Smoky Hollow Park Project

Public Engagement

Previous Public Engagement

Virtual Open House - Spring 2021

In May 2021, a virtual public open house was held for the proposed Devereux Meadow Park project. A recording of the meeting is available for public viewing on the City of Raleigh YouTube channel. 

A condensed version of this presentation is available here.

A separate video of the history of the Devereux Meadow Park site is also available for viewing.

History

Although today a paved City of Raleigh maintenance facility, the Devereux Meadow site has a rich and complex history that illustrates important moments in Raleigh’s past. 

During the pre-history period, the area near and around Devereux Meadow was used as hunting lands by Native Americans.  Piedmont and Coastal Plain Native Americans may have both crossed paths along the riparian corridor of the present-day Pigeon House Branch to track buffalo and other game.

During the settlement of Raleigh in the 1700s, the site was once a part of the Robert Halton tract and then later owned by the Lane and Mordecai family. Margaret Mordecai and her husband John Devereux, Jr. inherited a piece of her family’s land which is understood to have included the site of present-day Devereux Meadow.  

During the Civil War, the project area included earthwork structures, many of which were built by enslaved people.  Union troops may have camped on the project site which was referred to as “Devereux Grove.”  There is also a later reference to the property having a millpond that was locally referred to as Mordecai’s millpond. 

After the war, several communities developed around this area of Raleigh and the new railroad.  These communities are referred to as Brooklyn and Smoky Hollow.  During the late 1800s, “Devereux Meadow” is mentioned to be a community gathering space by several of the neighborhood churches.  

At the turn of the century, the original Devereux family home, known as Will’s Forest, was demolished.  Several mills were built such as Pilot and Cotton Mill along with houses for the mill workers in the Smoky Hollow community.  In the early 1900s, Devereux Meadow is referred to as a playground and included public ball fields and other recreational uses.  

Nearby neighborhoods such as Smoky Hollow remained in the area until the 1950’s when both African American and white families were forcibly removed from the neighborhood and the homes demolished.

In the 1930s and 1940s, with the help of the WPA, the Devereux Meadow baseball stadium was constructed.  The stadium construction included the burying and channelization of Pigeon House Branch.

The Devereux Meadow stadium was used as a minor league baseball stadium from the late 1930s until it was closed in the early 1970s and eventually demolished in 1979.  Teams that played there include the Raleigh Capitals.  It is understood that several baseball greats, including Carl Yastrzemski, Ted Williams, and Jackie Robinson, played at Devereux Meadow.  Portions of the stadium wall still stand along the western edge of the site.  

Following the demolition of the stadium, the site was converted over to the current city-owned maintenance facility.

The vision for this site as a public park has been around for several years. The Capital Boulevard Corridor Study Report (2012) and the Raleigh Downtown Plan (2015) noted this project as being a priority.

The 2014 Parks Bond Referendum included funding for the current environmental studies and park planning and design phases.  Construction for the park is currently unfunded.