Historic Raleigh Commercial Buildings

Use the referential photos below as you tour downtown Raleigh’s historic business district. All historic photos come from the NC Department of Archives unless otherwise noted.

Briggs Hardware Building

Boylan-Pearce and Briggs Hardware
Exterior Storefronts on Fayetteville Street – 1920s?
Briggs & Boylan-Pearce Storefronts 1948
Briggs & Boylan-Pearce Storefronts 1948

The Raleigh Furniture Company Building

Lightner Hotel c. 1926
Lightner Hotel & Arcade c. 1926 (Across the street from The Raleigh Furniture Co. Building)

Heilig-Levine Building

Heilig-Levine Building 2004
Heilig-Levine Building c. 2004 (Photo from Wake County Real Estate Records)

The Raleigh Times Building

Raleigh Times News Carriers
Newsboys outside of Raleigh Times Building 1915
Raleigh Times Building 1940s
Raleigh Times Buildings – 1940s (Photo courtesy of Empire Properties)
Hargett St. 1946
East Hargett Street facing West, c. 1946. Photo from Goodnight Raleigh

The Raleigh Building

The Raleigh Building c. 1913
The Raleigh Building in 1913 – known as The Raleigh Banking and Trust Company Building

The Commerce Building / Odd Fellows Building

The Commerce Building (Oddfellows) 19140
The Oddfellows Building in 1940

Capital Club Building

Capital Club Buliding 1940
Capital Club Building – photo likely from the 1940s

Hotel Sir Walter

Hotel Sir Walter c. 1920s
Hotel Sir Walter c. 1920s
Hotel Sir Walter 1938
Hotel Sir Walter some time after 1938
Yarborough House 1900s
Yarborough House, a “cohort” of Hotel Sir Walter, was across the street from the Courthouse until 1928 when it burned. Photo appears to be from the turn of the century.

Capital Bank Plaza

Aerial View of Downtown Raleigh 1966
Aerial View of Downtown – BB&T Building in SE corner of photo, c. 1966

SkyHouse / Edison (The future of Raleigh)

Wilmington Street 1926
300 block of Wilmington Street, c. 1926
300 Block of Wilmington Street 2013
300 Block of Wilmington Street 2013 (Personal photo)