Blount Street Commons

[DB78]

Thanks JoJo for the repost. I've mostly skimmed past this project, but the picture has gotten me intrigued.

[ChiefJoJo]

LNR is moving forward with permits for the Person/Peace St plot (old state motorpool), also... RaleighMSA has a new rendering of Blount St Commons--not sure how accurate it is. I believe this is looking NW from the Blount/North St intersection with historic homes lining Blount and the State Govt. Complex in the upper left corner.

[Jones_]

LNR is moving forward with permits for the Person/Peace St plot (old state motorpool), also... RaleighMSA has a new rendering of Blount St Commons--not sure how accurate it is. I believe this is looking NW from the Blount/North St intersection with historic homes lining Blount and the State Govt. Complex in the upper left corner.

I agree, that is looking NW from Blount/North....the big house in lower left is the Andews-London House....its sort of tan color with heavy dark brown details. Is that a traffic circle I see? Would that also mean two-way traffic on Blount? Either the artist did not talk over the details with the planners or this is news to me....

[ericurbanite]

The website http://www.blountstreetcommons.com

[foodpainter]

The motor vehicle lot on the corner of Peace/Person is coming down today. Yippee!

[fredkeno]

The demolition is progressing quite nicely. The lot is about cleared out at this point.

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

The demolition is progressing quite nicely. The lot is about cleared out at this point.

Here are two pics of the cleared out lots. Picutres were taken last Friday (Oct 5,2007)

[fredkeno]

Since the pictures were taken they've added pipes around the perimeter of the block. It looks like they are getting it ready to add a wall around the construction zone. Expect to see advertisements for blount street commons on the wall.

[ncwebguy]

As of this morning, there was a green "don't look" tarp covering the new fence parts, while the old fencing (with the barbed wire) still is open.

If it were up to me, the barbed wire would have gone once there was nothing of value on the old carpool lot. But so far it is still up. Work seems to be coming along at the old school auditorium/new Burning Coal Theater as well.

[Captain Awesome]

As of this morning, there was a green "don't look" tarp covering the new fence parts, while the old fencing (with the barbed wire) still is open.

If it were up to me, the barbed wire would have gone once there was nothing of value on the old carpool lot. But so far it is still up. Work seems to be coming along at the old school auditorium/new Burning Coal Theater as well.

I dunno, it seems like that barbed wire was oriented to keep people in(it is angled into the lot). Maybe they are still using it as a zombie containment area until construction begins (and the undead can be liquidated)

[RaleighRob]

^ You know, given the extensive work in a heavily-historic area such as this...don't laugh. I would not be at all surprised if some human remains was found before all of this is done.

[Jones_]

^ You know, given the extensive work in a heavily-historic area such as this...don't laugh. I would not be at all surprised if some human remains was found before all of this is done.

This area is outside the original city limits so its not impossible. The Confederate Lt Walsh who was hung for shooting at General Kirkpatrick as Shermans army approached in April 1865, was buried out here somewhere. I think he was moved later but am not 100% sure. Also there are numerous small graveyards on the outskirts of the original boundaries....The Lane family plot was behind Crockers, Oakwood Cemetary was a combination of the Lane/Mordecai plot, the Jewish cemetary and of course the Confederate cemetary. There is also one off Tarboro or State St in very poor repair and another adjacent to St Augs with no markers. I have read one of the plantation owners adjacent to the City was buried in an unmarked grave on purpose somewhere east of downtown along North St or Milburnie Rd. All this is just to emphasize just how many cemetaries there could be around the fringes....I would love to try to compare census data to cemetary data and see who is unaccuonted for.....would have been a cool thesis....

[ncwebguy]

The cemetary on Tarboro/Rock Quarry is Raleigh National Cemetary (US Veteran's Affairs link).

City Cemetary, on East Hargett/North East and partially on New Bern Ave, has a few former mayors and several significant citizens. Several tombstones are in disrepair, and there is a memorial for African-Americans who were laid to rest there but their records were not kept.

North of North Street, who knows what is burried. Even within the original city limits, there is a former Catholic bishop burried near the NW corner of Hillsborough and McDowell.

I hope the Blount Street Commons project isn't "haunted' but that could be an additional draw for some. I don't think the motor pool's barbed wire is going to stop any unearthed zombies, but it may cut them up into smaller, easier to handle pieces! Or they can just walk around to the rest of the fence, which goes to the Blount/Polk corner. LOL

[Jones_]

The cemetary on Tarboro/Rock Quarry is Raleigh National Cemetary (US Veteran's Affairs link).

City Cemetary, on East Hargett/North East and partially on New Bern Ave, has a few former mayors and several significant citizens. Several tombstones are in disrepair, and there is a memorial for African-Americans who were laid to rest there but their records were not kept.

North of North Street, who knows what is burried. Even within the original city limits, there is a former Catholic bishop burried near the NW corner of Hillsborough and McDowell.

I hope the Blount Street Commons project isn't "haunted' but that could be an additional draw for some. I don't think the motor pool's barbed wire is going to stop any unearthed zombies, but it may cut them up into smaller, easier to handle pieces! Or they can just walk around to the rest of the fence, which goes to the Blount/Polk corner. LOL

I had forgotten the name earlier, but O'Rourke was the one I meant. Its kinda cool sitting there among the old street grid....

[ncwebguy]

That was right down the street from St. Monica (founded in 1930) and its school, where prominent members of the African-American community sent their children during segregation. The school was around where Bojangles is today, and was mostly torn down in the 60s/70s when the New Bern/Edenton pair were widened. I think the nearby tennis courts are a remnant, and possibly the building on the NW Tarboro/Edenton corner.

Sacred Heart was desegregated with St. Monica's students, years before the Campbell family got Bill to desegrate the Murphy School, on Blount Street just south of the current deconstruction.

[Jones_]

One of the houses accross from Krispy Kreme is being readied for a move to a spot next to Murphy School where foundations are being poured already. This is definitely the premier, non-tower development downtown imo.

[ChiefJoJo]

One of the houses accross from Krispy Kreme is being readied for a move to a spot next to Murphy School where foundations are being poured already. This is definitely the premier, non-tower development downtown imo.

OK, so I am thinking it's the two homes nearest the old State motorpool on the south side of Peace St, right? I was running over there last week and noticed the fencing wrapped around these two homes, and was a bit nervous they would be razed--I didn't think so, but when you see fencing up, it usually means wrecking ball. The fencing now covers around 3/4 of that block (Peace, Blount, Polk, Person). Jones, I agree with you. This will offer a nice mix of new single-family, townhomes, flats, live-work, retail, in additional to the opportunity to purchase and renovate some of the finest historic homes in Raleigh.

[Jones_]

OK, so I am thinking it's the two homes nearest the old State motorpool on the south side of Peace St, right?

Yeah, the map showed these being moved, but not where they would be moved to. The steel support beams are being readied to place underneath. I think I will go snap a photo just to document where these guys originally stood. Its gets tough to remember where things were after awhile...Tucker House(Person) used to be on Wilmington, Lewis-Smith (Wilmington)used to be on Halifax, Norwood House(Martin) used to be on Person, Richardson House(Person) used to be on Blount, etc etc.

[askmisterbrown]

You're right, CJJ and Jones, the two houses on the south side of Peace will be moved to Person St., south of Murphey School. A new building will be built where they were, extending to the corner of Person St. It will have retail or offices on the front of the first story, then three floors of residential units. One of those houses, the green one, was already moved, 103 years ago. It was originally on the corner of Blount & Peace, where 540 N. Blount (the large gold house) is now. Former Mayor W. M. Russ lived there. He moved it to the back of his lot and built the grander new house.

None of the old houses will be demolished for this project, but several will be moved. All of the houses on Wilmington St. will be moved -- three to Blount St. and one to Person St. The brick house on North St. will also be moved to Blount St.

The remaining empty lots on Blount will be sold for single-family houses. The rest of the approximately 16-acre tract will be a great variety of condos, row houses, "carriage houses" on new alleys, apartments, offices, retail, etc., about 490 units in all. Most parking will be under the new construction, a very "green" feature.

It will be great to see the old houses restored, and Blount St. restored as a grand avenue. It will also be great to have all that new life in the area, instead of the parking lots.

[orulz]

askmisterbrown: Thanks for the details.

Since you seem to have at least some inside knowledge on this project, do you have any info on the studies that were supposedly taking place for converting Blount and Person to two-way traffic?

[DwnTwnRaleighGuy]

The rest of the approximately 16-acre tract will be a great variety of offices.

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?

[askmisterbrown]

I haven't heard anything recently about making Blount and Person two-way, but I reckon that idea will have more support on the new City Council than the old one. I believe the downtown stakeholders all like the idea, but the traffic engineers don't like it because Blount & Person are part of the "thoroughfare plan" as a connection between Hammond Rd. and Atlantic Avenue. Originally (in 1972) that link was to be a new expressway to be built by demolishing the Oakwood neighborhood. Since some grumpy NIMBY homeowners put a stop to that, Blount and Person have had to do the job.

It all turns on whether downtown should be a place to go, or a place to get through as fast as possible. This should be addressed in Raleigh's new comprehensive plan, the creation of which kicks off this Thursday.

I don't know if the state plans to use any of the new offices to be built as part of the Blount St. Commons project. I'm sure the developers would welcome that. I do think the state should get out of its "office park" mentality and rent and/or build offices throughout downtown, rather than further enlarging its complex north of the capitol building. It would be much nicer for the employees to be within an easy walk of restaurants and retail. There is no reason employees of, e.g., the Dept. of Revenue need to be near the Dept. of Transportation.

Regarding parking for state employees, I have heard talk of a new parking deck at the northwest corner of McDowell and Lane, or else at the southwest corner of McDowell and Jones. Senator Cowell and others have also proposed making the state employee lots and decks first-come-first-served rather than having reserved spaces for each employee, which results in ten percent of the parking spaces being empty each day.

[ncwebguy]

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.

[JeffC]

We need Jones133 in here to tell us if those two houses being moved are (were) on their original sites, or whether they were moved there when the built the state government mall complex and destroyed Halifax Street and moved or tore down the old houses lining it...

[Jones_]

We need Jones133 in here to tell us if those two houses being moved are (were) on their original sites, or whether they were moved there when the built the state government mall complex and destroyed Halifax Street and moved or tore down the old houses lining it...

Most of what I know is scavenged info including what houses have been moved. According to mister Brown above the green one was Mayor Russ's house and was moved from the corner of Peace and Blount for the yellow house to be built. If that is the case it would not show up in most historical resources since it never left the lot it was on, and hence why I knew nothing of it. They look nearly identical in age. To me at first blush, the yellow one looks older with many more victorian features but that may be a function of the former Mayors wallet size. blountstreet.og used to have floor plan .pdfs of each house with I think, construction dates also. I can't find them now (and kick myself for not saving them) to verify the dates. I posted a photo of this intersection somewhere, probably Triangle History, that should at least show where the rooftops were before the government complex expanded (its dated 1951).

Edit: Actually its post 188 on page 10 of this thread. Both houses are sitting right there looking pretty. I talk up this pic forever...there is a lot missing from it obviously...