Hillsborough Street

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Hillsborough St. as seen from the 9th floor of the D.H. Hill Library on the NCSU campus.

Hillsborough Street is a prominent business and cultural thoroughfare through Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. It serves as a center for social life among North Carolina State University students since the road loosely marks the northern boundary of the school's Main Campus. Nearby Meredith College students also frequent the area businesses. Numerous bars, restaurants, coffee shops, convenience stores and banks are located along a strip of Hillsborough Street that borders the university. The road is also a heavily-traveled corridor, linking the town of Cary with downtown Raleigh. Additionally, the road passes by the North Carolina State University Centennial Biomedical Campus, the North Carolina State Fairgrounds, Sacred Heart Cathedral, and Raleigh's Pullen Park.

Geography and history

A modern alternate route to Hillsborough Street in Raleigh is Western Boulevard, which parallels the street to the south; Wade Avenue is an alternate route to the north. Hillsborough Street terminates in the east at the North Carolina State Capitol at Salisbury Street. The street's western terminus is at the Cary town limits, where the roadway continues as East Chatham Street after crossing Interstate 40. North Carolina Highway 54 begins on Hillsborough Street at the Interstate 440 Beltline interchange and travels west for one mile (1.6 km) before forking onto Chapel Hill Road. NCSU's Bell Tower is clearly visible at the street's intersection with Pullen Road. Hillsborough Street takes its name from the city Hillsborough, a former capital city of North Carolina. Like many downtown Raleigh streets, the street's name is derived from a city of the same name in the state; though, initially the street was named Hillsboro Road and was a country road that was used as a route to get to Hillsborough.^[1] The street was first constructed in 1792 as part of the capital city's initial layout.^[2]

The land comprising Hillsborough Street was once the site of the plantation of David Cameron. Cameron established St. Mary's College on Hillsborough Street; the school later became a private girls' school, St. Mary's School.^[1] A streetcar traversing Hillsborough Street connected North Carolina State University to Raleigh shortly after the college was built.^[1]

The street was the site of North Carolina's largest anti-Vietnam War marches, with 10,000 people, including UNC and Duke students, protesting the war.^[1]

Celebrations

Basketball victories

After the NC State basketball team won the national championship in 1983, students converged on Hillsborough Street to celebrate, with at least one injury to a police officer.^[1] Subsequently, the police department cracked down on problem bars on Hillsborough Street, and many closed, including the seven bars located at Hillsborough Square.^[1]

Hillsborough Hike

Occurring on the last day of classes (before final exams), NCSU students participate in a bar crawl that starts at one end of Hillsborough Street and ends at the other. The goal of the event, known as the Hillsborough Hike, is to get a drink from every bar.

Haunted Hillsborough Hike

In 2007, thousands of NCSU students and Raleighites celebrated Halloween on Hillsborough Street during the first organized Haunted Hillsborough Hike. This hike occurred in addition to the traditional end of semester hikes; its organization was partially motivated as a NCSU response to the large annual Halloween celebration on rival UNC Chapel Hill's Franklin Street.^[3]

Paint the Town Red

As part of NCSU's homecoming week since 2006, many businesses along Hillsborough Street agree to have groups of NCSU students paint their windows red, the main athletic color of the NC State Wolfpack.^[4] The spectacle was deemed "Paint the Town Red". Also, for homecoming week each year, the annual NCSU Homecoming Parade uses a segment of Hillsborough Street for its parade route.

WRAL-TV Raleigh Christmas Parade

An annual Christmas parade is held along Hillsborough Street and various other Raleigh streets every November. The event, sponsored by WRAL-TV attracts Raleighites, NCSU students, and visitors from around the area.^[5]

Krispy Kreme Challenge

The Krispy Kreme Challenge, a race invented and organized by NC State Park Scholars with a majority of runners attending NC State, is a new NC State tradition which attracted over 1,000 runners in 2007. Part of Hillsborough Street is closed in order for runners to make their way from the NC State Bell Tower to the Krispy Kreme on Peace Street. The objective is to get to the Krispy Kreme, eat a box of doughnuts and run back to the Bell Tower in under one hour.

Notable businesses

One of the most notable businesses on Hillsborough Street is Players' Retreat, a saloon that opened more than 50 years ago.^[1] The bar encompasses a former restaurant, the Morning Room, which served as the unofficial headquarters of Hargrove Bowles' 1972 gubernatorial campaign against Jim Holshauser and was a frequent hangout of the Wolfpack basketball players of Norman Sloan in the 1970s.^[1]

Mitch's Tavern was used for scenes in the film Bull Durham in the 1980s.^[1] The publishing company Lulu is headquartered on Hillsborough Street.^[1]

Redesign

After a study was conducted in 2002, the city of Raleigh has pushed forth with efforts to revitalize and redesign Hillsborough Street and the surrounding area. City council members, however, were unable to come to a consensus on how best to accomplish this goal until early 2007, when a plan to replace two traffic signals with roundabouts was approved. The hope of the project is to rejuvenate the area, improve traffic flow, and increase pedestrian safety. Construction was set to be complete in 2008, but the project was delayed with funding of $9.9 million approved only in March 2009.^[6] NC State student Joseph Carnevale gained international attention in June 2009 after his arrest for creating a monster out of construction barrels at the Hillsborough Street construction site.^[7]

Meanwhile, officials and planners have yet to come to an agreement on how best to solve the problem of too few parking spaces for local businesses.^[8][9]

References

External links

• Independent Weekly's Hillsborough Street project, with interactive map and video