Education, manufacturing, and retail expand in Raleigh's healthy economy at the end of the nineteenth century
The exuberance and variety of late-nineteenth-century architecture contrasts with the simpler and more restrained styles seen in earlier periods. The nearly palatial Briggs Hardware Building, which towered over Fayetteville Street upon its construction in 1874, also illustrates the robust health of the building trade in Raleigh a decade after the Civil War. Similarly, the expansion of prestigious residential districts along Hillsborough Street and N. Blount Street testifies to the growth and prosperity of the city during this period. Residential architecture from the time includes popular Victorian styles like the Queen Anne, Second Empire, and Italianate and reflects a move toward nationally popular architectural styles.
Manufacturing and higher education expanded the identity of what had long been a government town. The schools that became Saint Augustine's College, Shaw University, and the North Carolina State University were established in this period. The textile mills founded on the edge of town in this period also became engines for the thriving economy. The prosperity experienced in Raleigh in the late nineteenth century set the stage for the sustained growth that characterized Raleigh in the twentieth century.