Nearly two years ago I asked: “What’s the future of this building?“. Although readers expressed interest and offered some information, the question couldn’t be clearly answered. Now, I can tell you what the future is: a nightclub/restaurant the likes of which Raleigh has yet to see on the ground level, and office space on the upper levels.
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New LED street lighting on Hillsborough Street

If you’ve driven down Hillsborough Street at night within the past week or so, you may have noticed some new lighting. What makes this lighting noteworthy is that it is LED (right), as opposed to fluorescent or the more common sodium vapor lamps (left). 

But before we dive into why this is important, let’s take a look at the history of municipal lighting of streets, buildings, and sidewalks at night. 

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I am sure that by now everyone in Raleigh is aware of the Hillsboro St. reconstruction project currently underway along NC State University’s primary business thoroughfare, all the way from Oberlin Rd. out to Brooks Ave.  For the past year, cars and pedestrians alike have navigated broken pavement and a clutter of orange and white traffic cones, barrels and barricades, all the while dodging giant earthmoving equipment.  However, most people probably are not aware that until the late 1920s that stretch of street was primarily a residential district. In 1939 Hillsboro’s first major commercial building — the ManMur Bowling Center — was erected in the 2500 block.

The ManMur Bowling Center in 1940, when it was new. Notice how sparsely built up the block was then. (Photo courtesy the NC Office of  Archives and History, State Archives.)

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Nearly every city, suburb, or rural area has beautiful green spaces that are adored by locals, for various reasons. It may be a public park, a hidden path in a forest, ruins of a long abandoned house, or a garden – but to those who love them, it remains a place of solitude and source of happiness. One such place that maintains this status with me is the Raleigh Municipal Rose Garden and Little Theatre, in the Rosemont community near NC State campus.

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