Goodnight Raleigh - a look at the art, architecture, history, and people of the city at night

Raleigh At Four Hundred Acres

A plate near the sidewalk at the corner of East St and New Bern Avenue reads:

Eastern boundary of the original city of Raleigh. The original city plan, drawn by surveyor and legislator William Christmas in 1792 contained four hundred acres with North, South, East, and West Streets as the boundaries. Christmas’s plan called for New Bern Ave and the other streets leading towards Union Square to be 99 ft. wide, the rest of the streets to be 66 ft. wide. Raleigh grew slowly, and by 1891 the eastern boundary was one and one-half blocks east of here.

Raleigh Boy noted these original boundaries when commenting on the history of the Hillsboro(ugh) St. name.

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Discuss Raleigh

  • Recent Comments:

    • Liz: I’ve always wanted to stay at the Gables too! One of these days….
    • BC: Is the site occupied by Char Grill now?
    • Curt: I can’t answer the question, but there are some interesting facets to the address side of this postcard, too. -...
    • Brian: At the time, that’s how it was spelled.
    • James: Hillsboro?
    • Sharon Graham Felton: Great pictures. I remember as a girl going to the water garden where my father (Ralph Graham)...
    • Chris: This is right across the street from my apartment, so I wake up to this view every morning. My brother called...
    • NCSU: I’ve often fantasized about checking into this place for a couple of months and writing the great...


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