This is something that I’ve been thinking about for a while now. Is “Olde East” really a historic name, or is that a more recent name given to this area? If it is a historic name, did it always have an e on the end of Old(e)? I see the name in the comprehensive plan so I know that it didn’t originate is this community. The e at the end of Olde makes me suspicious like the e at the end of Cary Towne Center.
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Probably marketing. Transfer Co are experts at that, sucked me right in with it.
I do know the Olde East Raleigh Small Area Plan came about from the city in the mid-2000s so it’s not a recent thing. I want to say there’s a map with it being used as a way to describe the 5 historic neighborhoods in this area, some that are not around anymore.
I always make sure to pronounce the extra e, “old-e.”
With a little fishing online, I wasn’t able to determine how old(e), the Olde East moniker was. If it goes back to last decade, then it would be an interesting to understand if naming the area itself contributed to the gentrification of the neighborhoods. It would also make sense since adding the e seems to be some sort of marketing thing that would be more likely to be used in recent times rather than in the actual old(e) days.
For those neighborhoods that no longer exist, would they be new(e)? 
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In case anyone is interested:
Found the neighborhood names. They are:
- Hungry Neck
- St. Petersburg
- Cotton Place
- Old fairground
- Smith-Haywood
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Couple great names there that could make cool, modern nicknames. Hungry Neck? Come on, who doesn’t love that! HuNe sounds both hip and exotic!
My first memory of the added E for coolness was Ye Olde Raleigh out at Creedmore and Blue Ridge - the community and shopping center. I was dating a girl who did not become my wife, so that makes it late 80s. The ridiculousness of something brand new being called old(e) still cracks me up. I always assume that when I see the extra E its an affectation of a parvenu looking for validation.
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I live on the old fairgrounds lot and have it on my mountain of project ideas to do a history project about this. The other neighborhoods, I think, don’t have distinct boundaries and I haven’t stumbled on how these names came to be either so that would be much much harder a research project.
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I grew up on the “new fairgrounds,” or Fairmount! I don’t know why, but I think that connection is pretty cool.
It is way easier to identify those set neighborhoods for sure. No doubt many of the others were names of landowners/plantations, etc. All the Cameron stuff is a good example. But for others it would be hard to pin down why they got that name. Hungry Neck is certainly not a neck to start with! Still, it sounds like a fun project, time permitting.
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Any idea what the dotted lines on the roads represent? I would be surprised if it was transit.
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Street cars perhaps? They were mentioned in the PDF attached above.
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The long time residents that drove the small area plan that Leo referenced generated the ‘Olde East’ moniker as a way to describe their community. These residents are the link to the history of those neighborhoods, and they played a significant part in the genesis of Transfer Co.
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You mean the PDF I linked to? Maybe I should look at the things I post?
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I am pretty certain they are the street car line. We know for certain one line ran out to State College and the Fairgrounds in 1891.
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Thanks F.3. Do you know when that happened?
I was at, I think it was a CAC meeting years ago when Olde East Raleigh was named. Mitch Silver, the former city planner, was there and they were discussing the Martin Haywood neighborhood plan. Danny Coleman was there as well as a lot of people with many divergent interests. The conversation was lively to say the least.
The subject came up about how to differentiate "east Raleigh " from what most ppl consider just the east side of Raleigh. There were several ideas like “near east raleigh.” Then some young guy, possibly a student suggested “Olde East Raleigh” with an “E”. Everyone liked it immediately. It was about the only thing everyone agreed on in the rather contentious meeting.
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I think it was early 2000s. Sounds like Eastsider has the first person background.
Thanks for that clarification. I wish it had been named without the e. Since Durham has old west, I suppose it makes sense that Raleigh has old(e) east?
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