History Of Raleigh (1900-2000)

Continued from History of Raleigh

• January 1901: The first child is admitted to the Methodist Home orphanage.
• 1902: The University of North Carolina operates its medical school in Raleigh until 1910.
• 1903: Motion pictures are first shown in Raleigh.
• 1906: Raleigh High School building is erected on West Morgan Street.
• 1907: Raleigh extended its city limits for the second time; one-half miles in each direction.
• 1909: J.S. Wynne begins his term as Mayor.
• 1910: Raleigh paves 14 blocks with asphalt.
• 1911: James I. Johnson begins the first of five terms as Mayor.
• October 16, 1911: Raleigh dedicates City Hall and Auditorium on East Davie Street. The building burned October 25, 1930.
• 1912: Raleigh establishes its first paid Fire Department.
• July 4, 1912: Bloomsbury Park opens. The Dentzel carousel which is later bought by the City and moved to Pullen Park, is popular with the youngsters.
• 1913: City acquires water plant.
  -- Raleigh voters adopt commission form of government for the city.
• 1914: Lake Raleigh is filled as City's reservoir.
  -- Raleigh's first drive-in gas station opens on Fayetteville Street.
  -- Raleigh City market reopens.
• September 25, 1918: United States establishes the nation's only tank camp, Camp Polk, at the State Fairgrounds.
• October 1918: The influenza pandemic claims 288 lives in Raleigh.
• November 11, 1918: The armistice ending World War I is signed. North Carolina loses 5,799 men in the war, the third highest total in the nation.
• 1921: T.B. Eldridge begins his term as Mayor.
• 1922: Motorbuses begin operating between Raleigh and Durham.
• September 1, 1922: Raleigh Police Officer Tom G. Crabtree was killed in the line of duty.
• 1923: Eugene E. Culbreth begins the first of four terms as Mayor.
• April 1929: Curtiss-Wright Flying Field opens.
• October 24, 1929: The stock market crash marks the beginning of the Great Depression. Six Raleigh banks close between 1930 and 1933.
• October 25, 1930: Fire destroys Raleigh Auditorium.
• 1931: George A. Isley begins the first of four terms as Mayor.
• April 1, 1931: Raleigh is a stop on the first regular airline passenger flight from New York to Miami.
• 1932: Voter approval of a bond referendum saves Raleigh from fiscal deficit.
• August 4, 1932: Memorial Auditorium is dedicated. The North Carolina Symphony, founded earlier this year, performs in its new home. Cab Calloway and his orchestra play at the dedication.
• March 1-14, 1933: The first local transit bus and the last electric trolley roll in Raleigh. Six bus routes are opened.
• 1934: Civilian Conservation Camp (CCC) operates in Crabtree Creek area. The camp later is named Umstead State Park.
• May 10, 1938: Chavis Memorial Park is dedicated.
• 1939: Graham B. Andrews begins the first of four terms as Mayor.
  -- Halifax Court is Raleigh's first $1 million public housing project, thus establishing the Raleigh Housing Authority.
• March 9, 1939: The General Assembly charters the Raleigh-Durham Aeronautical Authority. The Authority takes over the airport from the U.S. Army, with the first commercial flight lifting off May 1, 1943.
• June 1939: Raleigh Little Theatre Amphitheatre is dedicated.
• October 1939: Raleigh installs the first parking meters on Fayetteville Street.
• 1940: Raleigh's population of 46,897 makes it the state's sixth largest city.
• September 11, 1940: Raleigh Little Theatre's Drama Center is dedicated.
• March 18, 1947: Raleigh voters adopt the council/manager form of municipal government.
• July 1, 1947: P.D. Snipes begins the first of two terms as Mayor.
• 1949: NCSU's Memorial Bell Tower and Reynolds Coliseum are completed.
  -- City offers water and sewer service to all Raleigh homes.
• November 19, 1949: First stores open in Cameron Village.
• 1950: Raleigh's population of 65,679 makes it North Carolina's fifth largest city.
• July 2, 1951: James E. Briggs begins his term as Mayor.
• 1952: Internationally acclaimed Dorton Arena is completed.
• July 1, 1953: Fred B. Wheeler begins the first of three terms as Mayor.
• October 16, 1954: Hurricane Hazel sweeps through Raleigh, felling trees and power poles and leaving 85 percent of the city's homes without power.
• 1956: WRAL takes to the air.
• March 10, 1956: Firefighter Vernon Smith died as a result of injuries incurred in the line of duty.
• December 11, 1956: Raleigh voters endorse fluoridation and approve bonds for streets.
• July 1, 1957: William G. Enloe begins the first of three terms as Mayor.
  -- The Research Triangle Park is established.
• September 8, 1960: William Campbell is the first African-American child to attend a white school in Raleigh as he enrolls at Murphey High School.
• October 16, 1960: Raleigh's new municipal building, located at the corner of McDowell and Hargett streets, is dedicated.
• July 1, 1963: James W. Reid begins his terms as Mayor.
• July 1, 1965: Travis H. Tomlinson begins the first of two terms as Mayor.
• October 8, 1966: NCSU's Carter-Finley Stadium is dedicated.
• August 17, 1967: North Hills, Wake County's first enclosed mall, is opened.
• March 8, 1968: Raleigh Police Officer Robert E. Sparks was killed when his motorcycle skidded into a curve in the 2100 block of Ridge Road.
• December 5, 1968: Raleigh Police Officers James Wade Allen and James Gayle Lee were killed when their cruiser collided with another car before striking a telephone pole at the intersection of Yadkin and Currituck drives.
• July 1, 1969: Seby B. Jones begins his term as Mayor.
• 1970: Raleigh's population is 122,830.
• July 1, 1971: Thomas W. Bradshaw Jr. begins his term as Mayor
• October 1973: Clarence Lightner is Raleigh's first mayor elected by popular vote. He also is the first African-American elected mayor of a major Southern city.
• 1974: Ground is broken on the Heritage Park public housing community.
• December 9, 1975: Jyles J. Coggins begins his term as Mayor.
• June 1975: The Oakwood community is named Raleigh's first local historic district. Oakwood is the city's oldest intact neighborhood and contains the largest collection of Victorian era architecture in Raleigh.
• August 15, 1975: Construction begins on the Fayetteville Street Mall.
• December 8, 1975: Ground is broken for the New Raleigh Civic Center.
• July 1, 1976: Raleigh City and Wake County schools merge after 10 years of discussion.
• September 15, 1977: The Raleigh Civic Center is dedicated.
• October 1977: The Neuse River Wastewater Treatment Plan opens at a cost of $28 million.
• November 3, 1977: Fayetteville Street Mall is dedicated.
• December 13, 1977: Isabella Cannon is sworn-in as Raleigh's first female mayor.
• December 4, 1979: G. Smedes York begins his first of two terms as Mayor.
• February 3, 1980: Raleigh Police Officer D.D. Adams was shot and killed in the line of duty.
• 1981: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers begins to fill Falls Lake, which will become Raleigh's primary water source. It takes two years to fill.
  -- Raleigh's population of 149,771 makes it the third largest city in North Carolina.
• 1982: The new Central Prison opens at a cost of $27 million.
• July 20, 1982: After seven years of work, Fayetteville Street Mall is completed at a cost of $2.8 million.
• April 4, 1983: NCSU downs the heavily-favored University of Houston Cougars to win its second national basketball championship with a last-second shot.
• December 6, 1983: Avery C. Upchurch begins the first of five terms as mayor.
• September 30, 1984: Raleigh's new municipal building is dedicated. The new city hall is located at Hargett and Dawson streets and was constructed at a cost of $6.5 million.
• April 11, 1985: American Airlines begins service to Raleigh-Durham Airport with plans to open a new hub there in July 1987.
• April 16, 1986: NCSU unveils plans for Centennial Campus, which will include a mix of residential and retail facilities, along with new classrooms and research facilities.
• October 1987: Raleigh voters approve five bond proposals totaling $97.5 million. The proposals including funding for a baseball stadium, sewer and water plant expansions, a $40 million road program, renovation of Memorial Auditorium, and indoor aquatic center and a multi-field softball complex.
• 1990: For the first time since its 1932 construction, Raleigh Memorial Auditorium receives major upgrades and expansion with a new lobby and new stage house to accommodate Broadway touring shows.
  -- Interstate 40 to Wilmington is completed, providing Raleigh with interstate access from coast to coast.
• March 1, 1991: The City of Raleigh kicks off its curbside recycling program.
• June 17, 1991: The high-rise First Union Capitol Center opens on Fayetteville Street Mall, just a block south of the Capitol just as another skyscraper, Two Hanover Plaza opens on the mall, just three blocks to the south.
• July 1, 1991: Raleigh's population of 212,610 makes it the state's second largest city.
• July 7, 1991: Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, Raleigh's $13.5 million premier entertainment complex, opens for its first season.
• December 31, 1991: The first First Night Raleigh is held.
• 1992: The City opens section of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard located adjacent to the MLK Memorial Gardens at the intersection of Rock Quarry Road and MLK Boulevard.
  -- The City opens the Walnut Creek Softball Complex which quickly becomes one of the South's most popular softball facilities.
• December 31, 1992: Raleigh celebrates its bicentennial with a parade and the burying of a time capsule in the center of Nash Square.
• 1993: The last two sections of New Hope Road are opened, offering motorists a continuous east-west connector north of the beltline from US 70 West.
• May 19, 1993: The City of Raleigh dedicates the newly completed, 726-space Wilmington Street Station parking deck.
• July 1993: The Cabarrus Street Parking Garage is completed, adding 595 parking spaces downtown.
• November 12, 1993: A restored Estey Hall, the first structure built in the United States for the purpose of educating black women is celebrated on the campus of Shaw University.
• November 27, 1993: An enduring drought lowers Falls Lake to its all-time low at 242.73 feet.
• December 7, 1993: Tom Fetzer begins the first of three terms as the mayor of Raleigh.
• June 30, 1994: Avery C. Upchurch, mayor of Raleigh from 1983 to 1993 and City Council member from 1979 to 1983 dies at the age of 65.
• Oct. 5, 1994: Spring Forest Road Park opens.
• April 4, 1995: Raleigh voters approved a bond referendum for nearly $28 million in parks system improvements, more than $11 million for improvements to the water system and nearly $7 million for improvements to the sewer system.
• August 4, 1995: Raleigh Police Officer Denise Holden was killed in a single-car accident at Morgan and Hillsborough streets.
• Jan. 29, 1996: The City of Raleigh Police Department installs mobile computer terminals in patrol vehicles.
• June 21, 1996: The Olympic Torch is welcomed to Raleigh with a huge celebration on the Fayetteville Street Mall. The Torch spent the night in Raleigh before continuing on its trek to Atlanta.
• Sept. 5 & 6, 1996: During the waning hours of Sept. 5 and the earliest hours of Sept. 6 category three Hurricane Fran tore through town with 79-mile-per-hour winds whipping 9.5 inches of rain into a howling Maelstrom and leaving in its wake devastating flooding, structural damage totaling nearly $275 million and extensive power outages for days to come.
• January 8, 1997: The newly renovated and expanded Raleigh Convention and Conference Center celebrates its brand new look with a grand re-opening.
• May 19, 1997: The City opens its first-ever satellite service center. It is located at 8320 Litchford Road.
• July 11, 1997: Det. Paul Hale was shot to death in the line of duty. He had served the City of Raleigh as a Police Officer for seven years.
• December 17, 1997: After nearly 40 years as part of the City's Capital Improvement Plan and being approved by voters three times, the 1.4-mile Western Boulevard Extension is completed.
• May 5, 1998: Raleigh voters approve a $50 million bond referendum for transportation and culvert improvements.
• May 6, 1998: A new era of stage spectacular dawned in Raleigh following major modifications to Memorial Auditorium to accommodate the new age, high-voltage Broadway blockbusters. The curtain rose on "Phantom of the Opera," the first in the auditorium's Best of Broadway series that consistently delighted droves of theatre lovers.
• May 15, 1998: The City of Raleigh makes its initial purchase of alternative-fuel vehicles when it receives a grant from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Health and Natural Resources to assist in the purchase of five vehicles. The van, small pickup and two sedans use compressed natural gas and another sedan operates on electricity.
• August 6, 1999: The City of Raleigh flag is moved from the Avery C. Upchurch Gov. Complex to spend its centennial at the Raleigh City Museum on Fayetteville St. Mall. The flag was created in 1899 as a reciprocal gift to the USS Raleigh. The cruiser had presented its city namesake with a small cannon captured during the Spanish-American War. The cannon sits on the front lawn of the Fire Department's Keeter Training Center. The cost of the first ensign in November 1899 was $52.
• 1999: Durant Nature Park's Campbell Lodge and Training Lodge receive major renovations, as does the lower lake dam.
• October 1999: The Entertainment and Sports Arena, later renamed the RBC Center, is opened.
• Dec. 7, 1999: Three-term City Council Member Paul Coble is inaugurated mayor of Raleigh.
• Jan. 24, 2000: The new century brings the largest snowfall in memory and buries Raleigh under 25.7 inches of the white stuff; according to the National Weather Service, the largest snowfall in the Capital City's recorded history.
• 2000: The Neuse River Corridor Park Plan takes a giant step toward completion with the dedication of Anderson Point Park's 98.3 acres adjacent to the Neuse River.
  -- The CIAA Championship Basketball Tournament is held for the first time in Raleigh at the Entertainment and Sports Arena.
• August 8, 2000: The City of Raleigh, Town of Cary, City of Durham and Granville County agree to jointly commission a study to evaluate the feasibility of developing Kerr Lake as a water supply source.
• October 31, 2000: Eliza Pool Park is dedicated.
• November 7, 2000: Three bond proposals totaling $75 million -- $45 million in transportation improvements, $14 million for affordable housing and $16 million for parks improvements are approved by Raleigh voters.