Earlier capitals 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.
18th century 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.
New Bern, a port town on the
Neuse River from the Atlantic Ocean, was the largest city and the capital of North Carolina during the
American Revolution. When the British Army laid siege to the city, that site could no longer be used as the capital. From 1789 to 1794, when Raleigh was being built, the state capital was
Fayetteville. Raleigh was chosen as the site of the new capital in 1788, as its central location protected it from attacks from the coast. It was officially established in 1792 as both county seat and state capital. The city was incorporated on December 31, 1792, and a charter granted January 21, 1795. The city was named for
Sir Walter Raleigh, sponsor of
Roanoke, the "lost colony" on Roanoke Island. No known city or town existed previously on the chosen city site. Raleigh is one of the few cities in the United States that was planned and built specifically to serve as a
state capital. Its original boundaries were formed by the downtown streets of North, East, West and South. The plan, a grid with two main axes meeting at a central square and an additional square in each corner, was based on
Thomas Holme's 1682 plan for
Philadelphia. The city was developed on the land of various
plantations including
Crabtree,
Mordecai,
Oak View,
Pine Hall,
Pullen,
Spring Hill, and
Wakefield. The
North Carolina General Assembly first met in Raleigh in December 1794, and granted the city a
charter, with a board of seven appointed
commissioners and an "
Intendant of Police" (which developed as the office of
Mayor) to govern it. After 1803, city commissioners were elected. In 1799, the
N.C. Minerva and Raleigh Advertiser was the first newspaper published in Raleigh.
John Haywood was the first Intendant of Police.
19th century , ; Governor
David Settle Reid is in the foreground s Office in State Capitol, In 1808,
Andrew Johnson, the United States' future 17th President, was born at Casso's Inn in Raleigh. The city's first
water supply network was completed in 1818, although due to system failures, the project was abandoned. In 1817, the
Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina was established and headquartered in Raleigh. In 1819, Raleigh's first volunteer
fire company was founded, followed in 1821 by a full-time fire company. In 1831, a fire destroyed the
North Carolina State House. Two years later, reconstruction began with quarried
gneiss being delivered by the first railroad in the state. Raleigh celebrated the completion of the new
State Capitol and new
Raleigh & Gaston Railroad Company in 1840. The first
State Fair was held near Raleigh in 1853. The first institution of higher learning in Raleigh,
Peace College, was established in 1857. Raleigh's
Historic Oakwood contains many houses from the 19th century that are still in good condition. North Carolina seceded from the Union during the
American Civil War on May 20, 1861. After the war began, Governor
Zebulon Baird Vance ordered the construction of
breastworks around the city as protection from
Union troops. Near the end of the Civil War, Governor Vance arranged his evacuation to avoid capture as
Union General William Sherman's forces approached the city. Before leaving, Vance met with former governors
Graham and
Swain to draft a letter of surrender for Raleigh. Their intention was to protect Raleigh from
the destruction inflicted on other cities by Union troops. Graham and Swain departed to meet the advancing Federal forces on the morning of April 12, 1865, and were to return by that evening. The evening struck, but Graham and Swain had not returned due to train delays and their temporary capture by Sherman. Governor Vance left the evening after Graham and Sherman failed to return, leaving behind a letter giving Mayor William H. Harrison the authority to surrender. On the morning of April 13, Mayor Harrison among others went to the southern Wake County area to meet General
Hugh Judson Kilpatrick and propose surrender. Kenneth Rayner, a long-time resident of Raleigh, delivered the proposal including a promise of no resistance. Kilpatrick agreed to accept the surrender and protect Raleigh from destruction. Kilpatrick's
cavalry occupied Raleigh and removed the flagpole from the
state capitol, replacing it with a
United States Flag above the dome. Sherman arrived shortly after and established his headquarters in the
governor's mansion. The city was spared significant destruction during the war. As
Confederate cavalry retreated west, Union soldiers followed, leading to the
Battle of Morrisville nearby. Due to the economic and social problems of the postwar period and
Reconstruction, with a state economy still heavily dependent on agriculture, the city grew little over the next several decades.
Shaw University, the South's first African American college, began classes in 1865 and was chartered in 1875. Its
Estey Hall was the first building constructed for the higher education of Black women, and
Leonard Medical Center was the first four-year medical school in the country for African Americans. In 1867,
Episcopal clergy founded
St. Augustine's College for the education of
freedmen. The biracial Reconstruction legislature created new welfare institutions: in 1869, it approved the United States' first school for blind and deaf Black people, to be located in Raleigh. In 1874, the federal government constructed the
Federal Building in Raleigh, the first
federal government project in the Southern U.S. following the Civil War. In 1880, the newspapers
News and
Observer combined to form
The News & Observer. It continues to be Raleigh's primary daily newspaper. The North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, now known as
North Carolina State University, was founded as a
land-grant college in 1887. The city's
Rex Hospital opened in 1889 and included the state's first nursing school. The Baptist Women's College, now known as
Meredith College, opened in 1891, and in 1898, The Academy of Music, a private music conservatory, was established. In the late nineteenth century, two Black Congressmen were elected from
North Carolina's 2nd district, the last in 1898.
George Henry White sought to promote civil rights for Black citizens and to challenge efforts by White Democrats to reduce Black voting by new discriminatory laws. He and his allies were unsuccessful. Based on a White supremacy campaign that returned Democrats to dominance, in 1900 the state legislature passed a new
constitution, with a suffrage amendment that raised barriers to voter registration, resulting in the
disenfranchisement of most Black citizens and many poor White citizens. Loss of the ability to vote also disqualified Black men (and later women) from sitting on juries and serving in any office—local, state or federal. The rising Black middle-class in Raleigh and other areas was politically silenced and shut out of local governance, and the
Republican Party was no longer competitive in the state. It was not until after federal
civil rights legislation was passed in the mid-1960s that the majority of Black citizens in North Carolina would again be able to vote, sit on juries and serve in local offices. By that time, many African Americans had left the state in the Great Migration to northern industrial cities for more opportunities. No African American was elected to Congress from North Carolina until 1992.
20th century In 1912, Bloomsbury Park opened, featuring a popular carousel ride. Relocated to
Pullen Park, the
Pullen Park Carousel is still operating. From 1914 to 1917, an
influenza epidemic killed 288 Raleighites. In 1922, WLAC signed on as the city's first radio station, but lasted only two years. WFBQ signed on in 1924 and became WPTF in 1927. It is now Raleigh's oldest continuous radio broadcaster. In 1923, the Raleigh Fall Festival was formed, which was reorganized as the
North Carolina Debutante Ball in 1927. Following immigration by Catholics, on December 12, 1924, the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh was officially established by
Pope Pius XI. The
Sacred Heart Cathedral became the official seat of the diocese with
William Joseph Hafey as its bishop. The city's first airport, Curtiss-Wright Flying Field, opened in 1929. That same year, the
stock market crash resulted in six Raleigh banks closing. During the difficult 1930s of the
Great Depression, government at all levels was integral to creating jobs. The city provided recreational and educational programs, and hired people for public works projects. In 1932,
Raleigh Memorial Auditorium was dedicated. The
North Carolina Symphony, founded the same year, performed in its new home. From 1934 to 1937, the federal
Civilian Conservation Corps constructed the area now known as
William B. Umstead State Park. In 1939, the State General Assembly chartered the Raleigh-Durham Aeronautical Authority to build a larger airport between Raleigh and Durham, with the first flight occurring in 1943. In 1947, Raleigh citizens adopted a
council–manager form of government, which is still the city's current form of government. The
Dorton Arena, a 7,610-seat multi-purpose arena designed by
Matthew Nowicki, was opened in 1952 on the grounds of the North Carolina State Fair. It was listed in the
National Register of Historic Places in 1973. In 1953,
WNAO-TV, channel 28, became the city's first television station, though it folded in 1957. Raleigh experienced significant damage from
Hurricane Hazel in 1954. With the opening of the
Research Triangle Park in 1959, Raleigh began to experience a population increase, resulting in a total city population of 100,000 by 1960. In 1960, the Census Bureau reported Raleigh's population as 76.4% White and 23.4% Black. Following the passage of the federal
Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the main achievements of the
Civil Rights Movement and the
Lyndon B. Johnson presidency, political participation and voting by African Americans in Raleigh increased rapidly. From the early to mid-20th century,
East Hargett Street was known as Raleigh's "Black Main Street" and hosted numerous Black-owned businesses. The area declined after the city desegregated its establishments. Another of Raleigh's oldest Black neighborhoods, Fourth Ward, was demolished starting in 1971, with about 600 homes and 60 businesses south of downtown gone as a result of
urban renewal, and 1,600 people forced to move. It was claimed that housing was substandard and the area had a lot of crime. By the early 1970s, people in Raleigh were growing increasingly concerned about growth and
urban sprawl. Community organizations felt that municipal offices were being too heavily influenced by business interests when the city's population was rapidly growing and various development projects were being proposed. At their behest, the municipal elections were altered so that the mayor was to be directly elected, instead of being selected by the city council. Most city council seats were then made responsible to districts, instead of being held at-large. The 1973 elections were the first contests affected by the reforms. City councilman
Clarence Lightner defeated Raleigh Merchants Bureau executive director G. Wesley Williams to become Raleigh's first Black mayor, and thus the first Black mayor in a major White-majority city in the South. In 1976, the Raleigh City and Wake County schools merged to become the
Wake County Public School System, now the largest school system in the state and 19th largest in the country. During the 1970s and 1980s, the
I-440 beltline was constructed, in an attempt to ease traffic congestion and provide access to most major city roads. The first
Raleigh Convention Center (replaced in 2008) and Fayetteville Street Mall were both opened in 1977. Fayetteville Street was turned into a pedestrian-only street in an effort to help the then-ailing downtown area, but the plan was flawed and business declined for years to come. Fayetteville Street was reopened in 2007 as the main thoroughfare of Raleigh's downtown. During the
1988 Raleigh tornado outbreak of November 28, 1988, the city was affected by the most destructive of the seven tornadoes reported in
Northeastern North Carolina and southeastern
Virginia between 1:00 am and 5:45 am. The Raleigh tornado produced over $77 million in damage, along with four fatalities (two in the city of Raleigh, and two in
Nash County) and 154 injuries. The damage path from the storm was measured at long, and wide at times. The tornado was rated
F4. In 1991, two large skyscrapers in Raleigh were completed,
First Union Capitol Center and
Two Hannover Square, along with the popular
Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek in southeast Raleigh. In 1996, the
Olympic Flame passed through Raleigh while on its way to the
1996 Summer Olympics in
Atlanta. Also in 1996,
Hurricane Fran struck the area, causing massive flooding and extensive structural damage. In addition,
WRAL-TV became the first High-Definition broadcast station in the world. In 1997, the
Hartford Whalers of the
National Hockey League announced their intention to move to Raleigh as the
Carolina Hurricanes, becoming the city's first major league professional sports franchise. In 1999, the Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Arena (later renamed the RBC Center and now called
Lenovo Center), opened to provide a home for the Hurricanes and the
NC State Wolfpack men's basketball team, as well as an up-to-date major concert venue.
21st century trees in bloom, 2017 in 2019 In 2001, the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium complex was expanded with the addition of the
Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Meymandi Concert Hall, Fletcher Opera Theater, Kennedy Theatre,
Betty Ray McCain Gallery and Lichtin Plaza. Fayetteville Street reopened to vehicular traffic in 2006. A variety of downtown building projects began around this time including the 34-story
RBC Bank Tower, multiple condominium projects and several new restaurants. Additional skyscrapers are in the proposal/planning phase. The Carolina Hurricanes won the
Stanley Cup the same year, which was North Carolina's first professional sports championship. With the opening of parts of
I-540 from 2005 to 2007, a new loop around Wake County, traffic congestion eased somewhat in the North Raleigh area. Completion of the entire loop is expected to take another 15 years. In 2008, the city's
Fayetteville Street Historic District joined the
National Register of Historic Places. In September 2010, Raleigh hosted the inaugural
Hopscotch Music Festival. Raleigh hosted the
2011 National Hockey League All-Star Game. In April 2011, a devastating
EF-3 tornado hit Raleigh, and many other tornadoes touched down in the state (ultimately the largest, but not the
strongest outbreak to ever hit the state), killing 24 people. The tornado tracked northeast through parts of downtown, East Central Raleigh and Northeast Raleigh and produced $115 million in damages in Wake County. There were 4 fatalities in the city. In September 2015,
Holy Trinity Anglican Church was opened; the first church to be built in downtown Raleigh since 1958. On July 26, 2017, the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh dedicated its new cathedral,
Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, the fifth-largest in the United States. On October 13, 2022,
a spree shooting occurred in Raleigh's Hedingham neighborhood. Five people were killed, and two others were injured. The suspect, a 15-year-old boy, was detained after being critically wounded and later remanded into the custody of the medical unit of a juvenile correctional facility. ==Geography==