The decoration of the Governor’s Executive Mansion is completed each year in time for the Holiday Open House Tours (Dec 11-14). Unfortunately for most North Carolina residents, the tours were limited to the daylight hours and getting a glimpse of the decorations at night once lit are are limited to peering through the brick walls and cast iron fencing that surround the grounds. For a 1967 view before the fence went up, check out The Blount Street Saga in the Reminiscences of a Raleigh Boy series.

Dolly Sickles of WRAL provides some interesting facts of the Executive Mansion decorations in her blog entry:

Musical groups from across the state will provide festive music during the public tours this week, when more than 12,000 people will tour the mansion. The trees and wreaths are from Barr Evergreens in Crumpler, Sturgill Tree Farms in West Jefferson, and Bluff Mountain Nursery in Hot Springs. The poinsettias are from Homewood Nursery in Raleigh. All other greenery is from the Executive Mansion grounds. Each year, it takes approximately 15 volunteers four days to decorate the Executive Mansion for Christmas.

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My vote goes to the United House of Prayer

I don’t attend or belong to a church and I haven’t seen all of the ones in Raleigh–but I’ve admired this structure on more than one occasion and thought it was beautiful. It is home to the United House of Prayer denomination, and is located on 409 East South Street, near Shaw University.

The Pastor, Apostle T. Baptist (above) was kind enough to show me around and give me a history lesson of the church. The United House of Prayer was founded by Charles Manuel Grace in West Wareham, Massachusetts. The first structure was built in 1919 at a cost of 39 dollars. Today, there are 138 congregations in 38 cities.
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The “Adventures of Superman” television program was a favorite of mine when it was released in syndication in the early 1960s. Who could forget that stirring opening narration: “Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound! …Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!” Well, it left an indelible impression on me, anyway.

For the show’s first season or two, the landmark Art Deco E.M. Wilson Building (1930) in Los Angeles was used to represent the Daily Planet Building.

The E.M. Wilson Building in Los Angeles — aka The Daily Planet

Young as I was, the image of The Daily Planet on our black and white TV reminded me of the Durham Life Insurance Building in downtown Raleigh. As a kid, I nicknamed a number of downtown landmarks which I imagined a certain kinship with. Thus, the (now gone) Meredith/Mansion Park building on Blount St. became “The Castle,” the former BB&T Bank on the corner of Fayetteville and Davie Streets became “The Little Seagram Building,” and across the street the Art Deco Durham Life Building became the “Superman Building.”

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