Raleigh

The North Carolina State Capitol is the main house of government of the U.S. state of North Carolina. Housing the offices of the Governor of North... Carolina, it is located in the state capital of Raleigh on Union Square at One East Edenton Street. The cornerstone of the Greek Revival building was laid with Masonic honors by the Grand Master of the State Simmons Jones Baker on July 4, 1833. Construction was completed in 1840. It was designed primarily by the architectural firm of Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis. Often credited solely to that team, the design of the capitol was actually the result of a sequence of work by William Nichols, Sr. and his son William Nichols, Jr., Town and Davis, and then David Paton. The Capitol housed the entire state government until 1888, and the North Carolina General Assembly met in the capitol building until 1963 when the legislature relocated to its current location in the North Carolina State Legislative Building. The offices of the state Lieutenant Governor were situated in the capitol building continuously until 1969, when the Lieutenant Governor relocated to the Hawkins-Hartness House a few blocks away on North Blount Street.
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The Briggs Hardware Building is a four story historic building in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina built in 1874 by Thomas Briggs to house his... family-owned hardware store. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Currently the building is home to the Raleigh City Museum, and is owned by a joint group of non-profit organizations. In the 1850s Thomas H. Briggs opened his hardware store on Fayetteville Street with partner James Dodd. The partnership with Dodd ended in 1868 and the store became Thomas H. Briggs & Sons. Business was good and in 1874 Briggs was able to construct a new building for the family business. The new building stood at four stories and was called Raleigh's first "skyscraper". It would remain the tallest building in Raleigh for the next 33 years. Briggs Hardware would continue to serve the city from this location until 1995 when the store finally moved to a new location outside of downtown. The hardware store is still owned and operated by the family to this day. Soon after the building was completed, a legend circulated about how Thomas Briggs was able to afford to build such a large and elaborate building following the Civil War.
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The Joel Lane House, built between 1760 and 1770, is a historic restored home and museum located in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is the oldest... dwelling in Raleigh and contains collections of 18th century artifacts and period furnishings. The museum grounds include a detached kitchen, formal city garden, and period herb garden. The house is named after Joel Lane, the "Father of Raleigh" and "Father of Wake County." In the late 1760s, Lane began to build a home at Wake Cross Roads located in colonial Johnston County. Lane and his house played a key role in North Carolina’s transition from colony to state and in the establishment of Raleigh as the state capital. Joel Lane's manor plantation house stood on a small hill, overlooking the future site of Raleigh. Lane owned thousands of acres, which enabled him to be influential in politics. Lane was a member of the colonial General Assembly, and in 1770 successfully lobbied to create Wake County, at the time a sparsely settled wilderness. The county was named "Wake" in honor of Margaret Wake, wife of colonial Governor William Tryon. In 1771, Wake County's first county court is believed to have convened at his home.
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The Mordecai House , built in 1785, is a registered historical landmark and museum in Raleigh, North Carolina that is the centerpiece of Mordecai... Historic Park, right outside the Historic Oakwood neighborhood. It is the oldest residence in Raleigh on its original foundation. In addition to the house, the Park includes other attractions such as the original birthplace of President Andrew Johnson, the Ellen Mordecai Garden, the Badger-Iredell Law Office, Allen Kitchen and St. Mark's Chapel, a popular site for weddings. The oldest portion of the house was built by Joel Lane for his son, Henry. At one time, the home was the center of a 5,000-acre plantation and one of the largest farms in Wake County. The house was named after Moses Mordecai, who married Henry Lane's daughters. The first daughter, Margaret, died and so Mordecai married her sister Ann. In 1824, Mordecai hired William Nichols, State Architect at the time, to enlarge the house. The addition was considered a significant work of Nichols, who had also been responsible for remodeling the original building containing the State House.
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The Pope House Museum, built in 1901, is a restored home once owned by Dr. M.T. Pope, a prominent African-American citizen of Raleigh, North... Carolina. The Pope House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is also an official project of the Save America’s Treasures Program. Since the early 19th century, the area where the Pope House is located has gone through many transformations. When the original governor’s mansion was built at the end of Fayetteville Street on the site of the present Memorial Auditorium, it was thought that fashionable residences would be built nearby. Although a few substantial homes were constructed by white families, when Reverend Henry Tupper moved Shaw University to the neighborhood in 1870, many new African-American residents drawn to Raleigh after the Civil War settled in the area. Pope attended Leonard Medical Center at Shaw University before beginning his medical practice. Black professionals began to build homes in the area known as the Third Ward, which included the 500 block of South Wilmington Street. In 1901, Pope decided to build his house in this area.
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Armistead Jones Maupin, Jr. is an American writer, best known for his Tales of the City series of novels, set in San Francisco. Maupin was born to a... conservative Christian family in Washington, D.C.. Soon afterwards, his family moved to North Carolina, where he was raised. He says he has had storytelling instincts since he was eight years old. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he became involved in journalism through writing for The Daily Tar Heel. After earning his undergraduate degree, Maupin enrolled in law school, but later resigned from it. Maupin worked at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, a station then managed by future U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, who also delivered the station's well-known editorial segments throughout his management of the station in the 1960s. Helms nominated Maupin for a patriotic award, which he won. Maupin says he was a typical conservative and even a segregationist at this time and admired Helms, a family friend, as a "hero figure." He later changed his opinions dramatically — "I've changed and he hasn't" — and condemned Helms at a gay pride parade on the steps of the North Carolina State Capitol.
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Johnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician, who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice... President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008. He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in North Carolina's 1998 Senate election. Towards the end of his single six-year term, he sought the Democratic Party's nomination in the 2004 presidential election. He eventually became the 2004 Democratic candidate for vice-president, the running mate of presidential nominee Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. Following Kerry's loss to incumbent President George W. Bush, Edwards began working full-time at the One America Committee, a political action committee he established in 2001, and was appointed director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. He was also a consultant for Fortress Investment Group LLC. Edwards launched a second bid for the Democratic nomination during the 2008 presidential campaign.
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Francisco "Frankie" Muniz IV is an American actor, musician, writer, producer, and racecar driver. He is known primarily as the star of the FOX... television family sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. In 2003, he was considered "one of Hollywood's most bankable teens". In 2008, he put his acting career on hold to pursue an open wheel racing career. He competed in the Atlantic Championship. In 2012, he joined the band Kingsfoil as the drummer. Muniz was born on December 5, 1985, in Ridgewood, New Jersey, the son of Denise, a former nurse, and Francisco Muniz III, a restaurant manager, and grew up in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey. His father is Puerto Rican whose ancestral origins descend from Asturias, Spain, and his mother is of Italian and Irish descent. He has an elder sister, Cristina. Muniz was first discovered at the age of eight, at a talent show in Raleigh, North Carolina , where he was cast as Tiny Tim in a local production of A Christmas Carol. His parents divorced shortly after. He subsequently moved to Burbank, California, with his mother.
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David Sedaris is a Grammy Award-nominated American humorist, comedian, bestselling author, and radio contributor. Sedaris has been described as 'the... rock star of writers'. He was first publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay "SantaLand Diaries". He published his first collection of essays and short stories, Barrel Fever, in 1994. His next five subsequent essay collections, Naked , Holidays on Ice , Me Talk Pretty One Day , Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim , and When You Are Engulfed in Flames , have become New York Times Best Sellers. In 2010, he released an anthropomorphic collection of stories, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary. As of 2008, his books have collectively sold seven million copies. Much of Sedaris's humor is autobiographical and self-deprecating, and often concerns his family life, his middle class upbringing in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, Greek heritage, various jobs, education, drug use, and his life in France, and most recently in London and the South Downs.
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Clayton Holmes "Clay" Aiken is an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and author who began his rise to fame on the second season of the... television program American Idol in 2003. RCA Records offered him a recording contract, and his multi-platinum debut album Measure of a Man was released in October 2003. He released four more albums on the RCA label: Merry Christmas with Love , A Thousand Different Ways , and the Christmas EP, All is Well . His fourth studio album , On My Way Here was released on May 6, 2008. After the release of On My Way Here, Aiken left RCA and later signed with Decca Records. His first album with Decca, Tried and True, was released June 1, 2010 and his second Steadfast, was released March 26, 2012.
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Amy Louise Sedaris is an American actress, author, and comedian. She is known for playing the character Jerri Blank in the Comedy Central... television series Strangers with Candy. Sedaris regularly collaborates with her older brother, humorist and author David Sedaris. Sedaris was born in Endicott, New York, the daughter of Sharon and Lou Sedaris, and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her siblings, David, Lisa, Gretchen, Tiffany, and Paul . She is of half Greek descent; her father was Greek Orthodox and her mother was Protestant, and she remains Greek Orthodox. As a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, she described two experiences with bosses. At age 16, she worked at the local Winn-Dixie supermarket. She would make fake announcements over the loudspeaker, which prompted the head cashier to confiscate the microphone. After work, she egged the cashier's car in protest. Later, as a cocktail waitress at Zanies, a comedy night club in Chicago, she was five minutes late for a shift with ice cream cone in hand.
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Robert Duncan McNeill is an American actor, producer, movie director, and television director who is best known for his role as Lieutenant Tom Paris... on the television show Star Trek: Voyager. McNeill grew up in Atlanta, and began his career acting in local and regional productions before becoming a student at The Juilliard School in New York City. He enjoyed early success as a professional actor, winning the role of Charlie Brent on All My Children and starring in the feature film Masters of the Universe. He also starred in an acclaimed episode of the 1980s version of The Twilight Zone, A Message From Charity. He then appeared with Stockard Channing in the Broadway production of Six Degrees of Separation before returning to Los Angeles to pursue roles on television. He appeared in featured guest roles on numerous TV series, including L.A. Law, Quantum Leap, and Murder, She Wrote.
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Emily Mallory Procter is an American actress best known for her leading role as Calleigh Duquesne in CSI: Miami and her recurring role as Ainsley... Hayes in The West Wing. Procter was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was two years old when her parents Bill Procter and Barbara Jones divorced. She has two older siblings, including a brother named E.J. She is a graduate of Ravenscroft School in Raleigh. While at East Carolina University she was a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority. After she received her degrees in journalism and dance at East Carolina, she was employed as a television weather anchor at WNCT-TV in Greenville, North Carolina. After the move to Los Angeles, her father provided the funds for acting school for two years. Before even graduating, she had already landed a number of small roles in films such as Jerry Maguire and Breast Men , where she appeared along with David Schwimmer and Chris Cooper. During the 1995–96 season of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, she portrayed Lana Lang.
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Michael Carlyle Hall is an American actor whose television roles include David Fisher on the HBO drama series Six Feet Under and Dexter Morgan on... the Showtime series Dexter. In 2009, Hall won a Golden Globe award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his role in Dexter. Hall was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. His mother, Janice Styons Hall, is a high school guidance counselor in Wake Forest, and his father, William Carlyle Hall, worked for IBM. Hall grew up an only child, a sister having died in infancy before his birth. He has said of growing up a single child, that "There was a very one-on-one, immediate family relationship, my mom and I". His father died of prostate cancer in 1982, when Hall was 11 years old. In a 2004 interview, he stated Hall attended Ravenscroft School in Raleigh, graduating in 1989. He graduated from Earlham College in 1993 and had planned to become a lawyer. He later attended New York University's Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 1996. Early on in life Hall discovered acting, performing in “What Love Is” while in the second grade at Ravenscroft School.
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Evan Rachel Wood is an American actress and singer. She began her acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several television series, including... American Gothic and Once and Again. She made her debut as a leading film actress in Little Secrets and became well known after her transition to a more adult-oriented Golden Globe-nominated role in the teen drama film Thirteen . Wood continued acting mostly in independent films, including Pretty Persuasion , Down in the Valley , Running with Scissors , and in the big studio production Across the Universe . Wood has been described by The Guardian as "one of the best actresses of her generation." Wood was engaged to Marilyn Manson until August 2010. Evan Rachel Wood was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her father, Ira David Wood III, is a locally prominent actor, singer, theater director, and playwright who is the Executive Director of a local regional theatre company called Theatre in the Park. Her mother, Sara Lynn Moore , is an actress, director, and acting coach. Wood's brother, Ira David Wood IV, is also an actor; she has another brother, Dana.
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Randy Jones is an American disco and pop singer and was the original cowboy from Village People. As of 2006, he currently lives in New York City. He... attended Enloe High School in Raleigh, North Carolina and graduated in 1970. While there, he was a founder of Enloe's Drama Club, which was then called "Amicus Scaena"; Latin for "friend of scene" or "friend of theatre". Jones had a marriage ceremony with his partner of 20 years, Will Grega, at a New York club on May 7, 2004. Although the marriage is not legally binding, as gay marriage was still illegal in New York state, Jones commented that: "It's only a matter of time before the courts rule in favor of what's morally right and humanly decent." The pair published a book together in 1996, titled Out Sounds: The Gay and Lesbian Music Alternative. He released in 2007 a disco and pop solo album Ticket to the World. In 2009, he appeared on Flight of the Conchords in their music video for "Too Many Dicks". Randy Jones appears as himself in the 2011 video game Postal III.
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Aubrey Dollar is an American television and film actress. She was born in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina and studied at Needham B. Broughton... High School, where she was a classmate of fellow actor Colin Fickes. She also attended Boston University and Amherst College. She is known for her roles as Judy Kramer in Point Pleasant a short-lived 2005 series on FOX, and as Marcy Bender in Dawson's Creek. For three years she was Marina Cooper in the soap opera, Guiding Light, a role which earned her a Soap Opera Digest Award nomination in 2003 for "Outstanding Newcomer". Dollar later appeared on the television series Women's Murder Club as Cindy Thomas. Her younger sister, Caroline Dollar, is also an actress. In 2003 she was nominated for a Soap Opera Digest Award at the Soap Opera Digest Awards/18th Soap Opera Digest Awards for Outstanding Newcomer for The Guiding Light .
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