1301 Hillsborough Street
1301 Hillsborough Street is quite the anomoly. I’ve driven by this place several times and wondered if people lived in the house. It reminds me of the house from “Fight Club”. In fact, I’ve often confided in friends that I’d love to live in it.
What is particularly interesting about this house is the fact that it is subjoined to the storefront that is on Hillsborough Street. The storefront is currently The Jackpot, an indie club with a nondescript façade. It is located near The old Staudt Bakery, and like that old building, it is mostly hidden while in plain sight. This may have helped it escape the demolition spree of the mid to late 60’s.
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06/25/2008
1301/1303 Hillsborough is the old Bourbon St. Bar. The house address is 2 Ashe Ave. It used to be a rooming house in the 1990’s.
According to county records both buildings have been owned by Harry Kledaras since the mid 1950’s.
06/25/2008
Several years ago the house was a communal artist studio. I don’t know if that is still the case.
06/25/2008
anonymous – it is unfortunately not evident in any of the photos in the post, but thre are still signs indicating that it is an artist’s studio on the ashe ave side with the busted gate.
planetbarfly.com – nice info about the bar’s former past. I see your point about the house and the club being two separate buildings (and having two different addresses), but they are connected.
06/25/2008
I don’t know much about this house at 1301 Hillsboro St, but it has always intrigued me. It has looked virtually the same for the last 40+ years! Here is what I do know: It was built in 1900 when Hillsboro was still a fashionable residential street. There used to be 2 houses next door, one is now a parking lot and the other is where IHOP is. The parking lot house was a “head shop” –painted a bright yellow and purple!–for a few years before it was demolished in the mid ’70s.
The storefront to 1301 was added about 1950, when Hillsboro St. started going commercial. In the late ’60s and early ’70s there was a topless joint there called the Brite Spot. They had a big neon sign out front; as I recall it was one of those flashing types and had a big red ball that flashed red. It was pretty gaudy, but would be tres chic retro today. The Brite Spot closed in the late ’70s or so when the city began a crackdown of such places. A string of dive bars followed, and there is one there now.
As far as I know the house itself has been vacant for years, although it apparently had been split up into apartments at some point. I snuck in there a good many years ago and explored. It still had all its original woodwork and fixtures; apparently it had been quite elegant @ one time. Anyway, probably seven or eight years ago a group of artists’ studios occupied the house as “The Green House.” Seems like that didn’t last long, but the sign is still there @ the Ashe Av entrance.
Who knows what is going to happen to it now, as it doesn’t appear to be in very good shape. I looked up some info @ the Wake Co register of deeds website and found that a Greek family by the name of Kledaras acquired the property in 1944, and apparently the storefront was added not long after. The property is still owned by them.
Great shot BTW>> the red and white streaks from passing traffic are cool, reminiscent of the neon sign that used to be out front!
06/25/2008
I’ve heard that some of the work behind The Raleigh Hatchet is done in that house. I know one of the bartenders at the Jackpot also runs the Hatchet.
07/03/2008
I know Harry Kledaras but didn’t know he owned this property. The next time I see him, I’ll ask him about it.
08/10/2008
I have been wondering about this house since I first saw it when I moved here two years ago. It looks like it was probably very impressive at one time. I have been dying to see the inside of it, but I also can’t tell whether it is occupied. I think this property could be something amazing and unique if someone wanted it to be. I love the picture showing the lit round window in the front gable.
08/13/2008
the green house is in really awful shape. as recently as a few months ago, I remember seeing big holes in the roof through the 2nd story windows. the house is probably rotting from the inside out, and I doubt it makes any economic sense to save it (unfortunately). it will probably be demolished and replaced in a few years or so.
01/14/2009
I live directly across the street from the house and see it from my window. and still dont know what that hell goes on there. I’ve heard bands playing in there once and awhile and see the lights on as well. but it beats me.. I’m so curious to go inside, but am a lil nervous.
05/04/2009
I don’t know much about what people have been sayin’ ’bout that old, green house. But what I do know is a far more chilling tale. Twas fifty years ago today, on a night much like this one. The icy winds of a desolate Raleigh winter dragged their claws across the face of that old green house. Of course back then it was a house for Mr. Hutchinson, payed for with old money for his new family. But there was evil bubbling over in his study that evening. See; he had always suspected that his wife had bore a child not by him, but by Jasper, their Barbados servant boy. The thought tugged at the corners of his sanity until one night his entire psyche completely unraveled! He grabbed the hatchet from the woodshed out back and charged into the old green house! He found his wife first, and his hatchet entered her as violently as Jasper had! He then found Jasper and chopped him lengthwise in twain! He looked into his son’s eyes and realizing he could not bring himself to murder once more, he chopped his own head off! They say, on nights like this one, you can still hear Mr. Hutchinson moaning: Jasper! Jasper! Or so the story goes…
05/04/2009
They say you can sometmes hear Mrs. Hutchinson moaning the same thing.