I recently stumbled upon an interesting bit of trivia in an old Wake County Schools publication. It was noted that Raleigh is home to the world’s smallest naval base, located on the grounds of the Josephus Daniels House. Daniels is one of Raleigh’s most notable historical figures: Secretary of the Navy, ambassador to Mexico, and editor of the News & Observer (as well as various smalltown newspapers).

When Daniels moved into his Hayes-Barton home at the end of his appointment as Secretary of the Navy, he wished to have a naval gun mounted on his front lawn. The article stated that the only way this could happen was for the small patch of earth around the gun to be declared an official Navy base.

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The spot on the corner of Person and Edenton Streets was once home to Biscuit Station, a mom and pop greasy spoon restaurant that had been around for about 20 years. It closed last October, and the former service station has sat vacant since.

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Side Street Cafe in Oakwood

The painted advertisement on the side of a building is a rapidly fading artifact of urban life, much in the same way that entryway mosaic is a disappearing commercial art form. There seem to be fewer remaining examples in Raleigh than in other similarly-sized cities, probably due to the historical propensity to demolish rather than renovate and recycle the buildings in the city’s core.

[skip to the 6/14 update]

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