A Lost Gem on Hillsborough Street: The Joe Cox Stained Glass Mural
Forty-seven years ago next month, Branch Banking and Trust Company opened its “State College Office†at the corner of Hillsborough St. and Oberlin Rd. The ribbon cutting ceremony was held with great fanfare, with the mayor of Raleigh, the chancellor of NC State and the president of BB&T in attendance.
Though the pick and shovel groundbreaking had occurred several months earlier, the bank’s opening “broke ground” in another, more significant way — it was the first Raleigh bank to feature a work of public art as an integral part of its design — a dazzling stained glass mural.
“The mural represents the growing cooperation between artist and architect that is rapidly spreading throughout the country,†the N&O reported in an article on the event in 1962.
The architect of the State College Office was F. Carter Williams; the artist who designed the stained glass mural was none other than the renowned Raleigh artist, color theorist and School of Design professor, Joe Cox.