Antebellum & Civil War, 1831-1865

21 Locations | Curated by RHDC

A government town grows with the establishment of several enduring institutions


Raleigh's growth in this period included a small expansion of its city limits, the development of the commercial district along Fayetteville Street, the establishment of several surviving churches and schools, and the construction of the new State Capitol building, which still stands.


The State Capitol and several substantial houses surviving from this period reflect the emergence and sustained popularity of the Greek Revival architectural style during the antebellum years. The typically spare style features temple-front facades or porches, low-pitched rooflines, and broad proportions in contrast to the narrower, more upright feeling of the earlier Federal style.


Retail development remained local in nature, serving residents and those traveling to the capital for government business. While no retail buildings and few commercial or industrial structures survive from this era, period descriptions and images show that the blocks of Fayetteville Street immediately south of Union Square were changing from residential in nature to commercial.


The railroad also came to Raleigh during this period; the coming of the iron horse was a transformative event in any community. In Raleigh, however, surviving architectural resources related to the railroad are more common in later periods of development.

This two-story Greek Revival frame building has distinctive Italianate accents. The house was associated with a series of leading figures in local, state, and national history including congressman Sion H. Rogers, legislator William Henry Bagley, journalist and Secretary of the Navy Josephus…
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The Italianate-style plantation home of prominent citizen William Montford Boylan is a landmark at the northern entrance to the Boylan Heights Historic District. Designed by English architect William Percival, the house features deep bracketed eaves, round-arched and segmented-arch windows, and a…
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Saint Mary's School, Raleigh's oldest private educational institution for girls, was founded in 1842, following the failure of an Episcopal school for boys established on this site around 1834. Today's campus covers approximately 160 acres and features an eclectic collection of…
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East Rock (1834) and West Rock (1835) were built of stone discarded during the construction of the second State Capitol. The twin buildings flank Smedes Hall, the school's main building; enclosed walkways connect the three buildings. Date: 1834; 1835
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Smedes Hall is a three-and one-half story Greek Revival brick building. Originally built for the boys' school and called Main Hall, Smedes was renamed in honor of the Reverend Aldert Smedes, first rector and president of Saint Mary's School. It has been used as a multi-purpose building…
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Designed by English-born architect Richard Upjohn, this small board-and-batten Carpenter Gothic chapel graces the campus with its beauty and simplicity. The main gable contains a cartwheel rose window above an entrance hood supported by curved brackets. A cruciform finial crowns the steep gabled…
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This small frame building is a rare surviving example of Raleigh's antebellum Greek Revival commercial architecture. The beaded siding, heart-pine flooring, and early mantels remain intact. Moved several times, the Raleigh Historic Districts Commission brought it to its present site in 1972…
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The Lewis-Smith house is an excellent example of the Greek Revival style, featuring a two-story pedimented portico supported by Doric columns on the first level and Ionic columns on the second. Moved from its original location on North Wilmington Street, the house was used by the state for offices…
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One of the city's earliest surviving office buildings, the three-story brick Seaboard Building served as railroad offices for more than a hundred years. The building, which has a restrained Italianate design, originally stood on N. Halifax Street. The state purchased the land for the its…
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Built to replace the original capitol, which burned in 1831, this National Historic Landmark is one of America's most important neoclassical structures. Three outstanding nineteenth century architects, Alexander Jackson, Ithiel Town, and David Paton designed this copper-roofed, roughly…
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Designed by English architect William Percival, First Baptist Church is a variant of the Gothic Revival style. The church is a symmetrical brick structure stuccoed and scored to give the appearance of stone. The building features an entrance tower with tall pinnacles and a 160-foot-tall spire. It…
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English-born architect Richard Upjohn, founder of the American Institute of Architects, designed this granite church in the early English parish style of Gothic architecture. The church features a Latin-cross plan and a stone bell tower, completed after the main building, in 1861. It is one of the…
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Richard B. Haywood, a founder of the North Carolina Medical Society, designed this Greek Revival brick townhouse, also known as Crabapple. Its outstanding feature is the superb Doric-order porch. The house is the last surviving dwelling in the Capitol Square Historic District and is still owned by…
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This one-story, wood frame house with a hipped roof is one of the oldest homes in the Oakwood Historic District and is depicted in an 1872 birds-eye view map of the city. Described as both Greek Revival and vernacular, its simple design, in contrast with the neighborhood's ornate Victorian-era…
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This frame house, built for prominent mid-nineteenth-century merchant Henry Porter, features a two-story pedimented porch and a low-pitched hip roof, typical features of Raleigh's surviving Greek Revival dwellings. Private residence. Date: Before 1850
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Prominent layman John O’Rorke donated land to the Catholic Diocese for this cemetery, the oldest historic resource in the city associated with Raleigh’s Catholic community. Established at a time when prevailing Protestant thought often made life difficult for Catholics, the cemetery retains twelve…
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Oak View, a late-antebellum family farm of nearly a thousand acres, includes a mid-nineteenth century I-house with Greek Revival details known as the Williams-Wyatt-Poole House. The original two-story pedimented portico with paneled columns and pilasters remains, and sawn balusters line the upper…
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Built ca. 1841 by Jeremiah Dunn, Pine Hall was part of a thousand-acre antebellum farm. The house resembles its contemporary, Oak View, as a mid-nineteenth century I-house embellished with Greek Revival details including a double portico. Like Oak View, Pine Hall was updated in 1940-41 to reflect…
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This stately but unpretentious frame house was built in the Greek Revival style on 680 acres given to Alpheus Jones by his father Seth Jones, who served in the House of Commons from 1814 to 1819. The two-story hip-roofed house features a two-story Doric portico centered on the facade. After a…
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