This particular doorway is attached to the First Presbyterian Church.

The new congregation erected a brick meeting house of colonial design in 1818 on the southwest corner of Salisbury and Morgan Streets at Capitol Square. This original structure was used for 80 years until it was razed to make room for the present sanctuary, which was completed about 1900. When fire destroyed the original State Capitol in 1831, the North Carolina Supreme Court met in the Session House of First Presbyterian Church until the present Capitol was completed in 1840.

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Hillsborough Street must have the highest number of automotive service shops (both current and abandoned) of any street I’ve ever been on. Most of them are clustered around the campus area, but there are a few that are closer to the Capitol Building end of Hillsborough Street.
Even more peculiar is the brand new asphalt surrounding this otherwise decrepit building. What gives? This end of the road isn’t exactly the hottest piece of real estate downtown, but I still don’t understand how this property has been able to sit in this condition for this long–unless there are environmental issues requiring cleanup before redevelopment.
This building gives us a peek into Raleigh’s past. With the development about to take place just around the corner, I can’t imagine this will continue to be an abandoned relic.

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Over the years I’ve heard of really old hobbit-like doors in old cities that were short, rounded, and had the knob in the middle of the door. This is the first one that I’ve noticed (although not round nor short) in Raleigh.
It makes you wonder, what is really the advantage of placing the knob in the middle?