Raleigh's oldest surviving financial building housed the first state-sponsored banking institution in North Carolina. Architecturally, the building represents the transition between Federal and Greek Revival styles and features handmade brick as well as granite window sills and lintels. It is the oldest masonry building still standing in Raleigh. Most notable are the matching two-story porticos supported by columns of stuccoed brick on the building's east and west facades. Owned by the State Employees Credit Union, the building is open during the credit union's operating hours.
Date: 1813
]]>This one-room frame building typifies late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century office buildings. Two lawyers prominent in North Carolina politics shared the office: George Edmund Badger, a state legislator, judge, and secretary of the navy; and James Iredell Jr., a state legislator, governor, and U.S. senator. Originally located near the northwest corner of W. Edenton and N. Dawson Streets, the building was moved to Mordecai Historic Park in 1973.
Date: ca. 1810
]]>Named for Phares Yates, whose family operated it from 1869 to 1948, Yates Mill is the only water-powered mill building remaining in Wake County. Remodeled at various times, its present size and configuration date to the 1850s. Prior to closing in 1953 for lack of demand, it was utilized for lumber manufacturing, corn and wheat milling, and wool carding. The mill is now part of a county park with hiking trails and picnic areas in addition to the historic structure.
Date: ca. 1756
]]>Spring Hill was the home of prominent late-eighteenth/early-nineteenth-century plantation owner and lawyer, Theophilus Hunter Jr. The earliest marked grave in Wake County, that of pioneer settler Theophilus Hunter Sr., is in the yard. The dwelling now houses offices for a North Carolina State University academic program.
Date: ca. 1815
]]>Elmwood, a two-and-one-half story frame townhouse, has been home to many distinguished North Carolinians including two Supreme Court chief justices, an associate justice, an ambassador and a historian. The house displays many Federal-period characteristics including molded weatherboards and gabled dormers with fanlights; there are also several post-Federal-period additions dating from the mid-nineteenth century. It now serves as offices.
Date: ca. 1813
]]>Andrew Johnson, seventeenth president of the United States, was born in this tiny gambrel-roofed building with a loft. The building was the detached kitchen for Peter Casso's Inn as well as home to the four members of the Johnson family. Originally sited near E. Morgan and Fayetteville streets, the building was relocated three times before its 1975 move to Mordecai Historic Park. Open to public.
Date: Before 1808
]]>The Trinity House is Wake County's oldest surviving brick house. Despite an expansion in the nineteenth century and extensive remodeling in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the house retains original details like the Flemish-bond brick walls (visible inside but covered by stucco at the exterior), a steeply pitched side-gable roof, and interior chimneys. As late as the 1960s, the house still had Federal-era mantels and six-panel doors. Private residence.
Date: ca. 1800
]]>Also known as Whitehall, the original late Georgian/early Federal-style dwelling was built for secretary of state William White. The house has undergone major changes including the addition of a Victorian wing and an about face when the City of Raleigh turned it around from its original Morgan St. frontage to face New Bern Ave. Private residence.
Date: ca. 1799
]]>Built for John Haywood, state treasurer for forty years, Haywood Hall remained home to one of North Carolina's most distinguished families until 1977. The family bequeathed the late Georgian/early Federal-style house to the State Society of the Colonial Dames who maintain it and its four dependencies as a house museum. The garden has been restored by Home and Neighborhood Development Sponsors, also known as HANDS. The house and garden are available for tours and receptions.
Date: ca. 1799
]]>This Federal-style plantation house features molded weatherboards, modillion cornice, Flemish bond chimneys and six-panel doors. Nathaniel Jones, an early Wake County settler, built the dwelling. It is one of the oldest structures that remains standing within the Raleigh city limits.
The building's original wooded site at 3017 Wake Forest Rd became an 18th-century island surrounded by late 20th- and early 21st-century commercial and industrial development. Today, the building has been saved from demolition by relocating 500 ft away to a new lot within a later subdivision. It continues to serve as a private residence.
Date: ca. 1795
]]>Joseph Lane, brother of Joel Lane, who owned the land upon which Raleigh was founded, built this small Georgian style farmhouse in western Wake County. The house, moved to its present location in 1980 to prevent demolition, has been rehabilitated. Joseph Gales, founder of the newspaper Raleigh Register, once owned the house. Private residence.
Date: 1775
]]>The gambrel-roofed home of Colonel Joel Lane has been restored to its 1790-1795 appearance by the Wake County Committee of the Colonial Dames. Colonel Lane became known as the "Father of Raleigh" after he sold a thousand acres of land to the state in 1792 to establish a permanent state capital here. Tours available.
Date: ca. 1760
]]>Joel Lane built the original dwelling, a frame house in the hall and parlor plan, for his son Henry. The house is named for Moses Mordecai, who married into the Lane family and provided in his will for the 1826 Greek Revival addition, designed by William Nichols. The center of a thriving plantation, Mordecai House remained in the Lane-Mordecai family until 1967 when the city of Raleigh purchased the property to establish an historic park. The house and dependencies provide a glimpse into the life of a single family spanning five generations. Open to the public.
ca. 1785 and 1826
]]>The candy factory that Arkansas Delaware Royster and his brother Vermont Connecticut Royster established in this building became a Raleigh phenomenon. The business began as a general store inherited by the third-generation Raleigh brothers after the Civil War. Arkansas, known as Ark, ran the store while his eighteen-year-old brother V.C. went to New York City to learn candymaking. V.C. returned and the Roysters switched from groceries to confections in 1872. By 1883, Royster’s churned out a ton of candy daily. Early specialties included coconut, cream, and peanut candies. Later, the company shipped its sweets around the world as Raleigh youngsters grew into nostalgic candy-loving adults who wanted their Royster’s no matter where they lived. The factory closed in 1960 and the building now houses offices.
Date: ca. 1865 with alterations ca. 1892 and 2000
]]>One of the city's earliest surviving office buildings, the three-story brick Seaboard Building served as railroad offices for more than a hundred years. The building, which has a restrained Italianate design, originally stood on N. Halifax Street. The state purchased the land for the its Government Mall in 1977 and moved the building to N. Salisbury Street. State offices.
Date: ca. 1862
]]>This small frame building is a rare surviving example of Raleigh's antebellum Greek Revival commercial architecture. The beaded siding, heart-pine flooring, and early mantels remain intact. Moved several times, the Raleigh Historic Districts Commission brought it to its present site in 1972 and restored it in 1976. Open to public.
Date: ca. 1847
]]>Peace Institute, chartered in 1857, was named for William Peace, who contributed eight acres and $10,000 toward the establishment of a Presbyterian school for girls. The Main Building is an impressive Greek Revival structure with Italianate accents. Used during the Civil War as a hospital, it then became a Freedman's Bureau. During Reconstruction, the building was reclaimed for use as a girls' school.
Date: ca. 1861
]]>Designed by English architect William Percival, First Baptist Church is a variant of the Gothic Revival style. The church is a symmetrical brick structure stuccoed and scored to give the appearance of stone. The building features an entrance tower with tall pinnacles and a 160-foot-tall spire. It is one of the four ecclesiastical anchors of Union (Capitol) Square.
Date: 1859
]]>Designed by English-born architect Richard Upjohn, this small board-and-batten Carpenter Gothic chapel graces the campus with its beauty and simplicity. The main gable contains a cartwheel rose window above an entrance hood supported by curved brackets. A cruciform finial crowns the steep gabled roof.
Date: 1856
]]>Prominent layman John O’Rorke donated land to the Catholic Diocese for this cemetery, the oldest historic resource in the city associated with Raleigh’s Catholic community. Established at a time when prevailing Protestant thought often made life difficult for Catholics, the cemetery retains twelve monuments and plot borders dating from 1865 to about 1931. The cemetery operated as Raleigh’s Catholic cemetery from 1858 to 1931; in 1938 the cemetery was ceded to the city for the burial of itinerants and the “less fortunate.” Beginning in 1941 the city operated the property as a paupers’ graveyard until the cemetery was fully utilized in 1986.
Date: 1858
]]>English-born architect Richard Upjohn, founder of the American Institute of Architects, designed this granite church in the early English parish style of Gothic architecture. The church features a Latin-cross plan and a stone bell tower, completed after the main building, in 1861. It is one of the four ecclesiastical anchors of Union (Capitol) Square and has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
Date: 1848-1852, 1859-1861
]]>Built to replace the original capitol, which burned in 1831, this National Historic Landmark is one of America's most important neoclassical structures. Three outstanding nineteenth century architects, Alexander Jackson, Ithiel Town, and David Paton designed this copper-roofed, roughly cruciform-plan building. Chambers originally used by the state senate and house remain intact. The building now houses offices for the governor and lieutenant governor. Guided tours are offered.
Date: 1833-40
]]>Smedes Hall is a three-and one-half story Greek Revival brick building. Originally built for the boys' school and called Main Hall, Smedes was renamed in honor of the Reverend Aldert Smedes, first rector and president of Saint Mary's School. It has been used as a multi-purpose building since the girls' school opened in 1842.
Date: 1839
]]>East Rock (1834) and West Rock (1835) were built of stone discarded during the construction of the second State Capitol. The twin buildings flank Smedes Hall, the school's main building; enclosed walkways connect the three buildings.
Date: 1834; 1835
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