Posts Tagged ‘historic_raleigh’

Historic Yates Mill County Park

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

The Southwest CAC is home to two related historic and natural resources that are unique in the city of Raleigh.  Yates Mill, which definitely dates from around 1810 to 1820, but is thought to have structural elements dating to the mid-1750s, is located on Steep Hill Creek at the intersection of Lake Wheeler and Penny roads.  The mill and its adjacent millpond and stone dam are designated Raleigh Historic Landmarks and are also listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  Of the known 18th-century grist mills in the Raleigh area, only Yates Mill survives.

Historic Yates Mill

Historic Yates Mill

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Special Places in the Southwest Raleigh: Caraleigh Mill

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Caraleigh Mill, located at 421 Maywood Avenue, is a designated a Raleigh Historic Landmark and is also listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  As one of three surviving late nineteenth century textile mills in Raleigh, the original 1892 mill building is an excellent example of the then-popular Italianate style of architecture that was widely adopted for industrial buildings.  Hallmarks of this style, including full-height pilasters surmounted by brackets, decorative brickwork, and segmental-arched windows, remain intact and are grandly displayed on the two-story brick building.  The roof is opened by an intact monitor that allows natural light into the interior of the main building.    The original 1892 mill building was quickly joined by a rear brick addition in 1900, and later expansions to house furnaces, machine shops, and warehouses date from around 1910, 1919 and the late 1950s.  The mill complex gave rise to a late-nineteenth, early twentieth-century mill village of small brick and frame houses that stands today as an extremely rare surviving example of period workers’ housing in Raleigh.

Caraleigh Mill

Caraleigh Mill

Image courtesy of Raleigh City Museum. (more…)

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History: Raleigh Municipal Airport

Monday, January 4th, 2010

The new planned community of Renaissance Park that is rising in the northwest quadrant of the intersection of South Wilmington Street and Tryon Road is located on the site of the Raleigh Municipal Airport that served this area during the early decades of the airline industry. Dedicated in 1929, only 26 years after Wilber and Orville Wright’s historic flight on the North Carolina Outer Banks, the Raleigh Municipal Airport represented the area’s leap into the future of 20th- century transportation that was lauded by such local notables as Raleigh News and Observer publisher Josephus Daniels and the then Secretary of State, Thad Eure, as well as the nationally- renowned World War 1 Flying Ace, Eddie Rickenbacker who was also the owner of Eastern Airlines. But perhaps the most intriguing personality to attend the Raleigh Airport dedication was Amelia Earhart, the female flyer who captured the imagination of a generation, and who inspired other young women to move into occupations that were heretofore closed to them.

The 1929 dedication of Raleigh Municipal Airport (Paul Freeman, NC Division of Archives & History)

The 1929 dedication of Raleigh Municipal Airport (Paul Freeman, NC Division of Archives & History)

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History: E.B. Bain Water Treatment Plant

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Special Places in the Southwest CAC

Our last historical entry was about the Carolina Pines Hotel. This entry is about the E.B. Bain Water Treatment Plant located just west of South Wilmington Street on Fayetteville Street. Read about the history below, then check out current day art projects at www.bainproject.com.

Located at 1810 Fayetteville Road on Walnut Creek, the E. B. Bain Water Treatment Plant was constructed in 1939 – 1940 on the site of the 1887 water treatment plant that served the city of Raleigh. Noted as the most handsome industrial building in the city, the massive brick, tile, and metal Bain Water Treatment Plant was designed by architectural engineer William C. Olsen in a restrained classical/Art Deco motif. The $700,000 construction of the building was funded by a City of Raleigh bond issue and the Depression-era federal Public Works Administration (PWA).

The nearly eight-acre site located just south of downtown Raleigh contains the massive, elegant brick treatment house and three clear storage reservoirs. The treatment building is entered through the head house into a generously-dimensioned two-story lobby with a mezzanine circling the upper level. The mezzanine is gained by a monumental stair defined by decorative wrought iron balusters and solid oak hand rails. The railings are repeated on the mezzanine that is supported by tall, narrow columns with fluted capitals. The walls of the lobby and mezzanine are finished with ashlar plaster above a glazed tile wainscot, and the floors are red quarry tile. The mezzanine space is illuminated by original segmental-arched doorways with double French doors, sidelights, and transoms, and the building retains original elegant bronze Art Deco pendant lights and wall sconces. In all, building’s proportions and attention to design detail reflected the stringent standards of the 1930s for federally-funded public building projects. As such, it is easy to understand why the Bain Water Treatment Plant is noted as an excellent example of the high level of design for utilitarian structures produced under PWA sponsorship.

EB Bain Water Plant

EB Bain Water Plant

Photo courtesy of wikimedia.
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History: The Carolina Pines Hotel

Monday, October 12th, 2009

Earlier, we told you that we would be posting some local history from Raleigh. Here is our first entry about the Carolina Pines Hotel.

Carolina Pines Resort and Hotel

Located on the north side of Tryon Road adjacent to the Norfolk and Southern Railroad right-of-way, the Carolina Pines Hotel stands as a reminder of the early 20th century resort hotel movement in North Carolina. Opened on July 23, 1933 the hotel and surrounding 450-acre resort was the dream of Herbert Anderson Carlton, a local developer who wished to provide an idyllic retreat and recreational opportunities for well-to-do patrons, as well as people of ordinary means. To this end, he constructed the handsome Colonial Revival-style hotel building in the midst of a pine grove, and laid out two 18-hole golf courses, a riding club with 35 saddle horses, four tennis courts with night illumination, a lake and a swimming pool, a casino, an outdoor theater, polo grounds, a fishery, a pet farm, and girls’ and boys’ camps.

Carolina Pines Hotel now Delta Sigma Phi fraternity

Carolina Pines Hotel now Delta Sigma Phi fraternity

Although the Carolina Pines Resort and Hotel was modeled on similar North Carolina resorts such as Southern Pines in Moore County and the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, it presented a somewhat novel idea in that it promised choice recreational activities and luxurious accommodations for citizens of all classes at an affordable price. This was Mr. Carlton’s philanthropic philosophy, and was reflected in the interpretation of the Colonial Revival style of the hotel building. (more…)

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