Top: 1944, Bottom: 2012
Top image courtesy State Archives of North Carolina

Nestled beside the Wilmont Apartments on Hillsborough Street sits one of Raleigh’s earliest examples of modernist architecture.  Built in 1937, the building first functioned as the Nehi Bottling Company. Designed by acclaimed Raleigh architect William Henley Deitrick, it is a great example of the International style.

This early style of modernist architecture suggests volume rather than mass, and function rather than form.  The only ornamentation original to the building are the black glass tiles flanking the main entrance, some of which have fallen off in recent years.

Another example of this style, this time residential, can be found nearby on Turner St.
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Built in 1949, 201 S. Boylan Avenue is an early example of Raleigh modernist architecture and was first home to Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. PPG occupied the space until the early 1970s when the building changed ownership. Now, it is occupied by Boylan Bridge Brewpub, a bar/restaurant that boasts “The best view in Raleigh.”

For our second installment of Raleigh, Then and Now, we take you down Hillsborough street. Located less than a mile from The North Carolina State Capitol sits a building that has served Raleigh for quite a long time. Built in 1915, 1207 Hillsborough street was first occupied by a drug store and a US Post Office substation. A small apartment on the second floor provided shelter for an NCSU professor.

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