The suburban neighborhoods that comprise the Five Points Neighborhoods were part of an extremely important planning movement that had captured the imagination of the Progressive Reformers of Raleigh. In line with their desire for a new, simple, efficient lifestyle that was symbolized by the new bungalow houses which became popular in the 1920s, these suburban neighborhoods were planned communities with services that epitomized efficiency as well as providing escape from unhealthy and hectic urban life. The early suburbs of Raleigh included Oakwood in the late 19th century to the northeast of the center city and Boylan Heights, Glenwood and Cameron Park, platted between 1906 and 1910 to the southwest, west and northwest of the center city, respectively. With Raleigh’s population growing and residential and commercial development resuming after World War I, the area of the Five Points Neighborhoods was developed through planned suburban growth. Two hundred and seventy houses were constructed in the Bloombury Historic District during the 1920s; the majority of them being bungalow and Colonial Revival dwellings that housed the middle and upper-middle class families of businessmen and upper management. In contrast, the nearby areas of Roanoke Park and Georgetown displayed mixed income occupancy. In the Roanoke Park Historic District, the earliest, largest and most ornate houses are found near the major arteries of Glenwood, Whitaker Mill and Fairview roads. This location afforded access to the streetcar line for government workers and businessmen. The Vanguard Park neighborhood, today part of the Vanguard Park Historic District, was surveyed and platted in 1917 by C. L. Mann, a local land surveyor who also platted the Bloomsbury and Hayes Barton neighborhoods. Approximately 40 Craftsmen style homes, in both bungalow and front-gable forms, were built in the Vanguard Park Historic District between 1920 and 1929. Surviving houses dating from this first wave of construction are concentrated in the southern and western region of the district on Whitaker Mill Road, the 100 and 200 blocks of Hudson Street, Carroll Drive and McCarthy Street.
The Five Points Neighborhoods MPS includes the neighborhoods of Bloomsbury, Vanguard Park, Hayes Barton and Roanoke Park. Located directly north of the Glenwood neighborhood and to the northwest of central Raleigh, the area is roughly bounded on the west by Saint Mary’s St., on the north by Byrd and Oxford sts., and on the east by White Oak Rd., Reaves Dr. and Carson St., and on the south by the Norfolk-Southern (formerly Norfolk and Western) railroad, present-day Wade Ave., and historically, the large parkland of the Methodist Orphanage. Glenwood Ave. intersects with Fairview Rd. and Whitaker Mill Rd. creating the Five Points intersection. The houses of these neighbhorhoods are privately owned, and not open to the public. |
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