The Raleigh Skyline (ca. 1960)
Raleigh’s skyline has changed a great deal since this photo was taken 50 years ago. Although four of the buildings seen in this view were demolished years ago, six of them are still standing today.
Raleigh, North Carolina
(Downtown)
Skyline from Rhamkatte Road.
The postcard view of downtown is from “Rhamkatte Road,” which was for decades the primary vantage point for photographing Raleigh’s skyline, much as South Saunders St. is today.
Photo courtesy Hughes Photography
I wonder if any of our readers know where the ‘Rhamkatte Road’ vantage point is in 2011? Extra points if you can identify the ten most prominent buildings seen in the 1960 skyline.
This photochrome postcard was published by the Raleigh News Agency, and was printed by Tichnor Bros. of Boston.
Tichnor Brothers, Inc. (1912-1987)
160 N. Washington Street, Boston and Cambridge, MAA major publisher and printer of a wide variety of postcards types. Their view-cards were produced on a national level. They also produced a black & white series on the hurricane of 1938 in line block halftone.
Their photochomes went under the trade name Lusterchrome. They also produced an early Tichnor Gloss series in offset lithography that was so heavily retouched they floated somewhere between being artist drawn and being a photograph. The company was sold in 1987 to Paper Majic.
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS feed
Subscribe to posts by Email
Sign up for the Newsletter
07/22/2011
Lake Wheeler Road next to Dix Hill
07/22/2011
The only one I can say for sure is the Oddfellows building.
07/22/2011
…and the courthouse?
07/22/2011
I’ll give it a shot, from left to right:
The Carolina Hotel (gone)
The Professional Building
The Odd Fellows Building
The back of the Federal Post Office
The back of the Old County Courthouse (gone)
The Masonic Building (not sure if that’s the correct name – its the one with the Masonic Hall on the ground floor that had stories added to it)
The Insurance Building (think that’s the name – the one designed by the same architect that did the Empire State Building)
The Hotel Sir Walter
and of course
DAVIS AUTO SERVICE! :)
07/22/2011
Thus far — some hits — and some misses. I’ll reveal the building identities on Monday, so there’s still plenty of time for anybody to take a stab at it.
SJ — You are correct, sir!
07/22/2011
It looks like Gorman Street plowed right through Rhamkatte from Avent Ferry south beyond Tryon. I wonder how the name evolved from Ramcat to Rhamkatte, as this link suggests:
http://www.legeros.com/ralwake/photos/weblog/pivot/entry.php?id=2052
07/25/2011
Re: Raleigh Skyline (ca 1960) — Building IDs, for those who are interested (left to right):
Hotel Carolina is on the extreme left (demo’d 1980; Raleigh City Hall on site today)
Hotel Raleigh, the next building, with the turret, (demo’d 1978; N&O parking lot is on site today)
Odd Fellows Building (cor Salisbury + Hagrett)
Raleigh Building (cor Hargett + Fayetteville — it and the Odd Fellows are adjacent to each other, so in the photo it looks a single large structure.)
Capital Club Building (cor Salisbury + Martin)
Lawyers Building (aka the State Theater; Salisbury St; demo’d 2010; County Justice Center going up on site)
US Post Office building
Citizens National Bank (demo’d 1964; NCNB built on site; that building now occupied by First Citizens Bank on Fayetteville St)
Wake Co. Courthouse (demo’d in 1967; present courthouse on site)
Durham Life Insurance Building (aka the Superman Building; now an office annex to the courthouse)
Hotel Sir Walter (now a residence for senior citizens)
We have written about many of these buildings in several Goodnight Raleigh articles. You can also read about these and other downtown Raleigh buildings on this site — http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=worldmap_ci_bu_ob_li&id=101907&bt=22&ht=2&sro=1&lng=3
Note to NCSU — I don’t know why the Professional Building doesn’t appear in the photo. It may be hidden behind the turret of the Hotel Raleigh in the angle of this shot. Don’t know if Davis Auto is still there or not, but the surrounding neighborhood seen here was part of the notorious Raleigh slum known as ‘Southside.’ It was demo’d in the early 1970s, and the Heritage Park residential units on South St occupy the site today.
07/26/2011
Excellent. Thanks!
07/30/2011
Most of the ‘southside’ houses were “revitalized” into the housing project northwest of Western-MLK/South Saunders. But a few of the them houses survived on Jamaica Drive south of Western/MLK until the new building was built there a few years ago.
There are still a few houses from that north of South Street, ending at the somewhat hardened east edge of Boylan Heights.