RALEIGH, the capital of North Carolina, U.S.A., and also the county seat of Wake county; in the heart of the eastern part of the State, on Federal highways 1 and 7o, and served by the Norfolk Southern, the Seaboard Air Line, and the Southern rail ways. Pop. 22,418 in 1920 (35% negroes) ; 37,379 in 193o by the Federal census. The city has an altitude of 36o ft. and an area of 7 sq.m. In the centre, on the highest ground, is the beautiful Capitol park of 4 ac., from which lead four broad streets, named for earlier capitals of the State. The present capitol building (completed 1840) of granite from a near-by quarry owned by the State, has a Doric portico and an octagonal dome. In the im mediate neighbourhood are the State supreme court,the State Law library, the State museum, the Administration building, the Agri cultural building, the Highway Commission and other offices of the State departments; and not far away is the Governor's man sion (1889), set in 4 ac. of grounds. In Pullen park is the house in which Andrew Johnson was born. Among the numerous ante bellum mansions still standing is that of Joel Lane (built in i76o), from whom in 1792 the State purchased the site of the city. Most of the State institutions are located at Raleigh : the hospital for the insane and epileptics (established in 1856, through the efforts of Dorothea Lynde Dix), the prison (1869), the schools for the white blind (1845) and the coloured deaf and blind (1867), the Confederate soldiers' home (1891), and the laboratory of hygiene. Raleigh is an important educational centre, with some 5,000 stu dents in the colleges and other schools under private auspices. The
North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering (1889) with the affiliated experimental farms, occupies 486 ac. in the western part of the city. Meredith college for women (Bap tist; chartered 1891) moved in 1924 to a suburban campus of 130 acres. Shaw university (Baptist ; 1865) and St. Augustine's col lege (Protestant Episcopal; 1868) are two of the oldest institu tions in the South for the higher education of negroes. Seventeen miles north is Wake Forest college (Baptist) opened as an insti tute in 1834 and chartered as a college in 1838. Raleigh has a large wholesale and retail trade. Hydro-electric power (6o,000 h.p.) is available from three sources. The diversified manufactur ing industries (with an output valued at $6,521,101 in 1927) in clude railway shops of two roads, with an annual payroll of $800, 000, and printing and publishing plants employing soo persons. Five insurance companies have their home offices here. The assessed valuation of property for 1928 was about $51,000,000.
In 1787 the State convention decreed that there should be a "fixed and unalterable seat of government," and that it should be named in honour of Sir Walter Raleigh; in 1788 the site (Wake Court House) was chosen; in 1792 the land was bought and the city was laid out, with wide streets and large public squares; and in 1793 it was incorporated. Sherman's army passed through Raleigh on April 13, 1865.