Raleigh

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15 for ’15: Counting down to Top 5 online

A friend alerted me to this tweet that the News & Observer sent out this afternoon, prominently featuring Hallie:

Hallie represents tenacity in the N&O top stories list.

Hallie represents tenacity in the N&O top stories list.

It turns out her lawsuit story was the second most-read story on the N&O website. Pretty stunning, especially coming so late in the year.

We’re all still a bit surprised that Hallie’s activism has gotten as much attention as it has. If it helps change minds and get the state moving in the proper direction again this would be enough.
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Saying hello to Isaac Hunter’s Tavern

Isaac Hunter's Tavern with roads overlayed

Isaac Hunter’s Tavern with roads overlayed

After staying up too late Thursday night searching maps for Isaac Hunter’s Tavern, Friday morning I pulled up a Google Search which corrected me on the actual location. My friend and fellow armchair historian, Mike Legeros, took my 2010 post and ran with it, connecting with Hunter descendent Betsy Hunter Amos along the way.

Betsy is a 7th generation neice of Isaac Hunter who connected with me via email shortly after my 2010 posts, offering photos and family history to fill in the blanks. What Mike and Betsy showed me was that the building I thought was the tavern is not the tavern at all. The real tavern is the building on the far western end of the property, not the ramshackle building I saw behind the home in the 1959 aerial photograph. The grand home itself was the home of Judge Biggs and went by the equally grand name of Hardimont. You can read more about it on Mike’s excellent website.

Tavern site as it appears today. Stones and bricks are on the right.

Tavern site as it appears today. Stones and bricks are on the right.


I visited the North Raleigh Hilton at lunch Friday to see what I could see. As Betsy said, the hotel library has a wonderful display of tavern photographs as well as artifacts from the tavern. One handy annotated photo showed how the tavern was originally positioned at the “top of the key” or driveway, across from where Hardimont was built. You can easily imagine it as it once stood between the “Lafayette Oaks” in the photographs. Judge Biggs moved the tavern out from in front of his stately home in 1936 and put it 100 yards west. It remained there until sometime in the early 1970s, when it was bulldozed.
Isaac Hunter's Tavern foundation stones

Isaac Hunters Tavern foundation stones


With a little time on my hands, I decided to venture into the woods behind the hotel to see if I could locate the old site. After a few minutes of wandering I came across a clearing. To the left of me was a few mounds of raised dirt. A closer look showed a pile of large stones and brick. It was the foundation of the old tavern!

I whipped out my cellphone camera and snapped photos of the bricks and stones. A concrete bench that once provided respite in the beautiful backyard gardens lay in sections to the left of me. Near it is a set of stones seemingly configured in a step formation. Could these be the old horse mounting stones that once stood outside the tavern?

Bricks from foundation of Isaac Hunter's Tavern

Bricks from foundation of Isaac Hunter’s Tavern


Broken bench from gardens, and are these the mounting stones on the right?

Broken bench from gardens, and are these the mounting stones on the right?


I quickly turned on my phone’s GPS and got a fix of the foundation site. After returning to work, I compared my coordinates to the historical photographs. Bingo, it fits!

For those who would like to visit what’s left of the tavern, it can be found at 35°49’52.3″ N 78°37’21.5″ W. Surprisingly, its last location is not on hotel property but the parcel directly behind it (roughly 900 St. Albans Drive), so if were bulldozed due to potential development that development never came. Perhaps it was demolished after being deemed a hazard.

Accounts say that local historian (and current Apex resident) J.C. Knowles was supposed to take ownership of the tavern but it was bulldozed before he got it. I will try to get up with Mr. Knowles to see what he might know or remember.

The final resting place of Isaac Hunter’s Tavern

Update 3 Dec 10:25 PM: I am wrong about the location while Mike Legeros is correct. The best news of the day, though, is that I found the remains of the old tavern building! I will post details as soon as I can get Google Earth to behave. Sorry for the wait!

Courtesy North Carolina State Archives

Courtesy North Carolina State Archives


If you’ll recall, five years ago I set out on an Internet quest to determine exactly where Isaac Hunter’s tavern once stood. The Tavern was of important historical significance because it when North Carolina’s state capital was being created, legislators decided it should be within ten miles of the Tavern. Sadly, the Tavern met the same fate that many of Raleigh’s historical properties met in the early 1970s: it fell into disrepair and was later bulldozed. Also sad is that I never completed my quest.

Tonight I got an email from Steve Hall, who found my blog post and asked if I’d ever actually solved the mystery. Steve’s email prompted me to actually finish what I started, so tonight I present to you a few additional historical photographs of Isaac Hunter’s tavern, courtesy of some resource links that Steve sent me (thanks, Steve!).

Here is the Tavern as it appeared on an aerial photograph taken in 1959. Wake Forest Road runs north and south on the right side of the photo and you can see St. Albans Road stretching into the northeastern corner. The curving driveway leads up to a larger, more modern home that was built on the tavern property. In the red circle to the west of the home is the tavern, based on some time I spent matching up the tavern roofline. I learned that near the end of its existence the tavern was used as a horse stable, so its spot here behind the main home seems to support that.

Isaac Hunter's Tavern, 1959.

Isaac Hunter’s Tavern, 1959.

The funny thing is, an aerial photograph taken in 1938 does not seem to show the tavern at this same spot. In fact, I’m not sure where the tavern was at this point as I’ve scoured this imagery and can find nothing I can match up with it. My guess is that the tavern might be just south and slightly east of the main house along the curving driveway but I don’t really know for sure. It could actually be in the same spot as it is in 1959 but it sure doesn’t look like it to me.

Isaac Hunter's Tavern, 1938.

Isaac Hunter’s Tavern, 1938.

So where would you go if you wanted to stand in the spot where the tavern last was? Since I only know where it last was and have not located its original spot, I can only show you the last location:

Isaac Hunter's Tavern today

Isaac Hunter’s Tavern today

Here’s the same spot with the current Google Maps satellite imagery added:

The location of Isaac Hunter's Tavern

The location of Isaac Hunter’s Tavern

A smile crossed my face as I was lining up these images. Benson Drive started off as the dirt path that split the home and the tavern! Also delightful is the fact that the land where the tavern itself last stood is still (for now) undeveloped! There still could be historical nails and/or other artifacts to be found at this spot. Hurray!

I want to thank Steve for prompting me to finish my quest and for the handy links he provided: the 1938 aerial and 1959 aerial sets from UNC’s collection of USDA Historical Aerial Photos. For reference, I used images 6W_145 from the 1959 imagery and 13-212 from the 1938 imagery.

Digital Connectors 2015

Me with the Raleigh Digital Connectors, Nov 2015.

Me with the Raleigh Digital Connectors, Nov 2015.


I was invited to give another talk to the Raleigh Digital Connectors yesterday on the topic of blogging. Once again I was inspired by these young men and women who are making a difference in the community. I am always honored to speak to them on the topic of blogging as it’s so important that they know they have this amazing resource known as the Internet with which to express themselves.

Blogging certainly has been a worthwhile endeavor for me. I don’t always get time to write as much as I’d like to but I enjoy the time that I can find.

Take a look at these young people in this photograph. These folks are changing the world.

News and Observer and I part ways

Over the summer the bank canceled the credit card used by thieves on their New Jersey shopping spree. This was the same card used to pay for our News and Observer subscription, and on 12 July our subscription officially expired. The N&O continued to deliver papers and supplemented that with several letters in the mail asking us to call them. After repeatedly leaving messages for Miriam Widger, the newspaper’s “Audience Retention and Collection Agent,” she finally called me back.

Miriam told me we could continue to subscribe for the incredibly low price of $351 for 52 weeks.

“Gosh,” I responded, “I see on your website that we can get a new subscription for only $109.20 for 52 weeks. Why would you charge your long-time customers three times as much as a new subscriber?”
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Map of Triangle-area Google Fiber huts

Google Fiber in the Triangle

Google Fiber in the Triangle


A News and Observer story alerted me to the recent approval by Raleigh City Council of 10 Google Fiber hut sites in the city. A quick look at the city council minutes showed me where they were. I took a few minutes this afternoon to map these sites onto Google Maps to get a better look at where Google Fiber might soon be deployed.

The result is this Google Map. I have since added the four sites in Cary and one in Morrisville which have already been approved. I searched for approval of sites in Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Garner but as far as I know these municipalities have not yet approved their sites. If someone learns that this has changed, please give me a heads up and I will add these sites to my map.

The upright Google Fiber bunnies signify fiber hut locations, while the horizontal bunnies indicate where conduit permits have been requested. I’ve also put an icon on Raleigh’s proposed Google FiberSpace at 518 W. Jones St in Glenwood South area.

Neighborhood hero Victor Spence passes away

Victor_Spence-medium
Yesterday I worked from home and had the occasion to take Travis home from his camp at N.C. State. As we approached by the Bryan-Lee Funeral home on Wake Forest Road, I spotted a number of motorcyclists standing around near the street. Passing by, I saw a number of flags planted in the lawn of the funeral home and several motorcycles in the parking lot.

“I wonder what’s up with the flags,” I said to Travis. “It’s not a patriotic holiday. No famous politician died today. I wonder who this is for?”

Tonight I was sad to learn that the honoree was none other than my neighbor, Victor “Vic” Spence. Mr. Spence lived quietly and alone in the home that he built with G.I. Bill money at the corner of Monroe and Madison. I would sometimes see him as I walked the dog past his home. He would always smile and say hello and I’d do the same. Other times I’d see him driving slowly down the street in his dark blue Ford Crown Victoria, wearing his Marine Corps hat and on his way to his usual stool at the Fenton Street Dunkin Donuts. He was there so often that when the Dunkin Donuts finally closed last year the first thing I thought was “what will Mr. Spence do now?”
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No City Council race for me this year

A lot of people have been asking me when I’m going to run for Raleigh City Council. It’s humbling to be considered for such public service and I appreciate all of the interest and enthusiasm for my potential candidacy.

While I considered it strongly, I have decided this is not my year to run. My family is not ready for me to devote the level of time and attention needed to do the job right. I also want to hang on to the few years left that our kids are at home. They are growing so quickly if I blink I’ll miss it.

I’ll still be involved – you know you can’t keep me from meddling! I just will do so as a civilian for the time being.

Thanks for your support and encouragement. When the time is right you’ll be the first to know.

Phydeaux and Seaboard Station

I was concerned several years ago when Raleigh’s only downtown grocery closed at Seaboard Station but pleasantly surprised when the Phydeaux pet store moved in. I normally don’t get attached to pet stores but I absolutely love Phydeaux. I feel like they know me, and that they are happy to be part of the community.

I was concerned when news spread last month that Phydeaux would soon be leaving Seaboard over concerns with its lease arrangement. Phydeaux is leaving in September for new digs at the current Briggs Hardware building at Atlantic Ave and Six Forks. Phydeaux is purchasing the building from the Scruggs family.
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