Goodnight Raleigh - a look at the art, architecture, history, and people of the city at night
After countless stays of execution and pleas from Preservation North Carolina to save the Fabius Briggs House located at 1301 Hillsborough Street, it seems its day has come. Built in 1906 by a son of Thomas H. Briggs, founder of Briggs Hardware, it has stood witness to the evolution of one of Raleigh’s most attractive and well traveled streets.
The new Morgan Street entrance
Since the 1920s, the Junior League of Raleigh has improved the community and the lives of those within it through education, outreach, and voluntarism. About a year ago, the organization moved in to the lower floor of a former IBM research facility on Hillsborough Street near the Capitol Building.
Often overlooked, this 1960s commercial building is a fine example of the International Style. It has the distinctive flair characteristic of its highly accomplished architect, George Matsumoto, along with a rejuvenated new appearance.
It was 1966, and the gilded luster of the aged grande dame had faded long ago. With great trepidation I walked up to the front door. My buddy and I had been roving Blount St. for more than a year by then, exploring and photographing the once elegant mansions being demolished by the state in the late 1960s. And of course I always had my trusty Kodak Instamatic camera in tow.
Want a tiny physical reminder of Raleigh? City-Blox are 2"x3" photographic prints mounted directly to wood blocks. You can support this blog by buying them at Etsy.
This week’s Flashback Friday postcard features Raleigh’s iconic art deco Durham Life Insurance Company office building, or as I always used to refer to it — “the Superman Building.”
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