Raleigh’s Own Castle
Remembering the Old Meredith Building
Located across Blount Street from the historic Richard B. Haywood house is a sprawling, 4-acre state government surface parking lot. I can tell you, though, one of Raleigh’s most exuberant and impressive 19th century structures once occupied this site. I am speaking of course, of the main building of the erstwhile Baptist Female University, now known as Meredith College. The four-story, many-gabled and turreted, solid brick Chatauesque, Queen Anne-styled building was designed by Raleigh’s enigmatic 19th century architect Adolphus Gustavus Bauer. After its completion in 1899, Meredith College occupied this site for the next quarter century. Over this time the College added 4-story Faircloth Hall, and annexed four adjacent residences to accommodate the growth of its student body. Even so, the 1899 main building itself continued to preside majestically over the 100 block of North Blount Street.
When Meredith relocated its campus to its current home on Hillsboro Street in 1926, the Blount St. building was sold and re-habbed as the Mansion Park Hotel. During the hotel’s 25 year occupancy the seven extant brick piers were erected at the driveway entrances. Following WWII the out-dated hotel fell out of favor with the travelling public and within five years it closed. In 1951 the state bought the property and used the aging behemoth as an office building until 1966. Sadly, it was demolished the following year.
I became enamored with the imposing brick edifice in the early 1960s when it was still being used as a state office building. By then the distinctive 2-story wrap-around porches had been stripped away, and the entire structure was covered in drab, state government white paint. Nontheless, the old Meredith Building still presented an awesome profile on North Blount Street. My family drove right by it every Sunday on our way to Christ Church, just a block away. After I entered junior high school at Hugh Morson, the city bus took me by there every day. It was about this time I began to refer to the old Meredith Building as “The Castle.”
During my years at Morson, a couple pals and I used to go downtown on Saturdays to explore and roam about — and I, of course, always had my trusty Kodak Instamatic camera in tow. My friends and I would go into and explore the grand homes that were being demolished on Blount St. at the time. My favorite exploration, though, was The Castle. We covered every inch of it from top to bottom. I vividly remember the long, wide hallways and the floor to ceiling windows. I also remember the place was totally trashed, as if the occupants had been forced to make a hasty departure. To me, the sight evoked the image of an elegant, WWII era European palace that had been ransacked by fleeing Nazis.
Nowadays, whenever I drive by that city block of asphalt, I think…why? Why did one of Raleigh’s most beguiling landmarks have to be so wantonly destroyed? In recent years I have located five photos of The Castle that I took prior to and during its demolition in 1967. Now I wish I had taken more.
And I still wonder to this day — what ever happened to all that brick!
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01/02/2009
Thank you thank you THANK YOU!
01/02/2009
You are welcome, man! Glad you enjoy my photos and reminiscences. Happy New Year!
01/04/2009
Thanks for posting these pictures. I’m so glad to finally see some pictures up close and personal of this gorgeous building close to the time it was demolished. I don’t think I knew that they painted the building white. Man, why paint a brick building. Anyways…great pictures. I’m new to your site, I run across the site about a week or so ago. I truly loving the photos and the stories you have shared.
01/04/2009
I’d say this ranks as the biggest tragedy that occured when the state went on its demolition spree in the 60s and 70s.
Raleigh Boy, thank you for the wonderful information and beautiful photos. What a shame this place is now gone!
01/04/2009
Jamie– Thanks for your kind words! I’m glad you are enjoying the site. There’s something here for everyone! I know, I have never understood the logic behind painting a brick building. Oh, that’s right– it was a state government idea!
John– Thanks for your comments…always welcome! And yes, the destruction of The Castle, along with most of North Blount, Halifax, and North Wilmington Streets was was indeed truly tragic.
01/09/2009
Finally got around to reading this post. So sad, so sad. It is truly awesome that you have some interior shots, Raleigh Boy. Great post.
01/09/2009
Thanks Ben! The interior of that building was truly awesome! I regret not taking more pics! But hey, I was only 14 or 15 at the time, so what’d I know!
12/03/2009
Here I am, almost a year after the initial post. I vaguely recall The Castle. I didn’t grow up in the neighborhood but did pass by it occasionally as my dad’s office was located in the American Legion Bldg. on New Bern Ave. during the last days of the some of the houses in the Blount St. area. Raleigh Boy, do you recall a long-gone structure known as the “Dortch Place”? Can’t recall exactly where it stood…surely the place is now a parking lot. It was a ramshackle place with a large front yard.
12/04/2009
Yes, I have a memory of the “Dortch Place.” Back in the early ’60s my Dad knew Mr. Dortch and his wife, and he took me there once when he visited them. The house was built about 1855 and sat in the center of the block bounded by Jones, Blount, Lane and Wilmington streets. Later houses were built along the Blount St. side in the early 1900s, but the rest of the block comprised the “yard” of the Dortch house. A black iron fence surrounded it along the Jones, Lane and Wilmington sides. A long gravel driveway led up to the house. I remember the wraparound porches which encircled it on three sides. Enormous oaks stood in the expansive yard. The house was torn down around 1962 and the archives and history building was built on that block in 1967. Today, you can still see two of the big oak trees behind the A&H building.
12/05/2009
Lucky you…getting to see the Dortch place up close and personal. Since I didn’t live in the neighborhood, I really couldn’t keep the street names straight—except for Blount St.; I had that one down pat. Thanks for giving me the location of the house; I knew it was somewhere near the Gov’s Mansion. I certainly recall the iron fence surrounding the property and remember wondering why that house had a yard so much larger than the remaining homes in the area. I’m surprised to learn that the house was still occupied in the early 1960′s. From what I could see of it from the street, it looked pretty run down. Every time we approached the block where it sat, my dad would say wistfully “There’s the old Dortch place….”. And then one day it was gone. I plan to go by that block tomorrow for old time’s sake.
08/19/2010
Do any of you have any more information on the Dortch house? This was my grandfather’s family’s house.
08/19/2010
Rebecca — One of the best sources I know of for info on historic Raleigh houses is “North Carolina’s Capital: Raleigh” by Elizabeth Culbertson Waugh. There is quite a bit of info on the Dortch house in there. Any local library should have a copy. If you have any specific questions about the house you’d like answered, then perhaps I can help, but Mrs. Waugh’s book would THE ultimate authority.
This link will take you to some photos and architectural drawings made of the Dortch house in the late 1950s. The originals are housed in NC State University’s Special Collections division of the DH Hill Library.
http://images.lib.ncsu.edu:8180/luna/servlet/view/search?q=IsPartOf=%22Built%20Heritage%20of%20North%20Carolina:%20Historic%20Architecture%20in%20the%20Old%20North%20State%22%20AND%20%20Subject=%22Dortch%20House%20%28Raleigh%2C%20N.C.%29%22%20LIMIT:SCDRLUNA-VC~102~3
08/20/2010
Thank you Raleigh Boy! My grandfather spent most of his childhood there with his aunt and uncle and I would like to learn more about it. They were likely the people your father knew, though I believe they were actually brother and sister, not married. I really appreciate your help!
04/20/2011
WHAT A GREAT SITE YOU HAVE HERE !! MY SISTER, WHO LIVES IN GARNER JUST INTRODUCED YOUR SITE TO ME AND I EMMEDIATELY SIGNED UP… I HAVE BEEN GONE FROM THE RALEIGH AREA SINCE 1954.. I AM NOW 83 YEARS OLD.. IN THE LATE 40′S I WORKED AT CAROLINA RIM AND WHEEL ON SOUTH BLOUNT, IN THE 50′S I WORKED FOR WILLIAM DANIELS AT “WILLIAM DANIELS CAMERA SHOP” IN HIS SIR WALTER PHOTO DEPARTMENT.. THEN MY WIFE GOT HOMESICK AND WE MOVED BACK TO MISSOURI… I STILL MISS NORTH CAROLINA AND RALEIGH !! I AM IN NORTH FLORIDA NOW….I VISITED RALEIGH NEXT IN 1996, HOW IT HAD CHANGED !! I WAS LAST IN RALEIGH IN 2001.. GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN… KEEP UP YOUR GREAT WORK !! I LOVE ALL YOUR STORIES AND PICTURES
05/19/2011
I wonder, do you have a link/website about the Caraleigh Textile Mills? My grandparents worked there in the early 1900s.
Thank you!
08/03/2011
Anne Sams, you can read about the history and significance of the Carleigh Mills from the National Register nomination form, here:
http://www.hpo.ncdcr.gov/nr/WA3891.pdf
In addition to the old Baptist Female/Meredith College/hotel/government building, the block at Edenton and Blount also was home to the old Faircloth Hall, which was razed around 1990.
If you go the the Wake County iMaps web mapping site [http://maps.raleighnc.gov/imapsraleigh/index.html] you can see the building on aerials as late as 1988. You can also see the curved driveways that entered the property between the brick piers — the driveways were only paved over in the last couple of years.
08/03/2011
Thanks for that link Andrew. Also, I was at the Meredith College-Mansion Park site last weekend taking pics of the state gov’t parking lot makeover going on there — another one of the brick piers had been taken out (there are now six left, and they are in pretty bad shape) — any evidence of the old driveways had been completely obliterated.
10/29/2011
I came to Raleigh in 1949 from Greenville, NC to attend Ferree School of Art on Martin St. I lived at Mrs. Lupton’s on Halifax St. My room was on the 3rd floor on the front of the house. She also served meals there. I think almost all the old big houses on that street were rooming houses. I was there for about 3 years.
Every morning, I walked to art school passing the old state capital, down Fayetteville St to Martin also passing Jean’s , Mc Joseph’s, California Cafe, Ambassador Theater, and Eckard’s. At Eckard’s you could order a cheese “toast tight”. Hummm…
I grew to love Raleigh and all the old buildings. I never left this town. (Now age 82) Thanks for this web site and all the memories! ( I found it about 2 weeks ago.)