Before It was Glenwood South

This is how Ravenscroft School looked in 1972, right after the seniors complex was built. It had remained virtually unchanged since my days there in the 1950s. The buildings were converted to office use shortly after this photo was taken. Below is the view today.

Last week I attended the Blogger Bash hosted by Ginny Skalski and Wayne Sutton at the Edge Office over on Glenwood Avenue. Afterwards, John Morris and I stopped in at a nondescript bar on Tucker Street around the corner from Solas. As we were sitting on the outdoor deck sipping our brew, engaged in heady conversation, John asked me if I remembered Glenwood South when it was primarily a commercial and industrial area. (He relocated to Raleigh just four years ago, so he knows the area only as the entertainment district it has become in recent years.)

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Like a Phoenix from the Ashes: Raleigh’s Downtown Warehouse District

From left to right: Julia Demarre, and Allyn Stewart, Avi Wenger (author of the performance), Katherine Myers, Ronnie Ruedrich, and David Sedaris

The cast of  “Openings Windows and Passages” peering up from the floor of Lot 13 in this promo shot by Mark Herdter in 1979.

Just as Raleigh’s Fayetteville Street is currently undergoing a Renaissance, likewise is the city’s old industrial warehouse district located between downtown and the railroad tracks. New housing units intermingle with nightclubs; lofts are filling long empty warehouse spaces; and it is emerging as a focus of downtown nightlife. The warehouse district is awaking from the long slumber it had fallen into after the hustle and bustle of its industrial glory days had faded.

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Part 3: Raleigh’s Main Street

Briggs Hardware (1874) on Fayetteville Street in 1965

Briggs Hardware 2008, now home of the City History Museum. Next door is the former Boylan Pearce department store with its recently restored Beaux Arts facade.

200 block of Fayetteville St showing the Tucker Building and the Post Office on the left

200 block in 2008

View toward the Capitol from the 100 block, 1966. With the exception of the two state government buildings at the end, all the structures in this view are gone.

In 2008; Looks beautiful at night, doesn’t it?

Close up of east side of the street in the 1966 view.

Last night.

View toward the 200 block from the alley between the (old) Wachovia building on the right and “Lenin’s Tomb” on the left.

The view today. The alley was closed during the mall period.

The lower floors of ” Raleigh’s Little Seagram Building” and the 1960s facade of Hudson Belk.

Same view today.

The east side of the 200 and 300 blocks in 1966 showing the (old) Wachovia building, “Lenin’s Tomb” and the block of 19th century storefronts where the RBC building is now going up.

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