Downtown Raleigh, North Carolina - Part II

Thank you so much for the great comments left on Part I of my recent weekend walkabout in downtown Raleigh. 

Here, I'm sharing a few of the more historical buildings along the main thoroughfare, Fayetteville Street, 

and around town. 

I love this part of the main street. 
For many years it was a pedestrian only area but since changing back to a through street, the downtown has become much more vibrant and safer, especially after dark.
Colorful storefronts and restaurants with mostly apartments above. The tall tan colored 1874 brick building was Briggs Hardware, owned by the Briggs family descendants until 1995, then sold and turned into the Raleigh City Museum. When we first moved to Raleigh from Massachusetts in 1977, I loved walking on the squeaky wood plank floors, searching through the shelves and bins containing items only a hardware business with so many years under its (tool) belt could still have!

Heading south past old and new architecture…………

………………the large building on the right above is Raleigh's

 oldest surviving hotel building constructed in 1923-24 - 

The Sir Walter Raleigh Hotel. In the late 1970's it was 

converted into apartments for the elderly.

Other hotels have been built around it, the one on the far 

left is the Marriott where we spent last New Year's Eve.

Modern office buildings are prevalent in downtown - this one is interesting with condominiums on the higher floors  

Going toward the Victorian area named Oakwood, full of beautifully preserved and restored homes (I'll show you those when I have time to take another walk downtown), there are many historic homes purchased by the state government to use as offices.  As much as it seems a shame to use them this way, it did mean they were not bulldozed when people could no longer afford to care for and repair many of the huge houses. 

This is the flamboyant Heck-Andrews House, a local favorite!  The history of this house is somewhat mysterious, especially revolving around the last tenant, a sad old lady known as 'the ghost of Blount Street' who lived there until having to be removed due to health issues………and her hobby of serious hoarding which made the property a fire hazard.

http://goodnightraleigh.com/2011/10/reminiscences-of-a-raleigh-boy-part-7-the-ghost-of-blount-street/

This link will take you to a wonderful story of the house/family history, also some great b/w interior photos showing how beautiful the property is inside - but of course requires a lot of restoration work.

I think you will agree that Raleigh has an interesting downtown. Despite being the main home of the state of North Carolina government office complex, it has also retained a lot of historic properties, private investors have rehabbed many of the Victorian era homes, and those repurposed for office use are still attractive keeping the sense of a small southern town rather than a large modern city.

Hope you can visit some day and enjoy some true southern hospitality.