1301 Hillsborough Street is quite the anomoly. I’ve driven by this place several times and wondered if people lived in the house. As evident in the photos above, there are lights on in the place at night. It remains to be seen if it is actually occupied. There is a parking lot in the back with cars parked in it, but they could be there for other businesses.
What is particularly interesting about this house is the fact that it is subjoined to the storefront that is on Hillsborough Street. The storefront is currently The Jackpot, an indie club with a nondescript façade. It is located near The old Staudt Bakery, and like that old building, it is mostly hidden while in plain sight. This may have helped it escape the demolition spree of the mid to late 60’s.
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I absolutely love this painting. It’s on the side of a barbershop on the corner of Wilmington and Davie Streets. I know it has been repainted at least once in the past 4 years, as it was faded the first time I saw it. As noted in the bottom right corner, it was created by James Stacy Utley in 1994. It’s interesting to note that the skyline’s two tallest buildings are Progress I and the BB&T building.
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I passed by this thing on at least two occasions before I grasped the absurdity of the situation. This trendy Trek Mystic girls bicycle is currently attached via a bike lock to the bar near Bruegger’s Bagels on Hillsborough Street. It’s been there for weeks now. My first thought is that it’s the work of a humorous prankster, but you have to sit back and wonder who is going to pay top dollar ($140) for a bike to use as a joke? If you follow the link above, you’ll notice this bike comes from the factory with steamers and a white plastic basket. Other than these two missing items, this bike is in brand new condition.
Do you have any guesses as to who put it there or why?
This is Idlewild Avenue. It connects to Edenton and is definitely an older part of the city. If you aren’t familiar with it, I should warn you that people may want to talk to you if you drive down it. It looks normal and average enough in the photos, but you may encounter someone waving their arms and walking towards your car. It isn’t a certainty, but has been frequent in my experience.
Many of the surrounding neigborhoods have undergone restoration or gentrification or whatever you want to call it. Neighborhoods one block away are peaceful and calm. In fact, I have friends that live very near this road. It’s how I came to learn of it. Although I warned you of people approaching your car while driving down it, I must say that I didn’t feel in any danger while taking these photos. I wasn’t alone, but everyone that walked by was friendly and naturally curious as to why I was taking photos. The recent Raleigh news about Idlewild was of a house that burnt down very recently. I can’t find any more than what was on the nbc17 web site, which wasn’t much at all. It was a large abandoned house:
And it’s kind of eerie that now it’s a burnt out shell. The wrecking ball is the only future for this giant old house. I have plans to take photos of it now and post at a later date.
I imagine that just like many of Raleigh’s former ‘hoods, this one will also undergo a transformation. It was sort of obvious to me from a question posed to me by a random passerby on Idlewild: “Are you buying up property here?”. A second man asked me if I lived in the house across the street. Seems the word on the street is that property in this area is definitely in demand. There is still the issue of crack dealers and prostitutes, but I imagine that will rapidly decline as more of these houses are renovated, divided, and rented out to higher paying tenants.
It certainly is an interesting name for a road, isn’t it?
