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I like many people on this board am not origianlly from Raleigh. I moved here a bout a year and a half ago after living in Richmond, VA and NJ for several years. When I moved here I truly had no idea so many transplants were moving to this area. I was not aware of the polls rating areas in the triangle as "best places to Live in the US" and I don't really care about the excellent Wake county shcools system one way or the other since I don't plan to have children.
I don't work in the RTP and wasn't transfered here through my job. I knew coming here that Raleigh was not some sleepy southern city and I wasn't looking for a slower pace lifestyle or my slice of "heaven" in the country. I now live in a small subdivision in Northern Raleigh North of I-540 off of Falls of The Neuse Road. My house is 4 years old 1500 sq ft and sits on .08 Acres and I love it. It is my first house and it was the best I could afford. I enjoy spending time in the Downtown Raleigh area as well as visitng Durham and Chapel Hill. I plan to enjoy all of the triangel area not just the part I live in.
But now that I am here and aware of all the changes that must have occured in this area over the past 15 years I find myself wondering what it must have been like back then. I have heard stories of how the area that is Crabtree Valley Mall used to be a cattle pasture, and how the area that Capital Boulevard plows through by Traingel Town Center was untamed wilderness area that provided great deer hunting. I am not criticising the growth that has occured in this area, I am just curious to learn what it was like before all this happened. Is there anyone on this board that is a long time resident that can enlighten us all to what things used to be like?
Let's see..........I grew up in chapel hill (well, out in the country in between two dairy farms) and my mom worked in raleigh. The only access to raleigh was on 54, and that took about a hour on a good day. Interstate 40 did not exist and living in chapel hill meant you pretty much stayed in the area, we rarely went to raleigh, and never thought we needed to! I had a teacher in high school who lived in cary, and no one could figure out why anyone would live in cary, it was just trees upon trees and trees with no shops, a few neighborhoods. We lived in a time where there was not a grocery store on every corner, no walmart, no home depot. My dad used to shop for hardware at lowe's, not the home improvement store, but a locally owned company that sold the things he needed for building. My parents (when I was around 12) used to drop my friends and I off on franklin street during the summer and we would rent roller skates from a guy who worked out of a van and had a company called "heels on wheels", and we would get skates for 2 bucks for the night. We would roller skate all over the university and franklin street and never thought that we might get snatched.
There was no sprawl, we used to "go to town" to get groceries, etc. Granted there are some areas that still don't have sprawl, but it is hard to find. I always thought I would live in chapel hill, but now it is too expensive! Anyhow, that is just a small glimpse of the area.
Well, I've been here just under 12 years (mid-1995), but compared to some on this board, that's still a long time I guess.
Well there was no I-540, and I-40 had half the lanes that it does now.
Raleigh didn't go quite as far north as it does now, and Cary wasn't yet quite as engorged as it is now....the cancerous sprawl of the region was in a much earlier stage. No Triangle Towne Center, no Southpoint.
Downtown Raleigh had a good deal less activity. Glenwood South wasn't even a phrase really. Just a route between Five Points and downtown. City Market was about the only hub of restaurants/shopping at that point. Oh and the bars and clubs of the warehouse district.
Downtown Durham was only beginning to revive...Brightleaf Square & the Carolina Theatre being the only bright spots, as the American Tobacco District hadn't started yet. Ninth Street was the place to be...more Bohemian-based than it is now, I think.
Nightlife in both downtowns was much less than it is now. Although, amazingly, the largest nightclub in the Triangle, in terms of space, was actually in downtown Durham, not Raleigh...old place called the Power Company or something like that.
Chains hadn't quite invaded Chapel Hill's Franklin Street or Raleigh's Hillsborough Street & Cameron Village like they have now...they were hubs of locally-owned businesses even more-so than now. Otherwise, they haven't changed that much, really.
Government/current events-wise, I remember Raleigh having a mayor who practically worshipped developers (thus the quagmire we're now in with sprawl), and Carrboro shocking people across the region: "Oh my goodness they elected a gay mayor!"....lol. The governor then was Jim Hunt, who made education his main goal...and to some decent improvements I must say.
The huge influx of northerners was only beginning at the time. You could still go out to a bar or party and hear plenty of southern accents.
I've been here for just under 12 years, since December 1994. The area I lived in then, near the airport, had a Raleigh address but was really unincorperated land. It is now a good 2 miles are so inside the city limits of Raleigh, and the taxes have gone from $800 a year to about 1800 (this is going by what old neighbors have told me about their tax bills). Cary had a population of about 50,000 and was just starting to gain its "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees" status. I-40 might as well have been a rural backroad compaired to what it is now; "inside the beltline", accounted for more than half of the city limits of Raleigh. Apex, Holly Springs, and Fuquay-Varina, were all still "towns" and not really suburbs yet (they all had populations under 5,000, they now all have populations of at least 15,000, with Apex having near 40,000). And Wake Forrest was barely even considered part of the Raleigh metro area (same with Fuquay). The biggest mall was Crabtree....southpoint and triangle town center weren't even ideas yet. Carty Towne Center was the biggest mall south of Crabtree; and "South Hills" and "North Hills" were still considered shopping destinations.
Although, amazingly, the largest nightclub in the Triangle, in terms of space, was actually in downtown Durham, not Raleigh...old place called the Power Company or something like that.
Raleighrob..........you brought back such memories by talking about the power company! I had completely forgotten about that place! It was a great place to go and dance!
Oh yeah and I forgot to mention we survived all of this without:
computers
cell phones
answering machines
vcr's (old school by now I know)
digital cameras
We wrote letters to each other!
Can you tell I am preparing for my 20 year high school reunion this weekend??? Should be lots of fun!
I've lived in the Raleigh area all my life (MANY years!! ) and I can tell you that it has come a long way! Fayetteville street was open with parking on both sides, Hudson-Belk was THE department store, there were many small shops and I believe two theaters downtown. Cameron Village became quite a shopping center, then North Hills. At that time, you came into Raleigh on 401 or US 1, from the north and 70 from the east, 64 came in from Knightdale and became New Bern Avenue. Rex Hospital was on St. Mary's Street, then moved to its present location, Wake Med was not in the works, and there was a small hospital on Person St. called Mary Elizabeth Hospital (I think, not sure on that). No beltline, no interstate 40.
The things you spoke of in your first post bring back memories...more farmland, more pastures and a much slower pace! Not complaining, but things change sometimes for the better, sometime not!
I think Falls of Neuse has some lovely sites and I like having a land with trees and some privacy. We live in the middle of 20 acres, heavily wooded except for a lawn and garden area....I love it. We have deer that come to feed every day. I hope you continue to enjoy life here in NC....welcome!
I attended NCSU and lived in Cary from 1980-1983. Cary had a population of ~25,00o then. It was very much a bedroom community for Raleigh and RTP. SAS and the like were not in Cary, yet. We lived a few blocks from downtown Cary (library, old timey drug store with soda fountain school, etc.). Cary had a good band and there would be huge band competitions in the fall near our apartment. I biked to NCSU on Hillsborough St. (moderate traffic but ok) and sometimes along Rt. 54 to IBM at RTP where I was a coop student. Morrisville was just a crossroads with a wood mill nearby. The airport was close and much smaller and manageable. The food scene in the Triangle was pretty bleak for a vegetarian or ethnic food lover. My boyfriend cooked at Pyewacket in Chapel Hill and Irregarless in Raleigh. I hated the student lounge and cafeteria at NCSU because they were unbearably smokey. Only a few restaurants, etc. had non-smoking sections and there were so many smokers then. We're planning to move back to the Triangle next summer.
I grew up in Cary, not spending too much time in Raleigh and no time in Durham. I lived (and my parents still live) in the crossroads area of Cary, and i was born in the old REX hospital on St Marys st.. I remember when the area where cary towne center(started as cary village mall) is located used to a pasture. The convienient store on the corner of walnut/maynard used to be THE service station in cary. Walnut st. used to be 2 lanes. There was no crossroads mall, that's where we used to ride motorcycles. Kildare Farm road was a country road with a working dairy farm about where saltbox village is now. U.S. 1 was 2 lanes and was a long drive to Raleigh or Apex.
I do remember as i got a little older hearing about this ritzy new area called "mini-city" and thinking it was a whole new city.
It is fun to think back to how i used to think Raleigh was a huge city compared to how i see it now as a city of Raleigh employee.
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) and I can tell you that it has come a long way! Fayetteville street was open with parking on both sides, Hudson-Belk was THE department store, there were many small shops and I believe two theaters downtown. Cameron Village became quite a shopping center, then North Hills. At that time, you came into Raleigh on 401 or US 1, from the north and 70 from the east, 64 came in from Knightdale and became New Bern Avenue. Rex Hospital was on St. Mary's Street, then moved to its present location, Wake Med was not in the works, and there was a small hospital on Person St. called Mary Elizabeth Hospital (I think, not sure on that). No beltline, no interstate 40. 
