History · Raleigh

Raleigh has 131 places on the National Register, 3 of them National Historic Landmarks

More historic than 80% of U.S. towns · #49 of 290 in North Carolina. What drives it

Dated to 1770 (Wikidata), with 3% of its homes built before 1940 and 33 historic districts holding 5,738 contributing buildings. Most of Raleigh was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1997. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1884 on, the census since 1800, and every listing on the Register.

1770founded

131on the National Register

3%homes built before 1940

2old photos & papers

32famous people

Add an old photo Share a memory

From Raleigh’s archive · credits on each photo

Quick answers

How Raleigh began

When was Raleigh founded?

1770

Raleigh dates its founding to 1770 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1800.

First census: 669 in 18002020 census: 467,665256 years

How historic is Raleigh?

A⁻

More historic than 80% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓

Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1795.The full story ↓

History grade

What drives Raleigh’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Raleigh is more historic than 80% of U.S. towns, #49 of 290 in North Carolina. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

A⁻

HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Raleigh’s overall grade.

Founding era1770, from Wikidata: founded before 1776, an older era than 96% of U.S. townsA⁺Homes built before 19402.5% of homes (±0.3) · typical NC town 4.1% · U.S. 8.4%C⁻National Register131 listings, 5,738 historic buildings, 119 per 10,000 residents · typical NC town 12.5 · U.S. 2.4A

All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 80%

NewerOlder

North Carolina towns of 2,500+ (290)Ahead of 83%

Among the 400 U.S. cities of 100,000 or more, Raleigh ranks #121 on History.

North Carolina towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical North Carolina town has 12.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Raleigh’s 119 sits above most of its state (78% of North Carolina towns have fewer) while its 5,738 historic buildings outnumber those of 100% of U.S. towns.

Newer cities are common at Raleigh’s size: in the typical U.S. city of 100,000 or more, 5% of homes predate 1940.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B to A+. The pre-1940 share (±0.3 points) is firm at this size. Two sources give 1770.

Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Raleigh’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A National Historic Landmark131 places on the National Register, 3 of them National Historic Landmarks.A historic districtThe West Raleigh Historic District takes in 1,157 historic buildings.Lost villages6 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Raleigh, and 148 old place names are still on the map.A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.

★ What stands out · On the National Register

131 listings protect 5,738 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. 3 are National Historic Landmarks, the highest tier. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.

places listed

131

National Historic Landmarks

North Carolina State Capitol

historic buildings protected

5,738

each building in a district counts

first listed

1970

North Carolina State Capitol

BuildingsDistrictsSitesStructures★ landmark

Architectural styles listings

Colonial Revival26

Queen Anne16

Victorian14

Bungalow10

Italianate10

Ranch9

★ Landmark

North Carolina State CapitolGreek Revival · Built 1833

★ Landmark

Christ ChurchGothic Revival

★ Landmark

Christ Episcopal ChurchGothic Revival

North Carolina Executive MansionQueen Anne

Mordecai HouseGreek Revival

State Bank of North CarolinaFederal · Built 1810

Haywood HallFederal

Joel Lane HouseBuilt 1769

All 133 listings

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Raleigh’s post office has been open since 1795. Six other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Raleigh

1795–today

Neuse

1845–today

Asbury

1879–1880

Temple

1886–1896

Mill Brook

1888–1903

Method

1890–today

Sixforks

1891–1900

Oberlin

1892–1894

West Raleigh

1894–1921

17901910today

Hamlets and corners on the map

Anderson HeightsAsburyAshley ParkBeacon LakeBeckanaBellevue TerraceBiltmore HillsBirchwood Hills EstatesBoushellBoylan HeightsBrandermillBrentwoodBrentwood VillageBriarcliffBrookhavenBudleighCameron ParkCaraleighCarolina PinesCedar HillCedar Hills EstatesChestnut HillsChippenhaven SquareColey Forest

Gone or out of use

Edwards MilllocaleLassiters MilllocaleMount Olive ChurchchurchWilders Grove Schoolschool

9cemeteries and burying grounds inside Raleigh

BagwellCarolina Biblical GardensMontlawn Memorial ParkMount HopeMount OlivetOakwoodPet Rest Memorial ParkRaleigh Memorial ParkRaleigh National

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story

How Raleigh came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Raleigh.

Read it all →

Bath, the oldest town in North Carolina, was the first nominal capital of the colony from 1705 until 1722, when Edenton took over the role. The colony had no permanent institutions of government until the new capital, New Bern, was established in 1743.

In December 1770, Joel Lane successfully petitioned the North Carolina General Assembly to create a new county. On January 5, 1771, the bill creating Wake County was passed in the General Assembly. The county was formed from portions of Cumberland, Orange, and Johnston counties, and was named for Margaret Wake Tryon, the wife of Governor William Tryon. The first county seat was Bloomsbury.

ChaptersEarlier capitals 18th century 19th century 20th century 21st century

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Raleigh in 1893

Passages that mention Raleigh, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Raleigh also has a United States Post-office and Courthouse, built of granite at a cost of about half a million dollars, and most conveniently furnished. A Union Station House has recently been finished and opened by the several railroads entering the city at a cost of S8o,000, and affords great sa… — **The early history of Raleigh, the capital city of North Carolina**1893Read the page →
Read the text
Raleigh also has a United States Post-office and Courthouse, built of granite at a cost of about half a million dollars, and most conveniently furnished. A Union Station House has recently been finished and opened by the several railroads entering the city at a cost of S8o,000, and affords great satisfaction to the traveling public. The commodious new Park Hotel and Opera-house erected by A. F. Page will be opened for business in the fall of 1893, and with the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Ill city of Raleigh, and Slate of North Carolina, from the 18th to the 21st of October, 1892, to thank you for the compliment conveyed and to express his very great regret that the pressure of official business and other public engagements here, will preclude his having the pleasure of being presen… — **The early history of Raleigh, the capital city of North Carolina**1893Read the page →
Read the text
Ill city of Raleigh, and Slate of North Carolina, from the 18th to the 21st of October, 1892, to thank you for the compliment conveyed and to express his very great regret that the pressure of official business and other public engagements here, will preclude his having the pleasure of being present upon such an enjoyable occasion, commemorating as it does the life and success of the noble Raleigh in whom Virginia claims an equal interest with her sister North Carolina. With best wishes for
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Raleigh, 1769 to 1987

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

18th century
1769BuiltJoel Lane House is built
1770
FoundingRaleigh is established
1795Post officeThe Raleigh post office opens
19th century
1808Born hereAndrew Johnson is born here
1810BuiltState Bank of North Carolina is built
1833BuiltNorth Carolina State Capitol is built
1845Post officeThe Neuse post office opens
1854BuiltRichard B. Haywood House is built
1879Post officeThe Asbury post office opens
1880Post officeThe Asbury post office closes
1890In the archiveNorth Carolina
20th century
1909In the archiveCapitol Building
1937Born hereDaniel McFadden is born here
1943On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
1971Born hereMichael C. Hall is born here
1973LandmarkNorth Carolina State Capitol named a National Historic Landmark
1987Born hereEvan Rachel Wood is born here
1987LandmarkChrist Church named a National Historic Landmark

By decade

Raleigh, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1890s–1900s2 items

1890North Carolina

1909Capitol Building

1910s–1990snothing yet

Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Add from your album

On the map

Raleigh on the map, 1943 to 2002

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Raleigh. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

1943Raleigh sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Raleigh.

Every building

Raleigh, building by building, 1884–1914

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.

Raleigh fire insurance map, 1884, sheet 1

1884Sheet 1 of 3

Edition

Sheets

+2 more at the Library of Congress

BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Retake this viewNorth Carolina, 1890

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Raleigh’s page.

Retake this view · +15

People over time

Raleigh, census by census

Lost a third of its people between 1820 and 1830, then grew more than tenfold.

23 censuses, 1800–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Raleigh’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

32 famous people were born in Raleigh

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →

Andrew JohnsonPresident of the United States from 1865 to 1869 · b. 1808

Evan Rachel WoodAmerican actress · b. 1987

Michael C. HallAmerican actor · b. 1971

Daniel McFaddenAmerican economist · b. 1937

Clay AikenAmerican singer-songwriter, actor, and record p… · b. 1978

Peyton ReedAmerican film director · b. 1964

Help out

Start Raleigh’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Raleigh’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

Retake an old viewNorth Carolina: stand where they stood+15 Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Cary8 historic placesB Garner3 historic placesC⁺Wake Forest17 historic placesB Durham64 historic placesB Knightdale3 historic placesC⁻

Questions about Raleigh’s history

What year was Raleigh founded?

In 1770, according to Wikidata. Raleigh’s post office opened in 1795, and the census of 1800 counted 669 people here.

How does Raleigh rank for history?

Raleigh is more historic than 80% of U.S. towns, #49 of 290 in North Carolina. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

What is on the National Register in Raleigh?

131 listings, 3 of them National Historic Landmarks: 94 buildings, among them the North Carolina State Capitol (a National Historic Landmark since 1973), 35 historic districts with 5,623 contributing buildings, 3 sites, and 1 structure. 5,738 historic buildings in all.

How old are the homes in Raleigh?

3% of Raleigh’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 4.1% for a North Carolina town; the median home was built in 1997.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →

Start a conversation

Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

From Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (9), the National Register of Historic Places (133), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

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Raleigh has 131 places on the National Register, 3 of them National Historic Landmarks

How Raleigh began

When was Raleigh founded?

How historic is Raleigh?

What drives Raleigh’s History grade

What stands out about Raleigh’s past

131 listings protect 5,738 historic buildings

Architectural styles listings

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

How Raleigh came to be

What they wrote about Raleigh in 1893

Raleigh, 1769 to 1987

Raleigh, decade by decade

Raleigh on the map, 1943 to 2002

Raleigh, building by building, 1884–1914

Stand where they stood

Raleigh, census by census

32 famous people were born in Raleigh

Start Raleigh’s collection

History across the town line

Questions about Raleigh’s history

Memory lane

Where this page comes from