is still selling stylish clothing, however.
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The image above was taken by me in May of last year as I was peering in to one of the windows on the right side of the wall, as shown below:
This is the perspective opposite the one in Walking By An Alley posted not too long ago.
