Blount Street Commons

[askmisterbrown]

Wow, Jones, that 1951 photo is amazing. So sad to see what we've lost.

The 1903 Sanborn Fire Insurance map shows the green house on the corner, where the gold house is now. The lot is large, encompassing the land where the green house and the beige houses are now (until they get moved to Person St.) Russ was living there, according to the 1900 census. There was also a second house with an identical footprint just south of the Russ house, where there is a gravel parking lot now. These two were built in the 1880s. They are side-hall plan houses with "chamfered Victorian" ornamentation, popular in Raleigh in the 1870s and 1880s. They aren't on the 1882 Gray map, so we know they were built in the mid to late 1880s. They were built at the same time, on what was one large lot in 1882.

The 1906 Sanborn map shows the "new" house (the gold house on the corner) in its place. The green house was moved to its back yard, and the beige house was built new next to it. So Russ was able to pay for his new grand house by selling those two houses. Smart dude, but lost his back yard. The gold house is in the Neoclassical Revival style, popular in Raleigh from 1900 to 1920.

The Gray map is at the state archives. The Sanborn maps you can look at on-line, just google them.

[JeffC]

so what was Mayor Russ' vocation? (I assume mayor then, as now, didn't pay enough to be someone'e full time job...I'm guessing some prosperous small town businessman or attorney...

[askmisterbrown]

According to the 1900 census, he was "Clerk of Court." I think we can assume he was also a property developer. In 1900 he was 43 years old, had a wife and three kids and a brother-in-law living with him in the green house, which probably only had two real bedrooms. No wonder they wanted a bigger house.

[Jones_]

Thanks mister brown...I appreciate the architectural terminology as mine is limited at best....I more or less wing it. Time to print out all teh Sanborn maps for easy reference as logging onto the site via the library is getting cumbersome. I realized since my last post that there are many (well, relatively speaking) neoclassical revival structures around....one beside IHOP has a plaque that dates it to 1909, plus the law firm behind Flying Saucer and the one hidden behind teh stero store on Hillsborough St beside the old Esso station. I also noticed the victorian bed and breakfast was dated 1881 on its plaque, and can see the roof of teh other in the photo. The green house is much simpler in design that I would have thought the 1890's would produce....some sort of transitional between victorian and colonial revivals maybe? It has a distinct attic windwo that I have noticed on several other houses in town that I guestimated were built around 1890, so this makes sense. The amount of construction post civil war is quite amazing....I like to use the Drie map as a reference point...almost every building we are talking about falls between Drie's map and the construction of Boylan Heights, (1872-1907)another refernece point I use to inidcate the take over of the automobile. I really encourage you to fill up the triangle history thread with info until Carpel Tunnel kicks in...

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

The two houses that faced Peace (the house on the Peace/Blount corner faced Blount) are now up on wheels. I don't know if they'll move this weekend to close down the roads, or if they'll just be towed through the property and store them temporarily close to Blount. Though if they're going next to the Murphey School, they might as well move them now down Person so rennovation crews can start working on them.

They have also started excavating the hard surfaces and just about anything else that was growing on the rest of the block, except the B&B.

I was walking by this location today and snapped a few quick pictures. I only saw one house up on wheels and it looks like they are getting another one ready. BTW, I nocied a blue sign up on the Peace street annpuncing a public hearing concerning the Historic District Certificate of Appropriateness (C.O.A) but when I called the number on the sign for more inforamtion I discovered the number had been disconnected. I apologize if I am posting these pictures incorrectly. I don't know if I should only be posting links to the images or inserting them directly into the post like I am doing.

Thanks!

[DPK]

I apologize if I am posting these pictures incorrectly. I don't know if I should only be posting links to the images or inserting them directly into the post like I am doing.

You're fine! Post as many pictures as you want. Pictures explain things often better than words can.

Nice pics btw. I'm so glad that they are saving these homes from the wrecking ball.

[ncwebguy]

Going west on Peace from Person, I noticed the first house was on wheels, so I assumed the other one was too. They might use the same set to move both houses.

Over the last week or so, there has been a lot of heavy equipment scraping away the parking lots, etc. With this project, Hue, the L, and RBC Plaza replacing surface parking lots with infill development, hopefully other sites will be looked at as well.

[ChiefJoJo]

A photo update from last Thursday afternoon. The homes have been moved to a staging area and await final placement to the Person St sites next to Murphey School. (Note, they might have already been moved in the last few days--not sure.)

two homes await final move:

another shot of homes:

shot of main Blount St Commons mixed-use site--cariage homes, row houses, and live-work flats over retail area:

Another shot:

Shot of the two historic homes sites (foundations have been poured) next to the Murphey School:

[ChiefJoJo]

WRAL story on Blount St Commons. This is another reminder that while this has taken too long to get going, we are dealing with a national register community, and there are lots of intricate details that need to be hashed out to make the new community blend with the old--not to mention moving 100-year-old historic homes. I'd like to see some more details of what the first phase up by Krispy Kreme is going to look like--all I've seen is the site plan and a few preliminary sketches.

[East_Lane]

Have you heard anything about the State of NC looking at taking some of the office space? Or will the developer be building them more parking, considering they are selling them at least one of there parking lots?

I have a vacant lot on East Lane Street - down toward St Augustine's College. The North Central CAC, which meets the second Tuesday of every month at Tarboro Rd Community Center, hears lots of re-zoning and variances cases (from Raleigh Blvd west to West Street). The State has plans to build a 7 story parking deck to replace the parking lost in the sale of the Blount Street Commons project. I may be wrong, but I thought the deck was going to be built on a parking lot on Edenton Street - not far from the Musuem of Science? Does anyone else know about this? I'm very excited to know where those two houses on the moving trucks are going. I thought maybe over next to the Murphy School where those strange markers are located. Hopefully this project will spur growth over into the Idlewild and College Park communities without displacing people of limited means.

[JeffC]

I have a vacant lot on East Lane Street - down toward St Augustine's College. The North Central CAC, which meets the second Tuesday of every month at Tarboro Rd Community Center, hears lots of re-zoning and variances cases (from Raleigh Blvd west to West Street). The State has plans to build a 7 story parking deck to replace the parking lost in the sale of the Blount Street Commons project. I may be wrong, but I thought the deck was going to be built on a parking lot on Edenton Street - not far from the Musuem of Science? Does anyone else know about this? I'm very excited to know where those two houses on the moving trucks are going. I thought maybe over next to the Murphy School where those strange markers are located. Hopefully this project will spur growth over into the Idlewild and College Park communities without displacing people of limited means.

I bet the site of that planned parking deck would be the vacant lot at the corner of Wilmington and Edenton, across from Museum of History and catty-corner from the capital. Sort of embarassing to have an asphalt surface parking lot on such a prime parcel...Jones133, what used to be on that corner? Meredith College was one block further east on Edenton, wasn't it?

[ChiefJoJo]

I bet the site of that planned parking deck would be the vacant lot at the corner of Wilmington and Edenton, across from Museum of History and catty-corner from the capital. Sort of embarassing to have an asphalt surface parking lot on such a prime parcel...Jones133, what used to be on that corner? Meredith College was one block further east on Edenton, wasn't it?

The new parking deck will be a the corner of Jones and McDowell St across from where Green Square will be built, in the parking lot next to Edenton St Methodist Church (it will also take out the old YWCA bldg on the Dawson St corner). Here is a detailed post on that project. The city planning dept had been fighting for some retail to be included, but not sure where that stands now, other than the state, by law, can build what it wants.

The vacant lot across from the history museum is the planned site for the future Capital Area Visitors Center, but it won't take up the whole block. Webguy and I both had the idea of combining the visitors center with the proposed DHHS facility on this downtown lot, but there's no telling what will happen with it.

[Jones_]

I bet the site of that planned parking deck would be the vacant lot at the corner of Wilmington and Edenton, across from Museum of History and catty-corner from the capital. Sort of embarassing to have an asphalt surface parking lot on such a prime parcel...Jones133, what used to be on that corner? Meredith College was one block further east on Edenton, wasn't it?

In 1903 it was all houses, a couple with obvious victorian features. The biggest ones were along Edenton St. I like using 1903 because cars had not made much impact yet, our first "high rise" the 1907 Alexander Building was not built yet, but the post civil war construction boom was built out and still standing as mostly structures being used as originally constructed (no mansions turned rooming houses yet). Two of the homes in the NE corner had 3 story towers, probably looked like one behind the governors mansion at Lane and Person thats still standing c. 1879.

Raleigh_July_1903_2C_Sheet_5.pdf

[JeffC]

In 1903 it was all houses, a couple with obvious victorian features. The biggest ones were along Edenton St. I like using 1903 because cars had not made much impact yet, our first "high rise" the 1907 Alexander Building was not built yet, but the post civil war construction boom was built out and still standing as mostly structures being used as originally constructed (no mansions turned rooming houses yet). Two of the homes in the NE corner had 3 story towers, probably looked like one behind the governors mansion at Lane and Person thats still standing c. 1879.

Raleigh_July_1903_2C_Sheet_5.pdf

Did that corner remain residential until the state bought it all and plowed it under for parking lots?

I remember reading about some grand old dame of Raleigh who lived in the "last house left on Capital Square" until dying at some advanced age in the middle of last century...I bet that last house was on that corner...

[Jones_]

I think this is the 1949 map but there is a jumble of them that are hard to sort out in one part of the download area. The victorian on the SW part of the block has been replaced by the Vance Apartments which I know were built in 1920. Also one of two with a tower is noted as a rooming house as is another on Edenton, two are now labeled 'apartments' and there are two infill duplexes. More structures have also infilled here as the two barns have been replaced with a dozen or so tiny apartments in the middle of teh block. The article on the Vance apartments says they were razed in 1990. Somehow the later 1840 Haywood House on the SE corner (as opposed to the 1800 Haywood house on New Bern Ave) survived whatever took out everything else on the block....the State, 'natural' decay....thats all I can deduce...have to ask some longtime State employees what they remember exactly...Raleigh_1914_Dec._1950_vol._1_2C_1914_Nov._1950_2C_Sheet_5.pdf

[JeffC]

I think this is the 1949 map but there is a jumble of them that are hard to sort out in one part of the download area. The victorian on the SW part of the block has been replaced by the Vance Apartments which I know were built in 1920. Also one of two with a tower is noted as a rooming house as is another on Edenton, two are now labeled 'apartments' and there are two infill duplexes. More structures have also infilled here as the two barns have been replaced with a dozen or so tiny apartments in the middle of teh block. The article on the Vance apartments says they were razed in 1990. Somehow the later 1840 Haywood House on the SE corner (as opposed to the 1800 Haywood house on New Bern Ave) survived whatever took out everything else on the block....the State, 'natural' decay....thats all I can deduce...have to ask some longtime State employees what they remember exactly...Raleigh_1914_Dec._1950_vol._1_2C_1914_Nov._1950_2C_Sheet_5.pdf

wow...I had no idea that house was built in 1854...has it been extensively renovated? According to tax records, a Haywood still lives there... the parcel on the corner of Edenton and Wilmington, though vacant, is still described as "Vance Apartments" on the property records.

[Jones_]

wow...I had no idea that house was built in 1854...has it been extensively renovated? According to tax records, a Haywood still lives there... the parcel on the corner of Edenton and Wilmington, though vacant, is still described as "Vance Apartments" on the property records.

Local legend also says that General Sherman was a classmate of a Haywood (or Haywood in-law) and stopped in for a drink on the front porch in April 1865 after Raleigh was occupied by Union forces.

[East_Lane]

I have a vacant lot on East Lane Street - down toward St Augustine's College. The North Central CAC, which meets the second Tuesday of every month at Tarboro Rd Community Center, hears lots of re-zoning and variances cases (from Raleigh Blvd west to West Street). The State has plans to build a 7 story parking deck to replace the parking lost in the sale of the Blount Street Commons project. I may be wrong, but I thought the deck was going to be built on a parking lot on Edenton Street - not far from the Musuem of Science? Does anyone else know about this? I'm very excited to know where those two houses on the moving trucks are going. I thought maybe over next to the Murphy School where those strange markers are located. Hopefully this project will spur growth over into the Idlewild and College Park communities without displacing people of limited means.

It looks like the two houses on trucks may be moved in the morning. The houses have been moved from where they have been sitting and are more toward Polk St. That one block of Polk St has Police signs saying "No Parking between 4AM and 6AM on Saturday. I would love to see them moved. I'm not sure I'll be able to get out of bed that early. I hope someone will get out and get some pictures. One time I was jogging down Hillsborough and saw the old house that used to sit at the corner of Hills and St Mary's coming down the street on a truck. That was amazing.

[Jones_]

One time I was jogging down Hillsborough and saw the old house that used to sit at the corner of Hills and St Mary's coming down the street on a truck. That was amazing.

What house specifically, and where is it now...what year are you referring to? The only house in remotely recent times that stood at St Marys and Hillsborough was the Tucker house demolished in the 1930's for the St Marys Apartments. Something stood where the CBC building is too and I assume knocked down when it was built. I have read about a home in Cameron Park that dates from the 1880's (before the rest of Cameron Park was built) that was pulled by mules to college st and later added to, but am not sure where it sat originally....thats about all I know. The Whitaker House and Elmwood are on original foundations also, nearby and there is a late victorian behind/part of the stereo store. Hmm, well the credit union must have moved or knocked down something too...the Duncan Cameron plantation was knocked down in the 1930's for Cameron Court a little further west....

[East_Lane]

What house specifically, and where is it now...what year are you referring to? The only house in remotely recent times that stood at St Marys and Hillsborough was the Tucker house demolished in the 1930's for the St Marys Apartments. Something stood where the CBC building is too and I assume knocked down when it was built. I have read about a home in Cameron Park that dates from the 1880's (before the rest of Cameron Park was built) that was pulled by mules to college st and later added to, but am not sure where it sat originally....thats about all I know. The Whitaker House and Elmwood are on original foundations also, nearby and there is a late victorian behind/part of the stereo store. Hmm, well the credit union must have moved or knocked down something too...the Duncan Cameron plantation was knocked down in the 1930's for Cameron Court a little further west....

The house I saw was moved in the late 70's or early 80's while I was living at Cameron Court Apartments. The house was on the lot at 801 Hillsborough St where the Credit Union sits now. It was moved west up Hillsborough St to the back of the parking lot just West of St Mary's School. The house faces Park Drive? I appreciate your question and am glad to share this information with you.

[Jones_]

^great, thanks. I know this house and have long wondered where it was moved from. Time to get out the Sanborns....I never get to visit archives so I 'collect' all my info from different sources including folks here. History is a bit of an addiction I suppose, but I could have worse vices...

Sanborn_1914_Sheet_74__St_Marys_Area_.pdf

wow, what a great map this is(1914). The house in question is sitting there where the credit union evnetually will be (and the St marys St extension. Many intersting observations....Lenoir can be seen to connect to Snow (called Yarn previously because Southenr manfacturing was the Raleigh Hosiery Mill in the 1903 map). The tiny mill village is visible, and we know three or four of those still stand on west Hargett. The Whitaker House (old Domicile) is visible with its two story bay window projection, The Tucker house is at the NE corner of Hilslborough/St Marys(and the still standing carriage house) and even the Duncon Cameron Plantation is still there as expected since Cameron Court takes it down. We see the three houses that left debris and artifacts found before Bloomsbury Condos were begun, The gray house with brick garage behind Whitaker house is visible, a yellow house accross Hargett from Bloomsbury is visible and much to my surprise I think the Joel Lane House is already moved?? I thought I read that it was moved much later, like the 1980's. There is a house shown where the Drie map would place the Lane house but the footprint does not match....any idea East Lane since you lived in the area before around when I was born....

[East_Lane]

^great, thanks. I know this house and have long wondered where it was moved from. Time to get out the Sanborns....I never get to visit archives so I 'collect' all my info from different sources including folks here. History is a bit of an addiction I suppose, but I could have worse vices...

Sanborn_1914_Sheet_74__St_Marys_Area_.pdf

wow, what a great map this is(1914). The house in question is sitting there where the credit union evnetually will be (and the St marys St extension. Many intersting observations....Lenoir can be seen to connect to Snow (called Yarn previously because Southenr manfacturing was the Raleigh Hosiery Mill in the 1903 map). The tiny mill village is visible, and we know three or four of those still stand on west Hargett. The Whitaker House (old Domicile) is visible with its two story bay window projection, The Tucker house is at the NE corner of Hilslborough/St Marys(and the still standing carriage house) and even the Duncon Cameron Plantation is still there as expected since Cameron Court takes it down. We see the three houses that left debris and artifacts found before Bloomsbury Condos were begun, The gray house with brick garage behind Whitaker house is visible, a yellow house accross Hargett from Bloomsbury is visible and much to my surprise I think the Joel Lane House is already moved?? I thought I read that it was moved much later, like the 1980's. There is a house shown where the Drie map would place the Lane house but the footprint does not match....any idea East Lane since you lived in the area before around when I was born....

I'm not really a history buff; the giant house coming down Hillsborough St was just so unexpected for me on a cold dreary day; that it was a sight that stuck with me. The old mill was abandoned when I lived at Cameron Court Apartments. I had know some people whose family had lived in the far left shotgun house on West Hargett, The Craig's had been the original owners and some members of the family lived there for years. The Joel Lane house was already there in the late 70's and 80's. Byrum's? lumber company was operating at the end of Snow Street. A Greek man who lived in my building (N-bldg across from the laundromat on Morgan) ran a Greek grocery at the corner of Snow and West Morgan. This is about all I can remember about buildings in the area. If I think of anything else I will be happy to let you know.

It looks like the 2 houses from Peace Street made the move across Polk and over next to the Murphy School. The project superintendant says the foundation will be set, then they will be sold to be re-habbed. The green house facing Wilmington Street will also be moved over there. This is an exciting project.

[ChiefJoJo]

BTW, they moved the homes this weekend. WRAL story & N&O story.

[ChiefJoJo]

I checked out the Historic Oakwood home tour today, which was really cool for someone who has never done it. Part of the tour included the JA Gilkeson house, circa 1912... it's the remaining home on the corner of Peace and Blount St, and also serves as the sales center for the Blount St Commons development. I was curious to see some renderings for the development, because I don't believe any have been released yet. Well, they had some renderings displayed, and I took some pics with my cell phone camera, but I apologize for the low quality. I though some would enjoy seeing these before the plans go live on the web later this week (they tell me).

Site plan for phase 1. Facing Peace (& Krispy Kreme) at the top are the live/work flats over retail. There will be a narrow alley behind that where the retail and condo parking will be access and that ties into the N-S alley that accesses the row houses (center picture, right) and carriage homes (center, left). The far right site facing Person is not designed yet, but I am told they will be stacked town homes (3 or 4 stories). A really nice feature/amenity will be the "Commons," which will be a green space between the row houses and stacked town houses on Person... sorry for the fuzziness:

Live/work flats over retail:

Row houses:

[Jones_]

Does that say "from the 300,000's under the last picture of the Row Homes? That isn't terribly expensive for downtown even if that means 399,999.