My vote goes to the United House of Prayer

I don’t attend or belong to a church and I haven’t seen all of the ones in Raleigh–but I’ve admired this structure on more than one occasion and thought it was beautiful. It is home to the United House of Prayer denomination, and is located on 409 East South Street, near Shaw University.

The Pastor, Apostle T. Baptist (above) was kind enough to show me around and give me a history lesson of the church. The United House of Prayer was founded by Charles Manuel Grace in West Wareham, Massachusetts. The first structure was built in 1919 at a cost of 39 dollars. Today, there are 138 congregations in 38 cities.
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Located on the south end of Glenwood Avenue, Edge Office is part professional/industrial furniture retailer and part workspace. They specialize in providing complete office furnishing solutions for profesional businesses and entrepreneurs.

I first became acquainted with Edge Office during the 30THREADS launch party put on by Ginny Skalski and Wayne Sutton back in July. I was immediately impressed with the environment, if not a bit confused. I wasn’t sure if it was a software company or a coworking environment—turns out it is neither one. They are a professional office furnishings retailer. It is unique in that Edge Office not only serves as a showroom, but also as a functioning demonstration of the equipment and workspace solutions they provide.
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This past Thursday while waiting for (a very delicious) Thanksgiving dinner at the home of some friends of mine, I decided to walk down to Big John’s Community Grocery, which is on the corner of Edenton Street and Idlewild Avenue. It’s within eyesight of their front porch, and I’ve witnessed some interesting activity there for some time. Curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to walk down to the store and talk to some of the people hanging around outside. While on my way there, I noticed the historic ground marker above.

The inscription reads:

Idlewild Neighborhood, 1891. Idlewild Avenue is the center of Idlewild, an early area of African-American home ownership named after the Battle Family Estate on Cotton Place south of New Bern Avenue. The Raleigh Land and Improvement Company subdivided Idlewild, and the neighborhood grew in the early twentieth century. Bounded by Swain St. on west, Oakwood Avenue on north, Tarboro Road on east, and Edenton Street on south.

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