News
June 3, 2009
Glimpses Of Moore Square Through The Years
Since the City’s beginning, Moore Square has served as a cherished Raleigh open space. In its 117-year history, Moore Square has served as a place to relax, socialize, proselytize or protest public policy. It has been a place of worship – formal and orthodox as well as impromptu and even irreverent. It has served as the site of learning. It has been a billet for occupying and conquering soldiers. It has been a place of commerce. It has been the center of Raleigh’s most diverse community culturally and commercially.
The following offers a glimpse of what Moore Square has been to Raleigh through its history. Possibly this glimpses of our yesterdays will be of assistance as the City begins the process of designing the Moore Square of tomorrow.
Established as Part of the Original City of Raleigh Plan
Franklin County surveyor and state senator William Christmas created the official plan for the City of Raleigh in 1792 with four public squares anchoring the state’s new capital city. The southeast public place was the four acres bounded by Blount, Martin, Person and Hargett streets – Moore Square.
Named To Honor Supreme Court Justice & Revolutionary Warrior
The square is named in honor of Alfred E. Moore (1755-1810), North Carolina State Attorney General, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice, Captain in the Continental Army’s First North Carolina Regiment and one of the founders of the University of North Carolina. His home, Moorefields, still stands in Orange County and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The Earliest Years
The four acres were unstructured with a mix of open space and woodland. It was surrounded by one- and two-story residences. Locals congregated in Moore Square for social gatherings, and as the population of Raleigh began to swell, the square became a popular site for religious, education and political rallies.
The Square as “Baptist Grove”
Around 1812, Raleigh Baptists began meeting in the square. In 1822 the State gave permission for a small wooded church that had been located across Person Street to be moved to the north end of the square along Hargett Street. The church was racially integrated.
Worship continued there until 1860.
Episcopalians Join In
Local Episcopalians began sharing the Moore Square Christian Chapel in 1826. The Episcopalians stopped gathering in the square when the first Christ Church was consecrated on Dec. 20, 1829 across from Union Square and the east portico of the Capitol.
The Baptists Move across the Street
While the Baptists moved from Moore Square proper, they did not move far; building the Second Baptist Church (later Tabernacle Baptist Church and today the Unity Church of the Triangle) in 1879. In 1896 the State gives the Christian Chapel structure to African-American former members of Baptist Gove Church for their use as a place of worship. The structure is moved from Moore Square to the Hayti community.
Tippaconoe and Tyler Too!
Supporters of Whig presidential candidate William Henry Harrison encamped in the square during the 1840 state convention. For emphasis they brought “cabins on wheels” to the square to celebrate their candidate’s Ohio frontier heritage.
Education Claims a Corner of the Square
At one time or another school was located on all of Raleigh’s four original squares. The Eastern Ward School opened its doors to 30 boys in 1842. The school was developed and operated by the City of Raleigh. For 3 ½ months each year (during the winter) the lads were instructed in reading aloud, writing and arithmetic.
Mexican War Brings Curriculum Change
Just two years later (1844) due to the Mexican War, the Eastern Ward School was changed to the North Carolina Literary, Scientific and Military Academy. Students were equipped with arms by the North Carolina General Assembly. Drills and military exercises were conducted on the square. To accommodate a growing enrollment, a larger structure was built in 1850. The academy remained in operation until the Civil War when all structures on the square were vacated.
Post Civil War Barracks
From April 13, 1865 through 1871, Union soldiers occupied Raleigh to squelch any uprisings and to implement Reconstruction. For six years African-American soldiers of the Union Army were housed in Moore Square, in the old Christian Chapel and military academy buildings.
City Market on the Square
The City Market established a temporary (two year) presence in the square after fire destroyed the Market and Town Hall at Hargett, Wilmington and Fayetteville streets. A new market was constructed in 1870 at Fayetteville Street and Exchange Place.
City Assumes Maintenance and Upgrading Responsibilities
Using Moore Square as a barracks and market was wearing on the four acres. In 1871, the City of Raleigh asked the State of North Carolina (the owner of the square) for permission to make improvements. The State responded to the request by shifting the majority of physical decisions regarding maintenance, grading, plantings and management of layouts to the City, while the state retained ownership. In response, the City of Raleigh planted several stands of oaks. In 1899 the State formally entrusts Moore Square’s (as well as Nash Square’s) maintenance to the City of Raleigh.
Commercial Vitality Comes to the Square
The expansion of Raleigh’s central business district along Hargett and Wilmington Streets in the 1870s through the 1890s made Moore Square one of Raleigh’s most popular locations by the turn of the 20th century. Residential backed away from the square to allow for substantial and significant commercial structures such as: the Carolina Boarding House (1870); the Tabernacle Baptist Church (1879); Commercial national Bank (1912); and the Montague Building (1912).
City Market Comes to the Square
On Oct. 1, 1914, a most significant event occurred for Moore Square when City Market opened its new 12,000-square-foot, single-story mission-style structure on Martin Street across from the square. Now, Moore Square was a citywide destination.
Raleigh’s Most Diverse Community
From the time City Market opened its many doors in 1914 through the three decades to World War II, this commercial engine was racially integrated. That was only fitting, since the eastern blocks of Hargett Street were referred to as “Black Main Street.” The Lightner Arcade, on the south side of Hargett Street between Blount and Wilmington streets, was a hub for African-Americans. The 1935 opening on East Hargett Street of the Richard B. Harrison Library – known then as the Olivia Rainey Library – further strengthened Moore Square as a cultural and social mecca for Raleigh’s African-American community. A considerable Jewish population also made their home in this thriving community at this time. Around 1900, Raleigh’s Jewish population formed the Hebrew Sunday school which met at the store at the corner of Wilmington and Hargett streets. In 1914, the House of Jacob was established on South East Street.
HughMorson High School
Hugh Morson High Schoolwas built on the square in 1924. For three decades the three-story, red brick school house trimmed in sandstone, brought enlightenment, education and vitality to the area from its lot on the block bounded by South Person, South Bloodworth, East Morgan and East Hargett streets. The school had 1,039 pupils enrolled in 1942 and a faculty of 37. The school’s library that year contained 3,866 books.
Hard Times Hit
Throughout America, the end of World War II brought a devastating decline to inner cities. The availability of the auto, the construction of multi-lane thoroughfares and the subsequent rise of the suburbs spelled doom for the Moore Square community for many decades, as it did for most of America’s urban communities. City Market closed its doors in 1957. Raleigh’s “Black Main Street” saw its sales slip away as customers carried their businesses to suburban shopping malls.
City Supports Arts and Activities to Bolster Area
In response to the erosion of vitality to the Moore Square area, the City of Raleigh began what today is a 30-year strategy to restore this very special area.
To preserve its unique character, history and heritage, the Moore Square Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, followed by designation as a Raleigh Historic District.
The City used the arts and activities to resuscitate the community. In 1979 the City first sponsored Artsplosure. In the early 1980s, the City created the Moore Square Art District. To jump start the art district, City established the City Gallery of Contemporary Art in 1983. The gallery moved into the Gailor Building at 218-220 S. Blount St., (presently Tir Na Nog) in 1986. For more than a decade the gallery received generous support from the City to cover its operating and administrative expenses. In 2006, the City agreed to provide the City Gallery of Contemporary Art $1 million over five years for building renovation in its present Warehouse District facility. The City of Raleigh also was an original and long-term sponsor of Artspace since its 1986 opening in the Sanders Ford building in City Market.
Since the 1980s, the City of Raleigh also has been steadfast in its sponsorship and support of events (concerts, movies, festivals, etc.) that bring around a quarter million people to Moore Square annually.
While the City of Raleigh sold City market in 1959, it bought the property in the 1980s, prompting the reawakening of this historic and vibrant community. In 1999, Exploris Children’s Museum (now Marbles) and the IMAX Theater opened their doors on the Hargett Street side of the square.
Sources:
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“Raleigh: Capital of North Carolina,” Sesquicentennial Commission,
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1942
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“Raleigh City of “Oaks,” James Vickers, 1997
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“Common Beauty: History of the Physical Form and Uses of Moore Square,” CIRCA, Inc. for the Raleigh Historic Districts Commission.
Prepared by:
Jayne Kirkpatrick
Director
Public Affairs Department
For More Information Contact:
Trisha Hasch
Planner II
Planning Department
133 Fayetteville Street, Suite 100
Raleigh, NC 27602
919-807-8480
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