It appears Raleigh soon will be losing yet another of its historic commercial buildings. I am speaking of the former Bing Lee Chinese Hand Laundry, located at the corner of West and Jones Streets, across from the 42nd Street Oyster Bar. The 2-story brick structure has stood on that corner at least since the early 1930s.

The structure is a typical small-scale industrial building of its era. Oversized, industrial glazed windows originally allowed natural light to stream into the interior space. At some point, though, these were bricked up, and replaced with the present-day scaled-down versions. Its solid red brick walls have been painted over many times through the years. A rampart of red terra cotta tile delineates the second floor roofline, in what looks to be a nod to modest Mission style ornamentation.

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The Palmour residence on Mayview Road was constructed in 1953. Designed by Jim Milam, a graduate of the NCSU COD, this is one of only two modernist houses to his credit. Read more at TMH.

Above is the Heck-Lee House in 1972. Below is a view taken last night.

Back in 1971-72 or so, before Oakwood became “Historic” Oakwood, I would often ride my bicycle through the neighborhood (with my Kodak Instamatic, of course) and take snapshots of the faded Victorian houses lining the streets. I remember being intrigued by three near-identical, flamboyantly-towered structures that comprised a corner of E. Jones and N. East Streets. They appeared to me as miniature versions of the opulent Heck-Andrews mansion on N. Blount St. Hmm, I wondered, could there be a connection?

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