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https://raleighnc.gov/parks-and-recreation/places/raleigh-rose-garden-raleigh-little-theatre-and-stephenson-amphitheatre
11/07/2025 1:02 pm

Raleigh Little Theatre pond in the garden

Raleigh Little Theatre

Raleigh Rose Garden, Raleigh Little Theatre and Stephenson Amphitheatre

Historic Garden and Theatre Complex

Updated: Nov 7, 2025

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Amenities Rose Garden Maps About the Rose Garden About Raleigh Little Theatre

The Raleigh Rose Garden is historic garden featuring 1,200 roses of 60 different varieties blooming from late May until autumn. The Rose Garden is also home to Raleigh Little Theatre (RLT), a non-profit community theater that produces performances year-round in two indoor theaters and the outdoor amphitheater set in the Garden. 

The garden is open to the public daily from dawn to dusk. It is one of only three accredited rose gardens in North Carolina, featuring sixty rose beds with hybrid teas, floribundas, grandifloras, miniatures, and antique varieties. As a general guide, the roses typically bloom from Mother’s Day through the first hard freeze, usually around mid-November.

Contact

 

Business office:
919-821-4579

Box office:
919-821-3111
raleighlittletheatre.org

Address

Raleigh Little Theatre
301 Pogue Street
Raleigh, NC 27607

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  1. Arts and Cultural Events

Amenities

  • A rose garden featuring sixty rose beds with hybrid teas, floribundas, grandifloras, miniatures, and antique varieties
  • Picnic tables
  • An open play area
  • An amphitheatre, gazebo and arbor

Take a virtual tour of the Rose Garden blooms with our new StoryMap!

Rose Garden Maps

The Raleigh Rose Garden Story Map Tour

Use the interactive Rose Garden Story Map to view each rose variety online. The map can also help you identify the varieties in each rose bed when you visit in person. 

Take the Rose Garden Story Map Tour.

About the Rose Garden

The Raleigh Rose Garden began as part of a 1930s vision to build Raleigh Little Theatre and an outdoor amphitheater on former State Fair and Camp Polk land when Cantey Venable Sutton championed the idea of creating a public rose garden beside the new theatre. Landscaping started around 1939 with major community involvement. Residents, clubs, and nurseries donated shrubs, trees, and early plantings. Between the late 1940s and early 1950s, thousands of roses were installed, a fountain was added, and in 1951 the garden was formally dedicated to the City of Raleigh. A garden shelter was built in 1952, rosarians and City gardeners refined the plantings, and new rose varieties replaced the originals as the garden evolved. In 1990, the site was nominated for Raleigh Historic Property status. Volunteers are still a huge part of the thriving garden. To work with horticulture staff in the Rose Gardern or other City gardens, visit the Parks Volunteer Program garden programs page on raleighnc.gov.  

Learn more!

Read "A History of The Raleigh Rose Garden" By Shelley Crisp, MFA, PhD on the Raleigh Little Theatre website. 

Check out the Raleigh Parks Big Ideas Raleigh podcast episode “Bloom and Grow” from April 30, 2025.
 

About Raleigh Little Theatre

Historic black and white photograph of the original entrance of a 1939 theater building.

Raleigh Little Theatre (RLT) is one of the nation’s oldest continuously operating community theatres. RLT produces plays and musicals, offers classes, and has a robust and welcoming volunteer program for anyone who wants to participate in live theatre, continuing the original vision of creating an open, creative space for the whole community.

Raleigh Little Theatre (RLT) began in the 1930s when a group of local theatre enthusiasts and civic leaders set out to create a permanent home for community performances in Raleigh. With support from the City of Raleigh and the Works Progress Administration, construction began on a small indoor theatre and an outdoor amphitheater built into the natural ravine of the former State Fairgrounds. The campus opened in 1939 with its first outdoor production and was officially dedicated in 1940.

Today, Raleigh Little Theatre manages three performance venues on the Rose Garden campus: 

  • Cantey V. Sutton Theatre (298 proscenium theater, completed in 1939)
  • Louise “Scottie” Stephenson Amphitheatre (2,000 outdoor amphitheater, completed 1939)
  • Gaddy-Goodwin Teaching Theatre (up to 150 seat black box theater, completed 1989)

 RLT was designed as a community-focused arts space where residents could learn, perform, and participate. Over the decades, it expanded its programming, adding youth theatre, education programs, and year-round productions on both indoor and outdoor stages. 

See what’s on stage and learn more about RLT by visiting their website www.raleighlittletheatre.org

Learn more

 

Raleigh Little Theatre Website

Rose Garden Interactive Story Map & Tour

A History of Raleigh Little Theatre

A History of The Raleigh Rose Garden By Shelley Crisp, MFA, PhD

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