The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Raleigh (city)

RALEIGH, a city of Wake co., North Carolina, capital of the county and state, on the Raleigh and Gaston and the Raleigh and Augusta Air Line railroads, and on the North Carolina division of the Richmond and Danville railroad, 6 m. W. of the Neuse river, and 230 m. S. by W. of Washington; lat. 35° 47′ N., lon. 78° 48′ W.; pop. in 1850, 4,518; in 1860, 4,780; in 1870, 7,790, of whom 4,094 were colored. It is pleasantly situated on an elevation, and is very regularly laid out. In the centre is a park of ten acres called Union square, from which extend four streets, 99 ft. wide, dividing the city into four parts, in each of which is a square of four acres. The state house is of granite, 166 ft. long and 90 ft. wide, and cost $531,000. The old state house, containing Canova's statue of Washington, was burned in 1831. Other public buildings are the state geological museum, the state institution for the deaf and dumb and the blind, the state insane asylum, the state penitentiary, the county court house, and the county jail. The United States court house and post office, a fine granite building, is in course of erection (1875). The state supreme court and the United States circuit court for the eastern district of North Carolina are held here. There is a large trade in cotton and dry goods. The city contains the shops of the Raleigh and Gaston and Raleigh and Augusta Air Line railroads, two iron founderies, two cigar manufactories, a manufactory of pumps, two or three marble yards, several printing and binding establishments, and three national banks, with an aggregate capital of $700,000. There are three hotels, two public halls, separate public schools for white and colored children, three female seminaries, under the management of the Baptists, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians respectively, several private schools, two libraries in the state house (the law library with 4,000 volumes, and the state library with 25,000 volumes), two daily, one semi-weekly, and nine weekly newspapers, and Baptist, Christian, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic churches. The site of Raleigh having been selected as the seat of government in 1788, it was laid out in 1792 and incorporated as a city in 1794.