Oak Grove is the community cemetery for Method, a Raleigh neighborhood established after the Civil War outside the then-city limits by formerly enslaved people. The founding families of Method are buried near the center of the cemetery, their gravesites marked with historically significant markers: the O’Kelly, Ligon, Wilcox, and Wilder families among them. Other stones are typical of rural African American burying grounds in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including marble headstones as well as concrete markers both commercially produced and hand made. Many graves are unmarked. Oaks, pines, and cedars shade the resting places.
Dates: Ca. 1873, 1885, 1937
]]>Mount Hope, established around 1872, is one of the first municipal cemeteries for African Americans in the state. City Cemetery’s African American section was full by 1871 and the city purchased eleven or so acres south of town for additional burial grounds. It was common in this period for cities to establish such cemeteries for whites, but very rare to do so for African Americans. Those buried at Mount Hope include some prominent professionals and businessmen from late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Raleigh, such as Dr. Manassa T. Pope, whose family home is another historic landmark. The cemetery features a garden design characterized by looping drives in contrast with the rectilinear design of City Cemetery. The funerary sculpture is particularly notable and is one of the largest collections of African American funerary art in the county.
Date: ca. 1872
]]>The ca. 1895 Horton-Beckham-Bretsch House is a bold and now rare example of the Eastlake cottage style in Raleigh. The crowning feature of the house is its front porch with Eastlake-style details that extends the width of the facade, punctuated by an inviting central porch bay that projects to greet you. As much as the grand Eastlake details of the imposing Merriman-Wynne House impress you, the exuberance of the Bretsch House's Eastlake porch delights. The house is associated with the sisters Sallie and Emma Smethurst, who boarded with Sallie from 1927 to Sallie’s death in 1979. The women lived there longer than any of the men, and, as often single women, maintained a household not only by holding down jobs but also through the rent provided by boarders. The house was moved in 1982 from its original location in the 100-block of N. McDowell Street to this location to preserve it from demolition.
]]>James Yadkin Joyner lived here throughout his influential tenure as the state’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, which lasted from 1902 to 1919. J.Y. Joyner oversaw a maturation of the state’s educational system, focusing on teacher training, longer school terms, and high school instruction. At the same time, local governments began collecting special school taxes and the state started allocating funds for education.
The house is one of eleven in Oakwood built by Julius Lewis & Company, started in 1865 as a hardware and building supply firm. Lewis and partner Nicholas W. West built in the neighborhood in the 1870s and 1880s. The Lewis‐Joyner house dates to 1878 and combines details from the Stick, Italianate, and Second Empire styles of the Victorian period.
]]>The 1881 Leonard Medical School is a nice—if not entirely intact—example of the Romanesque Revival style. Its primary significance, however, lies in its connection to the medical education provided by Shaw University to black male students in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Increasing the ranks of professionally trained black doctors during segregation bettered the black community’s access to health care. It also helped create a black professional class and a group of leaders active in the political fight against segregation. The school unfortunately closed in 1918; it was always in want of a sustaining endowment. Shaw converted the building to general classroom and office use. A 1983 fire did heavy damage and Leonard stood empty for over a decade. The university rehabilitated it in the last years of the twentieth century, rebuilding architectural features lost in the fire. It is now known as Leonard Hall.
]]>The Atwater-Perry House is an excellent example of a late-nineteenth century, middle-class dwelling. The house is significant for its association with two middle-class black families in Raleigh. William Atwater, a grocer, bought the ca. 1898 single-story rental at 904 E. Hargett Street and moved in with his family. The Atwaters were the first owner-occupants of the house and the first black owners and residents. After Atwater’s death in 1924, his daughter and her husband William Perry bought the house and remodeled it into a two-story Foursquare. The foursquare is a house type that can accommodate a variety of architectural modes; in this case, the porch posts, shingle siding, and exposed rafter tails show the influence of the Craftsman style. The type gets its name from the interior arrangement, which accommodates four rooms in a roughly square plan at each story. William Perry was Raleigh’s first black mail carrier, a position he held for about thirty years. The house stayed in the Atwater and Perry families for the better part of a century. The land was also the site of the first state fairgrounds, established in 1853. When the fair moved to West Raleigh in 1872, the land was subdivided for residential development.
c. 1898, c. 1924, c. 1945
]]>The ca. 1875 Merrimon-Wynne House is a lovely example of both the Italianate architectural style and the Eastlake mode of decoration. Elongated windows, upright proportions, and modillions under the broad eave are all hallmarks of the style, popular in Raleigh in the 1870s and 1880s. Eastlake detailing is derived from the Gothic style and became popular upon the publication of English architect Charles Locke Eastlake’s book of furniture and decor. The book came out in the United States in 1872 and was an immediate hit. Characteristic Eastlake details include columns, posts, and piers shaped with chamfered corners or turned profiles and adorned with bold, curvaceous forms like knobs and bosses. Such ornament decorates many Victorian-era dwellings in Raleigh and is particularly seen on porches.
ca. 1875
]]>The Heck-Wynne House is one of three distinct landmarks built in a variation of the Second Empire style by Colonel Jonathan M. Heck, a developer in the Oakwood neighborhood. Located on adjacent lots in the Oakwood Historic District, the Heck-Lee, Heck-Pool, and Heck-Wynne houses are differentiated by alterations made to them over time. They are also listed individually in the National Register of Historic Places. Private residence.
between 1872 and 1875
]]>The Heck-Pool House is one of three distinct landmarks built in a variation of the Second Empire style by Colonel Jonathan M. Heck, a developer in the Oakwood neighborhood. Located on adjacent lots in the Oakwood Historic District, the Heck-Lee, Heck-Pool, and Heck-Wynne houses are differentiated by alterations made to them over time. They are also listed individually in the National Register of Historic Places. Private residence.
between 1872 and 1875
]]>The Heck-Lee House is one of three distinct landmarks built in a variation of the Second Empire style by Colonel Jonathan M. Heck, a developer in the Oakwood neighborhood. Located on adjacent lots in the Oakwood Historic District, the Heck-Lee, Heck-Pool, and Heck-Wynne houses are differentiated by alterations made to them over time. They are also listed individually in the National Register of Historic Places. Private residence.
between 1872 and 1875
]]>Architect G. S. H. Appleget designed this house for Confederate Colonel Jonathan McGee Heck. A characteristic mansard roof caps the Second Empire house and a dramatic central tower adorns the facade. Patterned slate and ornate brackets, window surrounds, and porch posts make this one of Raleigh's most distinctive Victorian-era houses. previously owned by the state, which restored its deteriorated exterior, the house is being converted by the North Carolina Association of Realtors, Inc. for office use and first floor venue space.
Date: 1870
]]>G. S. H. Appleget designed this symmetrical Italianate home for Confederate Captain Alexander B. Andrews. Although much different than the Heck-Andrews House in its overall effect, there are similarities in the window surrounds, finely ornamented brackets, and decorative porch posts. The original stable stands behind the house and retains its steep hip roof with cupola. The house is owned by the state and is used as offices.
Date: 1874
]]>The overall style of the two-story, wood frame Higgs-Coble-Helms house is Italianate but it has the asymmetrical composition typical of Queen Anne dwellings. Its second-story windows are capped by pedimented surrounds supported by brackets that are echoed throughout the house. It also features the only tin roof on N. Blount Street. The dwelling houses state offices.
Date: 1878
]]>The Victorian-era home of Raleigh mayor William H. Dodd and later of attorney and legislator John Wetmore Hinsdale features a variety of architectural details. The house combines an Italianate-bracketed cornice, a Second Empire mansard-roofed tower, and an ornate Eastlake porch. In the late twentieth century, the dwelling narrowly escaped the wrecking ball and has been renovated for use as a restaurant.
Date: 1879
]]>This two-and-a-half-story frame dwelling is an excellent example of a middle-class home of the late nineteenth century, and it is one of the few houses on Blount Street that remains on its original site. Although it features the Eastlake and Neo-Greco styles of decoration that were popular in the late Victorian period, the actual execution of the detailing is somewhat unusual in Raleigh.
Date: 1881; before 1903
]]>Master builder Thomas H. Briggs built this simple but stylish Italianate dwelling for local harness maker Leonidas Wyatt and his wife Cora. The house features molded eaves, projecting bay windows, molded window and door surrounds, and porch brackets. The Wyatts' daughter Cora inherited it in 1942 and lived there until 1986. Threatened with demolition in 1988, the house was moved to this location from 107 W. Jones Street. The City of Raleigh rehabilitated the exterior.
Date: 1881-1882
]]>A smaller late-nineteenth-century dwelling became the rear wing of this commodious Queen Anne/Colonial Revival transitional house, erected around 1900 by businessman Carey J. Hunter for himself and his family. The complicated massing suggests its Queen Anne roots, as does the corner tower housing the front door, the bracketed gable roofs, and the stained glass windows. The house also displays Colonial Revival detailing at the exterior, including leaded glass windows, a Palladian window grouping, and Ionic porch columns. The Colonial Revival interior is richly detailed with features like Neoclassical mantels, Corinthian-columned room dividers, egg-and-dart and dentil moldings. Private residence.
Date: ca. 1882, ca. 1900
]]>According to tradition, this house was built as a surprise by Dr. William J. Hawkins for his brother and sister-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Alexander B. Hawkins. Mrs. Hawkins had the ninety-two-foot Eastlake verandah added to soften the brick facade. Mrs. Annie Sloan Hartness, wife of James A. Hartness, North Carolina Secretary of State (1929-1931) purchased the house in 1928. Currently, the house serves as the offices of the Lieutenant Governor. Its interior features magnificent hardwood cabinetry by Philadelphia craftsmen.
Date: ca. 1882
]]>The picturesque one-story frame Queen Anne cottage was built for Plummer T. Hall, the first pastor of the Oberlin Baptist Church, as a wedding present for his bride. The house, which remains in the Hall family, has a turreted porch and bay window as well as circular and quatrefoil gable vents. Private residence.
Date: Between 1878 and 1893
]]>Located on one of the five public squares provided in Raleigh's initial city plan of 1792, the governor's home is an unusually symmetrical Queen Anne dwelling designed by architect Samuel Sloan of Philadelphia and his assistant Gustavus Adolphus Bauer. The mansion, home of North Carolina governors since 1891, features extensive Eastlake verandahs. Prisoners hand-made the bricks for the house and the sidewalk that surrounds the block; some bricks bear the signature of their makers. Tours available.
Date: 1883-1891
]]>Willis Graves, an African American brick mason, built this two-and-a-half-story frame Queen Anne house soon after buying the land in 1884. The square corner turret and front bay window with roof pediment are placed on a basic I-house form. The house, with its wrap-around porch and stained-glass windows in shingled gables, was considered one of the most stylish residences built in the Oberlin community during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Mr. Graves, also a justice of the peace and leader in the Wilson A. M. E. Church, was one of Oberlin's most respected citizens. Private residence.
Date: Between 1884 and 1891
]]>Lucy Catherine Moore Capehart, daughter of a prominent state legislator, had this imposing brick house with elaborate wood and stone ornamentation built on then-fashionable N. Wilmington Street. Designed by A. G. Bauer, it is one of the finest examples of Queen Anne architecture remaining in Raleigh. Gables, dormers, turrets, and intricately corbelled chimneys punctuate the irregular roofline. The state and the Historic Preservation Foundation of North Carolina moved the house to N. Blount Street.
Date: 1898
]]>This two-story frame house features details and characteristics of the Neoclassical Revival style. Slender Ionic columns support the wrap-around porch; the pedimented front entry is particularly noteworthy. Private residence.
Date: 1899
]]>Designed by architect A. G. Bauer, Norburn Terrace is an excellent example of Victorian-era residential design. Originally sited on a fifteen-acre tract carved from the Mordecai Plantation, Norburn Terrace boasted picturesque grounds with meandering walks. Although the grounds have been much reduced in size, the house still presents a romantic complexity with its three-story central tower and rambling porch. Private residence.
Date: 1899
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