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The City of Raleigh and the Raleigh Historic Development Commission are eager to learn more about the historic places important to the LGBTQIA+ community. We invite you to connect with our consultant, share your experiences, and sign up for RHDC alerts to receive project updates. Learn more on our project page.
Phase II
July 31, 2024 – Phase II Kickoff Meeting
The Phase II kickoff meeting was held in person at the Halifax Community Center in July 2024. City staff introduced the new project consultant, MdM Historical Consultants, provided updates on progress completed during Phase I, and outlined the Phase II research questions and project goals. A draft report will be available for public input in late fall 2024. The final report and LGBTQIA+ historic places roster will be completed by the end of 2024.
- Listen to the meeting audio recording (coming soon).
- View the meeting recording transcript.
- View the meeting presentation slides.
Phase I
October 10, 2022 – Community Meeting
This in person community meeting was held at the Dix Park Chapel. City staff and the project consultant provided a brief overview of the project. The meeting content focused primarily on presenting potential alternative methods to recognize and celebrate any historic places identified during the project besides traditional historic designation paths. Because federal historic designation is hard to achieve if a building’s appearance has changed a lot over time, and local historic designation requires exterior design review by state law, the available programs are not well-suited to historic places that are important for their cultural significance.
After the presentation, meeting participants completed an interactive activity to vote on the types of recognition they were most interested in seeing the City implement. Ideas presented included a variety of ways to raise public awareness of these spaces, including interpretive (i.e. plaques, digital mapping, exhibits) and purely placemaking (i.e. public art, murals, sculptures) options.
June 22, 2022 – Post-Pandemic Re-Kickoff Meeting
On Wednesday, June 22, 2022, an in-person meeting was held at CAM Raleigh to share information about the RHDC’s ongoing LGBTQIA+ Historic Context Study. This was a follow-up to a virtual meeting held to kick off the study in October 2021.
At the meeting, Raleigh Pride co-founder, Trey Roberts, expressed the importance of preserving LGBTQIA+ spaces in Raleigh. Historic Preservation staff, Tania Tully, Erin Morton, and Collette Kinane introduced the historic context study and shared the citizen request that led to this study. They highlighted the lack of representation of LGBTQIA+ historic places on the National Register of Historic Places and in the roster of Raleigh Historic Landmarks. The context study will focus on places, buildings, and sites that tell the story of people. Although the study is comprehensive, it will not capture the entirety of the LGBTQIA+ history in Raleigh.
The benefits of a historic context study include:
- Honoring influential people and places.
- Sharing collected knowledge.
- Empowering independent community projects.
- Guiding future planning efforts through the identification of historic places.
The Phase I project consultant, Jeffrey "Free" Harris, shared his experience as a historian and previous work in Raleigh.
He explained his research methods and project components, including a context narrative essay, roster of historic places existing and lost, up to 10 oral histories, public meetings, and recommendations for future study. The primary research time frame will focus from the 1950s through the early 1990s and the AIDS crisis.
Attendees had the opportunity to ask questions and connect with the consultant. They discussed how spaces that no longer exist might be commemorated and recommended members of the community as potential candidates for an oral history interview. Attendees shared memories of events, places, people, and stories in the LGBTQIA+ community.
View the meeting presentation slides.