The Briggs House
Emily Proctor & Andrea Stroud

Around 1800, a young man by the name of John Joyner Briggs came to Raleigh from Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was very poor, however, from humble beginnings sprang an important man, and John J. Briggs was one of the people who helped lay out the original streets in Raleigh.

His son, Thomas H. Briggs, was born in 1821. Thomas came to Raleigh from Fayetteville as a carpenter, with his tool chest being his only possession. He worked on the new state capitol, along with many other buildings. When he made a little money and gained a little footing, he became a contractor. During the Civil War, he was hired by the Confederate Army to make supplies for the soldiers in the fields. Even though he had little formal education, he managed to do well in his life.

In 1865, Thomas Briggs and his partner, James Dodd, opened the Briggs store as a hardware and general contracting firm. They had prospered enough to construct a four story building, the Briggs Building, on Fayetteville Street in 1874. At the time of its completion, the Briggs Building was the tallest building in Eastern North Carolina.

The lovely brick and iron facade was ordered from a catalog. The lowest level of the building is painted a rich brown and is full of windows and doors. The other three floors each have three windows, painted white, which are about the length from the ceiling to the floor. Along the sides of the building are little corner details, painted alternating brown and white. Topping off the building is a large white sign which reads, "1874 - Briggs Building. - Hardware."

The Briggs Building has housed many organizations and businesses throughout the years. These included the YMCA, a Catholic Church, professional offices, the State Hall of History, and the State Museum. This building was used by the national guard in World War I for instruction, and bullet holes were left as evidence of the intensity of the training. The first home of the Raleigh Little Theater was in Briggs, and it housed the Briggs Hardware store for 120 years. Briggs Hardware has been moved to a new location on Atlantic Springs Road in Raleigh, and the Briggs Building is currently being renovated. It is now the future home of the Preservation Society of North Carolina.

The year that Briggs was built, 1874, was a fairly exciting year. Wagner’s operas were very popular and French impressionism was the rage. Levi Strauss had just begun to market blue jeans with copper rivets and the first electric street car systems were invented and implemented in New York City. The Remington Typewriter was first introduced and revolutionized all written media. Ice cream soda was created and margarine was introduced in the United States. The London School of Medicine for Women was founded, and boric acid was first used to treat eye problems. Everything was changing in the world, and these changes were actually just the beginning; many more were to follow.

Throughout the years, Briggs had remained an important entity in downtown life. It was always a very popular store because of the pleasant, old-timey atmosphere. Briggs also carried some things that other hardware stores didn’t. "They carried those old Radio Flyer wagons, special ice cream freezers, and lots of other stuff that the other stores didn’t carry." Steve Stroud was a long-time customer of the Briggs store. "If you needed special locks and other accessories for doors, they had them. It was very much like stepping back into time when you stepped in that store."

The Briggs Building has remained in good shape throughout the years. In 1954, however, "Hurricane Hazel" claimed its roof. Otherwise, the building has been relatively unscathed. It almost looks exactly the same now as it did over 120 years ago, when it was built. It should last many more years in its currently restored form.

The Briggs Building has been a vital historic landmark in Raleigh. Not only was it the city’s first "skyscraper," it also housed the oldest business in Raleigh to stay in the same family. To lose the Briggs Building would be almost as if the city were losing an entity vital to its very existence. For if it weren’t for the historic buildings and landmarks, Raleigh wouldn’t be the wonderful city that it is.

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