The Fidelity Bank building on the corner of Smallwood Drive and Oberlin Road in Cameron Village is one of the first buildings I remember noticing not long after arriving in Raleigh five years ago. The tall Ionic columns of the second level of the bank support a festooned entablature that serves no purpose, except as decoration for an idle space. These ornate columns convey a sense of elegance, yet at the same time contribute to a stark contrast with the functional and understated 50s and 60s era modernist architecture around it. My first (perhaps naive) assumption was that it was an outdoor picnic area for employees of the bank. But as far as I’m aware, there’s nothing but poured flat concrete on the upper level, and no one ever goes up there.

image I took in 2005

The bird in the image above is probably one of the few creatures that get any use of the architectural embelishments of this building. At first, I was fascinated by the fact that a bank built somewhat recently would so boldly harken back to the neoclassical style used in many government buildings and stately private residences. Over time, however, my fondness has waned if for no other reason than the decoration is just visual bling.
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Regardless of your religious beliefs, you probably know that our city is home to many beautiful churches. These range from the historic gothic revival Christ Church (1853) on Capitol Square to the textbook modernist sanctuary of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (1959) on Clark Ave. And there’s everything else in between.

But one thing you probably don’t know is that Raleigh is also home to the smallest Roman Catholic Cathedral in the (48 contiguous) United States. Sacred Heart Cathedral is situated downtown on Hillsboro St. at the corner of McDowell. The irony is that its status was never intended to be.

There had been an organized Catholic presence in Raleigh since the 1820s, and a visiting priest ministered to the city’s tiny congregation until 1839. Sometime prior to 1860, a small, former Baptist church building on Capitol Square was secured for services.

Raleigh’s Catholic population grew following the Civil War, and the inadequate space and poor condition of the building soon became an issue. For a time in the 1870s Mass was held in a meeting hall in the Briggs Hardware building on Fayetteville St.

Then, in 1879, Fr. James White purchased the former Brian Grimes homeplace (aka the Pulaski Cowper mansion) on Hillsboro St., and the parish of Sacred Heart Church was established. He expanded the mansion so that it could be better utilized as both as a church and rectory.

Long-time pastor Fr. Griffin is buried on the grounds of the Cathedral. His gravesite is shown above.

In 1899 Fr. Thomas Griffin was appointed pastor, a position he held for 31 years. During his tenure a parochial school was established in 1909, and the church campus was later expanded with the addition of a rectory and convent. In 1922 the cornerstone of Sacred Heart Church was laid, and the French Gothic Revival stone building was dedicated in October of 1924.

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Downtown Raleigh’s Montague Building offers a commanding presence over E. Hargett St. at Moore Square. Faced in buff-yellow pressed brick, the palazzo-like building is the most prominent in the 100 block, and in recent years has become a symbol of the renaissance of Hargett St. This substantial three-story masonry structure was built in 1912 by Raleigh attorney B.F. Montague.

Soon after its construction Montague rented the building to the US government as temporary space for Raleigh’s post office while the Fayetteville St. building was being enlarged and renovated. After the post office moved out three years later, only a few storefronts were subsequently rented out. Although Montague’s own law firm, Montague and Bonner, continued to occupy offices on the 2^nd floor, the building remained largely vacant thereafter.

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