Very cool to see the hotels on Nash Sq, particularly I believe the Park with its turret, and the old Union Station with its tower still up. They were all gone or altered 20 years later. A lot was lost quickly.
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Nickster, the building replaced by the current city hall was the Carolina Hotel.
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Pretty much just as nice and same architecture but gets no love because it’s no longer standing. Raleigh loves to pretend the stuff that’s gone was never there. For example, Briggs is hailed as the tallest thing ever built in all of humanity in 1874, when in Raleigh, before Briggs, there were at least 3 other four story buildings built before Briggs. There should be historical picture plaques all over downtown instead of those lame brown self guided tour stop signs. I guess if people get too into any history around here there might be opposition to growth…whoever coined the city council as protectionist (the continuum of them) hit the nail on the head.
…gone, but not forgotten
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Fantastic set of pictures! thanks for sharing.
The forth picture down shows a vacant corner in the foreground that had a square-towered Italianate villa on it in Drie. I’ve never seen an actual picture of that villa…it’s the only one of its type I’ve ever known to have existed in Raleigh though they were common up north. Any chance you have a pic of it? The aerial upstairs in Mecca shows it. Similar to this bad boy in Rochester
The manager’s name was Robert I. Lee? Seriously? You can’t make this shit up!
Nash Square has so much potential. Here’s two of my favorite scenes from it:
I love the tree roots spilling onto the sidewalk here:
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I made a rough drawing showing the general outlines of buildings either currently under construction, planned, or completed since the image was taken.
(Colour key:
Red is office/commercial
Blue is residential
Yellow is hospitality)
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@Christopher
Thank you for both recent pictures and for this drawing. 
We need more people such as yourself as I am admittedly lazy…
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That tree is one of my favorites.
Also, I took these today from the model train exhibit at Union Station
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This is awesome Jack! Really appreciate the work you put into this! Would you mind if I shared this? I think it’s a great reference when trying to explain downtowns future growth.
I’m not just lazy, I’m incapable of doing a drawing like that.
Thanks for doing this for us. 
Can you get a broader view? this one completely omits Seaboard, Peace/Smokey Hollow, and both the SE and SW corners of DT.
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Thank you so much! You’re more than welcome to share it.
I’ll try as soon as I get the chance. I’ll have to find a different picture, or take a screenshot from Google Maps, though, but I’m interested to see how it will turn out!
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Jack, I love the Future Raleigh pic! Thanks for posting!
It’s like downtown is about to double in size.
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Those pics show that Raleigh is still putting up some cool downtown towers. Those (future) pair of 10 stories on Hillsborough will have quite an impact. And isn’t the Dillon a high-tech looking tower? Sharp stuff! I’m waiting to see FNB start showing off!
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I am as well. 
However, in the case of the FNB building, it really depends on the angle. There will be some very cool angles no doubt, but given the height of this building and those around it, very few…
I wish google could update their 3D views more often (like once a year) of some of these fast growing cities.Their 3D mode in google maps is one of the coolest ways to geek out on checking out a skyline.
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If you can give me boundaries you’d like to see, I can attempt to get a drone shot covering that area.
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