by Leo Suarez

The State of Hillsborough St.

Hillsborough St. gets my vote as being one of the most important streets for downtown. From the Capitol building out to Glenwood, the first six blocks will be a major route that connects Glenwood South and Fayetteville St. The zig zag route should become the spine of activity for downtown. It is pretty clear that Fayetteville St. and Glenwood South are already budding entertainment centers but Hillsborough St. is on the rise.

What Is Planned
The weak economy and I’m sure a couple other factors have held back some of these projects and they are currently on standby. It is still a bit exciting to see these proposals because if all are eventually built, Hillsborough St will be its own urban corridor.

Winston Hotel Tower

A 25 story hotel and condo tower will occupy the block shown above.

The Hillsborough

Another 25 story hotel and condo tower. It is currently on hold because of the bad credit market.

Campbell Law School Relocation

Classes should start in summer 2009. I think this a key move that should create traffic on Hillsborough St. I’m worried though because there is a serious lack of rentable apartments nearby and students will be prime renters.

HBS Properties Tower

HBS Properties has bought up a majority of this block. Last I heard, they were floating around the idea of a 10 story tower that would wipe out this streetscape.

The Potential

There are a couple of empty lots and surface parking lots that are in prime locations. There may be controversy in the future over established churches and businesses versus developers willing to offer big money for these lots. However, we are still not there yet so let’s save that argument for later.

I see this stretch of Hillsborough St. becoming a hotel row. Two hotels are in the list above and The Clarion is already in service in this location. This is a central, easy to get to area and with a wider street, it is car traffic friendly. It connects our two major entertainment centers and any visitor has an easy walk to either one.

I also think that the triangle near the Hillsborough/Edenton merge could be something really unique for downtown. I had an idea once.

by Leo Suarez

EnviroCon: General Assembly Building Boasts Largest Rain Barrels in Raleigh?


The North Carolina General Assembly building has three, 18,000 gallon tanks to collect rainwater that falls on the roof. The system also collects condensation from the air conditioning system inside the building. All this water is being used within the building and for landscape irrigation. Links for those who want to know more:

Stormwater Collection Project Facts

Video about the system

A cool fact stated in the video is that it only takes an inch of rain to fill the tanks completely.

City’s largest?


The fountains are flowing again.

by Leo Suarez

RBC’s Crown [UPDATE: 5:00 PM]

Here are some pictures from yesterday’s raising of RBC Plaza’s top hat. Raleigh Skyline also has some great pictures of the top hat being raised into the air.

The rest of the crown is currently going up so expect an update soon.

[UPDATE: 9:20 AM]
Piece number 2 is currently being placed. Let’s hope the weather does not interfere.


Piece #3 awaits lift off.

[UPDATE: 11:15 AM]
Piece number 3 is hanging up high.

[UPDATE: 3:30 PM]
The last piece sits at the bottom.

[UPDATE: 5:00 PM]
There you have it, all four pieces are now 500 feet in the air. Now, we wait for the final touch to RBC Plaza, the spire.

by Leo Suarez

Beneath The Parking Lot [UPDATE 11:10 AM]

Nothing big to report here but there is something I noticed recently. It looks like the parking lot ocean at the Edenton and Blount St. intersection is growing. I would never normally blog about more parking, especially surface parking, but in keeping with this downtown Raleigh history kick I’m going through this week, there is something to notice here.

In Google maps you can clearly see what appears to be the driveway to the old Meredith College building that was located on the corner of Blount and Edenton St. It has been there for some time but now it has been scraped away for more parking spaces. We discussed this building in a past post and a regular commenter shared a link to a postcard with a photo of the building.

There is also a great sketch of the building in the state library’s archives (page 14).

What a shame. The brick pillars are still up so enjoy them while they are still here.

[UPDATE 11:10 AM]

Commenter Raleigh boy has sent in some more pictures related to this post. I would like to share these pictures with everyone. Please read his comment for some great background information.


1907 Colored Deaf, Dumb & Blind Institute


Hotel Raleigh


Historic Blount St.

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?