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Located on Union Square in downtown Raleigh, the North Carolina State Capitol was opened in 1840. Today, the Capitol houses only the offices of the governor and lieutenant governor and their staff.
- Andrew Johnson
Suddenly thrust into the presidency after the assassination...
- Raleigh
Created by the State of North Carolina in 1792 as a planned...
- George Washington
In 1815, North Carolina decided to erect a statue to...
- James. K. Polk
Two presidents dominated the landscape of mid-19th century...
- Andrew Johnson
- Frankfort, Kentucky
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Augusta, Maine
- Annapolis, Maryland
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Lansing, Michigan
- Saint Paul, Minnesota
- Jackson, Mississippi
- Jefferson City, Missouri
- Helena, Montana
If you thought (like I did) that Frankfort simply meant “French fort,” you’d be just as wrong as I was. In 1780, when what would become Kentucky was still a part of Virginia, it seems a settler named Stephen Frank was killed during a skirmish with a native tribe near a site where the Kentucky River was shallow enough to wade across — that is, they ...
Louisiana’s capital is called Baton Rouge because of a border dispute. The Houma and Bayougoula — neighboring tribes along the Mississippi — were living close enough that they were hunting on each other’s land. At least that’s what each tribe believed. To settle the dispute, they embedded a large cypress pole on the east bank of the river to mark t...
Portland is the largest city (by population) in two states — Maine and Oregon — but it is not the capital in either. But that wasn’t always the case: When Maine became the country’s 23rd state in 1820, Portland was designated its capital. The capital was moved to Augusta in 1832 so it would be more centrally located. Originally incorporated as Harr...
Founded by Puritan exiles from Virginia in 1649, Annapolis was originally called Providence — probably for the same reason Roger Williams chose the name for the capital of Rhode Island (coming in next week’s column). It later became Anne Arundel’s Towne, after the wife of Lord Baltimore. But when the Royal Governor Sir Francis Nicholson moved the c...
In 1630, a group of Puritans left England and headed for the New World, eventually merging with the Plymouth Colony. There were three hills in the area where they settled, so they originally called the settlement Tremontaine (“three mountains”). But many of those settlers had come from the town of Boston in Lincolnshire, England, and eventually the...
According to an article in the Lansing State Journal, it took a few tries to land on the name for this city, and many weren’t happy with the result. The Michigan House of Representatives passed a bill in 1847 to name the village Aloda, which geologist and ethnologist Henry Schoolcraft said meant “heart of the country” in a local native language. Th...
That Saint Paul, Minnesota, is named after Saint Paul should come as no great surprise. But how it got that name is interesting. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the area today known as Minnesota was a hotbed for fur traders — at least, for the Europeans who had moved in. The area became part of the United States in pieces: first in 1787 as ...
After the State of Mississippi entered the Union in 1817, a site for a new capital needed to be chosen, and legislators wanted a place in the middle of the state. Though it missed the center of the state by a number of miles, the location chosen in 1821 was fertile, beautiful, and well-watered. It was named Jackson in honor of Andrew Jackson and hi...
Like Jackson, Mississippi, Jefferson City was chosen and created specifically to serve as a state capital in 1821. While buildings were being constructed, St. Charles, just northwest of St. Louis, served as the capital. Jefferson City was laid out by Daniel Morgan Boone, the son of the legendary Daniel Boone, and was named for — no surprise here — ...
In 1864, four Georgians — John Cowan, John Crab, Daniel Miller, and Reginald or Robert Stanley — set out into the Montana countryside looking for gold, but they didn’t have much luck. Ready to give up, they decided they were going to take one last chance looking for gold in a creek, and if that got them nowhere, they were going back home. That last...
History. In Need of a Capital City. During much of the colonial period, North Carolina was without a fixed capital city. Governors lived in their own homes and the Assembly moved from place to place, meeting in private homes, and in courthouses when available.
1 day ago · One of the 13 original states, it lies on the Atlantic coast midway between New York and Florida. It is bounded to the north by Virginia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by South Carolina and Georgia, and to the west by Tennessee. Its capital is Raleigh.
Following the American Revolutionary War when the U.S. gained independence, the area was chosen as the site of the state capital in 1788 and incorporated in 1792 as such. The city was originally laid out in a grid pattern with the North Carolina State Capitol at the center, in Union Square.
Reading 1: Establishing a Permanent Capital in North Carolina. New Bern was serving as the capital of North Carolina when the Revolutionary War began in 1775, but during the course of the war, the legislature (the official body of lawmakers) also met at Hillsboro, Halifax, Smithfield, Wake Courthouse, Fayetteville, and Tarboro.
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Aug 16, 2024 · Originally called Wake Courthouse, the city was renamed for Sir Walter Raleigh. The first capitol, completed in 1794, burned in 1831 and was replaced by the present building, completed in 1840. It stands in the middle of a large square and is considered an outstanding example of Greek Revival architecture.
