Nash Square was a popular cruising spot (a place for gay or bisexual men to meet other men for trysts) in the 20th century prior to and throughout gay liberation.
Several places have been identified as cruising spots in the middle of the 20th century, including certain stretches of Hillsborough, Fayetteville, and W. Hargett Streets. Cruising also took place in public restrooms in the Sir Walter Hotel (400 Fayetteville St.), the Hotel Carolina (demolished), the Museum of Natural History (Annex to 2 W. Edenton St.), North Hills Mall (demolished), Crabtree Valley Mall (altered), and Harrelson Hall (demolished) at North Carolina State University. Nash Square retains the most integrity of all these places and is the most publicly accessible.
Build Date: 1792; Design altered 1913 & 1939-40
LGBTQIA+ Associated: Documented in the 1960s through the 1980s, but likely earlier
]]>Raleigh established City Cemetery in 1798, one of the earliest public burying grounds in the state. Narrow lanes divide the original four acres into segregated quadrants. Graves for African Americans are in the southeast quadrant, for white citizens of Raleigh in the two north quadrants, and for “strangers,” or white non-Raleighites in the southwest. Within the quadrants, graves are arranged in family or associated groups delineated by fences, low masonry curbs, or granite posts marking just the corners. Notable in the strangers’ quadrant is the Stonecutters group for the highly skilled artisans who came to Raleigh in the 1830s to build the Neoclassical-style State Capitol. Neoclassical grave markers and the two mid-nineteenth-century mausoleums at the cemetery reflect the architectural and material influence of the Capitol.
Expansions and upgrades changed the cemetery. The city relocated an 1850s cast-iron fence that had encircled Capitol Square, installing it here in 1898. Around the same time, granite cobblestones and cut-granite curbs were installed along the lanes. Two new municipal cemeteries, Oakwood for whites and Mount Hope for African Americans, opened in 1869 and 1872 as City Cemetery was nearing capacity. By 1900, all City Cemetery plots were sold. The death dates on markers in City Cemetery extend from 1795 through 2006.
Date: 1798
]]>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 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
]]>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
]]>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
]]>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
]]>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
]]>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
]]>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
]]>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
]]>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
]]>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
]]>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
]]>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
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