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A Brief History of the
Raleigh City Museum
For more than 200 years, Raleigh, North Carolina's capital city,
had no repository for its historical artifacts, no place to preserve its past,
and no institution to educate its citizens and visitors about the city's rich
heritage. That all changed in 1993 when the Raleigh City Museum opened its first
exhibit.
Briggs Hardware Building
ca. 1890's - 1900
The Raleigh City Museum, a private non-profit organization, grew out
of the dream of Raleigh historian Beth Crabtree and after Beth's death, the
vision and perseverance of Mary Cates. It was in 1990 that Mary Cates began
bringing together a group of advocates for a Raleigh City Museum.
In 1991 the advocates held a public forum in the City Council Chambers to hear what the
citizens of Raleigh had to say about such a project. And the people of Raleigh
turned out: old and young, new arrivals and long-time residents. All wanted
Raleigh's heritage as a municipality and as a hometown preserved. Thus the advocates
for a Raleigh City Museum set into motion the steps for creating a local history
museum.
The mission of the resulting museum states:
"The Raleigh City Museum preserves Raleigh's past for the
future."
The Raleigh City Museum is the only home for artifacts of the city and its
people. It is an educational center using exhibits, lectures and programs to
help residents and visitors learn about the diverse aspects of the city's people,
places and events.
(Continued below...)
The museum is located in the historic Briggs Building on Fayetteville Street
Mall in downtown Raleigh. The museum is open to the general public, and schedules
special group tours including school classes, senior citizens, civic groups
and special needs groups.
Restoration In Progress
November 1998
The Raleigh City Museum, with its two full-time and one part-time staff
members and scores of volunteers, designs and fabricates a new temporary exhibit
approximately every six months that deals with some aspect of the city of Raleigh.
The museum provides special educational opportunities to the public. These
free programs are topical and explore avenues of Raleigh's history. Example
programs include a workshop on basic artifact preservation that can be done
at home, slide shows about architecture and other Raleigh features, and hands-on
activity days for families. Another educational program series is the Oral History
Project, which involves volunteers preserving the memories of Raleigh citizens,
thereby adding to our cumulative knowledge. In addition, special programs have
been designed for students, including the Postcard Art Contest and the annual
Story Contest.
The Raleigh City Museum has also developed and implemented an educational
program for school groups when they visit the museum. The 90-minute program
involves hands-on activities and structured group work to educate students about
Raleigh in general, specific topics in Raleigh history, and basic concepts of
history. The program is designed to provide them with the tools needed to explore
history on their own. The museum activities, as well as those provided to the
teachers to be conducted in the classroom, are also geared toward showing the
students how much fun can be had by learning about history. One teacher recently
expressed her approval of the Raleigh City Museum's educational program by touting
it as "Raleigh's best" because of the hands-on activities and the
time devoted to the students through the 90-minute program.
Under construction, 5/98
Not all classes are able to come to the museum, however. In response,
the museum started a History Chest program in September 1997. This program allows
teachers to conduct Raleigh City Museum programs in their own classrooms. The
chests contain artifacts, photographs and other materials pertaining to topics
in Raleigh history. The self-contained programs, which reflect NC Social Studies
Curriculum Goals, provide approximately five hours of classroom lesson time.
The chests are available to any instructor in the Raleigh/Wake County/NC area.
Since its inception, hundreds of students have explored the history of Raleigh
through this program.
For adult groups interested in learning about the history of Raleigh, the
museum's Outreach program brings historical topics to their meeting. The outreach
programs cover a variety of topics, from lectures to slide shows to hands-on
activities with artifacts. The audience for the outreach programs also varies,
allowing the museum to reach hundreds of people in the community.
First Exhibit, 5/99
One of the greatest aspects of the Raleigh City Museum continues to
be its efforts to preserve the artifacts of the city. Through professional methods,
the museum collects, preserves and researches artifacts that provide clues to
the city's development and daily life. Without the museum, these artifacts would
have no repository and would be lost. The museum is always in a race against
time, trying to save all it can now in order to educate future generations about
their past.
The Raleigh City Museum continues to be an integral part of the community
for the services it provides to the general public. As the state capital and
as its own municipality, Raleigh has a unique history. That history needs to
be preserved in order for citizens, especially schoolchildren who will be our
future leaders, to understand how Raleigh has become the city it is today.
A Brief History of the Briggs Building
In 1865, Thomas H. Briggs and James Dodd opened their hardware business in
a small building located on Raleigh's main street. They experienced great success
with their business, and soon began plans to construct a larger building on
the same site.
By 1874, the new building had been completed and was noted as the
tallest building in east Carolina and Raleigh's first skyscraper. James
Dodd retired shortly after, and Briggs Hardware became a family business with
a new partnership between Briggs and his sons, James and Thomas H., Jr.
The Briggs Building has become a historically important structure for Raleigh.
In a city in which many of the historical buildings no longer exist, the Briggs
Building is significant as the only 19th century commercial building
surviving in an essentially unchanged state on Raleigh's main street.
The building is important as a familiar landmark for people who grew up in Raleigh.
Whether residents remember chatting while shopping for wrenches or running to
the back of the store to inspect the newest shipment of toys, the Briggs Building
has become an integral part of Raleigh's history.
The upper floors of the building have also contributed to the history of
the Briggs Building. Over the years, these upper floors have served as Raleigh's
first Y.M.C.A., the Raleigh Little Theatre and the State Museum (predecessor
of the NC Museum of Natural Science).
Part of the importance of the building was its long time status as a family-owned
business. The Briggs family maintained the hardware store in the Briggs Building
for over 120 years. In 1994, the family announced that they would be relocating,
and debate began over what to do with the building. It took some time, but finally
it was decided. A.J. Fletcher Foundation and Preservation North Carolina teamed
together to acquire and rehabilitate the building, and the restoration of the
building began in 1997. The Raleigh City Museum began its capital campaign in
April 1997 to raise money to purchase a 1/4 interest in the building and to
make the renovations needed to make the former hardware store into a museum.
By late 1998, all of the tenants had moved into the newly renovated building.
The Raleigh City Museum now occupies the first and ground floors of the building,
with A.J. Fletcher Foundation, Preservation North Carolina and Special Olympics
as fellow occupants.
By 1874, the new building had been completed and was noted as the
tallest building in east Carolina and Raleigh's first skyscraper. James
Dodd retired shortly after, and Briggs Hardware became a family business with
a new partnership between Briggs and his sons, James and Thomas H., Jr.