RHDC 50th Anniversary Tour

32 Locations | Curated by RHDC, BPAC

Interested in Raleigh Historic Landmarks, but want to get some fresh air and exercise

Begin at the Raleigh Little Theatre, wind your way through West Raleigh, check out downtown's urban core, enjoy the Grand Dames on North Blount Street, and end at City Market.

The Raleigh Little Theatre, organized in 1936 as an outgrowth of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Theatre Project, stands at the edge of the best-planned, best-integrated, and best-preserved of Raleigh's park spaces. William Henley Deitrick donated the initial design for the…
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Designed by architect Harry P. S. Keller, the Dr. Z. M. Caveness House is a well-preserved brick foursquare distinguished by the low forms, strong horizontal lines, earthy materials, and overall sense of simplicity of the Prairie style of architecture. Dr. Caveness, a local physician and civic…
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The Thompson house is one of several remaining dwellings from the once-grand residential corridor that extended along Hillsborough Street from the Capitol west to Oberlin Road. The house, a combination of Queen Anne detailing and Colonial Revival form and decoration, is a hybrid style often called…
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The Boylan Apartments are Raleigh's earliest example of the garden-style apartment complex, which incorporates open space into the overall layout to improve living conditions for the occupants. Three simple brick-clad buildings with Colonial Revival detailing were arranged to form an interior…
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The gambrel-roofed home of Colonel Joel Lane has been restored to its 1790-1795 appearance by the Wake County Committee of the Colonial Dames. Colonel Lane became known as the "Father of Raleigh" after he sold a thousand acres of land to the state in 1792 to establish a permanent state…
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Architect Frank B. Simpson designed this skyscraper for the Capital Club, one of the oldest prominent men's organizations in the South. The building juxtaposes Art Deco motifs with a classically derived building form, and the twelfth-floor ballroom contains the finest example of Art Deco…
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The office of Alfred B. Mullet, supervising architect of the United States Treasury Department, designed what was to be the first federal project in North Carolina following the Civil War. The building, which contains federal offices in addition to the post office, retains its Second Empire…
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The 1876 Romanesque Revival Mahler Building originally housed a jewelry store and offices. The Carolina Trust Building is a 1902 Colonial Revival bank. McLellan's Five & Dime Store purchased first the Carolina Trust, then the Mahler Building, combining them in 1932 into one large store…
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The red brick Briggs Hardware Building is Raleigh's only late-nineteenth-century commercial building to survive essentially unaltered since its construction. Decorative lion heads distinguish the facade of Raleigh's first skyscraper, as do the massive entablature and curvilinear pediment.…
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Charles McMillan designed the Masonic Temple building, Raleigh's oldest surviving steel-reinforced concrete structure, in the Sullivanesque-style. In addition to its design and construction, the building is significant as a major landmark in the downtown area. Date: 1907
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The three-story Heilig-Levine Furniture store remains one of the few intact nineteenth century commercial buildings surviving downtown. Built as a hotel, it displays the heavily bracketed cornice and tall arched windows of the Italianate style. Two adjacent commercial structures have been…
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An early commercial building, this utilitarian, three-story painted brick structure was originally a clothing warehouse and manufacturing facility. The Grand United Order of Odd Fellows (GUOOF), an African American fraternal organization, purchased the building in 1891 and converted the interior…
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A three-story brick building in the late Romanesque Revival style with Italianate elements, the Raleigh Furniture Building operated as a furniture retailer for much of the 20th century. Its façade showcases a high degree of architectural detail, including large lintel-type openings, vertical…
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The Delany Building is one of only two remaining commercial structures built on Raleigh's "Black Main Street" before World War II. Builder Dr. Lemuel T. Delany, the first black surgeon practicing at Saint Agnes Hospital and son of the first African American bishop of the Episcopal…
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The Montague Building, a combination of the Neoclassical Revival and the emerging Commercial styles, was the first large retail building in the Moore Square area. This building, along with the Mission-style City Market, helps define a lively center of urban activity around the square. Date: 1912
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The picturesque appearance of this late Gothic Revival church stems from the combination of three square towers and two gable-roof blocks -- the result of six remodelings between 1881 and 1909. Raleigh architect James Matthew Kennedy, who designed the City Market and Murphey School, is primarily…
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Master builder Thomas H. Briggs built this simple but stylish Italianate dwelling for local harness maker Leonidas Wyatt and his wife Cora. The house features molded eaves, projecting bay windows, molded window and door surrounds, and porch brackets. The Wyatts' daughter Cora inherited it in…
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Designed by architect James M. Kennedy, this three-story classically inspired brick building is the oldest standing public school building in Raleigh and one of the few remaining examples of this academic style. Murphey School played a significant role in the history of the civil rights movement…
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Lucy Catherine Moore Capehart, daughter of a prominent state legislator, had this imposing brick house with elaborate wood and stone ornamentation built on then-fashionable N. Wilmington Street. Designed by A. G. Bauer, it is one of the finest examples of Queen Anne architecture remaining in…
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This two-story frame house features details and characteristics of the Neoclassical Revival style. Slender Ionic columns support the wrap-around porch; the pedimented front entry is particularly noteworthy. Private residence. Date: 1899
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The overall style of the two-story, wood frame Higgs-Coble-Helms house is Italianate but it has the asymmetrical composition typical of Queen Anne dwellings. Its second-story windows are capped by pedimented surrounds supported by brackets that are echoed throughout the house. It also features the…
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G. S. H. Appleget designed this symmetrical Italianate home for Confederate Captain Alexander B. Andrews. Although much different than the Heck-Andrews House in its overall effect, there are similarities in the window surrounds, finely ornamented brackets, and decorative porch posts. The original…
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Architect G. S. H. Appleget designed this house for Confederate Colonel Jonathan McGee Heck. A characteristic mansard roof caps the Second Empire house and a dramatic central tower adorns the facade. Patterned slate and ornate brackets, window surrounds, and porch posts make this one of…
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According to tradition, this house was built as a surprise by Dr. William J. Hawkins for his brother and sister-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Alexander B. Hawkins. Mrs. Hawkins had the ninety-two-foot Eastlake verandah added to soften the brick facade. Mrs. Annie Sloan Hartness, wife of James A. Hartness,…
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The Andrews-London House is a fine example of the Georgian Revival style. Designed by James A. Salter, this two-and-one-half story brick house features extensive wainscot paneling as well as round-arched and pedimented molding at interior doorways. The dwelling now houses offices. Date: 1918
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This two-story brick house was built in the Georgian Revival style in the side yard of the Hawkins-Hartness House for Mrs. Hawkins's niece, Martha Hawkins Bailey. It is state headquarters for the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Date: 1922
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Located on one of the five public squares provided in Raleigh's initial city plan of 1792, the governor's home is an unusually symmetrical Queen Anne dwelling designed by architect Samuel Sloan of Philadelphia and his assistant Gustavus Adolphus Bauer. The mansion, home of North Carolina…
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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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Designed in the Beaux Arts style, this structure is the first urban high-rise apartment building erected in Raleigh. It consists of five floors arranged in a U-shape around a well in the main facade. All floor plans have the same features, fireplaces, fourteen-foot ceilings, and exterior porches.…
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The best surviving example of a market house erected in North Carolina since the Civil War, this Spanish Mission-style complex designed by James Matthew Kennedy housed a complement of butchers, fish dealers, and vegetable vendors. Development of the supermarket concept and the new state…
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