From Treasure to Trash: The Demolition of the Wake County Courthouse

When I was a teenager back in the mid-1960s, Raleigh was fast losing all too many of its architecturally significant buildings to the wrecker’s ball. These included most of the grand Victorian homes on Blount Street, the magnificently turreted Chateauesque style Mansion Park Hotel, (which I referred to then as The Castle), the Jacobethan style Hugh Morson High School, Sullivanesque Wachovia Bank building, Italian Renaissance Olivia Raney Library and Wake County’s Beaux Arts courthouse. Downtown Raleigh back then was a veritable treasure trove of late 19th and early 20th century American architecture.

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I love Raleigh’s Roast Grill. This little (and I mean little!) hot dog counter occupies a cubbyhole on the ground floor of an old house on S. West Street. An old-fashioned “Hot Weiners” Coca Cola sign hanging over the neon Roast Grill sign in the window beckons to hungry passersby.

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The Prince Hall Masonic Lodge

The photo above shows how the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge appeared in 1971. Below is how it appeared a few nights ago.

A recent post on this blog (Looking Due East From Above) captured a view of four structures that are now relics of Raleigh’s historic African American community. Among them* is the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge.
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