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Raleigh's founding fathers dubbed their new hometown "The City of Oaks" and after two centuries worth of reasonably sensible urban
development, it's easy for a casual visitor to North Carolina's capital city to understand why they did. Modern Raleigh's rolling roadways and peaceable public spaces are almost always
abutted by or even built around majestic old trees, and the city's mature
architectural style has long favored low-slung, horizontally-oriented
buildings that let the trees define the visual vertical gain for visitors and
residents alike.
Raleigh was specifically founded on State-purchased land in 1792 to serve
as the newly partitioned North Carolina's capital city. Named after English navigator and historian Sir
Walter Raleigh, the City of Oaks escaped the Civil War depredations inflicted
upon many of its Southern sister cities when local legend General John
Alexander Logan (and his pistol) stopped torch-carrying troops from burning
the downtown after President Lincoln's assassination.
Raleigh's early nineteenth-century architecture and genteel political climate
defined the cityscape and social climate through the mid-20th century
accordingly, until an aggressive multi-city marketing campaign brought the
Research Triangle Park to the piedmont hills between Raleigh and the equally
university-laden cities of Durham and Chapel Hill in the early 1960s.
Large-scale economic growth and an increasingly international-flavored
citizenry have brought radical change to the region over the past 40 years--although
traces of Old Raleigh are still evident if you're willing to look closely
enough for them.
Which many Northern visitors don't, since Raleigh is one of only two major North Carolina Piedmont cities that doesn't straddle
either I-85 or I-95, the north-south arterials that have shaped the region's
growth. Like Winston-Salem to the west, Raleigh instead hangs off of I-40, marking the spot where that modern
superhighway crosses historic old traffic-light-laden U.S. 1. That recurring mix of new and old is nowhere as obvious as in
the region around the State's government complex, where three ultramodern
museums and a vast battery of classical old stone legislative office
buildings vie for attention with 1950s-flavored storefront shopping districts
and the magnificently restored pre-Victorian Oakwood neighborhood.
The downtown neighborhood provides an excellent home base for your Raleigh explorations. The Oakwood
Inn Bed and Breakfast (411 N. Bloodworth
Street, 919-832-9712) and the William
Thomas House Bed and Breakfast (530 N. Blount Street, 919-755-9400)
both offer deliciously eclectic and surprisingly elegant accomodations,
while the Holiday Inn State Capitol
(320 Hillsborough Street, 919-832-0501) provides traditional hotel fare from
its landmark circular white tower. (Note well that parking can be atrocious
and expensive downtown, so be prepared to walk while visiting this part of
the city--while also noting that Raleigh's gentle topographical features have
offered no natural boundaries for sprawl, thereby necessitating a car for
lengthier explorations beyond the Oakwood area.)
Downtown highlights include the State
Capitol Building and its grounds, the nearly-conjoined North Carolina Museums of Natural Science
and History (the former featuring dinosaurs and dioramas, the latter
the Civil War and the State's Sports Hall of Fame) and the Exploris Museum, an intriguing
school-meets-exhibition-space concept. Dining opportunities are also rife,
with the 42nd Street Oyster Bar and Cooper's Barbecue
standing as longtime, traditional Raleigh favorites and Second Empire emerging as the contemporary challenger to downtown dining primacy.
These generally family-friendly hotspots make the city center an ideal
daytime visiting spot for families, although many of Raleigh's slightly less-educational and more-unstructured fun spots tend to
be located on the western side of the city surrounding North Carolina State University and its distinctive bell tower on Hillsborough Street. (Don't go too far west, however, or you'll end up in Cary: "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees" in local
parlance.) If you do tote the young ones out that way though, Pullen Park is a must-do stop, given its antique train, miniature boat rides
and trees, grass and picnic places aplenty. The North Carolina Museum of Art is also kid-friendly, offering a rewarding assortment of both 20th
Century and ancient art, not to mention the occasional concert in its outside
amphitheater. Get there before August and you can even catch the largest Auguste Rodin sculpture
exhibition presented in North America during the past half-century.
By night, when the (younger) kids are asleep, action tends to shift over to Hillsborough Street itself, where
such live music venues as The Brewery
and legendary local bars like Mitch's
Tavern keep the college kids and those who love them hopping 'til the
wee hours of the morning. A quick cruise up Wade Avenue can also take you to Cameron Village, one of the most
unique and appealing indoor-outdoor shopping malls in America and home of Piccolo Italia, perhaps one of only
two places in North Carolina offering authentically convincing New York-style
pizza and Italian fare.
Head inbound a bit further from Cameron
Village and you arrive at Five
Points, the intersection that defines the heart of the historical Hayes Barton neighborhood. (And, uh,
yes, there are six streets that come together here, not five, so you're not
going crazy when you try to count them). The Hayes Barton Pharmacy and its connected restaurant is a quintessential
Southern drugstore where you can get the fix for what ails you, then grab a
pimento cheese sandwich and a Vanilla Coke at the grill to tide you over
while your B.C. Headache Powder dissolves.
You can also visit to the Hayes
Barton Baptist Church if you need your spiritual batteries recharged
after a night on Hillsborough Street, then grab a slice at Lilly's Pizza (follow the sound of
the cranking Dave Matthews Band tapes) or get an old-school trim at the Five Points Barbershop. Be sure to
ask for Jimmy there if you want your hair done just right, but get there
early since he's also a professional bass fisherman and tends to disappear in
the afternoon to pursue his other trade. And make note of the classic NASCAR
racing models in the barbershop's window too: each one of them is made from
crushed pecan shells and features a relevant bible verses on its
undercarriage. Can I get an "Amen?" Amen!
If you're still drifting around Five Points when the sun goes down, you can
catch the latest in independent films at the historic Rialto theatre or get all drunk and nostalgic at the Stingray Lounge--an atmospheric
nightclub decorated with a truly amazing collection of classic banana-seated
bicycles. Hungry again? Of course you are, you're on vacation, silly, so
here's another dining tip: head north from Five Points out Glenwood Avenue to
Creedmore Road, home of Margaux's--an exquisite
French-American bistro where Chef Andy Pettifer's
concoctions not only complement, but enhance the overall ambiance of
deliciousness his restaurant offers.
You're only a hop, skip and jump from there to the Crabtree Mall, a suburban-flavored shopping center that then
provides easy access to the Beltline,
the circular interstate ring that allows for relatively quick and painless access
back to Raleigh's downtown from several different compass points. Navigation tip:
ignore the highway numbers and just pay attention to whether you're on the
Outer (clockwise) Beltline or the Inner (counter-clockwise) Beltline. You
might actually get to your destination that way, instead of driving around Durham wondering what happened to I-440.
Copyright 2000: J. Eric Smith.
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