Faircloth Hall, Baptist University for Women
This week for Flashback Friday we feature this beautifully tinted postcard of Faircloth Hall. The dormitory was built on the old Meredith College campus on Blount St. in 1909. Faircloth Hall was brand new when this postcard was mailed in 1910.
Usually on Flashback Friday we’ll transcribe the message on the back for our readers, but I gotta tell ya — although I’m pretty good at deciphering antique handwriting, that of the sender of this card, ‘Sister,’ has me flummoxed! About all I can read is the address it was sent to, the address it was sent from, and the stamped date. Perhaps our Goodnight Raleigh handwriting experts can help out?
The face of the card shows the home of R. Stanhope Pullen next door to Faircloth Hall. Pullen was a benefactor of Meredith College and was the Raleigh philanthropist who donated the land for Pullen Park and NC State University. The Pullen home later became a college dormitory. By the 1940s it was being rented out as an apartment house. The building was demolished way before my time.
Faircloth Hall was converted into a hotel after Meredith College relocated from the site in 1925. Sometime in the early ’60s the top two floors were removed and the building received a modernist-styled makeover and became the ‘Heart of Raleigh Motel.’ For many years after the original Meredith building was demolished in 1967, the defunct motel served as a storage facility for the state of North Carolina . Ultimately, what was left of Faircloth Hall, the last remaining part of the old Meredith campus, was demolished about 1990.
This week’s postcard was published by the well-known Hugh C. Leighton Co in 1909.
The Hugh C. Leighton Co. 1906-1909
Portland, ME
A printer and major publisher of national view-cards, especially scenes of New England. They printed most of their cards in four distinct styles usually employing tinted halftones. Most of their cards had a subdued but recognizable pallet. While some cards were printed at their plant in the U.S. most were manufactured in Frankfort, Germany. Almost all their cards were numbered. They merged with Valentine & Sons in 1909.
“Flashback Friday” is a weekly feature of Goodnight, Raleigh! in which we showcase vintage postcards depicting our historic capital city. We hope you enjoy this week-end treat!
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09/30/2011
Let me take a crack at deciphering the handwriting, since mine is usually far from legible….
Dear Buddie(?)!
You’re letter(?) was here when we got here last night. Be sure and let us know how things work(?) out. Have just written Maura and told her all about our trip to the famous school. It (scribbles) has (scribbles) cold here. I feel like winter clothes. Tell us all (scribbles) sister.
Maybe someone else can decipher the remaining scribbles!
09/30/2011
It certainly has turned cold here.
Lovingly sister
09/30/2011
Maybe “have just written Mama”
Lovingly, Sister
10/01/2011
Oh darn and I thought I was the only one curious enough :) I concur with the others, thanks to those who found “certainly” and “lovingly”. I thought the name was “Maria” but the other two make sense as well. I recently transcribed an 1866-67 diary written by a superintendent of schools for the Freedman’s Bureau in Lynchburg who used not only an older vocabulary, but that of a scholar as well, abbreviations and real script handwriting. It was a joy to transcribe due to the historical events/people he wrote about in detail but also had me pulling out the dictionary! I am also a postcard collector so I really enjoy Fridays postcard!
10/01/2011
Btw, 222 W. Hargett Street, Raleigh is now a municipal building, so wherever the writer was (house, hotel) its changed since 1910!
10/02/2011
I took a stab at deciphering before I read the comments, I knew someone would beat me to it!
Thanks for the Friday postcards, I really enjoy this feature!
10/02/2011
Looking at the 1910 Raleigh City Directory, 222 West Hargett St is the residence of Mrs R G Banks. There is no indication if this is a boarding house.
http://www.archive.org/stream/raleighncdirecto09hill#page/64/mode/2up
The 13th Census of the United States for Raleigh Twp, Wake County, enumerated on 19 April 1910 lists the following persons at the address (sadly,I cannot decipher some of the names)
Turner, George A, head of household, age 65, married 35 yrs, occupation ??
Turner, Rosa E, wife, age 60, married 35 yrs, 7 of 7 children living
Turner, Mamie C, daughter, age 32, single, teacher
Turner, G H, son, age 29, single, merchant in grocery
Turner, Lillian?, daughter, age 19, single, stenographer
Banks, Rosa G, daughter, age 31, widowed, 2 of 2 children living, dressmaker
Banks, Eugenia, daughter, age 6
Banks, Garland, son, age 4
two boarders:
Lunpkin?, BS, age 35, single, seems to be a machinist with automobiles?
Burt?, DS, age 22, single, fireman on railroad
A certificate of death issued in Wake County is recorded for:
Rosa G Banks, born 07 Mar 1875, died 08 Dec 1928. She was living at 107 McDowell St, Raleigh at the time of her death. Her father was G A Turner, born Wake County, and her mother was Rosa Eugenia Maynard born Franklinton?. She was the widow of Garland G Banks. She was buried in Oakwood Cemetery
10/02/2011
I may have confused some readers. Eugenia Banks and Garland Banks were listed as granddaughter and grandson respectively, not daughter and son as I recorded above. That would define their relationship to the head of household, George A Turner, their grandfather.
Rosa Turner may have been named “Rosabelle”. She married Garland G Banks on 27 January 1903 in Wake County. He was from Johnston County and can be found, at age 20, living on Wilmington Street in Raleigh. I could not decipher his occupation.
10/03/2011
I love these! Keep them coming.
10/06/2011
To Pineview, NCSU, Glenn and Catherine — Thanks for deciphering last week’s postcard message. I was able to read only a couple words. ‘Sister’ had a most unusual handwriting!
To Raleigh Native — thanks for doing the research on 222 W Hargett. I’m impressed! I do know the house was occupied by a funeral home for many years in the 1950s. It was torn down in 1960 when the Municipal Building was erected.
To Keysunset, Gene and all who enjoy our Flashback Friday posts — Thanks! And thanks for reading Goodnight Raleigh!
10/06/2011
the 1926 edition of Hill’s City Directory listing for 222 W Hargett lists Mitchell Funeral Home. Their telephone number was 2206.
Coincidentally, the other two funeral homes listed in the Directory are also on Hargett St.
10/07/2011
RaleighNative51 wrote:
“Their telephone number was 2206.”
I remember growing up in Raleigh and folks would tell you their telephone number by saying, “My number is Temple-4-2364.” (That was our number.) Taxi companies had their numbers on the sides of their cars: Temple-2-xxxx. I bet Raleigh Boy remembers that.
(My grandmother lived down in Angier and her number was “M-E-9-4721.”)
10/07/2011
That style of phone number predates me, and I’ve never understood how they work. Do you just tell a real live operator “Temple-4-2364″ or do you dial the numerals only or do you have to dial some or all of the “Temple” part or … ?
And if the “Temple” part does represent numbers, who decides whether the representative word is going to be “Temple” or a different word that could be spelled from the same dial sequence?
Thanks in advance for the tutorial!
10/08/2011
Growing up in Raleigh our phone number was Temple 39328. When you told someone your phone number you said Temple XXXXX or, we often shortened it and just said TE 39328. Everyone around here understood the shortened TE version and yes you did have to dial the TE part of the number which was 83. If I recall correctly, another local exchange was Vance and the number began with VA. The first two numbers you dialed when calling someone on the Vance exchange was 82. If you think about it, it was still a seven digit phone number just as it is today (minus the area code of course.)
10/08/2011
haha — yes NCSU, Dev Mead and Glenn — our family’s number was TE-4-8148. And I remember the VA exchange too. I remember when the phone company switched over to the single digits instead of the letters in the mid 1960s. That’s also about the time a postage stamp went up from five cents to six cents.
10/08/2011
Temple 2-9854. My parents made me memorize this when I was four in case I ever got lost.
10/08/2011
Our old phone number was Temple 22166. For many years we received wrong number calls for a Dr. Debnam at Temple 2166 and I can’t recall the last digit.
10/10/2011
The Vance prefix was probably for the 828- numbers.
If I remember correctly, if you had the same word prefix as someone else, all you had to do to call them was dial the last 5 digits of the number.
We had the Temple number until about 1969, when we moved. Then we got an 876- number and the word prefixes were a thing of the past. 876 was a brand new prefix back then and hardly anyone had it. My dad still has that same number.
I wonder what the longest held number in Raleigh is.
(Sorry if I’ve hijacked this thread.)
10/10/2011
So I guess the legendary “Pennsylvania 6-5000″ began with 73?
If your phone number started with 95 (WXYZ + JKL), what would the word prefix be? My childhood number began with 29, and I don’t remember any word prefix associated with that, either. But I do remember only having to dial the last four digits for everyone in my (very small) town.
10/12/2011
Can’t contribute much to the phone numbers, but I do remember that my grandparents’ number was Temple3-3263 and she had a two-party line. Ours was Temple something but I dont remember it. The first three digits of a phone number are the exchange designator and the exchange offices used to have a name. I’m not certain, but I believe the “Temple” exchange came from the Odd Fellows Temple building on Hargett Street. I have always wondered if the telephone office was originally located in this building. Ma Bell may have just chosen that name since the main telephone office (if it had been built by that time) was near the temple building. I have no idea how the Vance exchange originated but I do remember my mother’s sister having a VA8 number. We almost felt like it was a long distance number.