BRIGGS BUILDING
Tim Rhue & Spencer KalkThe Briggs Building is 123 years old, located on 220 Fayetteville Street Mall. The construction of the Briggs Building started in 1970 after the Civil War ended. In 1874 the construction was finished on the Briggs Building. It had a 5000 square foot first floor, and was a 3 and 1/2 story building. It was described as "the first skyscraper in Eastern North Carolina made of brick."
On this site in the year 1865 the business was opened by James Dodd and Thomas Brigg. Dodd retired, soon after the present day building was completed in 1874. Because Dodd retired, Briggs formed a partnership in his business with his two sons. Although the Briggs hardware business usually used most of the basement and the first floor, other parts of his large building were used frequently for different uses over the years. The Raleigh Little Theater and the National Guard Armory, which housed there during and after World War I, were to tenants at different times. Other tenants were a barbershop, a Catholic Church congregation, the YMCA, and many numerous attorneys and insurance companies.
Over the years, the second floor of the Briggs Building became headquarters for the store’s "pre-Christmas and toy layaway". Many of Raleigh parents, bought their children trikes, bikes and other toys there. The employees of the store spent long hours putting the bikes together so that the parents would not blow all Christmas morning because they were not able to connect Part A to Part Z.
For many decades, the store was faced with the busiest shopping street in all of Eastern North Carolina. But with the coming of the "post-World War II suburban shopping centers", the resulting collapse of Fayetteville Street, "and the final blow"-- tearing up the street to construct a pedestrian mall-- the hardware business discovered itself increasingly marooned "in a sea of state and local government offices".
The fifth and sixth generations of the Briggs family moved the hardware business to a new store in North Raleigh 1995. January 6, 1995 was the last business day at its downtown location. The Briggs building is thought to once again become a place of vast activity, but this time it will be the headquarters of non profitable organizations. Both the PNC(Preservation of North Carolina) and the A.J. Fletcher Foundation will be moving their offices into the Briggs Building, where they will also be joined by the North Carolina Special Olympics, the Fletcher School of the Performing Arts, and most likely the Raleigh City Museum.