by Leo Suarez

Downtown Walking Tour (part 2)

Here are the next 10 stops on the downtown walking tour. The Moore Square and Helig-Levine pics are more recent. I had put HL off due to construction this past winter. Also, the park looks better in the summer then in January.

Should the convention center really be included in the downtown walking tour? The RCC is a great example of Raleigh’s revitalization and it could be argued that it is leading the way for a new downtown in the near future. But the convention center is just too new, with no real history yet. I think it should be taken off. Anyone have any thoughts?

11. Raleigh Convention and Conference Center (under construction)

12. Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts & Memorial Auditorium

13. Shaw University (founded 1865)

14. Rogers-Bagley-Daniels-Pegues House (c. 1855)

15. City Market (1914)

16. Moore Square (est. 1792)

17. Tabernacle Baptist Church (1881-1909)

18. Exploris (1999, Now Marbles Museum)

19. Montague Building (1912)

20. Heilig-Levine Building (c. 1870, Under Renovation)

by Leo Suarez

RPD Building Getting an Upgrade

I heard about this before but here is some official information on the Lightner Public Safety Center. I’m anxious to see how the designs turn out because a 15 story tower at this location will add to the skyline. It’s nothing major but you will be able to see it coming into town from South Saunders St. and even Morgan St. Looks aside, the building will greatly assist our the city’s safety needs, I support it.

The Raleigh City Council has approved the selection of Kling Stubbins/Cherry Huffman to provide design work and other professional services for construction of the Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center at the Avery C. Upchurch Government Complex.

Stubbins/Cherry Huffman was cited by City of Raleigh staff for having extensive experience in public safety, call and command center and technology infrastructure design and construction of major 911 call centers and Federal government buildings. The company also has extensive experience building design and construction of energy efficient buildings. The City may also contract with public safety specialty consultants to assist with meeting the needs of the public safety departments through the design process

The Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center will be located on the corner of Hargett and McDowell streets, currently the site of the City of Raleigh Police Department headquarters.

The 15-story, 260,000-square-foot facility will enhance the City’s ability to consolidate public safety operations and other local government offices and functions at one location, including the City’s police and fire departments. The public safety center is named in honor of Clarence E. Lightner, who served as mayor of Raleigh from 1973-75.

by Leo Suarez

Raleigh Signs

I saw this new sign while walking around downtown. I promise you I have never noticed it here before. Is this really where a ‘Welcome to Raleigh’ sign should go? The sign is on Hargett St. right after crossing West St. I know the new signs for downtown have not yet been implemented so I have no idea where this came from. Correct me if I’m wrong but has this always been here?

by Leo Suarez

Fayetteville St. Gets Nominated

I’m being lazy today and just giving you the heads up on this event.

The Raleigh Historic Districts Commission will meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 17 to review the nomination of the Fayetteville Street Historic District for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

The public is invited to comment on the nomination at the meeting, which will be held at the City of Raleigh Urban Design Center, 133 Fayetteville St. (at the intersection of Hargett Street). Residents with hearing impairments who need sign language services at the meeting should call the City of Raleigh Public Affairs Department, 890-3107 (TDD) or 890-3100, at least 48 hours or two business days prior to the meeting.

Raleigh currently has 87 individual property listings and 24 historic districts in the National Register. Listing in the National Register allows property owners to become eligible for state and federal tax credits for rehabilitation of properties for commercial and residential purposes.

The Fayetteville Street Historic District consists of the 100-400 blocks of Fayetteville Street, the 00-100 blocks of the south side of West Hargett Street, the 00 block of the north side of West Martin Street, and the 100-400 blocks of South Salisbury Street. The buildings in the district are predominantly commercial and date from the final years of the third quarter of the 19th century into the third quarter of the 20th century. Only two of the buildings in the district were initially built for government use rather than for commercial purposes. The Fayetteville Historic District also contains a full range of architectural styles and types.
Additionally, 11 buildings in the Fayetteville Street Historic District are listed on the National Register. They are:

• Masonic Temple at 133 Fayetteville St. (the building that houses the Urban Design Center);
• Briggs Hardware Store building at 220 Fayetteville St.;
• Lumsden-Boone Building, 226 Fayetteville St.;
• Mahler Building, 228 Fayetteville St.;
• Carolina Trust Building, 230 Fayetteville St.;
• Federal Building, 314 Fayetteville St.
• Sir Walter Raleigh Hotel, 400 Fayetteville St.;
• Raleigh Bank and Trust Company Building, 5 W. Hargett St.;
• Oddfellows Building, 19 W. Hargett St.;
• McLellan’s Five and Dime Annex, 14 W. Martin St.; and,
• Capital Club Building, 16 W. Martin St.

The Raleigh Historic Districts Commission serves as the City Council’s official historic preservation advisory body to identify, preserve, protect and educate the public about Raleigh’s historic resources.


The tax credit for rehabilitating properties should help Fayetteville St. keep the charm it has for a long time. Let’s hope everything goes well for North Carolina’s Main Street.

by Leo Suarez

Canes at The Raleigh City Museum

Here’s a cool event for you Caniacs. This letter comes from James Sutton, the director of education and outreach at the Raleigh City Museum.

When the Harford Whalers announced their decision to move south and become the Carolina Hurricanes, a number of people wondered if hockey would survive in a state usually preoccupied with college basketball. However, the last decade has erased all doubts as the ‘Canes have won over crowds and won our state’s first major professional sporting championship.

Join us this Saturday at 2pm as we look back on the last ten years in celebration of the ‘Canes wonderful achievements. John Forslund, the “Voice of the Hurricanes” will wow us with some behind the scenes stories about the team and their marvelous achievements.

Hurricane mascot, Stormy will also be here to entertain kids and sign autographs.

You can also check out the museum’s exhibit The Thrill Of Victory: Sports & Recreation in Raleigh which includes memorabilia from the ‘Canes 2006 Stanley Cup Championship season.

It’s sure to be fun for the whole family!

As always children ages 6 & up are welcomed to attend and all children must be accompanied by an adult.

Please join us for the fun!!

TEN YEARS WITH THE CAROLINA HURRICANES

DATE: Saturday, Sept 15
TIME: 2pm
LOCATION: Raleigh City Museum, 220 Fayetteville Street
MORE: For more information call 919-832-3775 or write jsutton@raleighcitymuseum.org

by Leo Suarez

Downtown Walking Tour (part 1)

Visit Raleigh is probably the official website for Raleigh tourist information. On their webpage, they have a downtown walking tour. This self guided tour takes you to 65 stops spread out all over downtown. To do the entire tour yourself takes some time and I’ve been working on getting a picture of each stop. I have not finished the tour yet, and honestly have been putting it off for awhile, but the weather is slowly getting nicer so I’ll be wrapping up my report soon enough. Here are the first 10 stops on the tour. I’ll post the rest over the next few weeks.

1. State Capitol Building (1840)

2. First Presbyterian Church (1900)

3. Odd Fellows Building (1924)

4. Raleigh Banking and Trust Building (1913-1936)

5. Masonic Temple (1907)

6. Briggs Hardware Building (1874) and Raleigh City Museum

7. Capital Club Building (1930)

8. Century Post Office (1874)

9. Wake County Courthouse (1970) and Office Building (1942)

10. Sir Walter Hotel (1924)

by Leo Suarez

Peace St. McD’s New Design Causes Frustration

I’m looking forward to the Peace Street Streetscape Project, mentioned earlier in this post. As well as the street being upgraded, the owner of the McDonald’s that sits on Peace and Boylan wants to tear down the restaurant and re-build a more modern one. This plan was proposed in November, 2006 and has been going in and out of city council meetings.

I bring this up because the N&O has an article on the situation and how the final decision has been delayed yet again to approve the plan. The article states that some members of the council are pushing toward a more pedestrian friendly design while others, including a frustrated council member James West, seem to want to approve a design and move on.

Faced with the prospect of delaying the approval of a new McDonald’s, council member James West said Wednesday that enough is enough.

Declaring that the Raleigh City Council has a bad habit of “putting things in committee and committee-ing them to death,” West took a stand for expeditious government review.
“I see no sense in us delaying this another two weeks,” he said.

I can agree with both sides of this argument. I applaud the mayor for calling for more pedestrian friendly designs near downtown but is it necessary to delay this for so long? I also agree with Mr. West, he is practically calling out the council’s “do-nothing” attitude of discussing and fine-tuning designs. There needs to be a more take-action attitude instead of delaying decisions and inevitably delaying progress downtown. If Raleigh has a council with this kind of attitude then developers may be less inclined to work with them.

A pedestrian friendly design would consist of the new McDonald’s to be built right up next to the sidewalk. The original Streetscape plan does not look like this will be the case. Below I have the current sidewalk and the planned sidewalk.


You can see that there is no real change. The lanes going in and out around the island tell me that there will be lots of traffic. There also may be parking spots lining the sidewalk. This is just speculation and to be honest I cannot think of a good way to accommodate the McDonald’s and pedestrians. How do you think it should be built? Could a 3 or 4 story building with the restaurant on the ground floor with condos or office space work at this location?