Comments on: Beneath The Parking Lot [UPDATE 11:10 AM]

By: Goodnight, Raleigh! | a look at the art, architecture, history, and people of the city at night

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:04:55 +0000

[...] across Blount Street from the historic Richard B. Haywood house is a sprawling, 4-acre state government surface parking lot. I can tell you, though, one of Raleigh’s most exuberant and impressive 19th century structures [...]

By: Goodnight, Raleigh! » Reminiscences of a Raleigh Boy, Part 1

Goodnight, Raleigh! » Reminiscences of a Raleigh Boy, Part 1 — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:37:56 +0000

[...] became “The Blount Street House,” another towered confection the “Addams Family House,” the old Meredith building: “The Castle.” My family attended church downtown, so I looked forward to the weekly visit to [...]

By: DPK

DPK — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:10:00 +0000

Good catch. That street used to be so beautiful before the state came in and destroyed it.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:13:00 +0000

The lot is being reconfigured to accommodate bus parking. Currently, buses drop off visitors for the museums and historic sites in the capital district, then drive all the way to Blue Ridge Rd. to park by the NCMA. OF course, this does not fix the parking problem for state employees in the area, many of whom are put on a waiting list for over a year after being hired.

Truthfully, I don’t see how you can lament the passing of the drive and soon-to-vanish pillars considering they in no way reflect the grandeur of the former building.

By: Raleigh Boy

Raleigh Boy — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:03:00 +0000

Ahhh, Leo; How well I remember that awesome building! The architect of that masterpiece was Adolphus Gustavus Bauer, who had come to Raleigh as the young assistant to Samuel Sloan, architect of the Governor’s Mansion. After it’s completion in1891, Bauer stayed on in Raleigh and designed many public and private Raleigh buildings. Most are long gone, including the turreted “Colored Deaf and Dumb Asylum,” which was located on S. Bloodworth St on the block now occupied by the gigantuan Temple of Prayer for All People.

Getting back to the Meredith College Building: When that institution moved out Hillsboro St in 1925, the Blount St building was sold and re-opened as the Mansion Park Hotel. During the time of the hotel’s occupancy the brick piers at the driveway entrances were erected. Many years later the state bought the property and used the building as offices until about 1967 when it was demolished >> what a loss! Indeed, before the state began razing the mansions along Blount, Wilmington, and Halifax streets in the 1960s, that area was virtually intact, albeit a little seedy, but neverthess, what a sight to behold it was!