HISTORY OF RALEIGH, IN A VERY OLD HARDWARE STORE (Cheri)

The City of Raleigh has a small, well-organized museum dedicated to its own history.

This postcard-image isn't at all representative of the parts of Raleigh that we've seen, but the nostalgia drew me in.  How many of you remember shopping in places that looked like this?

Just a few details from the Museum follow.  We laughed when we saw how the State capitol had come to be located here:

After achieving independence from England in 1873, North Carolina's leaders
wanted to establish a new state capital near the geographical center of the state. 
They . . . eventually mandated that the seat of government must be located
within ten miles of Isaac Hunter's Tavern, a popular inn and meeting place.

Okaaaay.  The City of Raleigh was actually specifically-planned for this purpose.

The City's museum is in a building which housed Briggs Hardware for its first 120 years.  An 1875 flyer for a hardware sale at the store:

As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same, hmmm?

I'm a sucker for maps.  The full version of this one, which fills a wall in the first third of the building, grabbed my attention:

I was very impressed with the needlepoint Bishop's Chair pillow, created for the Church of the Good Shepherd:

The plaque explained the significance of various portions of the design, and how much work went into creating a full new set of kneelers, etc. for the Church, which "are still in use today."  What I missed - my fault, I'm sure - was why this pillow was at the Museum, instead of the Church.

There was an interesting section on forms of government, apparently aimed for children or adolescents.  A map identified the different areas that various City Council Members represent, and had slots for visitors to drop in coins to show where they had come from.  One of the discussion questions was "Do you think there should be both City and State governments?"

This picture was in the early-history section of the Museum:

Note that all of the students in this Class of 1911 display are Black Americans.  What I did not realize until the last few years was that Jim Crow laws were not necessarily enacted immediately after the Civil War, but actually in reaction to economic and political gains that Black Americans achieved afterwards.

The Museum's current temporary exhibit was an extensive discussion of North Carolina's professional baseball history.  We don't have a major-league team, but we do have more minor-league teams than any state other than Florida.