Insurance Building, Raleigh, N.C.
This week’s Flashback Friday postcard features Raleigh’s iconic art deco Durham Life Insurance Company office building, or as I always used to refer to it — “the Superman Building.”
Sept. 27 ’56
Hi
Having Plenty of rain so far. Expect to make Florida tomorrow.
See you in a couple weeks.
Love, Nettie & Carl
And yet another postcard sent to folks back home by northern travelers headed down the east coast ‘Route 66’ at the half-way point on their way to Florida.
Designed in the late art deco style by the renowned Winston-Salem architectural firm of Northrup and O’Brien, the Insurance Building was completed in 1942.
The Insurance Building consists of fifteen stories above Fayetteville Street sidewalk plus two additional stories for elevators and equipment and two and one-half stories below Favetteville Street sidewalk. The framework is constructed of concrete and steel, outside walls of granite and limestone, backed up with brick.
The Fayetteville St. landmark was Raleigh’s tallest skyscraper until 1964, when the International style BB&T Building, aka the ‘Little Seagram Building,’ (now Capital Bank Plaza) was erected across the street.
The postcard also shows the 1924 Hotel Sir Walter, now a city of Raleigh senior housing facility, and a tiny corner of the 1915 Wake County courthouse grounds showing the old newsstand and the county’s World War I memorial — both now long gone. I love the angle parking on Fayetteville St. and the huge neon sign and radio tower atop the Sir Walter!
Our postcard this week is an example of the ‘linen’ type, a popular format during the 1930s through the 1950s. It was published by the Raleigh News Agency, and printed by the E.C. Kropp Co. of Milwaulkee.
E. C. Kropp Co.  1907-1956
Milwaukee, WIA publisher and printer that began producing chromolithographic souvenir cards and private mailing cards in 1898 under the name Kropp. These cards were of much higher quality than those that would printed under the E.C. Kropp name.
They became the E.C. Kropp Company in 1907 and produced large numbers of national view-cards and other subjects. Their later linen cards had a noticeably fine grain. Sold to L.L. Cook in 1956, they are now part of the GAF Corp. U.S.
“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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05/11/2012
I am intrigued by the way the postcard was addressed. Just the name of the recipient, the town and state. No street number, street name or post code.
05/11/2012
Anyone know what offices are in this building now?
I forgot how this building reminds me of the Sun Trust Tower in Durham. Same number of floors, too.
05/12/2012
Still the best looking “skyscraper” in downtown.
05/14/2012
I was in that building on Thursday. There is a county library on the first floor, and much of the rest of the building is Wake County government offices. One occupant described the water as being “safe to drink, but crunchy”.
05/31/2012
Am I totally confused or was this the building where the late, great S & W cafeteria was located? IIRC, you entered the building, turned left and there was the S & W. I believe there was a second level…one floor down from street level. Seems like you could be on the entry level and see diners one floor below. There was also a sandwich shop–Honaker’s–in this building. Can’t remember if it had its own entry from the outside or if you had to first enter the Insurance Bldg.
05/31/2012
You got it raleighgirl — enter that fabulous art deco lobby, turn left and there you were! There may have been a mezzanine level. My family preferred going to Ballentines in Cameron Village, though, so I don’t remember a whole lot about S&W. Don’t remember Honaker’s at all.
06/01/2012
There are at least a couple of YouTube videos, which are actually audio from WPTF radio broadcasts, where there’s a some discussion about that building when it housed the WPTF studios, including an auditorium for live broadcasts of orchestras.
Here’s one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bmsNYB7B9o
06/01/2012
Thanks for the links, NCSU. Those were the days when radio personalities weren’t egomaniacs, were true gentlemen. And Peggy Mann was a Southern Lady such as they don’t make any more. Like many of my friends’ mothers, now passed.
06/01/2012
Raleigh Boy…in my earliest days of going to the downtown S&W, Balentine’s was not yet in Cameron Village. Balentine’s was still downtown on Fayetteville Street—it was on the same side of street as Belk’s, (I think) a little further up toward the Capitol. As for Honaker’s, I was in there maybe twice: when I was in grade 5-6, a friend and I would be dropped off at the NC Museum of Art (then on E. Morgan St.)to roam around in there for a couple hours on Saturday, then we’d walk down Fayetteville St. to get a snack and that’s when I recall being at Honaker’s, which I imagine had good business at lunch during the week. Can you see a parent dropping off 11 yr. old kids downtown now…I don’t think so! As for the downtown S&W, I don’t remember when it closed—perhaps when the S&W opened at Cameron Village? The CV S&W was located about where the Village Deli is located, eventually morphed into the K&W and moved to another location.