Raleigh, NC City Of Oaks
Although we’re stepping back in time this week for Flashback Friday, we aren’t traveling too far. The above view show the center city in the early 1980s.
The tall white 1977 Archdale Building in the upper right is one of the newest buildings in the photo. You can also see part of the old Civic Center in the lower left, which was torn down to make way for the new Convention Center.
 Feb 4, 1983
Hi–
We’ve gotten this far and will be going to Florida in about a week. Weather pretty good here but a little rain today — at least it’s not snow!!
Hope you’re both well.
Love, Elaine (?)
I’m assuming the sender of this card was addressing friends or family from her same hometown while en route to a vacation destination. Raleigh is the halfway mark from Brunswick, Maine to south Florida.
Known as the “City of Oaks,” Raleigh, N.C. is not only the capitol [sic] of the state but also a leading center of commerce in the southeast. Raleigh offers shiny new buildings and culture, as well as beautiful tree lined streets.
Although the postcard was dated 1983, It could have been taken any time after 1977. Earlier this year we published an article on a similar undated postcard. That postcard and this one were taken at about the same time, but Downtown Raleigh looks significantly less green in this one.
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11/25/2011
I also see a grand and beautiful building on this postcard where the Wells Fargo/Wachovia building now stands. I can think of several downtown structures that I wish had been torn down before this one. :-(
11/27/2011
I believe that you have misread the postmark, which is actually 1988. There are several buildings on this postcard that are newer than Archdale. Notably, One Hannover Square and Hillsborough Place are both under construction. One Hannover looks to be almost complete, and Hillsborough Place is just a steel shell. That should give us a reasonably precise date of when this was taken, and I think you will find it to be substantially after 1977 (after 1983 even.) To make a guess, I think the photo was actually taken sometime in the late spring or summer of 1985.
11/27/2011
Another useful indicator for dating the photograph is that Moore Square Station and its parking deck have not even begun construction yet. That was completed in 1986, though I don’t know the precise date that construction began.
11/27/2011
@Stephen, as best as I can determine, where the Wells Fargo building now stands appears to contain an one or two story structure on this postcard. is this the building you’re referring to? Granted, I came to Raleigh in 1998 when that building was already long gone.
The biggest loss on this postcard that I’m aware of–though, again, gone long before I ever came here–would be the former Commercial National Bank building, at the corner of Martin and Wilmington, destroyed in 1991 to make way for a building that was never built. The site remained a parking lot until the RBC Plaza was built a few years ago.
11/30/2011
Without bricks, there would be no Raleigh ….
10/01/2013
I am pretty sure One Hannover broke ground in 1986 which would work with the almost completed construction in 1988.
10/01/2013
Er…or maybe I meant broke ground in 84 and finished in ’86 which would agree with orulz. (Hi Orulz its Jones)