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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(This is an opinion piece I submitted to New Raleigh as part of their discussion on whether or not the Municipal Building should be saved. Read their article for more viewpoints and discussion.)

In mid-March, the Raleigh City Council stalled on the resolution to replace the old Municipal Building with the new Clarence Lightner Public Safety Center. In the past few days, there has been a renewed push in exploring ways to overcome objecting Councillors’ concerns about the cost of the project.

The debates both for and against building the new Lightner Center had valid supporting arguments, but noticeably absent from the debate was the case for preserving the existing structure. That has changed in recent weeks, and I’m going to add my voice to the growing chorus of citizens calling for preservation rather than destruction.

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I’ve had very few experiences in which I’ve been overwhelmed with the physical beauty of a man-made landscape. Seeing the new building at the North Carolina Museum of Art was just that, and then some.

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