Category / History

by Leo Suarez

NC Library and State Archives Goes Digital

Here’s a great project carried out by the NC State Archives and State Library.

From Crossroads to Capital

Witness Raleigh’s founding in 1792 and experience the first 50 years of North Carolina’s most powerful city in this exciting project from the State Library and State Archives of North Carolina.

Browse through digital copies of original documents, maps, books, and images, and check out the additional resources on this site to explore the evolution of Raleigh from its beginning near the Wake Cross Roads, throughout its founding, and into its early formative years.

If you are the kind of person that likes digging through old historic documents, this website contains some real treasures such as William Christmas’s plan for downtown sketched on paper. My favorite so far is this old newspaper with a view down Fayetteville St. (go to page 9) that even today we cannot match.

Thanks Kristen!

by Leo Suarez

Prisoner Names Surround The Executive Mansion

I took the segway tour of downtown Raleigh this weekend and I learned some great downtown trivia during it. I thought one of the most interesting pieces of history was related to the bricks around the governor’s mansion. The bricks were made by prisoners at the time and to leave their mark, they wrote their names on the bricks. The next time you walk around the mansion look over the bricks and you will see lots of names written on them. Most are worn down but there are some that are still legible. I’m still not sure of the names on these bricks, any guesses?

by Leo Suarez

History: Geodesy In Raleigh

Take a look at the two pictures above. Do you see a connection maybe? If you think we need more stones, I agree with you. The stones are located on the southeast corner of Union Square, or near the corner of Wilmington and Morgan St. They were used to calculate the exact latitude and longitude of Raleigh. Here is what the plaque on this stone says:

Geodetic Survery Stones 1853-1854 Site used by U.S. Coastal and Geodetic Survey to measure the precise longitude and latitude of Raleigh by taking simultaneous readings of the positions of stars here and at locations in Richmond, VA and Charleston and Columbia S.C. A Temporary telegraph station was set up here to communicate with the other sites.

I had to look up what Geodesy was and here is the definition from dictionary.com:

the branch of applied mathematics that deals with the measurement of the shape and area of large tracts of country, the exact position of geographical points, and the curvature, shape, and dimensions of the earth.

I did a little research because I was interested in the tech used to accomplish this in the 1850’s. It turns out the telegraph was patented in 1837 by Samuel Morse, the man behind Morse code, and the following years after that, the technology was improved and used on a wider scale.

Interesting stuff. If anyone can add to this, please feel free to comment. Look for these stones next time you are walking around the Capitol.