There was a time when a large percentage of Downtown Raleigh businesses announced their presence with neon or an otherwise illuminated sign. This began to change in the late 1960s, as businesses fled downtown for the suburbs. Later, overzealous sign ordinances restricted the size and outlawed illumination, and the signs began to fade away.

Although Downtown has experienced a surge of growth and life in the past few years, it’s only within the past couple of months that the neon sign appeared poised for a comeback.

The Neon Stalwarts

Before we look at some of the neon newcomers, let’s look at the few that managed to survive.

Mecca’s sign is without a doubt the most memorable of the remaining downtown neon. Until recently, the only times one could see the sign lit was during the winter, when it was dark before closing time (7PM). Now Mecca remains open late night and is visible year-round.

Double-exposure shot of the Krispy Kreme sign

After some detective work by Goodnight Raleigh readers, the Krispy Kreme sign on Person Street was dated to 1970.

The Firestone service station on South Dawson Street.

The Arby’s cowboy hat on Hillsborough Street.

[EDIT 04/12]

The neon sign of Joe’s Place, now Brewmaster’s Bar and Grill, has also been around for a long time.

The Neon’s Gone, but the Sign Remains

1940s view of NC Equipment Building on Hillsborough Street

According to Raleigh sign ordinances, existing signs (that otherwise aren’t up to code) can remain in place provided it was still owned by the original business. In 2007, it looked as though the bulldozer sign atop the NC Equipment Company building on Hillsborough Street would need to be taken down as it had a new owner.

Luckily, city leaders recognized the sign’s historic importance and it was allowed to stay. The broken neon was removed and the sign was renovated not long after Lulu moved into the building.

Side note: The Wilmont Drug store barely visible in the foreground (most recently the home of Capitol Comics) will probably be razed in the coming months. A ‘Development Plan’ sign recently appeared in front of it, which almost universally means it is set for destruction.

Bringing it Back

The first new neon to appear in the center city was at Fox Liquor Bar on Wilmington Street late last year. Featuring only the word “LIQUOR,” the sign was designed by Josh Gajownik and created by Design Dimension.

About a month ago, Busy Bee Cafe installed a new hanging neon sign, designed by Artcraft. It was initially difficult to obtain permission from the city to install it. After some detective work by Ladye Jane Vickers (former Curator of the Raleigh City Museum), the management of Busy Bee were able to prove that the older business once at the location (also called Busy Bee) once had neon signage.

After that, it was easy to move forward and enlist the design work of Artcraft to make it.

Although the indoor neon sign above is likely new, Artcraft as a company has been a fixture of Raleigh for over 75 years. They are currently located on Hillsborough Street near the Capitol.

Gone But Not Forgotten

Downtown was once full of neon, and below are but a small few of the ones that once were displayed in Raleigh.

Image courtesy NC Dept. of Archives and History

Boon-Iseley Drug Store on Fayetteville Street

Image courtesy NC Dept. of Archives and History

The Hotel Sir Walter had not only this sign attached to the building, but one on top as well.

Image courtesy NC Dept. of Archives and History

Hanging sign for Blackwelder’s Barbeque, in the building now occupied by Slim’s Downtown Distillery.

Neon signs on Hillsborough Street for the College Grill and Studio 1

The College Grill was a small bar that operated until the 1970s, and has been closed ever since. It’s owned by Mitch (of Mitch’s Tavern) and he just lets it sit empty.

Studio 1 (previously home to the Varsity Theatre) was an X-rated theater at the time of the photo above. The theater later became a McDonald’s, then a college book store, and now sits vacant next to Mitch’s Tavern.

Image courtesy NC Dept. of Archives and History

The giant neon sign of the Hotel Carolina, which was razed in the late 70s.

Image courtesy of Sandy Shultz

Above is Reddy Kilowatt, the neon mascot of electric utilities for about 60 years. This particular neon sign was on the west end of Hillsborough Street on the power substation near Arby’s.

Reddy Kilowatt is a corporate mascot and, well, “spokesthing,” created in 1926 by Ashton B. Collins, Sr., of the Alabama Power Company. Reddy has a lightbulb for a nose, wall outlets for ears and a torso and limbs made of lightning bolts. The character was licensed to power companies across the United States to represent electricity as a safe and useful utility. Employed by more than 200 different companies at one time, he is rarely seen outside of antique malls and garage sales these days.

– reddykilowatt.org

—

Although Downtown has only seen two external new signs recently, I hope this is a trend that continues. I also hope the City of Raleigh acts less like Cary with regard to sign ordinances and returns to its roots in allowing them. They serve as excellent way finding points and give character to an area–as well as serve as an artistic marketing device for small businesses.

Related Articles

• The Busy Bee Cafe is Buzzing
• Posts tagged with ‘Mecca’
• The Bright Lights of the Krispy Kreme Sign
• The Tractor on the NC Equipment Building: Outlook Bright 
• The Forgotten Bar Of Hillsborough Street
• Hotel Carolina — Raleigh, N.C.

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1890 Bretsch House, Blount Street

Although many of its finest examples were destroyed in the 1960s and 1970s, Raleigh maintains a relatively large stock of Victorian houses. Perhaps the most frequently overlooked houses from this era are Folk Victorians.

The 1890 Bretsch House above is (arguably) classified in this style. A front facing gable, tall and narrow windows, and a finely detailed porch are all characteristics of Folk Victorians. The level of detail on the porch of the Bretsch House is also associated with the Eastlake Victorian style. It was moved from McDowell Street to its current location on S. Blount Street in 1982.

What Makes a Victorian ‘Folk’?

The classification of Folk Victorian is an ambiguous one. The most common traits I’ve seen across historical reference guides are: intricate porch and/or gable detailing, an asymmetrical floor plan, and a lack of grand features such as bay windows and turrets or towers. Folk Victorians were built between 1879 and 1910.

Folk Victorians came into existence with expansion of railroads in the late 19th century. This new form of transportation allowed the inexpensive spread of machined wood features used as trim. This allowed middle class society to build homes that were similar in appearance to the grander Victorians of the day.

Folk Victorians of the Gothic Variety

The large front-facing gable above the porch and decorative bargeboard trim on the house above indicate a Gothic Revival influence. This house is located on Person Street.

Folk Victorians aren’t always modestly sized. The Gothic Revival styled Agricultural Experiment Station on Vanderbilt Avenue was built in 1886 to lay the groundwork for what is currently N.C. State University. Although large, it is restrained in style except for the telltale decorative bargeboard and porch trim.

This is the oldest structure associated with the University, and is now a private residence.

The Pope House

This quiet house on Wilmington Street is a historic and distinct example of the Folk Victorian style. It was built in 1901 by Dr. M.T. Pope, an African-American doctor and war veteran. He ran for mayor of Raleigh in 1919, at the height of segregation and the Jim Crow era.

In addition to the importance of the man who built it, this house is unique in that it is the only detached residential structure within one block of Fayetteville Street. It is also built in a locally rare row house (narrow two story) style. At one point in time the house had an intricately detailed porch, but this was removed when the house was expanded.

The house pictured above was built for Plummer T. Hall some time between 1878 and 1893. Hall was the African-American first pastor of Oberlin Road Church, and this house was a wedding gift for his bride. It remains in the Hall family today in the Oberlin Village neighborhood.

The Sisters of Saint Marys Street

These two houses are located across from Wiley School on Saint Marys Street. I can’t find a build date for either one, but were likely constructed around 1900.

The Morgan Street Corridor

Perhaps the largest concentration of homes in this style outside of Oakwood is a small area around Morgan and Hargett Streets.

This house on West Morgan was built in 1901 and is now home to a law firm.

Few Folk Victorians have a bay window. The one on the house above at 853 W. Morgan was probably added at a later date.

To the left of 853 W. Morgan is this blue house, which has served a variety of purposes in recent years.

Blending in with the neighbors. From left to right, the build dates are 2002, 1901, 1910.

The Hargett Row Houses

There are few examples of Victorian row houses (narrow, medium density) remaining and even fewer intact neighborhoods in this style. One exception is a narrow patch of Hargett Street between Morgan Street and Central Prison that has three Folk Victorians.

The two story house in the photo above fits in cozily with its neighbors, but was built almost 100 years after they were. To its left is the modest single story house in the photo below.

1901 Folk Victorian on W. Hargett Street, facing Central Prison

Not Ignoring the Obvious

This list is by no means comprehensive; it doesn’t speak to the houses in the Oakwood and East Raleigh communities.

Where are other examples of Folk Victorian houses?

Related Articles:

• The (Sweet) Person Street Walking Tour
• The Hidden Victorian Houses of Hillsborough Street
• The Pope House Museum and Community Challenge

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After countless stays of execution and pleas from Preservation North Carolina to save the Fabius Briggs House located at 1301 Hillsborough Street, it seems its day has come. Built in 1906 by a son of Thomas H. Briggs, founder of Briggs Hardware, it has stood witness to the evolution of one of Raleigh’s most attractive and well traveled streets.

An ominous precursor appeared late last week in the form of a chain-link fence circling the property, as if a white sheet had been laid over its lifeless body. This fencing is usually the first step in the abatement process many Raleigh residents have become accustomed to in recent months. With the loss of the NC State bookstore, the Ballentine’s Cafeteria building in Cameron Village, and The Brewery many downtown residents are starting to raise a few eyebrows.

The Briggs House is a typically-styled Queen Anne Transitional, an architectural style common to Raleigh in the early 1900s. Our ancestral residents would have seen these houses lining Hillsborough street from the campus of NC State all the way to the Capitol. Many have been lost over the years to development and neglect, but thankfully the city is still holding on to a precious handful. But by early next week, one more will be gone.

FMW, a Charlotte real estate company, has plans for a mixed-use development on much of the land that has been cleared. The Bolton complex and long-abandoned Staudt Bakery on West Morgan Street were razed last week and cleanup on those sites continues.  Cameron Park Apartments, the neighboring retail shops including Jade Garden and our iconic IHOP will remain — for now.

According to Mike Campbell, superintendent of demolition for all three sites, work began Monday and will continue through this week as the green asbestos siding that covers the exterior of the house is carefully removed to partially reveal its original wood clapboard siding.  It will be a sight no one has seen in nearly 60 years.

The inevitable end all started in late summer when some of what makes the Briggs House special was luckily salvaged from its interior. Mantels, mouldings, wainscoting, doors, door and window hardware and the entire staircase were removed. Word has it that the staircase has found a new home in a residence in North Raleigh.

Shortly thereafter, the windows were sealed with plywood and the doors nailed shut. Not even the birds could roost in the old gal.

Following a 2009 Goodnight Raleigh article written about 1301 Hillsborough Street, Preservation North Carolina, an organization devoted to preserving North Carolina’s historic and endangered properties, started efforts to save the house. Director of Urban Issues at PNC, Elizabeth Sappenfield, enthusiastically took on the project. Until very recently it was still listed on their website. The price? Free. If you could move the behemoth, you could sign the deed.  The glaring problem, among several others, was a spot to set the house down. Sappenfield worked to find a site, but there was really only one site suitable for the house in the immediate area; a gravel parking lot just across the street from Cameron Park apartments. The owners of the lot were contacted and they replied by swiftly snuffing any notions of a sale.  Another issue was the present condition of the house. City inspectors claimed that the house wasn’t structurally sound which leads one to wonder, if the house isn’t stable sitting still, how would it react if it were teetering down Hillsborough Street on wheels?

Many will claim good riddance to these neglected structures, but some see these changes as a loss of character and would much rather see them re-purposed — or even moved. This isn’t the first time, nor will it be the last, that our city will lose structures with history and character. Raleigh is constantly sloughing off its decaying, aging and even inconvenient structures. Sometimes, it seems as if planners and developers are irreverent about our history and the aesthetic that makes Raleigh so beautiful, and that may be partially true. However, it is also important to remember that as our city changes we learn to recognize good change from bad. Realistically speaking, 1301 Hillsborough is an eyesore that also poses a danger to the public. In this situation, assuming that moving the house is not possible, razing the house is, sadly, the most rational plan.

On a personal note, and barring any realistic notions of what should happen to the house, I will miss the element of mystery and grittiness it brings to my neighborhood. Passing by and imagining how regal the house once was, what stories it could tell, and pondering its ultimate fate have kept my imagination busy for years. I believe part of what makes losing any old structure, especially the Briggs House, so difficult is the thought of edging ever closer to a point where the Raleigh landscape would be unrecognizable to someone that lived a century earlier.  We are not only losing a historic house, we are losing a faint glimpse of our past.  A past that holds the foundation of our wonderful city.

All photos in this article are by Ian F.G. Dunn.

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It was 1966, and the gilded luster of the aged grande dame had faded long ago. With great trepidation I walked up to the front door. My buddy and I had been roving Blount St. for more than a year by then, exploring and photographing the once elegant mansions being demolished by the state in the late 1960s. And of course I always had my trusty Kodak Instamatic camera in tow.

The flamboyant Heck-Andrews House, with its faded and peeling yellow paint, rotting ornament, overgrown and weed-choked yard — and especially its decadent grandeur — had always fascinated me. I wildly wondered what fantastic treasures could possibly lay within! By looking in a Raleigh city directory, I learned the house was owned by Mrs. Julia Russell.

(Photo courtesy the N.C. Office of Archives and History, State Archives)

‘Knock, knock, knock’ on the heavy, leaded-glass oaken door — a grizzled old woman with coke-bottle glasses peered suspiciously from around the partially opened door. We introduced ourselves — “Hello Mrs. Russell” — and politely asked if we might see the interior of the mansion. “I don’t let ANYBODY in my house!” and she promptly slammed the door in our face. So that was the end of that — or so I thought.

This is the front door entry to the grand hall of the Heck-Andrews House.

Several years later, by then in my 20s, and ever engaged in my downtown explorations,  I encountered on several occasions a curious older woman who had the appearance of a ‘bag lady.’ She always wore a black cloth ladies’ hat, a plain black dress, and an overcoat — even in the warmest weather. Her hair was dyed shoe-polish black and her face was heavily powdered in white pancake makeup; her lips were thick with ruby red lipstick. I soon learned this intriguing woman was Miss Gladys Perry.

Another view of the grand front hall as seen from the southeast parlor.

The Youthful Gladys Perry

The old woman with the coke-bottle glasses whom I had encountered in 1966 was Gladys’ mother. Gladys was born to Julia and Henry Perry in 1907; before her fourth birthday in 1911, her mother had been widowed. Mrs. Perry later married Robert Russell, and by the mid-1920s, the family was living at 516 N. Person St. Gladys was a student at Peace College at the time, enrolled in the business curriculum.

Nicknamed ‘Shug,’ a diminutive for ‘Sugar,’ (also spelled ‘Sug’ or ‘Suge’) Gladys apparently was a well-liked young lady in the 1920s. She had many friends, went to movies and dances, and regularly attended Edenton Street Methodist Church. She also loved to cook and sew, and she wrote poetry. Gladys also had at least four suitors during this decade.

I Love You
I love you when you’re laughing
I love you when you’re sad
I love you when you’re teasing
And I love you when you’re glad
I love you when you’re fooling
I love you when you’re true
And the reason that I love you
Is just because you’re you.

– Gladys Perry

By the early 1930s Mrs. Russell was taking in boarders in the family home on Person St. Before the decade was out, Mrs. Russell once again found herself a widow. Gladys’ older brother Clark had married and left home to start a family; Gladys herself was employed as a typist and stenographer by the NC Division of Motor Vehicles.

In 1948 Mrs. Russell purchased the Heck-Andrews house from the Andrews heirs, who were probably very happy to unload the aging and decaying behemoth. And daughter Gladys moved in with her mother.

This is the drawing room of the Heck-Andrews house.

Gladys Perry, the Enigma

After 1948 there follows a gap of 25 years in what I know about Gladys, but she apparently retired from the DMV in the early 1970s.

This is where the story picks up.

Nearly every time I went downtown in the 1970s I would see the phantom figure of Miss Perry rummaging through trash  barrels set on the street for pickup. I have no idea what items attracted her attention, but she always seemed intensely focused on selecting her acquisitions.

Gladys seldom spoke as she wandered through downtown collecting her treasures. The story goes that she powdered her face white believing people would think she was a ghost and would leave her alone. It was rumored she also carried a gun on her person for protection should anyone dare accost her.

As the years went on, I saw less and less of the mysterious black-clad figure with the ghostly white face.

By the mid 1980s, Gladys was spending less of her time roaming the streets of downtown Raleigh and more of it roaming the lonely and emotionally empty rooms of her Blount Street mansion.

The entrance to the tower stair. (Photo by John Morris)

The tower stair. (Photo by John Morris)

The tower room. (Photo by John Morris)

The State of North Carolina vs. Gladys Perry

In early 1987 a Raleigh Times article announced:

The state will condemn the historic Heck-Andrews house on Blount Street because its unsafe condition poses a danger to the elderly woman who lives there and to nearby chemical labs… the state will seize the property through its power of eminent domain, and will relocate the resident, Gladys Perry. … the home [is] virtually without heat and electricity, since her utility bills are only a few dollars a month. … Miss Perry couldn’t be reached for comment.

Gladys’ mother, Mrs. Russell, had apparently died sometime in the 1970s. She left no will, and the mansion passed to Gladys and her brother Clark.

Since the mid 1960s the state had been systematically buying up the properties in the Blount Street area, intending to transform the acreage into a state government office complex. Most of the Victorian structures were demolished and paved over as surface parking lots. Only a handful of the grandest homes were spared, and were re-purposed as state office buildings. By 1985, the Heck-Andrews House was the sole survivor remaining in private hands.

Gladys’ brother agreed to sell his half ownership to the state for $84,000, but Gladys remained steadfast in her refusal to sell. She refused to even discuss it with state officials. (Gladys claimed it was she who had bought the property in 1948 and had recorded it under her mother’s name. But as Julia Russell’s name was on the deed, she was recognized as the legal owner.)

During her two-year battle with the state, Gladys’ health began to seriously deteriorate. She seldom left the house now, and state workers in the neighboring office buildings who were familiar with the shadowy figure began to worry.

By the late 1980s, Gladys inhabited but a single room in the 5,000 square foot mansion. (Photo by John Morris)

Snow began to fall one afternoon in January 1987, and a concerned state employee went to check on Miss Perry. She had not been seen for days. As there was no response to repeated knocks at the locked front door, the police were summoned.

The police went around to the back of the house, jimmied open one of the windows, and climbed in. They were amazed at what they saw. Trash and rubbish from Miss Perry’s forays were piled chest-high throughout the house. There were old calendars, books and stamps, a pair of silver-glittered dancing shoes and old clothes, spoiled food and every other odd and end one could imagine. Narrow aisles and tunnels through the trash offered the only passage through the rooms.

The police snaked through the trash passages and finally found Miss Perry in her second-floor bedroom behind a six-foot trash heap. She was huddled under blankets in the frigid house. … Sick, she was unable to move from her bed. Rescuers … saw blue and red streaks running up her feet and legs.

She refused treatment and would not let them take her to the hospital.

–  Kathleen Christian, columnist, The Leader, November 1988

Ultimately the Good Samaritan state employee persuaded Gladys to see a doctor. She lost several toes to frost-bite and the early stages of gangrene had set in.

Gladys was later resettled in a small apartment in Raleigh, where she died a few years later. Thus, the state had won its battle against Gladys Perry.

Dark and gloomy, the mansion appears in this photo to be in mourning for Gladys Perry.

Following Gladys’ eviction from her home, the state began the onerous task of disposing of her belongings. An enormous plywood chute  protruded from one of the upstairs windows and workers unceremoniously tossed tons of her things down it into a huge industrial trash dumpster waiting below.

Ever curious, I used to go up there and poke around, hoping to find a way to get inside the empty mansion. I was unsuccessful in gaining entry, but one day I did find lying beside the dumpster a broken-open box — the contents of which lay strewn about on the ground. I made a quick inspection of the contents and was astonished at what I found. To the state of North Carolina the items in the box were merely trash, but to me it was treasure. I scooped up the box and ran home with it cradled in my arms.

The Box

I could not believe what I discovered in ‘The Box.’  Its contents revealed nearly every detail of Gladys’ life over the course of two decades from 1922 until the early 1940s. I found hundreds of items as mundane as utility bills, her pay stubs from the DMV (Gladys’ pay for the month of October 1937 was $60), typed and handwritten recipes (Tuna Fish Sandwich Spread and Easy Meringues, for example), a receipt for a purchase of film from Daniel’s Camera Shop, greeting cards, handwritten prayers and Bible quotations, notes to herself to buy fabrics (“3 1/2 yds lace for slips. Ask at Boylan Pearce”), her 1926 report card from Peace College (her worst mark was for spelling — ‘passing.’) and dozens of newspaper clippings from the N&O, including poems, recipes, movie ads and political cartoons.

The Box also contained a wealth of far more interesting items than just the mundane — such as Gladys’ handwritten poems and musings on love, a pair of 3-D movie glasses (a souvenir of the 1939 NY World’s Fair), and a WWII pamphlet instructing Raleigh residents what to do in case of an air raid.

This pamphlet provided detailed instruction on how to prepare one's household for an air strike, and what action to take during it.

Printed on the back of this pair of 3-D glasses: "This viewer is a souvenir of your visit to the Chrysler Motors Exhibit at New York's Wold Fair."

Below is an example of only one of the dozens of Gladys’ musings I found in The Box:

For a long time he had avoided falling in love
turning away from it while there was still
time, because it made life so complicated
and difficult.
Do you know what it is to be in love? To sit up
waiting until someone turns the key in the [illegible]?
To think of no one else? To be happy when he is in
the same room with you and miserable when he is not?
Do you know what it is like to go about saying it to yourself:
I won’t let him keep such a hold on me. I must escape from him,
and then never be able to escape.

However, the most amazing find among the heaps of ephemera was the love letters sent to Gladys by  four suitors over the decade 1922-1932.

Claude Pearson fell in love with Gladys in 1922, and was the author of several amorous love letters to her. He usually began with “Dearest Darling,” and spoke quite ardently of his love for her, sometimes closing with “Your future hubby.” Apparently, though, it was an unrequited love.

In October 1922 Claude wrote:

Where were you Sunday? I passed your house 3 or 4 times but did not see you either time [sic].
Guess you were out walking with some ‘guy.’ How about it?

By June of 1923 the pair had apparently broken up, as Claude wrote a rather terse note to “Dear Miss Perry,” asking for the return of a photo of himself he had given her — and signed it with his full name: Claude N. Pearson

Then, in 1924, Gladys was seeing a young man named Kenneth, who seemed to live and breathe Gladys. He would often end his letters with “Oceans of love.”

…and [went] to the theatre this afternoon. Sure wish you were up here to go with me for there sure are some swell places to go in Detroit to have a good time.
Well I must ring off for this time, write real soon.
Oceans of love and a kiss on ever[y] waive [sic].
A True Friend
Kenneth

I love Kenneth’s annotation: “This is the ocean”

Curiously, in this 1924 letter to Gladys, he begged her to not let her mother know he had written her. Perhaps because theirs was a ‘long distance’ romance?

Dearest Gladys,
…I hurry home every day to see if any mail has come for me, and when I am expecting a letter from you it makes me hurry home that much faster. …
Dear I must close my letter but not my love for you. Write me real soon.
From someone who loves you
Kenneth

PS. Listen Dear:
Please don’t let your mother or Clark read this. Destroy it when you read it. For they might get mad and stop you from writing to me and that would break my heart. So be careful Dear.
Just lots of extra love.

In the same letter, Kenneth pleaded:

Gladys, please don’t have your hair bobbed, for your hair is real pretty and you will be sorry after you have had it bobbed. All the girls up here are sorry they had theirs bobbed. So take fool advice and don’t do it.

Later, in 1927, Gladys was seeing a young man named Jimmie Page, a local boy who had moved to Warsaw, N.C. for his job. This relationship lasted the longest of the four — 1927-1933. In a letter to his sweetheart in 1927, Jimmie lamented that his job kept him away from her.

(Mid-Night Blues)
Gladys My Dearest
…I haven’t slept any to-night at all. I’m not even trying because I know there isn’t any use. I had planned for two weeks to surprise you. Now I had to have my plans all broken up. Gee it is tough. Dearest, life isn’t worth living no way if you can’t see and be with someone you love. …
Dear heart, please remember that I love you and always will whether I ever see you again or not. …
Sleepless nights I’ve laid awake all because of you. Jimmie loves you Dear.
Your own Jimmie

Their exchange of letters continued in a similar vein over the next five years, but they never married, and by 1933, the tone of Jimmie’s letters was more of that between friends than lovers.

Finally, Henry appeared on the scene in 1932. Gladys was 25 years old. And yet another young swain had been smitten by her allure.

Longing for my Baby.
My Own Dear Sugar Pie Darling Precious Baby Child!
How is this for a starter? Sure did miss being with you last night but I was with you in thoughts and always am. …Baby what are you supposed to do when you get someone on your mind and think of them all the time and just long and wish to be right with them every minute?… You know I ‘LO_E’ and wish for you. How about filling in the blank space  if you can find a letter that will fit.
Good by[e] ‘Sug’ until I see you soon.
Yours, Henry

And this is where the letters stop.

I found this photo of a young woman in The Box. Could it be an image of our Gladys? There’s no way to know for certain, of course, but I would like to think that the pretty and stylish ingenue seen here is indeed she.

However, the image of the Gladys Perry I vividly do remember, that of a reclusive old woman, her face powdered white, with ruby red lips and shoe-polish black hair, will always be fixed in my mind; for she will forever be the Ghost of Blount Street.

[UPDATE]

Following a tip from a GNRaleigh reader, another reader has located a photograph of Gladys Perry! He found it in the 1927 edition of Peace College’s yearbook, ‘The Lotus.’ She bears a striking resemblance to the ingenue pictured in the photo I published with the story. But of course, I cannot be certain the beguiling young lady seen in the earlier photo is for a fact Miss Perry, but I do know the one seen below is indeed she.

Note: Unless otherwise credited, photos are by Raleigh Boy
Special thanks to Ian F. G. Dunn

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The building where the future Union Station would live

On October 11th, Raleigh citizens will elect a new mayor, City Council representatives, a new school board, and vote on two bond referenda. One of these referenda is a $40 million bond for transportation improvements. At the center of this bond is $3 million to build the proposed Union Station in the Warehouse District.

Few things have the ability to affect a city in a positive way as improvements to transportation and infrastructure. It is because of this I encourage you to join me in voting YES on the referendum.

The inside of the building where the future Union Station would be

Potential For Grand Transformation

It wasn’t that long ago that the area around the proposed site was a ghost town and a rather scary place to be at night. This particular building is nearest to the Boylan Wye, which for decades served as a community for passing travelers hopping on freight cars. The bridge provided shelter, and the sharp grade of the curve at the Wye made it particularly easy to hop aboard the slow-moving freighters. The junction between so many lines also made it a transit point for more than just those at the Amtrak station:

This is also one of Raleigh’s richest sites for homeless anecdotes – the small bonfires directly under the bridge, at least one murder I can remember – plus the railroad shacks that have served as shelter. Years ago, there were practically hobo mansions built into the old wooden beam dumpstalls built into the hillside between the wye and the station.

– John Dancy-Jones

The shacks are all gone, and the graffiti and traveler remnants are fewer and far between. Directly overhead on one side of the bridge is the Boylan Bridge Brewpub, now a bastion of nightlife providing an incredible view of the city. The area has been a bit slower to recover than the other areas of downtown, but it’s moving in the right direction.

The left side of this early 1970s photograph shows the building where the proposed Union Station would be. Also visible is a viaduct that once connected Boylan Heights to the Warehouse District. Image taken by Raleigh Boy.

A New Gateway to the Arts District

The site of the proposed station is in a vacant building on the edge of the Warehouse District. Like most of the buildings around it, it was once home to Dillon Supply, a company that produced steel and pipe products. The new Union Station would renovate and build upon this former industrial structure built in the 1960s.

Exterior of the Contemporary Art Museum, a neighbor to the proposed Union Station

Dillon Supply has vacated nearly all of the buildings, and the area is now home to a growing arts community – including Flanders Gallery, Visual Art Exchange, the new Contemporary Art Museum, DesignBox, among others.

Passengers disembarking from this potential station would get a proper introduction to the city of Raleigh: a fantastic view of the skyline, art galleries, and the authentic feel of an area rich with history. Fayetteville Street is just a couple of minutes walk away.

Transportation Fuels Growth: Why Raleigh Needs a YES Vote

The existing Amtrak station nearby is inadequate for today’s needs, much less that of the future. As passenger rail continues to grow year after year, it’s important that we provide a new, modern, and capable facility for people arriving in to the Capital City. Further, investment in rail travel makes economic sense: “Every $1 invested in rail systems (track, locomotives, bridges, etc.) returns $3 to the American economy” (source).

More specifics on the proposed station:

Raleigh’s proposed Union Station would be a hub located in Downtown. It would connect Raleigh’s multiple transportation modes, including Capital Area Transit bus service; Triangle Transit’s regional bus service; long-distance bus service (Greyhound); Amtrak rail service; the Silver Star, Carolinian and Piedmont rail services; and future local and regional rail transit, including high-speed rail services. Raleigh’s Union Station would be among the first facilities in the state to have a high-level platform that allows passengers to board trains without the need for steps.

The existing Amtrak Station on Cabarrus Street can no longer adequately serve an increasing number of rail passengers and must be replaced with a larger facility.

– Raleigh City Government

The most important point is that you vote in the upcoming municipal elections (as well as encourage those around you to do so), but I also hope you will join me in voting yes on this referendum.

Further Information:

• Bond Referendum Would Allocate Funds to Union Station Project (City of Raleigh)
• 2011 Municipal and Board of Education Elections (Wake County Government)
• Polling Place Locator (North Carolina State Board of Elections)

Related Articles:

• Echoes of an Era Past
• The Boylan Wye: Why The Wye?
• The Piedmont: Amtrak’s North Carolina-Only Line
• Reminiscences of a Raleigh Boy, Part 4: The Warehouse District
• Denizens of the Coal Yard
• The Last Building on West Martin Street
• Under The Bridge

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Built in 1952, the Erdahl-Cloyd Wing of D.H. Hill Library is attributed to the official architect of record, William Henley Deitrick. However, in the years in which the building was conceived, Deitrick was no longer designing, but handling the business end of the firm.

The details of who designed the Erdahl-Cloyd Student Union Building have been rather murky in history books and official records. The surprising part is that the design came from Matthew Nowicki, the visionary architect behind Dorton Arena. Sadly, he never received credit for it.

Nowicki in a Time magazine photo, photo copyright Time Magazine

Nowicki: A Bright Light for the Region

Matthew Nowicki (pronounced nuh-vit-ski) was possibly the most internationally noteworthy faculty member of the School of Design at State College during its heyday of the 1950s and 1960s. He was the Polish delegate to the United Nations Building Committee, a friend to the Secretary General of the United Nations, and had a stellar international reputation as an architect.

Photo of a young Nowicki. Image courtesy of and copyright NCSU Special Collections

From Resistance Fighter to the Head of a Star Architecture Program

Political unrest brought Nowicki to the United States at the beginning of the Cold War:

Still another innovative university program that prospered in the early 1950s was that at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. The initial force behind the curricular reforms here was Dean Henry Kamphoefner, but the initiative was quickly taken up by the Polish architect Matthew Nowicki who [...] was just emerging as a highly influential voice on the American scene. He had graduated from the Warsaw Polytechnic in 1936 and briefly enjoyed success in Warsaw before the Nazi invasion. As a lieutenant in the Polish army reserve, he was actually training with an antiaircraft battery on the outskirts of the city in September 1939 when hundreds of German bombers flew overhead to initiate the war [...]

Nowicki joined the Polish underground, and after surviving years of considerable dangers, in 1945 served as chief of planning for the rebuilding of central sections of the war-bombed city of Warsaw.

He left shortly thereafter due to the repression of the Soviet-controlled communist secret police.

Nowicki's sketch for the Paraboleum, now known as Dorton Arena. Image courtesy of and copyright NCSU Special Collections

Influencing the International Scene, from Raleigh

Nowicki’s exit from Europe started a chain of events ending with relocation to Raleigh. Architectural critic Lewis Mumford approached Dean Kamphoefner about a position within the new architecture school at State College in Raleigh which had a soaring reputation.

In describing who Mr. Nowicki was and what he was capable of, perhaps no one else said it as eloquently as Mr. Mumford did:

Nowicki’s dictum that the client makes an important contribution to the building and deserves part of the credit stemmed from his profound respect for ordinary men and their ways, and this was fully rewarded by the popular response his personality and his work evoked. Even in the conservative South, long hypnotized by the class-genteel tradition, his daring plans for the arena and the grandstand for the permanent State Fair buildings in Raleigh (in collaboration with William Deitrick) met with enthusiastic acceptance from people who, though architecturally unsophisticated, could nevertheless appraise the quality of the man they were dealing with. This sense of the specific human occasion is what gives to Nowicki’s designs a variety unmatched by anyone this side of Frank Lloyd Wright. But it was a talent potentially greater than Wright’s, just to the extent that Nowicki’s humility was a greater quality than Wright’s arrogance.

The Student Union Proposal and the “cheap and flashy stores at Miami Beach”

In the late 1940s, William Deitrick was awarded the commission to build a new Student Union building at State College. Deitrick was the first area architect to build in the modernist style, and at the time he was awarded the commission, had two architects on payroll (Milton Small and Matthew Nowicki) who were a part of the new School of Design.

The initial designs (sketched by Milton Small) for the building were met with scorn by the chairman of the Building Committee, David Clark. In a letter to the committee during the very beginning of the process, one of his three objections to the submitted plans was the style: “I definitely do not favor a modernistic type of building.”

Milton Small's futuristic proposal for the Student Union. Image courtesy of and copyright NCSU Special Collections

Later in the process, he was a bit more colorful in his criticism of the design. In a letter to W.D. Carmichael, Controller of the Consolidated University of North Carolina, Clark had this to say:

In Asheville, N.C., on the road out to Beaver Lake, there is a group of four small stores with a front which is a dead ringer for the elevation of the Student Union, as submitted by W. Henley Deitrick at the meeting of the Building Committee last Tuesday. [...]

I know that the elevation was exactly like some cheap and flashy stores at Miami Beach, Florida, but I did not know there were similar stores at Asheville.

– David Clark

Small’s proposal in 1949 for the Student Union went over like a lead balloon with the Building Committee. This was a completely new way to design a building, and many administrators had strong negative opinions on the new style.

Nowicki's concept drawing of the Student Union. Image courtesy of and copyright NCSU Special Collections

The Nowicki Solution

While Small’s proposal was a bold gesture intended to bring the future to the State College campus, it appears that it was a bit too forward thinking for the Trustees and Building Committee. Small left Deitrick’s firm in 1949, and presumably the design was given to Nowicki to conceive. He likely only provided the concept for the exterior elevations, as he was not licensed to practice architecture in the United States.

Sadly, he would not get to see his vision realized, with the Student Union as well as the new arena at the fairgrounds.

A Flame Extinguished Too Soon

On August 31, 1950, Nowicki was traveling back to Raleigh from India where we was planning a new provincial capital, Chandigarh, in a newly independent India. Somewhere over the Egyptian desert the Transworld Airlines airplane crashed and all on board perished.

He was buried in a mass grave with the other victims, with a marker that said simply: “Architect.” Mass was held locally at Sacred Heart Cathedral, and was visited by many dignitaries.

The Chandigarh project was then given to perhaps the most noteworthy modernist architect in history, Le Corbusier.

One of Nowicki's unimplemented plans for the fairgrounds, bearing a striking resemblance to the Erdahl-Cloyd Student Union. Image courtesy of and copyright NCSU Special Collections

The Resemblance of Erdahl-Cloyd to Other Nowicki Designs

I first saw Nowicki’s sketch for the Erdahl-Cloyd Student Union Building in a book containing his works that he was assembling shortly before his death. I was surprised, as references I had seen to the building did not attribute it to him.

After comparing the sketches of various buildings in this book, I became convinced that he designed the Erdahl-Cloyd Student Union building, but could find no corroborating evidence to support this.

Saarinen, Brandeis University, and the Open Canopy

One of the biggest collections in the book was the master plan for Brandeis University. This is a body of work in which he worked in collaboration with the modern genius Eero Saarinen, who would later build on Nowicki’s parabolic shelter idea with the Terminal at JFK Airport. In a book about Saarinen, it is speculated that he implemented several of Nowicki’s ideas, and not just the Terminal.

One of the buildings in Nowicki's Brandeis University Master Plan, showing an open canopy. Image courtesy of and copyright NCSU Special Collections

One of the buildings in this plan (above) contained an opening in the overhang for a green space below. This very unique, if overlooked, feature is something I haven’t seen anywhere else. Although it was circumstantial evidence, seeing the same feature present in the Erdahl-Cloyd Student Union building was a strong indication that both designs were his.

Blueprint for the Student Union Building. Deitrick Arch. of record, Drawn by W.C.C. Jan 31, 1951 - Four months after Nowicki's death. Image courtesy of and copyright NCSU Special Collections

Confirming the True Designer of the Student Union

After spending a lot of time at the NCSU Special Collections Research Center going through multiple collections, I had more information, but no substantial evidence.

That changed after reaching out to an architecture professor in Poland, Dr. Marta Urbanska. She had written her dissertation on Nowicki, and flew to Raleigh to speak with former colleagues of his. In an email, she confirmed that Nowicki designed the building:

It was indeed [former School of Design professor] Robert Burns and Mr. Manuel Bromberg, artist, who informed me of Nowicki’s authorship [of the Student Union]. The entire story is of course obscured by the same regrettable controversy which regards the Raleigh Arena: Nowicki was not a licensed architect in the USA, thus he had to cooperate with one – i.e. William Deitrick. [...]

The stylistic comparison of the Student Union building and other designs by Nowicki, both Polish (such as the prewar sports club in Warsaw or a hotel in Augustów) and American, leaves no doubt as to the authorship – the crisp, modern, yet classically calm and exquisitely elegant composition is unmistakably his.

–Dr. Marta A. Urbańska
Adj. Professor of Architecture, Cracow University of Technology

Erdahl-Cloyd Today

After Milton Small designed the new Talley Student Center which replaced it, the Erdahl-Cloyd Student Union became the West Wing of D.H. Hill Library.

Facing a Different Direction

It’s always been puzzling to me that the building’s ‘face’ is on Hillsborough Street, and away from most pedestrian traffic, where the Brickyard is today. This design decision was a direct result of pressure by NC State officials:

Under pressure from university administration, an attempt was made to follow the tradition of the nineteenth-century Southern plantation house. The portico was therefore placed on the north side because the authorities felt that this was the “entrance” side of the building. [...] The resulting building defies the precepts of Vitruvius and Louis Sullivan by having its portico on the shaded side and a complete unshaded window on the south side.

–Elizabeth Waugh, The South Builds

The Color Wall at DH Hill Library, another legacy of the School of Design. The Erdahl-Cloyd wing is visible on the right

Beautiful Architecture, a Kinetic Light Sculpture, and Fantastic Ice Cream

The former Student Union still serves as a part of the library today, but is also a place for student relaxation or collaboration. It is adjacent to the recently restored Color Wall, a kinetic light sculpture created by former School of Design professor and artist Joe Cox.

The walk up window facing Hillsborough Street

The Erdahl-Cloyd wing is home to the Creamery, which sells Howling Cow ice cream, made locally on NC State campus. It was set up a couple of years ago, and also features a walk-up window on Hillsborough Street. You don’t have to be a student to get great tasting ice cream and milkshakes. Simply park on Hillsborough Street and walk up to the window.

South elevation of the Erdahl-Cloyd wing

An Endangered Masterpiece

Sadly, the Erdahl-Cloyd wing of the library will likely be demolished in the coming years. The NC State Library Master Plan [PDF] calls for the demolition of this structure:

Phase 3 will include renovation and expansion of the Hill Library. Our recommendation is to demolish the Erdahl-Cloyd wing, complete renovation of the east wing begun in Phase 1, renovate the Towers, and reconfigure the lower floors of the building and expand the facility to the west (where Erdahl-Cloyd is currently located) to create a clear, understandable, functional and beautiful entry to the facility.

To be sure, the plan is several years old and as far as I know, there is no set date to demolish it.

This was the first modernist building built on campus, envisioned by a legendary architect and Dean of the School of Architecture. It deserves to live on as a testament to the bold experimental thought of the college during a period of national prominence.

This building won an AIA-NC award (with merit) in 1955. There are few, if any, campus buildings that have won an AIA award. This place matters and should not be destroyed.

Related Articles

• J. S. Dorton Arena – State Fair Grounds
• Apple’s “Spaceship” Campus Proposal Looks Familiar

Further Reading

• Maciej Nowicki: A Tribute to a Neglected Genius (Cracow Life)
• Matthew Nowicki (Entry at NC Architects and Builders database)
• Matthew Nowicki Drawings and Other Material (NCSU Special Collections)
• Maciej Nowicki (Wikipedia)

Copyright Information

All images labeled as “copyright NCSU Special Collections” are protected by copyright and are not to be distributed or reproduced without permission from the Special Collections Research Center. I kindly ask you respect this and not distribute copyrighted material.

All other images were taken by me (John Morris) and are not under similar copyright restrictions. I encourage you to distribute, reproduce, or otherwise share those images.

Special Thanks

I’d like to give a big thank you to Dr. Marta Urbańska as well as the NCSU Special Collections Research Center for being so helpful in locating the historic information, drawings, and photographs used in this article.

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Antique drinking fountains, located on Capitol Square

In the past few years, Raleigh has been fortunate and invested in public-use infrastructure projects. This includes the installation of new benches, shelters, sidewalks, and other related items. Noticeably absent from these improvements (outside of public parks), is the outdoor drinking fountain.

As Raleigh continues to improve the experience of pedestrians, cyclists, joggers, bus riders, and others, it should consider adding more outdoor drinking fountains to address mankind’s most primitive need: thirst.

A Brief Look at the History of Outdoor Drinking Fountains

Public drinking fountains have been around since the dawn of human civilization. In fact, they were often the yardstick used to gauge whether an urban area had been “civilized.”

Public drinking infrastructure started with simple stone basins made by the Sumerians to more sophisticated gravity-powered systems used by the Greeks, Romans, and Islamic civilizations. Most of these systems fell into disrepair and largely disappeared from Europe during the Dark Ages. Revived during the Renaissance, they have been improved upon ever since.

1908 Postcard showing drinking well on Capitol Square

Drinking Fountains in the 20th Century

Although there were public sources of drinking water at the turn of the century, many were unsanitary and the source of illness:

The drinking fountain, as we know it, was developed in the early 1900s by Halsey Taylor and Haws. These two companies, founded by Halsey Willard Taylor and Luther Haws respectively, pioneered a major change in how water was dispensed in public places. In doing so, they also helped reduce the instance of waterborne diseases among the general population. In fact, Halsey W. Taylor’s dedication to providing a safe and sanitary drink to the public was prompted by his father’s death from typhoid fever caused by a contaminated water supply.

- Al Honeycutt

This antique fountain on Capitol Square hasn't worked in a very long time.

A Look at What’s Left in Raleigh Today

I know of five outdoor drinking fountains in Raleigh that are not within a city park: three on Capitol Square, one not far away on Halifax Mall, and one on the NC State campus. Of these, only one works: the one engaged via a foot pump on Capitol Square. Those fountains were probably installed in the 1920s or 1930s.

Antique fountain on Halifax Mall

The other fountain is located on Halifax Mall and is of the same design as one of the three located on Capitol Square. Considering that all of the buildings around it are much newer, it was likely relocated in the 1970s when the Mall was built. Although it features a modern activator button on the front, it is currently non-operational.

Granite drinking fountain on NC State campus

Another non-working drinking fountain can be found at NC State. Near Primrose Hall off of Hillsborough Street, this granite fountain was a gift from the 1914 graduating class and has been moved since it was built. I’m not sure when it stopped functioning as a source of water.

To learn more about this fountain, please read How N.C. State’s 1914 Stone Fountain Became a Planter.

Drinking fountain in Chavis Park, which is also currently non-operational

The Exception: City Parks

Outdoor drinking fountains have been installed in Raleigh in recent years. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, the only recipient of these fountains are the destination parks managed by Raleigh Parks and Recreation.

Drinking fountain by the playground and basketball courts on Chamberlain St.

While it’s great that these are here, they primarily serve the needs of those that traveled specifically to the park. They usually aren’t along common paths used by joggers, pedestrians, bus riders, and cyclists.

Placing new drinking fountains in strategic locations in the city could go a long way to encouraging people to be more active. More drinking fountains mean more options for runners and pedestrians–it’s not always practical to carry a bottle of water with you.

Moore Square Master Plan

A Glaring Omission in the Moore Square Master Plan

If I had to name the place that was most in need of a drinking fountain, it would be Moore Square. I was surprised and disappointed to see that although the Moore Square Master Plan includes a play fountain and an outdoor Café, there are no drinking fountains. I sincerely hope that this is simply an oversight and will be in the final design of the new Moore Square.

City Plaza also makes for a deserving location. There are light sculptures, shops, and a decorative motion activated water fountain–but no water to drink. While I appreciate the City’s investment into public art, water for drinking should come before water as decoration. One could be creative about the installation and solve both problems with one structure.

A Big Win For Everyone

The biggest use case I see for more drinking fountains are the numerous downtown festivals. Hopscotch, SPARKcon, Raleigh Wide Open, among others would benefit tremendously from more available drinking fountains. Walking around large crowds in an urban jungle quickly depletes internal fluids and it’s not always convenient to buy a soda or bottled water.

Having more drinking fountains would also encourage more outdoor exercise, by allowing joggers to stay hydrated. It would help cool down riders of public transportation that must wait for buses in the sun and car exhaust.

Although there are maintenance costs involved, drinking fountains can be found for $1,500. Put in the perspective of costs associated with streetscape improvements, it is well worth the investment.

Suggest it to City Planners and Leaders

The City of Raleigh is conducting an online survey to help develop a Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan. It runs for the next few days (ending June 30), and I hope you’ll take the short survey to provider planners with what is most beneficial to you.

There are several open-ended questions on how to improve the pedestrian experience. If you feel that the addition of more water fountains in pedestrian areas would be beneficial to you, I encourage you to mention it.

Take the survey for the City of Raleigh Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan >

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An 1892 replica of the Tornado, the first train to arrive in Raleigh. Currently housed in a museum in Hamlet, NC

1840 was a big year for Raleigh. In fact, it’s one of the most important in the city’s history. On March 21, 1840, the first steam locomotive came roaring and screeching into Raleigh on wooden tracks (the iron strips to cover them would come later). That same year would see the construction of the city’s most recognized and celebrated architectural treasure: the new State Capitol.

A New Transit Option and an Architectural Icon

The new railroad was the Raleigh and Gaston, and its journey began in 1835 when the General Assembly chartered the rail company with the sale of $800,000 in stock. Later that year, engineers begun bridging a river they named “Gaston”, in honor of Judge Gaston of Raleigh. The town of Gaston is near this river near the NC-VA border.

In 1840, the steam engine arrived to a wildly jubilant crowd:

[...] That all changed with the railroad “craze,” launched locally in 1833 with Ms. Sarah Polk successfully dogging Mr. William to get into the game via a mile or so of experimental line drawn by oxen to run stone from a quarry near National Cemetery to the capitol site. The oxen were laid off in 1840 by the menacing promise of steam when the Raleigh and Gaston’s English-made Tornado shrieked and huffed the into town on the last 5 miles of fresh wood tracks, cheered on by the drunks amid a city-wide 3 day party.

– Peter Eichenberger

The celebration also saw the city decorated with colored lamps and transparencies:

The completion of the road was hailed by a celebration which lasted for three days. From distant counties men, women and children came to see the new wonders — the State-house, the railroad and locomotive. At night the trees of Capitol Square were illuminated with colored lamps, as well also as was Fayetteville Street. Gorgeous transparencies could be everywhere seen. One was a representation of a locomotive, another of the State-house.

–Moses Amis, Historical Raleigh [PDF]

Even in 1840, Raleigh citizens had an appreciation for public visual art downtown.

The 1861 Raleigh and Gaston Building on Salisbury Street

From the ‘Raleigh and Gaston’ to ‘CSX’

About 20 years later, the rail line built an office building on Halifax Street. This early Victorian Italianate structure was moved in 1977 to make way for new construction on the government mall. This is the largest structure ever moved from its original site in the city of Raleigh.

CSX rail yard today, near Seaboard Station

It became known as the Seaboard Office Building in 1871 when the line was acquired by Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad. Seaboard later became CSX; short for Chesapeake & Ohio, Seaboard Coast Line, and Xpanded.

The Tornado, showing R.&G.R.R. (Raleigh and Gaston Railroad) from the railroad museum in Hamlet, NC (Tornado Building)

The 119 Year Old Replica

The original Tornado steam engine was decommissioned and dismantled after the Civil War. Some 52 years after the Tornado first arrived in Raleigh, a full-size replica of the original engine was constructed for the 1892 Raleigh Centennial Exposition Parade. It was built in the Raleigh and Gaston shops near Peace Street.

The 1900 train station and railroad museum in Hamlet, NC

Traveling to Another Town to Learn Raleigh History

If you’re interested in seeing a bit of railroad history and the Tornado, you need only drive about two hours away to Hamlet, NC. The beautiful Victorian railroad station has been restored and currently houses a train museum. It is also still an active station.

The Tornado is located across the street from the museum, in the aptly named Tornado Building. The building is normally locked, but any of the folks in the railroad museum will be more than happy to show you around and tell the history of the first steam engine to arrive in Raleigh.

Related Articles

• Moving a Mega-Monument
• Raleigh Railroading
• Down by the tracks

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One of the most overlooked historic houses in Raleigh is also one of the most important, the Dr. M.T. Pope House on S. Wilmington Street. Although modest in appearance, it’s a two-story Victorian row house, a construction type rarely seen in Raleigh today.

This house is currently part of the 2011 Community Challenge put on by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. So before learning about the history of the man and house, please go to the National Trust web site and VOTE for this house in the challenge. Registration takes only a minute.

The winner of the contest is eligible for up to $25,000 is grant funds. The Pope House is deserving of this and needs your help.

Dr. Pope in a Third Regiment photograph

An Extraordinary Man In Extraordinary Times

Dr. Pope’s life would have been extraordinary for anyone living at the turn of the century: a landowner, a medical doctor, a freemason (the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge is on a block adjacent to his house), and a Spanish-American war veteran. What made Dr. Pope even more unique was the fact he accomplished all of this being a person of color in the segregated South well before the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

Leonard Medical School, still standing today on Wilmington Street

A Part of History with Leonard Medical School

Leonard Medical School was a part of Shaw University and was the nation’s first 4-year medical school and the first school dedicated to training African-Americans in the South. Dr. Manassa Thomas Pope was part of the first graduating class in 1886.

Original nameplate on Dr. Pope's house

Building a Life as a Doctor

When Dr. Pope first set up in Raleigh after getting his medical degree, he did so on Fayetteville Street. Shortly thereafter, he moved his practice to Raleigh’s African-American main street, Hargett St. In his later years when his health began to fail, he would see patients out of his home.

Pope family on front porch facing Wilmington Street, around 1915

In deciding where to build a house, Dr. Pope chose the Third Ward area, which is around south Wilmington St. At the turn of the 20th century, it was a prestigious area for black professionals, but also had a few notable white residents as well. One of these white residents of the Third Ward was Josephus Daniels, who was Secretary of the Navy, Ambassador, and Editor of the N&O.

A residential island in an ocean of tall buildings

Pope chose the most prominent space he could, on the very edge of the division line between the white families that lived on Fayetteville St, and the black families that lived East of Wilmington St.

1903 Sanborn Insurance map of area

The 1903 Sanborn Insurance map above shows the block as being largely residential. All of the houses on that block are now gone.

Politically Active, and Challenging State Law

In addition to being a war veteran, a doctor, and community leader, Dr. Pope was also involved politically. This was at a time when blacks were not allowed to vote. He was active in the Republican party, and in 1902 was one of only seven men of color in Raleigh to vote. By doing so, he was directly challenging the state laws which prevented non-whites from voting.

A few years later he went significantly further, and ran for office:

Dr. Pope’s political activity reached a high point in the spring of 1919, when, in the midst of Jim Crow segregation and at a moment of extreme racial tension in the nation, he courageously ran for mayor of Raleigh. At that time the Raleigh city council consisted of only three members: mayor, commissioner of public safety, and commissioner of public works. Dr. Pope headed a non-partisan African American slate of candidates along with Calvin Lightner (whose son, Clarence Lightner, became the first black mayor of Raleigh in 1973) and J. Cheek in the April primary. [...] Of those registered, 2,550 cast ballots, with Dr. Pope receiving 126. As Calvin Lightner later remembered “we knew we wouldn’t win, and if we did win the whites wouldn’t let us administer, but we did it to wake our people up politically.”

– The Pope Museum Foundation

A lonely Victorian row house with no neighbors

What’s Left of the Residential Area Today

Today, it’s all gone except for the Pope House. By my estimation, it’s the only surviving single-family detached house in the core of the center city–the area between the Capitol Building and Auditorium, within a block of Fayetteville St.

Pope house interior, showing original lighting fixture that was connected to both electricity and gas

The House and Museum

The house was in the same family until the last of the Pope sisters (Evelyn and Ruth, daughters of Dr. Pope) died eleven years ago. Although a few parts of the house have been renovated, most of the original furnishings are in place, with countless original fixtures relating to turn of the century living.

Pope House interior, showing original maid call box in center-top of image

Particularly interesting is the original maid callbox in the photo above. Each room had a buzzer, which corresponded to a number on the box. Although I’ve seen door buzzers in several abandoned as well as restored Victorian houses, this is the first time I’ve seen the box they were connected to.

Antique medical supplies/equipment

There are countless boxes and shelves of Dr. Pope’s medical equipment. Unfortunately this and the other treasures of the Pope House are not generally viewable by the public. When the foundation took control of the house around the turn of the last century, there were grand plans to create a learning and history center open to the public.

Unfortunately, the amount of funding necessary for such a venture didn’t materialize and the house faces an uncertain future. While it certainly is not in any danger of being demolished, it is an unrealized local and national treasure. Most Raleigh residents are unaware of the historical treasure in the heart of downtown.

Please Help Spread the Word

As of this writing, the Pope House is about halfway up in the national rankings. Please consider sharing the National Trust web site link via email, Twitter, Facebook, and all the rest.

The Pope House is one of the most historically significant and well-preserved structures in Raleigh. It deserves some home town help in this friendly contest.

More From WRAL

Further Reading

• The Pope House Museum Foundation
• An American Success Story: The Pope House of Raleigh, NC (National Park Service)
• Dr. Pope House (National Park Service)

More From Inside the Pope House

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Century Postal Station today

Across the country, post offices are closing at an alarming rate. Rural communities are being left without their sole means of physical contact with the outside world (as well as services such as money orders), and gathering places for town residents are disappearing.

Despite the area’s strong economy and growing population, Raleigh has not been immune from such closings. We lost the only post office near the state’s largest university just a few months ago, among several others. The next area closure is in an unlikely location: The Century Postal Station on Fayetteville Street.

Post Office in 1909. From Carolina Power and Light (CP&L) Photograph Collection, North Carolina State Archives.

The South’s First Post-Bellum Post Office

The Downtown Postal Station has been in operation at this location since 1878. Not only was it the first post office built in the South after the Civil War, but it was also the first Federal building project here as well. It was designed by Alfred Mullet, who designed many Federal buildings, including the Old Executive Office Building in Washington D.C., as well as the San Francisco Mint. It has undergone a few renovations and transformations since erected in the 1870s, but retains much of its Second Empire-styled flair.

The photo above shows Fayetteville Street when it was paved in Belgian block.

The track record so far of communities attempting to save their local post office hasn’t been great, but this one’s different than the ones recently closed or on the list for closure. This is the 133-year old, post-Civil War postal station on the main artery of the fastest growing city in the South.

The entire area around it is exploding with growth and life, yet the USPS has decided that it should no longer remain open.

Post Office, as seen from RBC Plaza

How to Help Save the Downtown Postal Station

[UPDATE MAY 18]

Representatives David Price and Brad Miller are in support of Mayor Charles Meeker’s efforts to save the Downtown Postal Station. Read more at the News & Observer.

(original article below)

Although the outlook is bleak and there are few examples of communities that prevented a post office closure, it’s worth contacting elected officials to plead for help in keeping this post office open. If no one from the Federal Government steps in to save it, it will close this summer.

• Contact Rep. Renee Ellmers’ office by using the contact form (the postal station’s zip code is 27601-1799)
• Contact Rep. Brad Miller’s office by using the contact form
• Post an update to twitter asking Renee Ellmers (@RepReneeEllmers) and Brad Miller (@RepBradMiller) to step in and keep the station open

It’s expected that Mayor Meeker will address the topic of the post office during a press conference on today or tomorrow. It’s unknown to me if he will step in and try to save it, but you can send him an email with your thoughts.

This is an icon for the city. It represents an advancement of the area immediately following the Civil War, and serves as a destination for Downtown Raleigh residents, visitors, and workers. It should remain open.

Related Articles

• Architectural Styles of Raleigh and London
• Peeking In To The Post Office

Further Reading

• Downtown Raleigh post office to close (News & Observer)

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